It has succeeded politically by concentrating government on only the most political of issues, avoiding as far as possible questions better left to theologians, scientific scholars, farmers, entrepreneurs, and of course individuals themselves.
A key element and guiding principle of the political process in the United States is one of the most open and democratic polling systems there are. The qualifications required of voters are at an absolute minimum. It is not even necessary that a voter be able to read or write. That was never a problem as long as the government stayed away from science and theology. Scientists and theologians persuade people, government forces them.
The growing and serious problem in the country now is that questions of science and theology are being decided by people who are not qualified. They have begun to demand that their misconstrued views of science and theology be forced because they lack the art of persuasion. Science is not a democracy. Nothing in science is decided by voting. Theology is not a democracy. Nothing in theology is decided by voting. What is also painfully obvious in the fiasco of the last presidential election is that democracy is neither science nor theology but would pretend to be.
A rather significant turning point occurred in 1925 in the famous Tennessee v. Scopes trial. A rogue substitute school teacher stood accused of teaching evolution in violation of a state act prohibiting such in any state funded school. It was a bizarre alignment of opposing sides that neither scientists nor theologians recommended. The notion that "Creationism versus Evolution" was some significant "debate" became popular though and that created an artificial divide between science and theology. It was however merely a popular notion fueled by the courts and the newspapers, not by people well educated in science or theology.
To this day and especially from the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision there is a rampant notion that science "won" the debate and "there is no evidence of any god." There is also a rampant notion that the book of Genesis be taken literally. Neither is well grounded. Science has not disproved the necessity of an intelligent designer. The Bible itself frequently uses symbolic language without excuse and cautions against unqualified interpretations. The idea that there is any debate between creationism and evolution is a mistaken popular view reinforced by the travesty of justice in Kitzmiller v. Dover and unqualified political activism.
Too many Democrats still believe their views are well informed by science and will not likely be persuaded otherwise by their narrow recent loss. Too many Republicans still believe their views are well informed by theology and a few of those views might be, but certainly not all of them. Theirs views are mostly rather obviously informed by popularity and an expectation that the military and the government will then enforce those popular views.
Their serious problem at the moment is a failure to articulate any theological position. It is not the sort of work they usually do, certainly not as much as they think they do.
The idea that same sex marriage is wrong remains one supported by well schooled theologians. However the Republicans and the theologians have not been persuading large numbers of people that a same sex marriage is substantially different from heterosexual marriage. The reason is that marriage has become too lax and divorce too easy. When marriage no longer means a clear and lasting commitment of parents to each other and their children, then homosexuals can claim their marriages have the same legal standing. The Republicans can hope to appoint judges who will claim heterosexual marriages are somehow more significant, but that would be a lie as things stand.
Voltaire
It is necessary to first return marriage to its former meaning of a clear and lasting commitment of parents to each other and their children. The concept of marriage held by too many people these days is that marriage is a commitment to do what the government tells them to do. That very mistaken idea has led to a dependence on government that has replaced any need for marriage.
For all the rhetoric, skilled and unskilled, about less dependence on government, it is the unskilled that seems to take the day. Advancing godly principles will be awkward for a government staffed by people so unfamiliar with them and dependent on popularity and government, despite their claims otherwise.
It is necessary for qualified leaders in science and theology to advance real science and theology and take charge of the classroom back from the soldiers.