Many Republican politicians complain off the record about party rhetoric on social issues. It's not the issue of abortion that's driving people away, they argue, so much as it is the broader cultural claims of those who put it forward. For that reason they are also the main source of radicalization and overreach. From there it was easy for the Republicans to taunt the Democrats into pursuing policies that taxed the patience even of moderate voters. When Americans talk about government spending, about welfare, about crime, about unemployment, or about values, they are to some degree also talking about race.
Race is the subtext of American politics.
None of the individual Democratic constituencies can produce a commanding majority on its own, but for that reason none is particularly frightening, either. Southern-style Christians are a powerful bloc in a way that none of the Democratic blocs is. Forty-three percent of respondents answer yes. This is a big enough bloc to take over not just a party but a country. The bet that Republicans are making is that the South will add congressional seats and electoral votes faster than the rest of the country grows alienated from the party's southern message.