The New York Times’ Frank Bruni, in a classic attempt at trying to influence conservative elites through mainstream media, presents a sneak preview of a new analysis of data on social conservatism and religion.

He finds that 36 percent of Republicans are self-described evangelicals and that they oppose abortion and same-sex marriage more strongly than other Republicans. This is not surprising.

Then he proposes that what Republicans and the media should do is subtract evangelicals from the opinion polls and find out that Republicans are more split on social issues than is commonly supposed.

Well yes, if you subtract all the evangelicals, and other social conservatives, from the Reagan-created winning GOP coalition, you will find more social moderates. On the other hand, subtracting all those voters from the GOP coalition would make it a lot harder to win election. It would reduce the GOP from the Party of Reagan to the Party of Gerald Ford, and it means abandoning our historic majorities in Congress and handicapping our ability to elect a president.

What this column reflects, in my humble opinion, is the Left’s unconscious desire to erase social conservatives from the American body politic.  It would certainly be easier for the Left to win elections that way.  But it’s not the way to do democracy.

Maggie Gallagher is the editor of ThePulse2016.com.