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Ever since I've been a conservative, I've seen Christian conservatives threaten to take their toys and go home. They probably won't do it, and if they do, they'll probably shoot themselves in the foot. In a two party system, there is a natural tendency for the parties to position themselves to get a little more than half the vote. It doesn't always work in practice, but it's the optimal strategy. So if the Christian right walks, the Republicans will move a little to the left to captured more of the centrist vote. They know there's little danger of the Christian Right voting for the Democrats. The situation is very different from the 60s and 70s, when the parties were far less ideological, and a move to the right by the GOP allowed them to capture hitherto Democratic voters in the South.

The Christian right has only one workable strategy; to remain within the party and try to steer it to the right. Walk, and you throw one election to the Democrats, and the next election the GOP readjusts to capture swing votes in the center.

You overlook the idealistic among the Christian conservatives.

This past year has proven that they've gotten nothing -- nada -- from the Republicans.

'Why should they stay' will be what many of them ask themselves.

If you can name one major item on their agenda that has turned their way, even with this solidly Republican structure (they own the Presidency, the Senate, the House, and SCOTUS) then I'll give you a free cup of coffee.

The battle cry of California: Forget what you believe and vote Arnold anyway.

Ever since I've been a conservative, I've seen Christian conservatives threaten to take their toys and go home.

Really? Where has this happened? What I recall seeing over the past few years is the 'left-wing' Republicans such as Jeffords, Chafee, etc walking away from The Republican party. How many 'left wing' Republicans voted for Bill Clinton over Bob Dole? Some. Maybe a lot. How many Christian Conservative Republicans voted for Clinton over Dole?

Ronald Reagan set the model for winning swing votes by maintaining the Christian Conservative positions. Nobody has reached the level of popularity and success he had. And it was Reagan who dominated the Southern votes, somewhat true with Nixon in '72, but certainly not Ford in '76...and Reagan captured more overall Democrat votes than any other Republican.

It is the 'left wing' of the Republican party that is both threatening and has already helped shift votes to the Democrats. The assumption that Christian Conservative voters (forget the nationally known personalities) are not in the mainstream of The Republican Party is false.