{"id":3962,"date":"2010-03-13T15:58:51","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T23:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2010-03-13T16:08:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T00:08:46","slug":"no-need-to-say-grace-before-the-tea-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/no-need-to-say-grace-before-the-tea-party\/","title":{"rendered":"No Need To Say Grace Before The Tea Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s<\/a> an interesting piece from the New York Times<\/em> on the Tea Parties. This\u00a0extract gives a flavor:<\/p>\n

For decades, faith and family have been at the center of the conservative movement. But as the Tea Party infuses conservatism with new energy, its leaders deliberately avoid discussion of issues like gay marriage or abortion. God, life and family get little if any mention in statements or manifestos. The motto of the Tea Party Patriots, a large coalition of groups, is \u201cfiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.\u201d The Independence Caucus questionnaire, which many Tea Party groups use to evaluate candidates, poses 80 questions, most on the proper role of government, tax policy and the federal budgeting process, and virtually none on social issues.<\/p>\n

The Contract From America, which is being created Wiki-style by Internet contributors as a manifesto of what \u201cthe people\u201d want government to do, also mentions little in the way of social issues, beyond a declaration that parents should be given choice in how to educate their children. By contrast, the document it aims to improve upon \u2014 the Contract With America, which Republicans used to market their successful campaign to win a majority in Congress in 1994 \u2014 was prefaced with the promise that the party would lead a Congress that \u201crespects the values and shares the faith of the American family.\u201d
\nTea Party leaders argue that the country can ill afford the discussion about social issues when it is passing on enormous debts to future generations. But the focus is also strategic: leaders think they can attract independent voters if they stay away from divisive issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be creating the biggest tent possible around the economic conservative issue,\u201d said Ryan Hecker, the organizer behind the Contract From America. \u201cI think social issues may matter to particular individuals, but at the end of the day, the movement should be agnostic about it. This is a movement that rose largely because of the Republican Party failing to deliver on being representative of the economic conservative ideology. To include social issues would be beside the point.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0
\nIndeed it would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an interesting piece from the New York Times on the Tea Parties. This\u00a0extract gives a flavor: For decades, faith and family have been at the center of the conservative movement. But as the Tea Party infuses conservatism with new … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[463],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}