bump for Duncan Hunter!!!
"So are you saying that social conservatives can't be "Republicans"? Is that it? Good heavens, the disdain you show for Christian conservatives is very telling."
I said nothing of the sort, and stop with the "condescending atttitude towards Christians" canard; I am one. Just because I don't attend church six days a week doesn't make me any less Christian, nor does it mean I deviate from your views so widely as to be your enemy.
What I am telling you, if you stop to think about it, is that a cultural conservative cannot win a general election for president in this country because government is NOT the proper tool for installing the cultural conservative agenda (anyone who believes that it is, is not a conservative in the truest sense of the word). Government can only affect personal behavior at the margins, at best, and any attempt to do more turns it into a dictatorial force of oppression.
Social conservatism has limited recourse in the realm of electoral politics, despite the fact that it has succeeded in creating voting blocs which must at least be paid lip service to if a candidate is to advance (if I recall, both Goldwater and reagan promised toput prayer back int he chools and aconstitutional amendment against abortion, in the case of RR. How'd you do on those accounts?). The place for social concervatism is at the grass-roots; in the communities at large, because ultimately, what you seek to advance cannot come to pass without a huge social shift which cannot be brought about by political methods. It must be made by human-to-human contact, and advanced by changing hearts and minds, not by passing legislation.