Tea Partiers and Christian/Social Conservatives...Not the Same Thing

I love how some on the left automatically consider them the same thing.

Tea Partiers are more economically/fiscally conservative types. The Tea Party movement has really nothing to do with social conservatism. At it's core, it's really more of a semi-libertarian sentiment in the sense that social issues are not part of the issue (as they shouldn't be). It is a call for a reduction in government intervention in our pockets and in our lives.

Social and Christian conservatives have more of a social issue agenda. They are against gay marriage, abortion, sex education beyond abstinence, etc..., which require government intervention in many ways. While many do agree with the Tea Party movement's goals of limited government, they do favor some government intervention that many others in the Tea Party movement may not.

You can't lump them in as being the same. Social conservatives had a hero in George Bush, who was no patron saint of small-government conservatives. The Tea Party movement, in and of itself, has nothing to do with social issues. It is a "reduce government" movement.

Where the two overlap (in a Venn Diagram sense) is to put an end to rampant government spending, kowtowing to other nations for no reason other than "image", increases in regulation, and enviro-socialist policies. However, many in the Tea Party movement are not social or christian conservatives. They are people who simply believe that government has gone out of control with power and spending.