I was fairly incensed the first time I heard Sen. DeMint exclaim “You aren’t a fiscal conservative unless you’re a social conservative”.  I was even more upset by the reporting from the week’s biggest story in the fight for GLTG equality: CPAC and GOProud.  Apparently there are several groups out there, ranging from the Heritage Foundation to the Capital Research Center, which are vehemently opposed to allowing GLTG people claim the mantle of “conservative” and they decided to make that sentiment known at this year’s event.

Let’s begin this examination with John McManus, President of the John Birch Society, who was recently shown in a Reason.tv segment on the CPAC convention saying “We don’t care for the homosexual movement, we believe it’s a denial of nature, and we don’t want to see it.  And we don’t think that if you’re really a conservative, if you’re really for the American Traditions and so forth, that you’d want “those people” here”.

His opinion on “those people” was made more clear to us a couple of seconds later in the clip.

When asked “What do you recommend to gay and politically active people who are limited government?”, he responded with “Well, fine, limit government, but there’s more to life than government, you’ve got a moral code to follow.”

And he is not alone in his opinion.  Other groups, like the previously mentioned Heritage Foundation, refused to even show up as long as GOProud was attending.  World Net Daily.com had the story:

“We have withdrawn,” said Mike Gonzalez, vice president of communications for the Heritage Foundation. “We have been there for many, many years at the highest level of participation.

“We believe in the traditional definition of the family,” Gonzalez explained. “We believe in defending the family against any threats that come against it. We’re not for gay marriage. We don’t think institutions that have existed for millennia can be done away with at the drop of a hat.”

Gonzalez emphasized that the “three pillars” of conservatism – economic liberty, national defense and social conservatism – are “indivisible.”

Joining the Heritage Foundation was a whole host of other right-wing groups:

Back in November, the far-right American Principles Project declared that it would not take part in CPAC as long as GOProud, a conservative group that supports some gay-rights initiatives, remains a participating organization. GOProud’s status as a “participating” organization prompted many Religious Right groups to boycott CPAC, including: American Values; American Vision; the Capital Research Center; the Center for Military Readiness; Concerned Women For America; the Family Research Council; Liberty Counsel; Liberty University, and the National Organization for Marriage. The American Family Association, which boycotted CPAC last year over GOProud’s more limited involvement, has decided to sit out this year’s conference as well.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the hardcore Christian Right continued:

“Homosexuals can get involved in the conservative movement any way they want, but to come in and push an agenda that’s contrary to biblical values, traditional values and rational moral values, that’s another thing,” said Gary DeMar, president of American Vision and Vision for America. “We wouldn’t exclude adulterers from participating, but if there were a group of adulterers who said ‘we want adulterers’ rights,’ we’re going to say no.”

It’s a damned good thing they aren’t flipping out over adulterers.  If they did, they’d have to boycott half of the the people they’ve endorsed for Congressional office over the last twenty years.  In fact, given the derth of stories from recent years about GOP Congressmen who have been caught bumping uglies with their young male staffers, or looking for sexual thrills in airport bathrooms, you’d think they’d be boycotting the entire GOP, not just one lousy convention.

And the real humdinger of a question is this:  How many of these moral crusaders against homosexuality still attend Sunday morning Mass?  Where is the open revolt and boycott of the Catholic Church?  I’m certain John McManus would feel 100% comfortable standing next to a priest in front of the cameras, and I’m willing to bet that the Heritage Foundation would be excited to be associated with the Pope…  Even though his underlings have apparently been giving their alter boys unusual forms of sacrament for decades, if not centuries.

Loren Spivak of ObamaParody.com gave an opinion in that Reason.tv clip which ought to mirror standard conservative thinking, stating that “My Biblical values give me my sense of what is sexually moral, however, I don’t think it’s a political issue.  And I really think that people who believe in smaller government and maximum individual liberty need to come together and work together.”

Right on, right on, right on, my man!

We are in a war for the future of our country.  While past Democratic and Republican Congresses and Presidential Administrations have dug a pretty deep financial hole for the US to climb out of, Obama and the Democratic Party leadership of the last Congress, and the current one, have abandoned the good, old fashioned shovel and brought in some heavy duty earth-moving equipment, with the intent of expanding our national debt from a proportionally sized divot into the financial equivalent of the Panama Canal.

In this fight for the future of our Republic, we must realize that we’re fighting against history.  As Alexander Tytler famously stated, “a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship”, thanks to the majority of people voting themselves money from the public treasury.  In this fight, we need every vote we can get, and turning away allies simply because you disagree with their freely made choice on an issue that has no relevance to the running of our country is the height of idiocy.

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