Samuel,

I’m happy to have you, and the rest of the heritics with us. As a conservative Republican with libertarian leanings and an agnostic with severe skepticism toward organized religion, your call to treat the social conservatives with respect is welcome.

I’ve tired over the years of trying to explain that most social conservative values are not necessarily tied to religion (specificaly those dreaded fundamentalist Christians).

Those ideas are worthy of respect in and of themselves. Just to pick ( but not discuss ) a certain hot button, try abortion. A completely justifiable argument can be made that abortion is murder without any recourse to religion. If you don’t agree with this, fine, but address the merits rather than the straw man of religion.

To paraphrase the econauts, think global, act local. Deal with these social issues at the local and state level. Persuade people get legislation passed and you can carry the day. The problem is when things like Roe v. Wade or the Mass. Supreme Court gay marriage decision try and short circuit the building process that takes time and effort. Even if you win, you only get contention.