How could the Democrats reinvigorate this natural wedge in the Republican Party? I would suggest they begin by putting the abortion issue in play. The GOP controls the White House, the Senate, and the House. While they all campaign as friends of religious right, is there any doubt that this is simply a ruse by the GOP to attract their votes? After all, two years ago, the GOP also controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. While the plutocrats were quickly rewarded with a massive tax cut, I don't seem to recall the religious right being similarly rewarded with a ban on abortion.
Call their bluff. Have a few maverick Democratic Congressman from rural Southern districts introduce legislation banning abortions, all abortions, including cases of rape and incest. The remainder of the Democrats would be free to keep a safe distance. Then dare the GOP to pass it. They never will, because they know the minute they do, the gender gap becomes unbridgeable, and they become the permanent minority party. But in the meantime, as they bottle it up in committee, watch them squirm as the religious right grows increasingly incensed at the great betrayal. Which feeds directly into Sun Tzu's next bit of wisdom:
Perhaps not a bad idea -- but nonetheless a gamble. Some claim that Britain's Victorian era sodomy laws were put in to derail a law increasing the age of consent for women, and that gender was inserted into the Civil Rights Act as an attempt to do the same. Sometimes these things backfire.
The long run plan isn't just to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue to the states. It's to declare the fetus a legally a person at which point abortion would be murder. Any legislation that gets passed in this directed makes it that much easier.
I'm much less optimistic about the Choice issue being a winning one for Democrats. It's pretty clear that the majority of American's favor choice, but it also has always seemed to be that a lot of these people are in favor of their OWN choice, not other people's. As is generally the case with issues surrounding pregnancy and child-raising, people are all-too-willing to feel they have the right to tell other people how to do it. So, while people think abortion should be legal, I'm not sure people get the whole personal Choice concept on this issue.