Few would have believed it possible only a couple years ago, but the Republican Party is increasingly being made less hospitable for culture warriors.

I’ve been arguing since my days in college – which, looking back, was a long time ago – that the GOP was in for a rather seismic shift in social policy.

Cutting my teeth in the Republican Party, I was exposed to a heavy dose of other young conservatives through involvement with the College Republicans, the Young Republicans, and Student Government (including SG work across the state, and indeed, nationally) – and one thing stood out like a sore thumb:  younger Republicans were primarily concerned with fiscal conservatism, and were far more libertarian than their older cousins in the party.

While some toed the party line on issues like gay marriage, they did so to not be ostracized from the political power structure, and in reality couldn’t have cared less about the issue.

I had to admit, in the days of President Bush proposing constitutional amendments to define marriage Federally (something I always found odd from the party that believed in state’s rights and Federalism), I thought my thesis may be dead in the water.

But the election of Barack Obama, it appears, has begun to prove my point, and in a big way.

Over the course of the last year, in the wake of trillion dollar stimulus bills and massive health care reform measures, the focus of the Republican party, the conservative movement, and the burgeoning tea-party phenomenon has shifted almost entirely to fiscal concerns.

At the same time, libertarians, who have long felt marginalized within the GOP since the growth of the more socially conservative “religious right”, or have in fact been outside the party, have been swarming to the elephant, and are remaking it in their own image.

Consider the case of GOPride – a group of gay conservatives akin to the Log Cabin Republicans – and their sponsorship of CPAC in 2010.

Naturally, it kicked off a minor controversy regarding gays and the Republican Party.

But, while the GOP remains unfriendly territory for homosexuality in general – things are not as they once were.

Take Ryan Sorba, from “Young Americans for Freedom”.  Check out the reaction of the crowd to his angry, nonsensical rant about homosexuality at CPAC:

He was (rightly) booed, and condemned by the crowd. The crowd, which of course was made up of a striking number of younger conservatives and libertarians. True, a large chunk of these people were Ron Paul supporters, and they represent a different breed of Republican to be sure – but a lot of them (including some older conservatives which can be seen booing) were not, and made their distaste for such hatemongering nonsense quite clear as well.

Indeed, the CPAC crowd was not done with Mr. Sorba. Alex Knepper, a gay conservative who writes at Race42008 (now Race42012), confronted Mr. Sorba after his speech, and took him to the wood shed.  Wish somebody would have filmed that.

And this brings me back to the overall thesis here.

When looking at CPAC this year, the reaction to Sorba – which I think we can all agree, simply would not have happened 6 years ago – and the growth of libertarianism in the Republican Party betrays what I think is the future of the party in the next decade or two.

As the current crop of 18-35 year old move from outside the establishment, to being the establishment, and the older generation of more socially conservative Republicans exits the stage, this trend will continue.  Libertarians from the Campaign for Liberty and Republican Liberty Caucus, as well as from the Tea Party movement are already building from the ground up by getting posts in local party affiliates, and state committees, and many are running for office.

This all looks very reminiscent of how the religious right infiltrated the Republican Party in the 1980s and 1990s – something that was noted by Patrick Ruffini recently.

It always struck me as madness that the party would hang its hat on this issue.  There is a rather significant voting bloc of homosexuals, and people sympathetic to gay rights in general, who are otherwise very conservative.

Indeed, unlike the African-American voting bloc, the “gay vote” itself is hardly unanimous – in 2008 for example, in the midst of the biggest Democratic wave in a generation, CNN reported that 27% of self-identified homosexuals voted for Republican John McCain.  Even in the deepest, darkest pit of anti-gay hysteria in the GOP during the 2004 cycle, President Bush attracted roughly 19% of the gay vote.

The logic, of course, flows rather simply – individual rights are just as important as economic rights, and if you believe in a “hands off” approach to governance, you should apply that standard universally, even to things you may personally disapprove of.

With the early anger and resentment within the gay community at President Obama for essentially selling them out on the Maine gay marriage vote, and the gay rights agenda in general, we are now presented with an opportunity to turn the page on the culture wars and potentially separate the gay community from the Democrats.

It won’t take much.  Caving in on hate crimes or becoming full throated defenders of gay marriage is hardly required here.  But, a great start would be to can the nonsense over amending the Constitution over this issue, continuing to aggressively push back against fools like Ryan Sorba, and taking the lead in the repeal of things like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which is increasingly a non-issue for the population at large.

The nature of the gay community – politically at least – is very “mind your own business, and keep your government out of my life”.  Tell me again, how that is incompatible with the conservative movement?

It is time to turn the page on this issue as a wedge.