There only thing that angers the Religious Right more than being told that their social issues agenda does not matter is seeing the GOP downplay their social issues agenda in order to appease other parts of the conservative coalition.
So I can only imagine that this letter from the gay conservative group GOProud and several Tea Party leaders calling on the GOP to ignore social issues is probably not going to go over too well with the Religious Right:
A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda.
In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.
“On behalf of limited-government conservatives everywhere, we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement,” they write to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in an advance copy provided to POLITICO. “This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue.”
…
“For almost two years now, the tea party has been laser-focused on the size of government,” said Barron, who said his group and the tea partiers are part of the “leave-me-alone coalition.”
“No one has been talking about social issues – not even the socially conservative candidates who won tea party support,” [GOProud’s Chairman Christopher] Barron said … “We’re not talking about pushing social conservatives out of the tea party movement. Those people aren’t only welcome but they’re a critical part of this movement.” said Barron.
You really have to marvel at the gall of a gay conservative like Barron talking down to the social conservatives in the movement and basically telling them that they are a “critical part” of the coalition so long as they accept that their agenda is going to be completely ignored.
Considering that a large part of the Religious Right’s agenda is rooted in militantly opposing “the gay agenda,” I am guessing that they are not going to take too kindly to efforts by a gay conservative group to relegate them to the sidelines.
