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Thad McCotter on Principles & ValuesRepublican Representative (MI-11) |
A: The Tea Party's role remains to be determined--not by its members--but by the GOP's actions. If they honor the Tea Party's 2010 support by fighting for self-government, liberty, prosperity & security, the Tea Party will be a critical component of the GOP's victory coalition. If they do not, the Tea Party could become a third party, thereby cementing the Left's electoral victories for years to come.
Immediately, though, the Left took a cannonball dive into a cesspool of radicalism and statism. Americans are inherently practical people who want gradual, constructive change, not radical, destructive change. Thus, by Nov. 2010, the American people reaffirmed that America is a center-right country. But this does not mean that the public again trusts Republicans. The 2010 conservative "wave" election was a victory for the American people, not the Republican Party. The question remains whether the GOP has learned from its past self-imposed wounds of venality and ideology.
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2006 AU scores as follows:
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. AU is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.
Americans United is a national organization with members in all 50 states. We are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and led by the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director. AU has more than 75,000 members from all over the country. They include people from all walks of life and from various faith communities, as well as those who profess no particular faith. We are funded by donations from our members and others who support church-state separation. We do not seek, nor would we accept, government funding.
The new generation of pro-market, small government leaders filled such a need that in October 2007, Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard profiled Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy and christened them the "young guns."
Kevin approached Eric & Paul about the idea of traveling together, as "Young Guns", to visit Republican candidates interested in a new approach for the party.
What began as an informal way to support like-minded candidates became a more formal structure. Once the three Representatives had studied the candidate and given their support to become a Young Gun, they committed to providing financial support through their campaign committees.
Existing House Republicans were approached with a simple pitch: Are we willing to help ourselves by being proactive and going on the offense to change this House? Dozens of our House Republican colleagues joined the Young Gun effort as one of the many signs that the Republican Party had shifted.