Michael Medved ably states my point:
…With or without the current urgings of some tea party and gay rights personnel, Republicans should continue to emphasize the economic concerns and small government priorities that brought them their victories earlier this month. But the impulse to segregate fiscal and social issues ignores the way that economics and values inevitably interact, and the importance of sturdy middle-class virtues as the basis for both durable families and free-market prosperity.
The only real alternative to government as a source of assistance, authority and a functioning civil society remains the “little platoons” described by Edmund Burke — families and communities shaped by attitudes that count as both economically and culturally conservative.
The two halves of conservatism cannot exist one without the other – and, in fact, the social aspect of conservatism is far more important, long term, than the merely fiscal. After all, if we are not a society of life, sobriety, hard work and thrift, then we won’t be a society for very long. Low taxes and free trade won’t amount to much in a dying America.
It is a false separation that both liberals and some conservatives are trying to create – to say that we, on the right, must only go after the fiscal issues. Liberals want this because the understand that the crucial battle isn’t over tax rates and spending, but over morals and manners. Some on the right have been suckered in to going along with this thinking because, let’s face it, discussing issues like abortion and gay marriage makes some people very uncomfortable…and it is going to be difficult, no matter how you slice it, to fold in to overall conservatism something as odd as gay conservatism.
But the trick can and must be done – and we social conservatives must show respect of and love for our fellow conservatives who are not entirely with us on the social issues. We need them just as they need us. United we stand, divided we fall – unless you want Nancy Pelosi and her successors destroying both family and business, we’d better all figure out a way to work together.
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