From An Old-School Conservative, Advice For The Tea Party

by Richard A. Viguerie - May 2nd, 2010 - The Washington Post

Back when Barry Goldwater became the first member of the conservative movement to be nominated for president, the movement had just two legs -- free markets and a strong national defense. After religious conservatives became the third leg, conservatives won three landslide presidential elections in the 1980s. But even that was not enough to stop the expansion of government.

The tea party has added a fourth leg -- an emphasis on limiting government through fidelity to the Constitution and our nation's founding principles, without being operationally aligned with either party. With this addition, we conservatives now find ourselves sitting at a large four-legged table and outnumbering liberals by almost two to one in a recent Gallup poll.

The reality is that these four legs have inherent conflicts and not all the 4 components are conservatives. Many are libertarians like Ronald Reagan. If the goal is liberty and freedom for people, to succeed or fail on their own, there are parts of the four legs who will resent government not helping those they want to help. If social conservatives had their way, our government would be as much of a nanny state as if progressives had their way. It would simply be a different set of government dictates than the progressive totalitarian goons would enforce.

I believe an overwhelming concern of the TEA Parties (there are more than one) should be to stay focused on liberty and freedom. We need to convince each of the four legs of libertarian-conservative thought that their wishes must comply with this goal of liberty and individual freedom. That is the only glue that will hold this current 4 legged table together for the long run, and allow us to return to a nation of freedom. Today we are racing towards totalitarian control, and almost certainly national dissolution if the TEA Parties don't prevail.

Still I must admit that the five admonitions of this article are well thought out. I recommend them.