There have been some indications that the leadership of the Republican party is beginning to understand that their embrace of off-putting social positions is hurting the party. However, according to Politico, the rank-and-file seem hell-bent on maintaining these positions. This has the potential for keeping the GOP in the minority for another generation, since the social issue positions of the current party are totally out of sync with younger, well-educated voters as a whole.  To the extent, for example, that opposition to gay marriage becomes a litmus test for determining whether someone is a “true” Republican, the party will be more limited.

But outside Washington, the reality is very different. Rank-and-file Republicans remain, by all indications, staunchly conservative, and they appear to have no desire to moderate their views. GOP activists and operatives say they hear intense anger at the White House and at the party’s own leaders on familiar issues – taxes, homosexuality, and immigration. Within the party, conservative groups have grown stronger absent the emergence of any organized moderate faction.

There is little appetite for compromise on what many see as core issues, and the road to the presidential nomination lies – as always – through a series of states where the conservative base holds sway, and where the anger appears to be, if anything, particularly intense.