I am pro life but can see how someone can not be. The 30-year legacy of the pro life conservatives effectiveness is dubious - over a million abortions a year during that period. The debate these days isn't whether abortion should be legal or not (that's been settled, much to the chargin of pro lifers), but now its about public funding, parental notification, or partial birth abortion.
Holding up your principles is fine. If you can't get a majority on your side, you lose, plain and simple. And sometimes, that's a good thing.
What do you think things would be like if Pro Lifers just threw in the towel? What if Conservatives said, "oh well, we don't have the majority, so lets not make an issue of it"?
What I learned is that if we threatened not to fund and not to vote, we would get their damn attention. See the Harriet Meir nomination. It seems that Republicans will listen, if enough people let them know that we are serious.
If folks stand back and say "oh well", you get nothing. Stand up and take a post, you get attention.
I think the reason Bush's numbers are so low is because he is acting like a neolib. If he put his Cowboy hat and acted like a Conservative, he would have 40 percent of the people saying he is doing a great job. That would be better then his numbers now. We elected a Republican we want those principles to be upheld.