Some oft-forgotten context: The GOP is the party of white men and white women. Democrats win women. But pundits regularly forget that Democrats have not won a majority of white women since 1964.

Rich wrote that Republicans use cultural conservatism to win poor and “threatened” white men. But more women are social conservatives than men. Fifty-seven percent of white Republican women attend church at least once a week, compared to 42 percent of white Republican men, according to Pew Research Center survey data. Blacks are the most religious racial group. But among whites, women attend services and Bible study at a significantly higher rate than men. There is no gender gap on abortion among Americans overall. But Republican women are more likely than Republican men to believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

Hence in mid-February, when I detailed why Republicans could not afford to push Rick Santorum’s positions in a general election, I also noted that his positions “may inspire more support within the GOP than it turns off” because of conservative women. About a month later, some of the smartest writers on politics, like the Post’s Chris Cillizza, reported with a pang of astonishment that GOP women had not soured on Santorum. But of course not.

The mainstream media often frame women and conservatives as adversaries in the culture wars. But not only is the typical social conservative more likely to be a woman than a man, we’ve also known since the 1980 election that many issues that rally feminist groups — abortion, for example — do not drive the votes of most women.