If anything, the 2000 political season will be the setting for cultural conflicts from school board races in Texas to the battle for the White House. There will be no cease-fire in the combat over abortion, gay rights and control of public schools. It's more threatening to the left this way. There's no easy bogeyman to motivate their base. It's more effective below the radar screen.
Raw numbers gauging the numerical strength of the religious right are hard to come by.
Polls show that social conservatives could range from 15 to 30 percent of the total electorate, but they are closer to the high end among committed Republican voters. The movement is like a pyramid, with a broad base at the local level that becomes more narrow and less significant in national races. When you expand it to the general election sphere, it's much harder for their voices to outweigh others. In Maine and Washington state, the Christian right helped kill efforts to pass laws protecting gays and lesbians. In dozens of states, social conservatives have teamed up with the NRA to pass laws permitting residents to carry concealed weapons.