Social Conservatives Should Join the Party
Three weeks ago, I arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe with a team from the American Center for Law and Justice to meet with religious, government, and business leaders in Zimbabwe on a renewal of the relationship with Christians in the United States and Christians in Zimbabwe. In meeting after meeting, we were presented the same information without economic recovery there is no progress.
The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, took time out of his packed schedule to meet with our team at his private residence in Harare to discuss the formation of a new dialogue with our government and Zimbabwes new unity government. Yet, as the Prime Minister pointed out to all of us, a real change in the relationship between our two nations will start with the people of both countries, not politicians.
Right now, the United States is not faced with the same massive economic crisis as Zimbabwe a country where you can find 100,000,000,000 (thats 100 trillion) Zim dollar bills lying on the ground because the currency is worthless. Just yesterday, the currency was shelved for at least one year. But, countries around the world know that when the United States faces economic difficulty, the entire developing world suffers.
Why should social conservatives join the Party? There are many reasons to join the Tea Party movement for conservatives generally, but Im not sure anyone has made a clear pitch on why social conservatives need to get involved.
Heres the Pitch:
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States and internationally, receives 1/3 of their budget from our federal tax dollars. As a country, we give Planned Parenthood over $300 million a year (their total budget is between $900 million to $1 billion each year). During the seven-year span between 1997 and 2003, the worlds largest abortion provider received $1.492 billion of our tax dollars. This means that as tax paying Americans, we are responsible for over 30% of Planned Parenthoods operating budget.
For those of us who are pro-life, the reason to join the Party is clear. And, regardless of where you stand on abortion, we can all recognize that this is government waste at its worst forcing citizens to fund a highly controversial organization to the tune of more than $300 million every year. If we really want to cut waste, we should stop forcing Americans to fund organizations with controversial political agendas.
In the United States, we are confronting a domestic and global financial crisis, one that is not like any past crisis experienced by those of us in our 20s and 30s. We could save the U.S. taxpayer a lot of money by de-funding Planned Parenthood. The problem? Planned Parenthood has such a strong lobby on Capitol Hill that even during the Republican years, legislation to de-fund it didnt move. We cant just rely on politicians anymore, and we must begin to organize so that as a movement we can compete with groups like Planned Parenthood, MoveOn.org, ACORN, and ACT. Joining the Tea Party is a way to begin that organization, to come together as conservatives, libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents and make one simple request to our government STOP. Stop spending like there is no tomorrow, stop spending like it doesnt matter to the generation behind you, and stop spending without regard to the constituents who elected you.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is right real change happens when people get involved, not governments or politicians. I am asking social conservatives, regardless of political affiliation, to join the Party in their local communities on April 15 so that all conservatives are united in this movement against out of control government spending.
*Jordan Sekulow is the Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the American Center for Law and Justice, co-host of nationally syndicated radio show Jay Sekulow Live!, and co-host of nationally syndicated television show ACLJ This Week.