Are social issues the Achilles Heel for the Republican Party?

[EastwoodS]

America's conservative party is always going to try to conserve traditional moral values, even if doing so isn't politically popular. Somebody ought to try to conserve them!

You cannot deny, however, that conservative viewpoints are becoming increasing unpopular. This is the reason 2022 was not an overwhelming landslide for the Republican Party; this is the reason Republicans lost many winnable races. (Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia come to mind.) The fact that Medicare For All, a program that is viewed as very progressive, has more support than opposition (even accounting for Civiqs polling bias) shows that conservatism is a hinderance for the Republican Party. If the GOP wants to maintain relevance in the future, they need to adopt more libertarian positions; the economic debate between fiscal conservatism and liberalism will always exist, but society invariably moves leftward from a cultural standpoint.

Have you seen how American libertarians are though. Their economic positions would make the gop unelectable

oh yeah, proof? and McCain and Romney were not Libertarians so dont even try it.

[EastwoodS]

America's conservative party is always going to try to conserve traditional moral values, even if doing so isn't politically popular. Somebody ought to try to conserve them!

You cannot deny, however, that conservative viewpoints are becoming increasing unpopular. This is the reason 2022 was not an overwhelming landslide for the Republican Party; this is the reason Republicans lost many winnable races. (Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia come to mind.) The fact that Medicare For All, a program that is viewed as very progressive, has more support than opposition (even accounting for Civiqs polling bias) shows that conservatism is a hinderance for the Republican Party. If the GOP wants to maintain relevance in the future, they need to adopt more libertarian positions; the economic debate between fiscal conservatism and liberalism will always exist, but society invariably moves leftward from a cultural standpoint.

Have you seen how American libertarians are though. Their economic positions would make the gop unelectable

oh yeah, proof? and McCain and Romney were not Libertarians so dont even try it.

American Libertarians are in favor of privatizing Medicare/Medicaid/social security, eliminating stuff like the FDA, eliminating the minimum wage all together etc .

Their foreign policy positions also make Trump look like a neocon as well given they are completely isolationist

all this stuff to me would be more economic. I'm talking marriage, weed, abortion, all that stuff

[EastwoodS]

America's conservative party is always going to try to conserve traditional moral values, even if doing so isn't politically popular. Somebody ought to try to conserve them!

You cannot deny, however, that conservative viewpoints are becoming increasing unpopular. This is the reason 2022 was not an overwhelming landslide for the Republican Party; this is the reason Republicans lost many winnable races. (Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia come to mind.) The fact that Medicare For All, a program that is viewed as very progressive, has more support than opposition (even accounting for Civiqs polling bias) shows that conservatism is a hinderance for the Republican Party. If the GOP wants to maintain relevance in the future, they need to adopt more libertarian positions; the economic debate between fiscal conservatism and liberalism will always exist, but society invariably moves leftward from a cultural standpoint.

Have you seen how American libertarians are though. Their economic positions would make the gop unelectable

oh yeah, proof? and McCain and Romney were not Libertarians so dont even try it.

American Libertarians are in favor of privatizing Medicare/Medicaid/social security, eliminating stuff like the FDA, eliminating the minimum wage all together etc .

Their foreign policy positions also make Trump look like a neocon as well given they are completely isolationist

Good, stop taking my damn tax dollars that I want to save more on my life, not some stupid country half way around the world I don't care about. Sounds very reasonable and popular.

[EastwoodS]

I think these data somewhat disregard immigration (as a whole, not just citizenship for illegal immigrants), which is a social issue that tends to benefit the GOP. A plurality of Americans (nearly 40%) want immigration decreased, as of 2022. Interestingly, in the last full year of Trump's Presidency, 2020, the % of people who said they want immigration decreased were at record lows (28%) and the % people who want immigration to increase were a record highs (34%). Immigration was a huge part of the reason behind Trump's victory in 2016, so I assume the public feels somewhat more comfortable with immigration when it appears to be under control, which is largely the impression Trump gave.

Source:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/395882/immigration-views-remain-mixed-highly-partisan.aspx

Additionally, the original post hypothesizes that the GOP should look to run more socially liberal Republicans like Larry Hogan to run as the nominee in a general election, and while I think it wouldn't hurt to try this strategy, someone like Larry Hogan or Chris Sununu would never be able to win a primary...

I honestly have no problem admitting that the GOP primary voter base is far too stupid and addle-brained to put together the needed brain cells to elect a winnable candidate. This is why we need to get rid of primary elections and just let the pros pick the candidates, behind closed doors, instead.