The real problem with the religious right is that, in the long run, its religious vehicle wont carry it home. If it ever ended abortion, restored school prayer, outlawed sodomy and banned pornography, I suspect, most of its followers would simply declare victory and retire. But having accomplished all of that, the Christian right would have done absolutely nothing to strip the federal government of the power it has seized throughout this century, restore a proper understanding and enforcement of the Constitution and of republican government, prevent the inundation of the country by anti-Western immigrants, stop the cultural and racial dispossession of the historic American people, or resist the absorption of the American nation into a multicultural and multiracialist globalist regime. -Hermes, from
Wise Man's Heart
One problem with your argument: social conservatism is not synonymous with the "religious right." This is a common mistake many on the left make.
Just because an individual supports traditional values does not make them a party to some insidious plot of the "religious right." I am aware that many have tried to parrot this line over the past 15 years but repeating something does not make it so.
If McCain loses it will be a repudiation of the notion that the Republicans must "appeal to moderates."