Our big tent’s friendly, but not flabby
Who knew? Within the Republican Party there are number of organizations representing identity groups that the Left assumes it owns: Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Gay, Female, Asian et al. In recent years, those Republican groups in Colorado have worked for greater association with one another by holding an annual social event called, “The Big Tent.” We just had another a couple of weeks ago.
This week, however, the term “big tent” has been thrown around with regard to GOP participation by those who are more ideologically diverse than ethnically so. Case in point; the New York 23 race in which DeDe Scozzafava was appointed as a Republican and went on to withdraw from the race and then endorse the Democrat. It makes sense for the Republican Party to devote some discussion to this subject and strive for clarity about what exactly we mean when we refer to a “big tent.”
Our party is and has always been united not by our ethnicity but by our ideas. As members of minority Republican groups, our role is to welcome others into the party rather than to seek special favors or victim status as the parade of minority groups on the Left have consistently done.
We recognize that it is our core principles of individual freedom & free markets, religious pluralism, personal responsibility and the limited government which is so critical to protecting those conditions that unites us. Those ideas are what have enabled all people, no matter their ethnicity or group, to thrive and flourish in America. By this measurement, it is the Republican Party that is and has truly been, the party of the little guy.
If we bow to politically correct ideologies of “inclusion and diversity” and expand our tent to include those who believe in statism, forced unionism, income redistribution, centralized planning and massive government, then we stand for nothing. As Ronald Reagan so famously pointed out, we will never agree 100% on everything, but basic conservative principles are all we have that unites us. We must persuade others to see the value of those principles, not compromise them.
The author can be reached at kaykat73@aol.com
