Tea Party Talk: You Believe What?

Got into an interesting discussion (if you can call it that) with a Tea Partier at a gathering the other night and I finally had to excuse myself before it became volatile.

The gentleman's assertion was that the Tea Party has no religious doctrine, no religious leanings, no religious influence. He asked several times for me to name one Tea Partier who used right wing religious doctrine to sway voters. I mentioned Palin, Bachmann, Cruz, Perry, Scott, Toomey, DeMint, Sanford, as well as a number of hangers-on whose central focus is to ban abortion. Abortion is a right-wing religious issue in general.

The man I was talking to denied that abortion was a central issue dividing left and right and said it was not a Tea Party issue. He was not aware of state and national legislation by various government entities that would force women wanting abortions to undergo vaginal probing procedures--which have no medical value at all, but are simply intimmidation tactics. He was unaware--or oblivious to--any of the anti-woman legislation backed by Tea Partiers across the country. My guess was that he wasn't aware of the Republican attempts to strip people of their right to vote if they are likely to be Democrats, an issue backed by Tea Partiers.

He insisted he does not want to spend federal or state money to give people abortions. I mentioned that I don't want to spend money on war, but that I accept the majority decision there.

I'm not sure which Tea Party he finds attractive, but his views struck me as more Libertarian than Tea Party, but, of course, the TP has more followers and, thus, more influence.

It's a frustrating discussion when the opposition doesn't know what it believes.