It seems to me that battle lines can be drawn in the following manner outside of social issues.
Karl Marx said Capitalism carries the seeds of its own destruction. That cancer is income inequality. In the 1930' the greatest American President ever did four ideas that is the cure for that cancer
1. Highly progressive income tax
2. Strong labor laws
3. Strong financial regulation.
4. Keynesian economics
These ideas are what made the building of the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. The Republicans are against all of them and since Reagan have been wining the war thus income inequality is at its worst since before the great depression.
Social issues are vital and important but economically this is where the rubber meets the road. The Republicans use social issues to deflect any discussion of these economic issues. They want to create as much chaos as possible so there can be no intelligent discussion of these issues. Underneath the chaos you hear the drumbeat against these four ideas(think tanks, Conservative media). Their media hammer home hypnotic suggestions rather than a intelligent debate. They are now creating economic chaos (shock doctrine, Klein) out of thin air so they can implement policies diametrically opposed to these ideas.