GOProud at CPAC 2011

The sanctimonious are all wee-weed up, to use a term from a Presidential appearance, over GOProud defending themselves against those who would marginalize them in the Republican party.

The sanctimonious - the ones receiving the attention from their public disapproval of GOProud's participating at CPAC 2011 this week in Washington, D.C. - are also the folks who are paid to advance the conservative agenda. They are the older, more established social conservatives who will not yield to any notion of inclusion of those more socially liberal and they are the younger conservatives hoping to cash in on a lucrative career opining for a living in a radio or television studio. There is nothing wrong with a career made off your personal convictions, but it is wrong to continue to stir the pot and remain aloof in times when a unified Republican party is essential to fight the Democrats among us.

The Tea Party movement was born of desire for a strong support of one of the three tenets of the Republican party - the conservatives in the political world - and that was fiscal conservatism. A Democrat is not a fiscal conservative and the Republican party is most in line with the Tea Party agenda. Tea Party members are quick to claim independence.

“CPAC is so Republican and we’re not about just being Republican,” said Martin. “We decided it was a better use of our time to be on the ground helping local groups.”

Republicans reached out to the Tea Party early on. Those who label themselves conservative but not Republican nonetheless usually vote Republican. There is something seedy about the public criticism of a political party trying to establish a big tent of inclusion - a very American approach - because one component is not exclusively dominant over the other two components.

Politics is not a church of worship. Politics is public policy. Politics is the art of persuasion. Politics is the arena of policy debate. If a segment of a political population decides to separate from the larger group, their battle is lost. More simply put, if you are not in the game you are not a part of the conversation.

The sanctimonious are now upset that GOProud members rose to the challenge over participation in the CPAC 2011 gathering this year and defended that participation against those wishing to cast dispersion on them. Never mind that the sanctimonious are usually only too happy to write and say less than kind remarks about their challengers, too.

Recent examples in the Texas Speaker of the House race brought the sanctimonious social conservatives out against the current Speaker and attacked his religious faith along the way - he is Jewish. The social conservatives were demanding a Christian leader. The author of the blog post first referenced in this post was in support of these Texans. He and they lost. Texans do the right thing. The current Speaker was re-elected. We really didn't need a Georgian to tell us who was best to lead our Texas House of Representatives, thank you very much. A Georgian trying to be the next big conservative talking head on radio, I might add.

A memo has been published now, written by a group of the sanctimonious calling GOProud "incompatible" with the conservative movement. The memo is meant to call for the exclusion of GOProud in the 2012 gathering, a full year out from now.

But the memo, written under the moniker Conservatives for Unity, argued that there can be no common ground between gay rights conservative activists and social-issues conservatives, and said it’s time to settle the issue.

“It is not necessary for each group within a political movement to embrace the full agenda of others. But it is necessary for each group within any coherent movement not to stand in diametrical opposition to one or more of its core principles. It is our conviction that the institution of marriage and the family qualify as such principles,” said the conservatives.

Perhaps this group of the sanctimonious don't fully understand that marriage and family are important to gays, too. Matter of fact, gays would like to be able to legally marry and then raise children, too. Why aren't these purist social conservatives more concerned with the intrusion of the government into the practice of regulating just who can and cannot marry?

I challenge the sanctimonious to read the GOProud mission and read the position on issues taken by the group. Perhaps they will strive to be a bit more like our Republican icon, Ronald Reagan, and embrace all conservatives in the GOP. We in the party need all of the support we can get to defeat the Obama agenda and the Democrats who are struggling to remain in control of our country.