Why a Gay, Tea Party Alliance is a Good Idea

We knew this day would come: the day traditional Republicans and their finance-centric Tea Party allies came to blows over social issues. Whether the GOP and its allies can survive the split, however, remains to be seen.

During this election cycle, money was the name of the game: with anti-incumbent fever spreading like wild fire, candidates and activists on the right, and sometimes the left, consistently called for a new economic future for the United States. For the most part, these groups won their races and will transform the new Congress come January.

Hoping to seize the fiscally conservative zeitgeist, and steer clear of the party's deep-seeded social conservatism, 16 Tea Party groups and the gay GOP organization GOProud last week sent a letter to likely House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell urging them to drop any and all efforts to legislate morality. This is an excellent opportunity for progress.

"This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue, nor should it be interpreted as a political blank check," the letter reads. "Already, there are Washington insiders and special interest groups that hope to co-opt the Tea Party’s message and use it to push their own agenda – particularly as it relates to social issues. We are disappointed but not surprised by this development. We recognize the importance of values but believe strongly that those values should be taught by families and our houses of worship and not legislated from Washington, D.C."

Sure enough, the Concerned Women for America released their own missive, in which they insisted, yes, that social issues are in fact economic in nature. "I’d like to know which one — support for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, eliminating taxpayer dollars from funding embryonic stem cell research, or defunding Planned Parenthood — the signers of the GOProud letter have a problem with,” asked the group's CEO, Penny Nance, doing essentially what the Tea Party letter predicted: trying to co-opt the movement's ideology.

Nance's angle's not surprising: Family Research Council, feeling their grasp on the GOP slipping, attempted to frame gay rights as an economic matter during the midterm elections. Clearly their efforts didn't work.

It's unclear whether this money-centric politics will stay on top, especially since Republicans recently installed in state-based positions are vowing to relive the 1994 Republican Revolution and enactheterocentric politics. What is clear to me at least, is that everyone, even Democrats, should support the Tea Party's move away from the culture wars.

Though LGBT voters may not necessarily agree with the Tea Party, having them focus on black-and-white financial concerns not only limits fundamentalist legislation, it could help provide a stable platform for something we haven't seen in these parts for some time: bipartisanship. It's better to fight over dollars and cents than saints and sinners.

Plus, perhaps if LGBT activists and Tea Party leaders can reach an accord, we can show them that same-sex marriage and other equal rights are actually good for the economy, and can help bring in millions for cities that allow gay nuptials.

As for the Republican and Tea Parties, they should back a move from social issues for the same reason: they can help shore up support from LGBT voters, one of the wealthiest electoral "blocs" in the nation. Sure, it may seem like all gay people are Democrats, but GOProud and similar organizations make clear that's not the case, and a Tea Party promise to steer clear of social issues would no doubt win them more friends, particularly among gays who are more interested in discussing financial puritanism than sexual policing.

Even if we don't all agree with the Tea Party's specific plans, allowing them to focus on the economy steals the spotlight from extremist social politics, and maybe in time those politics will be allowed to fade from view all together. Then we can just argue over how to pay this country's bills, instead of dividing the states over a silly thing like sex.

Photo credit: Echobase_2000's Flickr.