Honestly, I think a Trump defeat (which is much more likely than a Trump victory) could help save the GOP. It would help to destroy the notion that Republicans lose by nominating "moderates" and show the party that its current direction is leading them nowhere good.
After 1988, Democrats were in exactly the same situation that the GOP will be in after Hillary clobbers Trump. Prior to that time, Democrats had lost five out of the previous six presidential elections, and lost three straight by decisive margins. When Bill Clinton came along, everything changed. He campaigned as a moderate "New Democrat" who won over suburban women, wealthy voters, and the like. Clinton not only won the election, but he ushered in a realignment that gave us the current Clinton/Obama party system. Since it's rare for either party to lose more than two straight presidential contests, Republicans will have some serious soul-searching to do after this election. They will recognize their need to drastically improve their outreach to minorities and women, and to ignore or downplay social issues for the most part. And if all goes well, they could easily see their own Bill Clinton arrive in 2020 and bring about a new realignment. I sure hope that is the case.
You don't seem to understand that people like me couldn't vote for a Republican Party that didn't care about values issues. If anything, a focus on social issues and family values is how we should reach out to Hispanics.
Right, we need to be able to have a strong coalition as large and diverse as possible. Social issues should still work in states like MS, AL, SC, but in those like MN, CO, VA, etc., we should downplay or ignore them. I do believe is traditional family values, but we should accept that many young people are more liberal on those issues, and we should try to attract them to fiscal conservative, and not alienate young voters with social issues. Economic issues will always be the main issues for most voters.
