At least back in the early/mid 90's they were all about self-reliance, or so they claimed. But now when I look back, it seems that it was the same anti-poor, anti-minority, anti-abortion, anti-sex, anti-anything not Christian attitudes they still have. True, the God crowd didn't have full control over the party like they do now, but they were just laying the groundwork for tea party types to become their voter base. I think, possibly, that they drove out the moderate element to become even more extreme.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.