Thanos Thanos:
Palin could be the ultimate evolution of the old Southern Strategy and the Atwaterization of the GOP, even if it was completely unintended that someone like her would step forward. It had to be a least a probability though that they'd end up with someone who believed in all the retrograde and atavistic libertarian/SoCon garbage they've been pedalling ever since LBJ stabbed the ever-present and eternally angry spirit of Old Dixie in the back with the Civil Rights Act. Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr., and even Bush Jr. might have mouthed platitudes to keep the base acquiesed while they spent most of their time keeping the corporate and militarist segments of the party happy. But Palin genuinely believes in all that crap and would probably do whatever it took to make the crazed desires of the radical libertarians, the neocons, and the social conservatives a reality for the entire country (and then the rest of the world) to have to endure.
You're correct that she would likely want to force a social change to the right.
But as with many other things the American influence in the world is becoming less each day for the simple fact that have this hypocrisy of being a so-called 'christian' nation but simultaneously of being both short-sighted and fundamentally greedy. Nor do they seem to have a concept on how to run a nation financially. For decades they've been spending way beyond their means to pay for, and yet during that time virtually the only president they had who took their debt and deficit seriously was a democrat.
Their republicans have been feeding them pablum about how they can fix things with tax-cuts. Well they've had that plan for the majority of 30 years now. It hasn't , isn't and won't work. Yet they still make hay buy getting people to but into it.