In the late seventies, Congress was looking to pass civil rights legislation that would strip segregated churches of their tax exempt status(which they should not have anyway). To prevent this, many church leaders, some of whom have names you might recognize, realized they would have no choice but to end the self-imposed political exile of Evangelicals.
At the same time, William F Buckley was working hard to ostracize racists and other wingnuts whom he considered to be "extremists", so they had to find another reason to enter politics. Drawing inspiration from Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition", they came up with a new all encompassing term for things to hate: Liberals. The term combines African Americans, Feminists(with anything other than a housewife being defined as a feminist), LGBT citizens, Hispanics, Native Americans(we made it kind of hard to find them, though), Asians, Arabs, immigrants, disabled people who want rights, atheists, secularists, social christians, Jewish activists and the other whites who sympathize with them(intellectuals, progressives etc.) So now they hate liberals and liberalism, neither of which has a real definition.
They are conservatives, which has no definition other than the ambiguous "belief in traditional values". They fight for the protection of innocent human life, please let me laugh and gag at the same time with that phony statement. The reason they put "innocent" in there is because evangelicals are typically strong supporters of capital punishment, even though there have been many innocent victims of judicial murder. I could best summarize their views on abortion with quoting George Carlin, "If you're pre-born, you're fine, if you're pre-school, you're fucked!" Since overturning Roe v. Wade could have been done at least 5 times since 1989, it seems like that is hardly a priority. Even if it was overturned, it would revert it back to the states. There is no way to end abortion. So they aren't too worried about that. It just gives them cover to attack feminists. If you need further proof, Jerry Falwell opposed the confirmation of Sandra Day O'Conor, just because she is a woman. He summarized his position with "Every good Christian should be concerned", to which Barry Goldwater replied, "Every good christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."
They also fight for the sanctity of marriage, which is just cover for hating gays. The same statement was used to oppose legalizing interracial marriage. Evangelicals lead in divorce rates and Bible belt states also lead in divorce rates. If they didn't hate gays they would support gays in the military, etc. In fact, most evangelicals don't think there is a such thing as a "homosexual", only homosexual acts, which every man faces as a temptation every day.
Most evangelicals also have the same agenda of the National Association for the Advancement of White People(NAAWP), an organization run by ex-Klansman David Duke.
The NAAWP opposes Affirmative Action programs, no matter what it is. So do most evangelicals.
The NAAWP supports a strong law and order stance, such as support for capital punishment, reducing Habeas appeals in capital cases, expanding the number of offenses it is used for and preventing review of death sentences. Also, they support militant and police actions in the war on drugs such as 'Three Strike Laws", bans on medical marijuana, etc. Evangelicals strongly support all those things.
They also oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, immigrant rights, separation of church and state and they openly speak of hatred for secularists, "leftists" and arabs.
So am I saying that all Evangelicals and Republicans are racists? Yes, I am. At least all of the ones who use the word liberal in disdain. You never hear Joe Scarborough or Chuck Hagel or Ron Paul use that word. It is a code word. In fact the word liberal literally has no meaning.
Now that the liberal media has let it become a conventional truth that Sonia Sotomayor is a racist, which is such a joke. At least it is a forgone conclusion that she will be confirmed, which any judge will support.