Before even getting into what they need to do to change, the various wings of the party need to acknowledge in a meaningful way that they even have a problem and no one has shown any interest in doing that. The fact that the big business/establishment wing of the party sees the solution as "try harder to ram a Romney/Bush/Rubio type down everyone's throats with no substantive policy changes whatsoever" shows that they haven't been whacked in the head hard enough with a baseball bat to stop hitting themselves. They have no interest in changing the party's economic orthodoxy to address the problems facing most Americans. And until you get to that point, there's really no point even having this discussion.
The SoCons have the same problem, they insist on forcing the party to adopt extremely out-of-touch positions on social issues and especially on pushing Republicans in a more and more blatantly misogynistic direction (these days they hardly even bother pretending that extreme sexism is not one of the major forces energizing their base). Most Americans find the misogyny, homophobia, and religious fundamentalism that oozes out of the Republican party to be completely abhorrent, even Americans who might otherwise be somewhat sympathetic on an issue like abortion. And yet rather than even paying lip service to the idea of moderating their tone (let alone their actual policy positions), they act like the solution is to trot out even more Santorums, Akins, and Huckabees. These are not people with any interest in having a serious discussion about what needs to change to win.
We can see the same issue in the Southern, white-working class, and anti-immigration wings (I'm deliberately over-simplying all of the categories to better illustrate the point) of the party. These factions of the Republican party seems to respond very energetically to barely disguised racist statements from GOP candidates and even more so to those candidates like Trump who don't even disguise it at all and do everything but wear a big neon sign saying "Hey guys, I'm a racist too" (maybe that would be too subtle for this constituency
). These guys are not interested in moderating their politician's vitriol, if anything, they'd probably tell you that "rampant political correctness" is why the Republicans can't connect with average Americans anymore. When these guys complain about political correctness, it's like an alcoholic standing up during an intervention, kicking over his chair, and screaming "I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM! YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THE PROBLEM!"
I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm not saying none of the Republican constituencies have any legitimate grievances or that they have to abandon everything the party has ever stood for. What I am saying is that when most Americans look at the Republican party today, what they see are a bunch of elitist, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, bible-thumping, homophobic, war-mongering, sex hating, old white men who don't care about anyone making less than $100 million a year and would gladly destroy the economy by shutting down the government if they don't get their way on even the most insignificant issue. Maybe that's an accurate picture, maybe it isn't. Maybe it's fair, maybe it isn't. But that is how most Americans see the Republican party right now, especially Americans who are not straight blue-collar white men over the age of 65.
The GOP is perceived as a Frankenstein's Monster that is equal parts Donald Trump, Mark Fuhrman, Jerry Falwell, Mr. Burns, Strom Thurmond, Todd Akin, Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh. To most Americans this is a terrifying freak show, not a political party that has any business governing. Now, you may disagree with the image, but like it or not, that is what most people see. And you can only alienate so many groups of people before your base is too small and narrow to win on its own. But a common thread among all wings of the GOP is that they have no serious interest in changing or if they do, it's always that the other factions need to change. No one is interested in addressing their contribution to the aforementioned perception that most Americans have of the party. And until that changes, there's really no point having this discussion.
