I think it's an interesting thing that so many people see tattoos and piercings on a young person and immediately assume liberal.  I think to some of my friends from my especially punk rock days, and I smile to myself a little, since probably seven in ten of those friends "grew up" to be conservatives.  After all, the punk movement is about anarchy - about damn the man and fuck the government and all that shit, so it's only a natural evolution for those people to gravitate to the small government conservative movement.

Where people like that (and in that, I include myself) get ostracized from the conservative movement are the socially conservative issues, if you will.  Gay marraige, religion, maybe abortion. 

I consider myself a conservative because I believe in small government, fewer entitlements, market-based initiatives, free enterprise and markets, legal immigration, and gun rights.  I may have missed a few, but when it really comes down to it, that's what separates me from your average liberal. 

But conservatism doesn't always welcome a social liberal into their ranks.  I haven't always been accepted by a lot of the conservatives I know, because I don't care who you fuck, or what you believe in, or whether you smoke pot.  And, because of those kinds of issues, my support on gun rights, my support of the free market, my support of small government has often been swept to the side.

I found this piece on one of the "founders" of the Tea Party movement, and I thought it was interesting that the immediate spin of the article is that she isn't "your average conservative".  Why?  Well, she has a piercing.  In her nose.  She's an actress!  So, when her voice wasn't being heard, she did what she thought was right, and held a protest against the stimulus bill.

Keli Carender has a pierced nose, performs improv on weekends and lives here in a neighborhood with more Mexican grocers than coffeehouses. You might mistake her for the kind of young person whose vote powered President Obama to the White House. You probably would not think of her as a Tea Party type.

But leaders of the Tea Party movement credit her with being the first.

A year ago, frustrated that every time she called her senators to urge them to vote against the $787 billion stimulus bill their mailboxes were full, and tired of wearing out the ear of her Obama-voting fiancé, Ms. Carender decided to hold a protest against what she called the “porkulus.”

There's been a lot of talk on how the Tea Party could cost us Republican seats by throwing up candidates against a RINO.  And it's an absolute truth.  But maybe, just maybe, that's not the Tea Party's fault.  Maybe it's the fault of the Republicans for failing to see, as Ronald Reagan said, that someone who agrees with you 80% of the time should be considered a good friend.  If we can't work out these differences within our own party, then that's what's giving the Tea Party this strength and momentum.

I'll vote for a RINO over a democrat, because I know what happens when you vote 3rd party.  But can you blame other people for choosing to use their vote to make a statement?  Can you blame another party for capitalizing on the weaknesses within our own party?

I think I may be starting a blog war.  GO!

Posted by: Ember at 11:53 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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