MY concern is the economy.
You socons would rather have a third-world economy but no abortion and gay marriage.
BTW, I’m more libertarian on social issues. I’m pro-life but I could care less who’s zoomin’ who.
I’m educated, not a hayseed.
I'm not just a socon, I'm conservative on all planks, social, fiscal and national security. I'm equally disturbed by Obama's moves towards immoral social policies as I am his moves towards communistic economic policies. The truth is without social conservatism, you will have a third world economy. Only family values resulting in a self-sustaining population can generate economic growth. Only a belief in a higher power can prevent people from worshiping the government and looking to its "great leaders" for answers. And only a belief in divine retribution can prevent people from having the sense of entitlement that leads them to loot money from the "rich" to redistribute money to themselves.
Palpatine, I get it that you're focused on only one of the three legs of the conservative triad. That's okay. We need allies where we can get them.
I don't grant your premise “You socons would rather have a third-world economy but no abortion and gay marriage.”
What I don't think a lot of libertarians understand about social conservatives is that we believe with strong family values and personal self-discipline, a third-world economy can become a first-world economy. Without those values, the strongest economies will be destroyed.
I was a secular conservative before I was converted to become an evangelical Christian, and I'm not going to yell at people when they agree with most of what I believe and in most cases will vote for my candidates in the general election, just like I'll vote for your candidate in most cases, because after the primary whichever one wins is nearly always better than the Democrat.
Take a walk into a different world, and look into our thought processes for a moment.
Consider this: Sodom and Gomorrah probably had a great economy, too. Genesis 13:10: “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.”
Most of the time, God doesn't rain down fire on evildoers. He lets the consequences of people's sins destroy them.
For social conservatives, we generally believe that socialism is a symptom of the breakdown of personal self-discipline and families taking care of their own, looking instead to the government because we won't or can't take care of our own problems.
I'm not asking you to agree with my beliefs, but I am asking you to understand why we believe the way we do.
When all is said and done, neither economic conservatives, national defense conservatives, or social conservatives can win on our own. We all need each other.
Let's try to remember that.
Finally, I'm (mostly) ignoring your comment about education versus being a hayseed. I think with fourteen years of graduate school between me and my wife, we have some credibility when it comes to education -- lots of social conservatives are very educated people, too. I also know very well that lots of people with degrees are fools, and while I do not attack education, I don't emphasize it, either, except when I have to deal with people who seem think social conservatives are by definition uneducated.