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The tea party movement is all about small government and constitutional values, right? But what about hot button social issues? Stephanie Mencimer reports that the leadership of the Tea Party Patriots met in Orange County, California, a few days ago to chat about that:

Over the weekend, TPP leaders met with members of the Council for National Policy to try to raise some money. CNP is a secretive and powerful club that has worked to make the Republican Party more socially conservative. Founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, the evangelical minister, political organizer, and author of the Left Behind books about the coming apocalypse, CNP’s board reads like a who’s who of the GOP’s evangelical wing. In September […] Bob Reccord, CNP’s executive director, moderated a chummy panel discussion of tea party activists, including Tea Party Patriots national coordinators Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler. Meckler, who often emphasizes that the tea party movement does not touch social issues because they are too divisive, told the audience that in fact, tea partiers were angry because of “this idea of separation of church and state. We’re angry about the removal of God from the public square.” The comment suggested that at least the Tea Party Patriots weren’t averse to joining the culture wars — at least if it meant tapping social conservatives’ significant fundraising abilities.

No, probably not averse at all. Add that to Monday’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Bill Kristol and friends, urging tea partiers not to include national defense in their zeal for budget cutting, and what do you get? Answer: a bunch of people who believe in low taxes, reactionary social policy, a big military, and cutting spending for all welfare spending that goes to people other than them.

Does anyone seriously think the tea party movement won’t eventually support all that stuff? Of course it will, because it’s the conservative wing of the GOP on steroids, not some brand new grassroots reaction to TARP and the stimulus bill. The sooner everyone figures that out, the better.