That's a mighty big tent you've got there...

The Republican party is still hashing out it's convention platform. Groups like the gay Log Cabin Republicans are hoping for a more broad platform while social conservatives are hoping that the platform stays socially conservative.

Personally, I think going more conservative on social issues would be political suicide for the Republicans, and a more broad or open stance on them is only going to help them. Think about it - if you are a stereotypical southern conservative, and the Republicans move a little to the center, are you really going to vote for Kerry, who is way further to the left?

I think that there are a lot of "Dennis Miller conservatives" out there - people who want fiscal conservatism (ie lower taxes) and a government that's strong on defense, but are more liberarian on issues like abortion and gay marriage. These are exactly the swing voters that the Republicans need to attract to win this election.

When you look at the how much sucess the pro-life movement has had since Roe v Wade - they can't even get things like partial-birth abortion, which has few supporters, banned, it seems unlikely that anything is going to happen no matter what the party platform. And we all know what a failure the federal marriage ammendment has been. Since these are political losers anyway, it doesn't cost the Republicans much to abandon these things, and they may gain some new voter in the process.