On immigration, we are NEVER, EVER, EVER as a country going to round up 11 million people, breaking up families, to deport them to a country they may not have been in for years or more. That said, what do we get for accepting some form of amnesty sometime in the future?
You really think Conservative Christians are 60% of Republicans? eh PERHAPS---but if the Republican Party took a stronger libertarian turn and decided not to court conservative Christians (I doubt this is happening anytime soon) as much as they do--evangelicals and others would be jumping off the Republican Party Boat as fast as they could looking for a different shore to swim to. In my not so humble opinion, most religious conservatives are not die-hard fiscal conservatives and small government advocates---unless the government interferes in their particular arena. Actually they aren't much different than most folks. If the Republicans became more moderate (more like laissez-faire) on abortion, gay marriage, censoring porn, and other issues that Christian conservatives are primarily concerned with, many would jump ship, sit out elections, or possibly start a third party. (Actually I wonder what our political system would look like if we had 3 or 4 viable small parties in addition to Dems & Reps?---I imagine it would be colorful, if messier than it already is.)