Most of the people who bankroll the GOP have absolutely nothing in common (politically or culturally) with the typical Republican voter- and especially not the typical grassroots activist.
I actually am not too sure about that. There are a good number of wealthy individuals who have bankrolled both the Christian Right and the Tea Party movement. Some of these people have quite right-wing views not just on economics (obviously) but also on social policy. The Chick-Fil-A CEO is just one example-there are a number of others on the Forbes 400 who have bankrolled the Christian Right.
Also, re: the typical grassroots activist-those people, from what I understand, tend to be more affluent and educated than the typical Republican voter (who is already of higher socioeconomic status than the typical American).
I've noticed that almost all of the Tea Party politicians and candidates in the Republican Party (and there is a lot of overlap with the Christian Right there) are, if not quite wealthy themselves (usually, from ownership of one or more businesses), are at least solidly "middle-class" in both economic reality and political attitudes.
I'm just not totally convinced that there is this really big cultural/political/economic divide between the voters, the activists, and the big money donors, in general, on the Republican side. The bigger divide within the Republican Party, at this point, may be between the corporate establishment types and the self-employed/small business/middle-and-lower manager types-the latter being more prone to grass-roots political activism, I suspect.
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