In posting , a question has been bouncing around my head:

The current Republican party is basically split into religious conservatives and economic conservatives, right? It's the religious conservatives pushing the ban on abortion, reproductive rights, contraception, access to adult entertainment, regulation of content on public airwaves, etc., and it's the economic conservatives who push the deregulation of everything in favor the "market forces."

Here's the thing: if the market has a demand for condoms, xxx dvds and casinos, who gets their way? How does the Republican party square the fact that half the party supports exactly what the other half abhors - government regulation of the free market against the wishes of the consumer.

If anyone has thoughts, links or a right-wing uncle who can explain, I'd love to hear it.

I've thought about that a ton, and how the traditional version of a "Conservative" no longer applies. I suspect that for almost all current conservatives, your defition of economic conservatives is a bit out of date. It's not so much that the current crop is advocating less government market intervention, but rather the hallmark of the new economic conservative is just an emphasis on lower taxes. I think that's how they can split the difference between religious conservatism and economic conservatism: As long as you advocate lower taxes, you can be considered economically conservative, even if on the side you're increasing government intervention/regulation to comply with the demands of the religious conservatives.