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

[Virginiá]

Campaigns heavily on tax cuts (especially for the middle class).
Is a typical Republican on other economic issues.

So if they were to rule out cutting the primary components of the social safety net and make pushing tax cuts an even bigger goal, and I suppose constant massive funding for the military is still a major priority... how do they justify their support of a balanced budget or even call themselves remotely fiscally responsible?

[Virginiá]

The one issue where the GOP really should try to deescalate things is immigration and multiculturalism. Which is what makes this election cycle so devastating for them. This is an issue where they just can't win. Even if every single non-citizen was deported tomorrow, America is still going to become less and less White. By 2050 or so, NHWs will be a minority. If the GOP doesn't find a way to make inroads among Hispanics and Asians, it's hard to see them coming close to a nationwide victory. And no, they can't just hope to get more and more of the White vote. This is not South Africa, thank God. There is at least 1/3 of Whites who would never, ever vote Republicans, and soon even winning 2/3 of them won't be enough for the GOP to stay viable. Trump might win this year by carrying Whites in a landslide, but this is probably one of the last cycles where that will be possible. Harper's example in Canada shows that it is possible for an unabashedly reactionary party to win the immigrant vote, as long as it avoids overt racism and xenophobia (and when Harper resorted to racism and xenophobia to help him out in a losing campaign, it didn't do much good).

This! The impact of a very fast growing non-white electorate cannot be understated. The current trajectory of the GOP has basically involved alienating almost all of the non-white voters this country has to offer, and that is 30% of the electorate now, growing as much as 2% every 4 years.

We can talk about tweaks to the party platform all day, but the most pressing issue should be exactly how they will make inroads into the minority electorate. They are already losing Florida because of this issue, and Texas is a bomb waiting to go off sometime in the next 10 - 20 years. With the current electoral college configuration, or any similar variations, there is simply no such thing as a GOP presidential win without Texas, and few paths forward without Florida.

Republicans cannot just put their hands over their ears and pander only to older white people for votes. Certainly not anymore.

[Virginiá]

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.

Well, their official reason is so they can "spur growth" (my god how much I hate that term now), which might be a viable idea if taxes were much, much higher. I don't think it's any secret why they really want to cut taxes on corporations and high-income individuals, though.

Ditching the obsession with cutting taxes on the people who need it the least would probably help them quite a bit, imo. I don't think they understand exactly how bad it looks at this point in time. Income inequality and corporations/the wealthy corrupting our govt has become the defining issue of our generation, and to be the guy stubbornly trying to shower those people with benefits is not a very good way to win.

[Virginiá]

The trick is how to engage minority voters so that they will enter the Pub primary. Without that a candidate who makes that sort of outreach won't get to a general election unless they have a uniquely compelling message to the regular primary voters. A traditional candidate rising through the ranks has a history that typically prevents this split between primary needs and the general election. Outsider candidates have a better shot since they can craft an image for a specific election without past political baggage obscuring that image.

For example in IL Rauner brought a hard line against unions and was able to finesse all the other usual conservative points and it allowed him to slightly raise the Pub numbers with minorities in the general election. Of course that same hard line has put him at odds with the Dems who control the legislature.

It's hard to see any short-term solution to bring many more non-white voters into their party. There are policy disagreements and an existing vile GOP base now being stirred up by Trump. Perhaps they could try to jimmy-rig their primaries to prevent them from forcing reasonable candidates too far right? Such as:

Short term:

1. Institute super-delegates like Democrats have so that they have more options to deny a person like Trump control of their party

2. Completely phase out caucuses and allow independents to vote in a open/mixed primary.

3. Reorganize primary schedule so that a majority of the most conservative states are much later in the primary season, rather than in March. Let more moderately conservative states vote first. I'm not sure if this would actually help, though?

4. The important one Drastically improve primary turnout so that those elections are no longer dominated by the most ideological and conservative members of the party. Bring in lots of moderates who can help stabilize the ideological tilt of the primary. What about reversing course on voting restrictions and doing everything to include more voters? Institute mail-in ballots for at least primary elections, so that each voter is sent a ballot automatically for the primary, just like in, say, Colorado?

I really think bringing in more primary voters would help, especially in combination with superdelegates

Long term:

I'm not a policy expert really, but I think the GOP needs major platform changes and new ideas that appeal to the growing non-white electorate. They can't simply cling to their existing platform and expect everything to be OK. I don't think that has ever worked for any party.

Sure, they may not want to acquiesce to more liberal positions on healthcare and education, but those two things I think are pretty important to a lot of minority voters. Voting rights would be a step in the right direction for African Americans. I think it would be better long-term for the GOP to stop trying to suppress voting just for a small edge in elections.

[Virginiá]

Your party accuses the Democrats of getting support by giving everyone "free stuff."

Guess what, if people are paying zero federal income taxes, they are getting every function the federal government performs for free. That's free stuff.

Not to mention that all these tax cut proposals are largely unfunded, with the excuse of "spurring growth" being used to justify impossible amounts. That and saying they'll "balance the budget" to ensure no debt from those cuts, yet that rarely happens. Thanks to the fight against regulating industries, a fat tax cut package and 2 wars financed by debt, we can't afford to drop more budget-busting tax plans on America while chasing the supply-side unicorns.

So cross off "fiscally responsible", too.

[Virginiá]

The GOP does not have to change!  It should be true to the conservative ideals of low taxes, economic growth, strong military, personal freedom, law and order, pro-business, and free markets.
The GOP won landslide victories in 1972, 1980 and 1984.  We are in a liberal cycle, but it won't last forever.  The GOP is not losing as badly as the Dems did in the pre-Clinton era.

I don't think that really matters.  Republicans won mostly landslides between 1968 - 1988, but  they still never controlled Congress and didn't even begin to make progress towards that until 1980 (but only the Senate, and only for 6 years). With that in mind, Nixon, Reagan and Bush could have all won with 271 EVs only and it would still have had the same impact at the time.

But you're right, the cycles don't last forever, and the longer a party holds the presidency, the more likely it is to be in power when a recession hits, which could damage the party's image. However, something I think that is a bit different with this cycle is the growing power of non-white voters and the Republican party's absolute terrible showing with them. If they let Hispanics become a solid Democratic voting bloc like African Americans, then it could take them a long time to win back those voters, and until then it will be very difficult to win presidential elections.

[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.