I have read the article and I concede the point that the average voter is getting turned off the Republicans.

But although social conservatism is mentioned (in the form of abortion), here is what takes up more pixels:

As a fiscal conservative, Mr Toomey’s insurgency was triggered by the expansion of state power and spending under President Bush, not his successor. His faction now helps to fund the campaigns of challengers to Republicans who it deems are insufficiently committed to the goals of lower taxes and smaller, more efficient government. But in the process it is undermining the campaign that Republicans should be fighting on similar themes but on a far larger scale - to rein in Mr Obama’s fondness for big government whenever the costs are unsustainable or the benefits moot.

Got that, lizards? It’s fiscal conservatives to blame for this mess. Let me zimriel-ise this for you:

Voters can’t help but vote for free stuff, and they’re okay with being lied to. Republicans need to roll over on all entitlements unless “the benefits are moot”, which in practice means never. Republicans serious about a balanced budget ought to lie about that, so that the voters can at least vote for their free stuff under the “R” label. Hey, it worked for Obama.

That’s bullshit, in my view; and I hope that no-one here actually believes it. Allow me to offer an alternative.

I think Republican failure is more because the Republicans are messageless, than that some Republicans actually care about our financial health. If the Republicans were more united for these ideas, the voters would at least see the Republicans as a disciplined lot; and they would adjust their personal opinions to agree with the settled Republican opinion.

And the toxic ideas which our leaders are toleration re: intelligent-design and vaccines don’t help; they are adding to the dissension as some Republicans push back in public. (And, of course, these ideas are giving cover to the likes of Snowe to betray the fiscal plank as well. Social conservatism as distraction is not only used by social conservatives.)