Well, it seems pretty clear that the Republican party (if not most prominent conservatives in media and such) don’t care one whit about (if not actively dislike) atheists, gay people, or those who believe in abortion, to take a few of the more prominent examples. At the very least, they don’t feel that there is any political consequence to doing things that restrict or upset these groups. And they may be right.
There have been arguments that because the majority of people in this country also poll as religious, anti-gay, etc., that there’s nothing wrong with taking this stance, that the will of the people needs to be followed. There have been equal arguments that this just means that the Republicans need to wrest their image away from the Religious Right.
The purpose of this thread is to ask how difficult that would be. Is this a socially conservative nation? Is the Republican party, in general, a socially conservative party? How easy or hard would it be for them to defy the Religious Right politically?
I guess what I’m asking is, what do (and what CAN) social moderates/liberals do if their non-social political beliefs are otherwise Republican?
(Oh, and the Democrats, and most political parties in general, probably don’t care about these groups either - at least not enough to fight harder for 'em. I just wonder what it’ll take for public comments comparing homosexuality to pedophilia to not be politically acceptable…)