You are the one who is deluding himself believing that social and economic issues can somehow be compartmentalized.
John Adams said as much. If Americans will not react positively to an appeal to conservative social reforms then all is lost anyway.
Being an historian I think your man Newt would agree.
Rephrasing - John Adams asserted that our system of government was meant for a moral people, saying it was unfit for any other kind. If Americans will no longer respond to appeals for conservative social reforms then nothing else will matter in the long run.