What does the GOP need to change in order to win presidential elections?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The GOP are not only favored to lose right  now, safe states like FL. AZ are becoming more vulnerable now, due to Trumps dive in Latino support.

The decline does put the House in play now, because Congressmen in FL, TX and AZ on the GOP side are in heavily populated Latino states and communities. That 2020, reapportionment was suppose to wait to redistrict out, but cant wait because of Trump.

[Virginiá]

The GOP are not only favored to lose right  now, safe states like FL. AZ are becoming more vulnerable now, due to Trumps dive in Latino support.

The decline does put the House in play now, because Congressmen in FL, TX and AZ on the GOP side are in heavily populated Latino states and communities. That 2020, reapportionment was suppose to wait to redistrict out, but cant wait because of Trump.

You really need English lessons.. or a translator. I can almost feel the temperature of my brain increasing as it works to decipher your codes.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Speaking from my own perspective, I want the GOP to move back to being a center-right party, not trying to appeal to the fringe right in order to win the nominations.

I want the GOP to go back to pushing for comprehensive immigration reform like it did under the Bush years and prior.

I want the GOP to stop demonizing communities such as Hispanics, Arabs, Muslims, etc., these are communities who WOULD easily vote for the Republicans if they weren't demonized to the extent they are now, remember BUSH got 44% of the Hispanic vote and ACTUALLY campaigned for the MUSLIM vote in 2000.

I want the GOP to back off its hawkish foreign policy and adopt a more sensible foreign policy, it doesn't have to be isolationist but I want it to be sure as hell less interventionist than it is right now.

[Boston Bread]

Based on the path they're going, their only option is to deport as many non-whites as it takes to become competitive again.

[Bojack Horseman]

That question could take hours to answer.

[RINO Tom]

Stop giving tax cuts to rich people. Actually, stop giving tax cuts to anybody.

Rich people are not overtaxed.

Middle class and poor people are not overtaxed - most of them don't pay any federal income tax.

Cutting taxes doesn't magically make government smaller, it just increases debt.

I disagree. The GOP would never win an election again if we stopped campaigning on cutting taxes for at least the middle class.

You may not like tax cuts, but tax cuts are incredibly popular amongst voters (especially for the middle class). Many people vote for the GOP just on the issue of taxes alone. The GOP would never win an election again if we didn't campaign on cutting taxes. Maybe we should stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the rich, but we should never ever stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the middle class. That would be disastrous for our party.

That sounds like a ponzi scheme. What happens when you run out of taxes to cut?

The GOP existed for 130 years before tax cuts became the end all be all of our economic policy. There was life before 1980, guys.

Yeah, because the GOP didn't like tax cuts and deregulation before 1980!!!!

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

1. Advocate a more pro-states rights message (against federal overreach especially on social issues meaning proposing legislation resetting the marriage laws back to before the SCOTUS overreach on Prop 8 )
2. Reforms to modernize our national defense
3. Give full support to Article V convention of the states
4. Needle the thread between border security and immigration issues with still treating those coming in with human decency and enforce our immigration laws. (Law and Liberty can be done)

[i4indyguy]

The GOP are not only favored to lose right  now, safe states like FL.

I wasn't aware that an open senate seat in FL (goodbye marco, happy retirement) was at any point 'safe'.    I would regard it as a very tough hold for any republican candidate.

[Indy Texas]

Stop giving tax cuts to rich people. Actually, stop giving tax cuts to anybody.

Rich people are not overtaxed.

Middle class and poor people are not overtaxed - most of them don't pay any federal income tax.

Cutting taxes doesn't magically make government smaller, it just increases debt.

I disagree. The GOP would never win an election again if we stopped campaigning on cutting taxes for at least the middle class.

You may not like tax cuts, but tax cuts are incredibly popular amongst voters (especially for the middle class). Many people vote for the GOP just on the issue of taxes alone. The GOP would never win an election again if we didn't campaign on cutting taxes. Maybe we should stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the rich, but we should never ever stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the middle class. That would be disastrous for our party.

That sounds like a ponzi scheme. What happens when you run out of taxes to cut?

The GOP existed for 130 years before tax cuts became the end all be all of our economic policy. There was life before 1980, guys.

Yeah, because the GOP didn't like tax cuts and deregulation before 1980!!!!

You forgot George H. W. Bush and "voodoo economics"? You forgot that prior to the 1990s, there were plenty of Republican governors who raised taxes while in office?

You can't sell tax cuts any more. Most people don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes. And the ones that do only save a few hundred dollars a year. They'd rather get more government services.

[RINO Tom]

Stop giving tax cuts to rich people. Actually, stop giving tax cuts to anybody.

Rich people are not overtaxed.

Middle class and poor people are not overtaxed - most of them don't pay any federal income tax.

Cutting taxes doesn't magically make government smaller, it just increases debt.

I disagree. The GOP would never win an election again if we stopped campaigning on cutting taxes for at least the middle class.

You may not like tax cuts, but tax cuts are incredibly popular amongst voters (especially for the middle class). Many people vote for the GOP just on the issue of taxes alone. The GOP would never win an election again if we didn't campaign on cutting taxes. Maybe we should stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the rich, but we should never ever stop campaigning on cutting taxes for the middle class. That would be disastrous for our party.

That sounds like a ponzi scheme. What happens when you run out of taxes to cut?

The GOP existed for 130 years before tax cuts became the end all be all of our economic policy. There was life before 1980, guys.

Yeah, because the GOP didn't like tax cuts and deregulation before 1980!!!!

You forgot George H. W. Bush and "voodoo economics"? You forgot that prior to the 1990s, there were plenty of Republican governors who raised taxes while in office?

You can't sell tax cuts any more. Most people don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes. And the ones that do only save a few hundred dollars a year. They'd rather get more government services.

I'm just saying, it's not like the GOP wasn't advertising itself on the campaign trail as the party more likely to reign in wasteful spending and lower the tax burden long before 1980.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Adopt a more Trump/Buchanan platform without completely alienating hispanics.

This.

They also need to recognize that the reason that they get so little of the black vote is that their positions on affirmative action, voter ID, criminal justice issues, and legitimate issues of racial bias/discrimination is considered an attack on black folks in general, and black folks are not wrong in perceiving it that way.  I suspect that voter ID laws would not be an issue if Republicans had 90% of the black vote, so that issue is not so much driven by race as by partisan politics, but it's taken that way. 

There are many middle class blacks, including many black professionals, black entrepreneurs, and black Evangelical Christians who would be Republicans if they were white, and whose personal beliefs on many individual political issues are rather conservative, but these issues are transcended by the perceived need for racial solidarity in order to protect hard-won group gains.  Nixon's Southern Strategy destroyed what was left of black support for the GOP at all levels of politics, which had taken a big hit with Goldwater's nomination.  The GOP acted like they didn't need black votes in 1968, and they didn't.  They need SOME black votes now, but get as close to none as you can get.  I don't know if the GOP can turn this trick, however, given the support they now receive in the South for ALL races, and not just the Presidential race. 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Even, in 2020, the Senate map; CO, AK, Iowa, MI, NH & Va looks oddly bad for GOP, even if Ryan runs. And Dems hope to net a big fish AK in getting Begich to return to def Sullivan. If Trump lose this election,  it will be disastrous and until 2024 for GOP to get back WH.

Which Dems intend on doing

[hopper]

Dump the Tea Party and quit pandering to religious conservatives on social issues.  They don't need to move to the left that much, just enough so that people don't think they're wingnuts.  And religious conservatives are pretty solidly in the GOP column at this point, so it's not like we're going to lose their votes by focusing less on their preferred issues.

I don't think the full impact of the socially fundamentalist, anti-science BS your party has been full of the past 20 years has been felt yet.

For the past few cycles, the GOP has comforted itself with its poor performance among Millennials by saying something to the effect of, "Well, they're just young and confused. Once they get a job and have kids and pay taxes, they'll vote for us in droves just like their parents did."

Except it's not happening. I'm seeing people my age and a few years older shifting into the homeowner/married/grown-up category and they are still as abhorred and appalled by the Republican Party as they were when they were 22.

I know people who have said they don't feel welcome in the GOP and simply will not vote for them. These are not stereotypical angry sociology majors working part-time at the feminist bookstore. These are accountants, financial analysts, lawyers, medical residents - people with "real" jobs and high enough incomes that the GOP should ostensibly be able to get their attention based on economic/tax policy. These are people who live in places like Houston and Dallas and Austin. 50 years ago, these people would be Republican without a second thought. Now, the Republican Party is losing them, and if they are losing them now, they very likely will never get them back.

The Republican Party is signing away the people who will make up the middle- and upper-middle class of this country for the next 50 years. They aren't going to realize how screwed they are until they look at exit polls in 2024 and see that now the only cohort of Americans they are winning are the ones above age 45.

That's is mostly a bad example. A better example of the GOP losing voters would be in the Northeast or West Coast. As far as Austin, Texas is concerned its liberal because its a university town. Dallas-you actually have a point maybe. Houston-I think that's divided between people who live in the city(more D) and who live in the Houston burbs(more R.)

[Illiniwek]

Stop being the party of *$$holes (the politicians, both sides have bad egg supporters)