JMH at 213—

Let me suggest that the GOP ought to focus, without strict litmus tests but as the overall character or tone of the party, on conservative fiscal, monetary, security, and constitutional principles, and among those is that most social issues are, constitutionally, reserved to the States.

Let Utah be Utah, and Vermont be Vermont. A national party shouldn’t fall on its sword over those issues.

The Dems finally figured that out on gun control in the mid-1990s, and from 2006 they’ve been competitive in places like Montana and Colorado.

Abortion may be a special case becuase if you believe life begins at conception, you see it as murder, and even tho strictly speaking that is a State issue, it’s hard to put aside. Even there, reversing Roe v Wade would not end legal abortion, it would just put the issue back in the States, where it belongs.

On most “social issues,” let the States deal with them.

That’s a sound conservative idea that should not cause a true constitutional conservative too much gas, when the alternative is the Obama Democratic Party.