Moderate Republican Christine Todd Whitman argues in the WaPo that the Republican Party will continue losing elections unless it frees itself from its self-imposed captivity to what she calls 'social fundamentalist', those Republicans who "base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research."
These voters tend to be conservative Catholics and Protestants, but they are often joined by rural folk who are culturally conservative, and by working class men who are upset by immigration, feel that their guns are threatened, and hate/fear Muslims. All these together do not make a majority, however. So to the extent these social conservatives get fired up and rowdy, independents and moderates will sprint in the opposite direction, thus ensuring the election of progressive liberals.
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