Preferring ideology soundness to working in the real world, they seem to have chosen to make things like gay marriage the issue rather than the collapsing economy.

Republicans have a valid message, which is to foster free enterprise and limit the role of government in daily life. The problem is that "free enterprise" has come to mean "the multi-national global corporations which form the backbone of the empire" and "limit the role of government" has come to mean "abandon all social programs in favor of expanding the empire".

Gay marriage, abortion, and the right to own assault weapons seems to be the issues attracting those who aren't wealthy as those are all single issue matters for many voters. As the percentage of Americans regarding themselves as Christian shrinks, so does the membership of the party and the relevance of the Republican message.

It looks as if Gingrich is attempting to fill the power vacuum left by Bush and Cheney and the failure of their programs. McCain had an opportunity to leave a moderate leader behind, chose Palin instead. They'll rebound, but will have to more reflect the values of at least the 20th century in able to do so. It will be a profound change.

Arf