There aren't huge numbers of social conservatives. They're maybe 15-20% of the electorate as a whole, and 1/2 of those vote dim.
Who do you think put the new Senators in Montana and Virginia over the top? Social liberals?
Um...Jim Webb is a favorite of social conservatives?
Senator Jim Webb is no conservative. He voted for the DREAM Act. Then there are his books and attitude towards marriage.
“There aren’t huge numbers of social conservatives. They’re maybe 15-20% of the electorate as a whole, and 1/2 of those vote dim.”
I would like to see those numbers, got a good source?
Our ex-senator (Burns) got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Nothing will turn off the Right quicker than that. That the Republicans didn't make him retire and raise up a new champion is precisely their own fault, and this issue should be seen in that light.
Mariner, you are mistaken. Over the years, the Catholic vote has gone from about 95% Democrat to 50-50, and that is due almost entirely to the abortion scandal and other moral questions.
Evangelicals, too, who are mostly in the south but can be found all over the country, mostly used to vote Democrat but now vote majority Republican. Moreover, a lot of Evangelicals formerly didn’t bother to vote, because they thought their true home was in heaven and the government was a lost cause. Now, tens of millions of those people are also voting—mainly because of abortion, family, and marriage issues.
The Republican coalition depends on social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and those libertarian who don’t actually vote Democrat because they want free sex without consequences. Unless these factions can work together, they don’t have a prayer of winning a national election.
Republican victory also depends on the big money operators and country clubbers. If those guys try to stuff a liberal pro-abort like Rudy down the throats of the voters, they will LOSE. If they want lower taxes and other good things for themselves, they are going to have do cooperate with the base on the issues of life and family, or they will lose. You can’t win an election without money and influence, and you can’t win an election without voters. So they MUST work together or hang separately.