I get the sense that Tea Party types really don't feel like they need any advice, but I'm going give them some anyway.
At the outset of the Tea Party movement, I was pretty excited about it. Lately, I've become a little concerned about it - nationally and locally.
The whole thing started out being about taxes and limited government. I'm all for that.
Remember Taxed Enough Already? That's what put the Tea in the Tea Party.
Tea Party members harkened back to Revolutionary War days - taxation without representation and the like.
And some Tea Party groups have stayed the course with regard to their core issues.
To me, the Tea Party movement should be about three main issues:
Promoting fiscal responsibility in government.
Ensuring a constitutionally limited government.
Encouraging free markets and private-sector business growth.
Now, the elephant in the room that affects all three of those issues is, of course, taxes.
If you encourage free markets and business growth there will be more tax revenue flowing to the treasury.
If you constitutionally limit government and promote fiscal responsibility in government, taxes will be inherently lower because government won't need to gobble up as much private sector wealth to feed itself.
As government expands, it adds more employees. Government employees are paid by tax dollars. There are only so many workers. When you move a private sector worker into a government job, you deplete the pool of people paying for government and add to the amount of money needed to fund government.
Government hiring is up 17 percent. The median government worker is compensated at a rate just about double that of the median private sector worker.
At the same time, federal deficits are threatening the stability of the dollar and the viability of essential government services.
These are issues that I believe are the greatest threat to our way of life - our liberty.
If the Tea Party took laser aim at those issues, I think a vast swath of the American political spectrum could get on board.
They are fiscally conservative issues, to be sure, but there are plenty of people out there who may not consider themselves "conservatives" who still espouse those ideals.
Do people like that feel comfortable in the Tea Party movement? Would a Libertarian feel comfortable showing up at a Tea Party rally?
The more I watch the Tea Party movement, the more I see it alienating significant numbers of the very people it needs to support itself long term.
Instead of sticking to the core, bread and butter issues of limited government, low taxes and fiscal conservativism, many Tea Party groups are pushing cultural and social values.
When they do that, they push people away. They make people feel unwelcome, uncomfortable. There is no "Big Tent" sentiment in some of the Tea Party.
It's as if you have to pass some litmus test of ardent, across-the-board conservatism to get into some of these Tea Party groups.
If you're not pro-life, pro-gun, overtly Christian, anti-gay, pro-war and anti-immigrant amnesty you need not apply.
I'm afraid that kind of thinking excludes a lot of potential supporters.
To be sure, many fiscal conservatives are likely to be social conservatives as well, but what if they're not? Why not embrace them? Why not make a Libertarian feel comfortable in your Tea Party group?
Some Tea Party groups are doing just that. They are sticking to the issues that brought them together - taxes and spending. They stay away from the divisive social issues.
Here's a quote from Toby Marie Walker, lead facilitator for the Waco, Texas, Tea Party group. She was interviewed on National Public Radio.
"Well, here in Waco ... we don't touch on the social issues. And the reason that we don't is because right now, the Tea Party is about the economy. And while the social issues on a personal level are important to a lot of our members, we stay away from those issues because they're so divisive. ... We keep it about the taxes and the spending and the overreach of the government."
Yeah, and that makes it easier to attract members from all across the political spectrum.
And there is solid precedent for that type of political activism. Some of the most effective and influential political action groups stick to their issues.
If you want to join the National Rifle Association, they're not going to ask you your views on immigration.If you want to join Right To Life, they're not going to ask you if you support the war in Afghanistan.
The Tea Party could operate the same way. It doesn't have to take stands on all those other social and traditional values issues, one way or the other.
I've noticed our local Tea Party group, Silent No More, has gone the other way. They are far from being focused solely on economic issues.
In fact, much of their focus seems to be aimed at social, moral and values issues.
Things like prayer and fasting and tent revivals are wonderful and they play well in Kosciusko County.
To read the Facebook posts of some SNM members, one could get the impression that what they really would like is to set up a theocracy in America.
Certainly it's OK to have opinions and ideals like that. That's what freedom is about. Groups are free to organize, assemble, meet and use their influence any way they chose.
My concern is that if Tea Party groups push too hard on social and moral issues, they risk marginalizing themselves.
Certainly, the consensus among members of any given Tea Party group is strong. But it's the people on the outside looking in that you need to reach if the group is to remain viable.
Seems to me people on the outside are starting to get the sense that Tea Party groups are far right or fringy.
I believe, for long-time political viability and maximum impact on federal policy, the Tea Party needs to stick to the TEA.
