Setting Yourself Up For Utter Defeat

Via the Dish, Michael Brendan Dougherty makes the case that the economy isn't the only issue in this election:

But the last three weeks prove that what gets Americans really fired up is the culture war.
Yesterday we saw the 9th Circuit Court overrule the popular referendum in California that banned gay marriage. Rick Santorum, who defined his career in the Senate as the point man for conservatives in the culture war is suddenly surging in the GOP nomination contest. The nation and its media had a week-long freakout over a minuscule $700,000 grant from the Komen Foundation to Planned Parenthood. And now the Obama Administration and the Catholic Church are in open conflict over whether religious institutions should be dragged into the bedroom to pay for their employees' contraceptives of choice.
No one is saying that jobs are the only issue that matter anymore. 

If Republicans try to defeat Obama on culture issues and not the economy, they are going to be utterly crushed.  If Gingrich or Santorum is the candidate, it will be even worse.  Look, if a marketing director for a major brand decided to target the oldest, most rapidly shrinking demographic category while the competitor went for the growth sectors, that person would be looking not only for a new job, but also for a new career field.  Yet the Republicans are targeting elderly whites and white males at the expense of blacks, Hispanics and women.  And on the religious side, they are targeting conservative Catholics at the expense of moderate Catholics.  Maybe I'm wrong here, but I don't see regular mass attendees as a growing demographic.  Catholic women have already voted where they stand on birth control, and it isn't with the bishops.  If I were a politician, I wouldn't try to make hay on allowing employers to avoid covering birth control.  But hey, to each his own.  Likewise, gay marriage.  Fighting it may win the support of old people and the bishops, but it dramatically alienates young voters.  Again, what business would offend people with fifty or sixty years left on earth in favor of appealing to the soon to die and the celibate.  I'm guessing one that won't be successful in the future.