Opinion: Tea Party Turning Socially 'Moderate' Republicans Into Endangered Species

If there was any doubt that Tea Partiers have 'moderate' Republicans in their crosshairs, those doubts were decisively removed by the GOP primary election results Tuesday night.  If you scratch the surface of the Tea Party, the core Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity emerges. This principle states that as a general rule political decisions and other matters generally should be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority.

PHOENIX, AZ (Catholic Online) - If there was any doubt that Tea Partiers have moderate Republicans in their crosshairs, those doubts were decisively removed by the GOP primary election results last night. Tea Party backed candidates swept GOP primaries Tuesday night, emerging victorious over established GOP Party backed candidates in Delaware and New York. Christine O'Donnell's upset win over "moderate" Michael Castle in the U.S. Senate primary in Delaware was particularly surprising.  Mr. Castle, a former two-term Republican governor in blue-state Delaware was comfortably ahead in the polls until recently.  Christine O'Donnell, a former abstinence counselor, was endorsed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party mobilized behind O'Donnell to carry her to victory in the GOP primary. In New York, Carl Paladino  plowed through GOP establishment candidate Rick Lazio on his way to winning the Republican gubernatorial primary. Most pundits are attributing Paladino's victory to an anti-Albany Tea Party supported effort over Rick Lazio who was backed by the New York GOP establishment. With Tuesday night's GOP primary wins, the Tea Party movement juggernaught continues with an increasing number of RINO's (Republicans in Name Only) notched in it's belt. By way of example, 'moderate' Republican U.S. Senators Arlene Specter (PA), Robert Bennett (UT) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) are now former Senators thanks largely to grass roots Tea Party efforts. The Tea Party movement's success is attributable at least in part to a growing constituency of citizens who are fed up with all things big, whether it be big government, big business or big labor.  More and more voters are waking up and realizing that entrenched political incumbents no longer serve the best interests of the common man.  Many Tea Party activists believe that elected officials have elevated themselves to an elite ruling class that is little concerned with the plight of common man. As a bottom up grass roots political movement, the Tea Party has so far resisted efforts to ideologically stifle its member's enthusiasm by developing a comprehensive party platform.  However, the time is coming when this growing political phenomenon will have to develop ideologically, while retaining  the "no" to big government plank as a cornerstone. If you scratch the surface of the Tea Party, the core Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity emerges. This principle states that as a general rule political decisions and other matters generally should be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority.  Subsidiarity as a socio-political principle has weathered the test of time while competing ideologies like socialism and statism have been disproven and time and time again have been relegated to the junk pile of failed ideas. When you think about it, the Tea Party movement could do no better than to embrace the  Catholic principle of subsidiarity as the foundation to support its cornerstone philosophy of opposition to big government.

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Mark Henry is a Catholic attorney, author and speaker. He is a contrinuting writer for Catholic Online. His book Finish Faithful is available at Amazon.com.  He can be reached at mthenrysaz@gmail.com or http://markhenry-quovadis.blogspot.com/

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