I have traveled in every country in Europe. I was married to a Swedish lady and spent lot of time there. I have not seen the type of evangelistic fervor evident in United States. Take abortion for example. It is legal in every country in the world except these six: Holy See, Malta, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile. In Canada, there are no legal restrictions on abortion.
So, you are right. Barely 20-25% of Americans are strong religious conservatives. 75 to 80% are not. Which makes very difficult for any candidate pushing the religious theme to win elections. If Cruz can not win a SINGLE county in South Carolina, he has no path to win nomination.
By Cruz staying in the race, the path to nomination becomes much easier for the GOPe candidate, Marco Rubio.
Trump was never a strict social conservative, but he is the candidate the conservatives need in 2016. Because there are other facets of conservatism in dire straits. Such as illegal immigrants, no borders, hemorrhaging Trillion dollars every year in foreign trade deficits, and fighting wars in middle-east with borrowed money from China, Japan & Europe.
Trump was never a strict social conservative, but he is the candidate the conservatives need in 2016.
And this is not a social issues election, but an election for the very heart and soul of the nation. The border needs to be secured, the economy resurrected and the ship of state turned away from the left and at least toward the center right before there is any talk of attempting anything else. The only social issue that probably needs to be dealt with is ejecting the transgender soldiers and sailors and airmen out of the service. Did you know the VS spent 20 million dollars in building a special VA clinc to serve Transgender veteran’s needs. How many Transgender veterans does the clinic serve? 20....thats right, 20 transgender veterans that have different problems with alcohol and drug abuse than more normal veterans with similar problems. This is how far we have sunk...