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The Water Cooler Title: Religious Fissures In The Tea Party Meet a tea partier who isn’t afraid to take a few shots at his fellow conservatives. Andrew Ian Dodge is the state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots in Maine, and he is not happy with some tea party megastars, like Christine O’Donnell, Glenn Beck and Ron Paul. As with any movement this large, there is a struggle to define exactly what a tea partier is, and Dodge wants Christian conservatives marginalized. “That ilk wants government to regulate marriage and abortion… the tea party movement wants government to get off our backs,” said Dodge. “Government is big enough already, thank you very much.” Dodge points out that a prominent Tea Party Patriot is Jewish, and that GOProud, a gay organization, has been very supportive of the tea party movement. “There are conservative Jews, there are conservative pagans – I’ve met greens who are conservative,” he says. The key, the argument goes, is to advocate a big-tent style tea party. “We’re trying to attract as many people as possible, not say: ‘Oh, if you’re not a Christian, you can’t be a member,’” said Dodge. “We don’t want to be seen as a bunch of fanatical, evangelical Christians.” Dodge has tough words for Christine O’Donnell, the Republican Senatorial candidate in Delaware and chief subject of his discontent. He accuses her of being a fiscal dilettante, someone led more by her social conservatism than her economic conservatism: I think she’s a bandwagon jumper… she doesn’t really seem to have a history of [fiscal conservatism]… She’s very much a Christian [conservative]… She claims to be a constitutionalist, but where in the constitution does it say that gay people shouldn’t be happy? If you listen to her sound bites about [fiscal] issues, there’s no feeling behind it. But it is not only her social conservatism, but also her controversial statements on such things as masturbation that makes her an embarrassment, in the mind of this tea partier. “She’s a joke. She’s the butt of jokes. This is going to affect how the tea party movement is viewed. I don’t know if it’s worse if she wins or if she loses. I suspect it will be worse if she wins,” said Dodge. “She makes us look like a bunch of numbnuts.” And Dodge is not finished there – he’s also critical of Ron Paul’s ‘Campaign for Liberty’, saying that Paul attracts “some of the most vile people on the planet. They are anti-Semites to the extreme; I have found the most paranoid loons to be members of the Campaign for Liberty.” The Tea Party Patriot also said that the Campaign for Liberty types reflect Ron Paul’s own views: “If he isn’t an anti-Semite, he doesn’t do himself any favors,” said Dodge. He also found Glenn Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor Rally’ objectionable, writing the following on his Examiner.com blog: Beckapalooza was the embodiment of emotion over reason and religious right fanaticism. It is representative of what has turned millions of Americans away from the Republican Party and into political independents. To Americans who believe that religion and politics should not mix, the event was one big travesty. Dodge understands that his criticism will not be received quietly – “you get a lot of shit for it!” – but he asserts that the tea party movement will be better for having an inclusive attitude, one that accepts non-Christians gladly. Dodge’s frustrations are a hint of the internal struggles to come. If Beck’s rally is any indication, many tea party activists pride themselves on their Christianity, and many view Christian social conservatism to be consistent with a certain brand of fiscal conservatism. The divide over these issues has been muted while energy has been focused on frustration with the ruling Democratic Party. But if the Republicans win back the House, attention will be brought to bear on what tea partiers hope to achieve legislatively. Will the natural fissures within the tea party movement then emerge?
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
(laughing) The TP is about fiscal responsibility, not religion. Sheesh.
#2. To: Badeye (#1)
That's right, just like Perot's United We Stand movement in 92. By they way, Ron Paul (who the article mentioned) is no "Christian Rightest".
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