This Here Big Tent Should Be a Big Tent

Allahpundit notes that John Cornyn is getting some heat from the establishment GOP (read: those who bow to evangelicals) about attending a Log Cabin republican meet up.

All credit goes to Cornyn for saying the hell with it and attending an event the aforementioned evangelicals believe is akin to the anonymous sex clubs Tom Hanks frequented in Philadelphia. He's getting it and it has everything to do with Tea Party madness as he would considered it political suicide to have contemplated it previously.

And therein lies the problem I've always had with the establishment GOP; they always inject social issues into the debate when at this point we have no room for it. We are facing economic Armageddon and most people are too damn concerned about paying for food and their house and less about whether Jim and John want to hook up or get married. Abortion is distasteful but we have the opportunity to get control back and set things on a more even keel fiscally and that will be impossible if we get into the gay marriage or any other social issue. The Christian right is a non-factor and that's how it has to remain if we have any shot at taking back the entire Legislative branch.

The Tea Party is a movement that has the ability to shift the political landscape in ways we'll not realize for a decade. The most important way would be to smack the religious sector in the mouth and make them understand that the majority of Americans and--dare I say--the majority of the new Right just doesn't give a damn if two women want to exchange vows. I never have and I'm a hard-core conservative with a strong libertarian streak.

This is our time and the moment can be turned to dust by the zealous Christian minority. We, as a party have no choice but to be welcoming to all who preach fiscal responsibility. This is a different America than it was thirty years ago, an America where the main tax-paying demographic grew up knowing guys who were gay, a girl who chose an abortion and a dude who smokes weed as a hobby but is still pretty damn cool. It's not the party of Reagan when it comes to social issues but it is when it comes to faith in what America was, is and will be. Why exclude those who were born gay?

Imagine the coalition we could form if we included those we've traditionally shunned.