Possibly, but studies have shown that the tea party tends to be socially and fiscally conservative, not just fiscally. However, I believe during its early days it was only about fiscal issues, so you would be right too.
The Tea Party, Religion and Social Issues - Pew Research Center
Yes, the Tea Party's membership tends to be largely socially conservative as well as fiscally conservative. Ironically enough, the Religious Right is made up of people that by and large likely tend towards fiscal conservatism as well...yet I doubt you'd claim that The Religious Right is a fiscal movement.
The Tea Party is a CONSERVATIVE movement focused on Fiscal and Governmental issues. As such, its likely to attract CONSERVATIVES, which includes individuals that are social conservative. That doesn't mean that the movements message is one of Social Conservatism.
I would bet money that most of those that make up the Anti-War movement are also pro-gun control. does that mean that the Anti-War movement is also a pro-gun control movement? I bet a majority of them are also environmentalists. Is the Anti-War Movement an Environmentalist movement as well?
You have four major types of conservatives existing in America in recent years. When talking just about Fiscal and Social conservatism they'd lean in the following ways.
- Libertarians, who usually lean right on fiscal issues and left on social issues.
- Paleoconservatives, who usually lean right on Fiscal issue and right on Social issues
- The Religious Right, who vary on their leans on Fiscal issues and right on social issues.
- Neo-Conservatives, who vary on their leans on Fiscal issues but tend to lean right in terms of domestic spending and right on social issues.
And then you generally have variations from there.
So its not surprise that when you have three out of the four major types of conservative ideologies going on in the country leaning right on social issues that a group who is focused on a different facet of conservatism will have a majority of members that lean right socially. However, just because those individuals lean that way doesn't mean that the group's focus goes that way.
The Tea Parties singular piece of information that is the closest to a binding vision amongst the various independent groups is the Contract From America, and it remains the same as it was at its creation. A document focused primarily on Fiscal and Governmental conservativism firstly and very minorly touches on social conservative issues.
