[Torie]

Without the Torie wing "Enterprisers," and for that matter "Upbeats" (Pew terms), there would be no viable GOP either. What you refuse to concede, in your pride, is that "we" need each other, however distasteful that might be, to both wings, or the three wings, or four (there is also a cateory called "pro government conservatives," mostly social conservative financially stressed looking for a government handout). Your category is called "social conservatives," I think.

[JCEccles]

Your category is called "social conservatives," I think.

Your category is called "social liberals," I think, and their fab ideas from the Great Society fraud, to abortion on demand, to euthanasia, to gay marriage have devastated this nation over the past 40 years.

Social conservatives have steadfastly resisted these gross evils. Social conservatives are the procreating and family-honoring core life force of the Republican Party. They are not a fringe element.

Social conservatives can survive without social liberals--regardless of which party the social liberals identify with.

Social liberals cannot survive without social conservatives to do the heavy lifting in supporting traditional families and honoring traditional virtues that social liberals disdain.

[EternalVigilance]

Your category is called "social conservatives," I think.

Actually, my views encompass all of the Republican categories that are actually conservative. :-)

[MSF BU]

I don't think the Enterprisers are going to fall-in for McCain. The Pew Survey was fascinating, but it's tough to get a geographical fix on them. I'd be interested in seeing a diagram of the nation reflecting the concentrations of each group. Enterprisers sound much more like the Reagan/Wallace voters of the seventies, their sons and grandsons; gun owning military veterans whose personal industry is reflected in their income level. I don't think McCains amnesty is going to sell well when people start paying attention.

Income levels can be tricky as you well know. Liberals are concentrated in areas that are expensive, hence high incomes. It would be interesting to look at the average net worth of these groups. It is revealing, for instance, to see that the liberals don't trade securities as freqently.