Tea party demands social action, too

Judson Phillips

Who says the tea party doesn't care about social issues?

Tea-party activists and conservative allies from across the nation are telling Congress to fight abortion funding and any repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, in spite of a message from the "gay" activist group GOProud suggesting the tea party wants Congress to ignore social issues.

About 185 tea-party leaders and allies from across America have signed an open letter telling Republicans what the movement wants Congress to do, and explicitly rejecting a similar letter circulated last week by a handful of Tea Party Patriots leaders and GOProud.

The letter calls on Congress to pursue social issues in addition to fiscal issues. GOProud's letter asked Congress to ignore social issues.

The letter was posted Monday on teapartynation.com, the website of Tea Party Nation, one of America's largest and most influential tea-party organizations.

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips, who wrote the letter, said the signers represent a wide variety of tea party and allied organizations.

"Tea Party Nation is a significant minority of signers," Phillips told WND. "We also got signatures from a lot of Tea Party groups, many groups from New England, North Carolina Freedom, and some 9-12 groups. The final tally was about 185, but w could have added 60 or 70 more."

"Last Monday, a small group of non-Tea Party, non-conservatives, released a letter, trying to claim leadership of the Tea Party movement and purporting to tell you what the Tea Party movement wants," the letter begins.

"We, the undersigned, are leaders of mainstream Tea Party groups. We are the people that helped get conservatives elected on November 2. While we do not speak for this movement as a whole, we are a large cross section of this movement and we want to tell you what this movement wants," the letter continues.

"We had to define who speaks for the movement," said Phillips. "It's got to be Tea Party groups that speak for this movement, and GOProud is not in the movement. They never have been and are not a part of the movement."

Phillips was eager to emphasize that he is not claiming to be the leader of the tea party himself.

"People in this movement get upset when others claim to speak for the movement or be the leader of the movement. This is a letter we put out for people who agree with it to sign. We are offering an opinion that is from the mainstream of the Tea Party movement, but we are not the exclusive voice of this movement."

The letter calls on Congress to "defund" Obamacare, to make "serious reductions in spending," and to cut taxes.

"America cannot afford Washington's spending sprees any more," wrote Phillips.

The letter also offers to provide "thousands of volunteers" to help Congress identify "waste, fraud and abuse" and programs that benefit only special interests.

On top of the fiscal issues usually associated with the tea party, the letter calls on Congress to proceed on three social issues: abortion, homosexuality and illegal immigration.
"Dismantle the liberal-political complex" by defunding the nation's major abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, the letter demands.

"Fight the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell," it continues. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a policy adopted in 1993 that keeps open homosexuals out of the military.

Also, "There can be no amnesty" for illegal immigrants. "The diversity immigration lottery must be eliminated."