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Notes -
Why?
This presumes the religious beliefs are the principles that govern political, as opposed to principles of co-existence that allow certain stridency in some topics that have a consensus, and more restrained actions in more controversial issues. Or that actions were properly executing principles in the first place, when additional information- such as increased visibility/exposure/familiarity- would dispel misconceptions and allow principles to be expressed differently. Or that these principles expressed in the past were the primary principles in all contexts, as opposed to always having higher principles but with conditionalities that were not present in the past but are present now. Or that the principles expressed were actual principles as opposed to preferences- the whole principles according to who is in power dynamic, but reversed.
It even presumes that individually-held principles should hold across generations, regardless of time and turnover. Many of the Republicans who made up the religious right as leaders or influencers are no longer Republicans. Some died. Some defected with the ongoing political realignment. Some have disengaged from politics entirely. People voting Republican today are often quite literally not the same people voting Republican a generation ago during the Clinton years and then into the Bush years. The majority of the war fighters in the US, literal and cultural, were born after 9-11.
Why should they hold firm to the principles that different people held in different decades?
'Republicans' and even 'the Republican party' are not some singular collective hive mind, anymore than anyone else. They certainly aren't trans-temporal.
In my view, my reference to "Republicans who have campaigned or previously voted" was indeed me individualizing the standard.
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