Western civilization is defined not by laissez-faire economics, but by the Judeo-Christian ethic, whih displaced the ethic of the warring pagan cultures of Europe and baptized them into a single Christian civilization. If the libertarian wing of the GOP suceeds in ousting or rendering irrelevant the socially conservative wing that champions the Western ethic, the American voter will be limited to a choice between two parties which both advocate a revived pagan ethic, the dismantling of the Judeo-Christian ethic, and with it the end of Western civilization as we have known it -- a Pyhrric victory.
I personally would rather suffer under a blatantly pagan Democratic regime than a crypto-pagan Republican administration -- the pagans on the left at least give it to you straight.