The Republicans carefully considered seperating themselves from conservatism, and those who practice it. It was deemed a handicap & embarrassment (this is easy to do when 'principles' are a shameful shortcoming). This was done years ago.
From Senator Smith(R)
"As we moved into the 1996 elections, we again began to see this tug-of-war between the principal ideals of the party and the pragmatism of those who said we need `Republican' victories.
Conservatives became a problem: We have to keep the conservatives quiet; let's not antagonize the conservatives, while the pragmatists talked about how we must win more Republican seats. Conservatives should be grateful, we were told, because we were playing smart politics, we were broadening the case. Elect more Republicans to Congress, elect more Republicans to the Senate and win the White House. What do we get? Power. We are going to govern.
In meeting after meeting, conference after conference, the pollsters and the consultants--and I have been a part of all of this. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I have been involved in it. I am not saying I have not, but the pollsters and consultants advised us not to debate the controversial issues. Ignore them. We can win elections if we do not talk about abortion and other controversial issues, even though past elections have proven that when we ignore our principles, we lose, and when we stick to our principles, we win. In spite of all this, we continued to listen to the pollsters and to the consultants who insisted day in and day out they were right.
To this day, I still hear "let's get 'em elected and give 'um a chance". Republicans are socialists, and prone to this behavior.