Until the GOP drops the religious right, its gone.
The GOP doesn't have to drop the religious right, they just need to stop putting so much emphasis on social issues and governing by hostage crisis.
George HW Bush was a pragmatic conservative who won the last GOP landslide and carried much of the Northeast by convincing margins. That's what the Republican Party has to return to: pragmatic conservativism. We don't have to drop the Religious Right or become the Democratic Party. Just stop being ing insane about everything.
Winning elections and being conservative are not mutually exclusive.
And that was 26 years ago.....
Social conservatism certainly isn't the only problem the GOP has in the northeast, the GOP has a whole host o problem, but they won't even get off the ground floor with one now. A George HW Bush pragmatic type would still get obliterated.