Small government unless you're gay?

That's why the Tea Party is not truly conservative, in the sense of conservaing the freedoms laid out in the Bill of Rights - these concepts are more in line with the so called neo-conservatives. They give a legitimate and credible political philosophy a bad name. Real conservatives want the government OUT of the personal lives of the citizens. The Patriot Act is is an example of a civil liberties abomination that a real conservative would never have supported.