You are 100% correct. The Rockefeller/Bush/Romney moderates chose not to engage in the culture wars, choosing to focus on commercial issues and interests which enriched the big donors and the politicians supporting them.
This victory can be celebrated for only a few hours because the court battles will now begin. Social justice organizations, funded by billionaires, self perpetuating non-profit foundations, and our own tax money, will now go judge shopping and initiate a lawsuit in a left leaning court where a black robed tyrant will overturn the will of the legislature.
The moderate Republicans who refused to engage in the culture wars also failed to oppose the permanent appointment to the federal courts of many judges educated by elite law schools in the philosophy of the Constitution as a living document, to be interpreted by judges based on the judge’s personal opinion of right and wrong, not actual words of a contract clearly defining the relationship between government and its citizens.
Not only did moderate Republicans vote for extreme liberal judges, when in control of Congress, they also failed to impeach and remove the worst of the black robed tyrants who daily violate their oaths of office to uphold the rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitution and the clearly defined separation of powers between the branches of the federal government and the states. As long as we allow individual activist left wing judges to arbitrarily overturn laws passed by legislatures representing the people, the march toward communism and dictatorship will continue.
"Politics is downstream from culture" - Andrew Breitbart