Tea Party “Contract From America” ignores immigration and other key issues
Friday, February 19, 2010
By Carl Braun
Examiner.com
Former House of Representatives Leader and self proclaimed Tea Party leader and activist Dick Armey
(AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)
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Something calling itself the “Tea Party” issued a manifesto or political platform if you will yesterday and it has many activists upset. Not over what is in the “Contract From America” as it has been called but what isn’t. Namely front and center issues like Secure Borders, Immigration, Second Amendment Rights and Abortion.
While this is a draft document spearheaded by Republicans like Dick Armey, Sen. Jim Demint and a host of other tax protest and citizen activist groups, the “Contract”, unveiled at the annual CPAC, or Conservative Political Action Conference, lists twenty-two topics up for discussion. The organizers hope to whittle this down to a platform of ten by April 15, 2010 and require all candidates for office to sign it or risk the wrath of the voting public in November. Here are the topics or “solutions” that a draft committee presented:
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Stop the Tax Hikes
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Commit to Government Transparency
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Protect the Constitution
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Pass Real Healthcare Reform
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Sunset Regulations and Enact Fundamental Regulatory Reform
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End Runaway Government Spending
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Let Us Save
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Let Us Watch
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Protect Internet Freedom
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Pass an ‘All of the Above’ Energy Policy
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Give Parents More Choices in the Education of Their Children
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Demand a Balanced Budget
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Protect Freedom of the Press
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Protect Private Property Rights
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Reject Cap and Trade
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No Czar Regulation Without Representation
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No More Bailouts
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Audit the Fed
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Stop the Pork
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Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
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Stop Career Politicians and Curb Lobbyist Power
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Restore Fiscal Responsibility and Constitutionally Limited Government
While calling for ambiguous “solutions “like Let us Save and Let Us Watch (whatever that means) and proposing Real Healthcare Reform (didn’t know that healthcare reform was a conservative principle) the “Contract” is mum on the incendiary issues of the day like Immigration, Secure Borders, Gun Rights and Abortion. How can this be? The REAL Tea Party have among it's core many anti-illegal immigration and pro secure borders activists. Most are staunch Second Amendment supporters. Doesn't appear anyone thought to ask them first what THEY want from their politicians.
Iconic talk show host Michael Savage railed against the “solutions” yesterday adding that borders, language and culture, a consistent theme with Mr. Savage for a decade, are conspicuously missing from the document. Savage, like many Americans, is calling for English as the official national language, something politicians have been hiding from for years.
It appears that the Independent, grass roots “Tea Party” movement is going mainstream and is being co-opted by the Republican Party. At least the name is if not the people and activists need to send a strong message through the media that this is unacceptable. They also need to make it very clear that issues like immigration, secure borders and abortion are in the mix and any proposal that surfaces without them on April 15th will go right to the trash bin where it belongs. The Tea Party movement, the Real Tea Party Movement, had better get control of its core or all the work of the last year by populist activists will go down the proverbial drain.
Carl Braun is an analyst for the Homeland Security Policy Institute Group and he’s logged 5,000-plus hours on the border. He has written several books including his most recent on Border Insecurity, “Above All Else”
. Contact Carl at Carl.Braun@BPAUX.org.
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