Perhaps the single most important concept that Republicans need to grasp, is that the late 20th century strategy of enlisting an army of bible thumpers with unrealizable promises of overturning Roe v. Wade will not produce a voting majority in the 21st century. Hopes for a conservative economic agenda will be lost as the next generation of voters are turned off by the conservative social agenda of the Republican party core.

Sara Palin is a perfect example: she had great appeal to the social conservative base, a continually shrinking demographic. How can a party whose foundation is old, white, and evangelical grow in a nation that is increasingly multi-racial and tending towards spiritual rather than dogma?

Tell a single woman that she has to surrender her choice on abortion in order to vote for someone who will keep the purse strings tied shut, and she may not listen. Likewise, young heterosexuals who have plenty of gay friends may not feel like voting for the candidate with a real free enterprise economic plan if it means insulting folks they know to be good people with a bible-based marriage law proposal.

The Republican mantra seems to have been freedom of choice in the marketplace, but do it my way everywhere else. Until the party can come to grips with the idea that the age of Christiandom has passed, and folks will have to find God without being told where they have to find it, an economic conservative will have no party capable of electing candidates.