Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, social conservatives were the foot soldiers for Republican victories—only to see their issues bargained away or shoved to the bottom of the GOP agenda, beneath issues of fiscal and foreign policy. Reacting to Gov. Daniels, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently said: “For those of us who have labored long and hard in the fight to educate the Democrats, voters, the media and even some Republicans on the importance of strong families, traditional marriage and life to our society, this is absolutely heartbreaking.”
Perhaps Gov. Daniels interprets the emergence of the tea party as a sign that GOP candidates don’t have to depend on social-issues voters as they once did. That seems unlikely. As Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has said, “Calling for a truce on core conservative principles might get you some high profile media sound bites, but it won’t win you the Republican presidential nomination.”
Consider recent polls from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). They reveal that tea party supporters, while motivated by the fiscal crisis, are also overwhelmingly socially conservative: Sixty-three percent oppose abortion, found PRRI, and 64% oppose same-sex marriage, found Pew.
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