Two issues trump all others on the Republican litmus test—limited government and strong national defense.  Why?  Without those, America's long-term viability is at risk.  Those who believe that limited government isn't important, that the United States has the resources to continually layer on more and more government programs, need only look at what has transpired in Europe over the past twenty or thirty years.  The weight of ever-expanding social programs has reduced once great countries to second tier players on the world stage, and threatened their very way of life.  As their population growth has slowed and the base has aged, they no longer have the wherewithal to support the bureaucracy that has grown out of creeping socialist tendencies.  They have discovered or are discovering that entitlement societies ultimately collapse under their own weight unless changes are made to reinvigorate business and entrepreneurship and insinuate responsibility and accountability.  It is not hard to see that the U.S. is falling into many of the same traps.  It's incumbent that government resist the urge to be the solution to every problem, and rather give people the tools to be responsible for their own outcomes.  Ultimately, that is the truly conscientious and compassionate course of action.  Historically, great societies and powers have been taken down by their own excesses and/or their inability to defend themselves.