All those social issues seem to have left conservatives out in the cold, but the other side of the coin is that along with social progress we've also seen deregulation of all sorts of industries (airline, telecommunications, banking, etc.), huge expansion of free trade, and erosion of collective bargaining power. Thus, there have been wins for both camps. It's informative to take a bird's eye view, because either side can claim history is marching in their favor. We would just as soon see a democrat argue that one shouldn't be able to own one's own phone as we would a republican call for a return to Jim Crow. Both are dead issues, and rightly so. I would like to think that we've become more enlightened over time, but it's difficult to think so in the age of 24 hour news, 24 month campaigns, and infinite social media updates.