Can the Northwest Eagle Tea Party Save Tarrant County?

Can the Northwest Eagle Tea Party Save Tarrant County?

By

James Scott Trimm

There has been much written about the recent vote to retain Shahid Shafi as Vice Chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party.

A political party is a private organization made up of a group of voters who have pulled their voices together for a common cause or causes. The Republican Party is not a government entity, it is a private organization which has historically had an Evangelical base. As a result the Texas Republican Platform has many Judeo-Christian values in the planks in our platform (some of which conflict directly with Islamic values), which actually cites the Bible on at least two occasions.

Contrary to what many were led to believe, if the Tarrant Republican Party had voted to remove Shafi, it would not have violated the first amendment or the religious tests clause, neither of which apply to private organizations like the Republican party. In fact the Constitution, thru the right of freedom of association, guarantees the rights of political parties to choose their appointed leaders by any criteria that seems good to them.

Unfortunately many Republicans have been convinced to forfeit their right to freedom of association by those who have sold them on the idea that they are bigots who violate the Constitution if they organize based on a common cause of Judeo-Christian values, and then appoint leaders who agree with those values.

The Tarrant Republican party had every right to decide that Shahid Shafi was not the best suited person to serve as Vice Chair of their organization.  This would be no more bigotry than a company not hiring a one legged man to serve as a runner.  A one legged man is just not well suited to serve as a runner, and a devout Muslim is not best suited to champion a platform with Judeo-Christian values and ideology in its planks, some of which are at odds with Islamic values and ideology, for a Political Party with an Evangelical base.

In fact those who support Judeo-Christian values are effectively being lied to and told it would be unconstitutional for them to organize as a political party to support their values!  

Meanwhile the Tarrant County Republican Party has effectively turned its back on Judeo-Christian ideology,  And in fact Shafi was quoted in the Texas Scorecard as saying that ideology does not matter:

Shafi says Republicans all too often try to convert people to the party’s ideology, even though most people don’t care about ideology.
(Councilman Shafi Sounds Alarm for Tarrant GOP; Texas Scorecard; Robert Montoya)

The Tarrant and Texas GOP appear to be happy to see the end of the Evangelical base.  In fact Warren Norred, who is both a member of the Tarrant County Republican Party Executive Committee, and the Texas State Republican Party Executive Committee, and who supported Shafi, wrote before the vote:

"...a decision to remove Dr. Shafi will be twisted to assert that the dying embers of the Christian Right that runs the Tarrant County GOP would rather lose than accept the help of Muslims and other cultures who actually agree with the GOP on many issues over the Democrats. That will be the message taken and spread, even if we adopted a long statement saying otherwise.
(Warren Norred; Be It Resolved: The GOP should expand beyond tribal boundaries)

Mr. Norred is anxious to read the eulogy of what he calls the "dying embers of the Christian Right".

Tarrant County has turned purple in the last election, is well on its way to turning blue, and has essentially shown its Evangelical Base the door. We could be looking at the post-Judeo-Christian era of the Tarrant GOP (and with it the nation). This is a huge problem, because the Tarrant County population is just 1% Muslim but 75% Christian (22% of whom identify as "Evangelical").

But there is still an opportunity to turn this ship around.  The newly formed Northwest Eagle Tea Party may offer hope. This recently formed group describes themselves as follows:

The Northwest Eagle Tea Party is a local group of like-minded, Christian conservative residents living in Northwest Tarrant County. We will attend local events, hold monthly meetings, listen and participate in open forums, conduct in-depth candidate interviews, speak out against corruption, and combine our efforts to support the most conservative, trustworthy politicians. WE SUPPORT FREEDOM to include our right to free speech, the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition our government. 

During the last election cycle, we realized that Northwest Tarrant County didn’t have a visible conservative christian advocate for its politicians and elected officials. After several meetings and numerous request we formed the Northwest Eagle Tea Party.

Lets pray that the Northwest Eagle Tea Party can bring Tarrant County Christians back to the voting booth and and keep Tarrant County from from continuing this shift toward a Post-Judeo-Christian Republican Party!