For the time being, moderate Republicans likely won’t be able to take back the GOP.
Currently, the party is dominated by angry, white, hardcore christians. I’m not saying this represents the entire party, however these groups have come to dominate the party, and are the ones voting in Tea Party candidates, and worse, Donald Trump (the Christian right doesn’t love him, but frustrated Americans do).
When the party recovers from what is hopefully a Trump loss, it needs to take a good hard look at itself. The GOP needs to give up it’s most ridiculous positions, and needs to adopt a much more approachable platform.
1.Give up on gay rights and abortion rights.
The GOP has to give up it’s fight against gay rights and abortion rights if it wants to become more moderate. The Republican party was founded on the idea that the government should not constantly get involved in people’s private rights. See a contradiction here? The first step is to stop getting involved in people’s sexual orientation, and stop restricting a woman’s right to do what she chooses with her own body.
2. Get minorities back onto their side.
The Republican party has basically excluded every group of Americans that is not white. The GOP has to actually take steps in helping African American communities, and show to the population the party is not the racist institution it represents. The party also has to loosen up on immigration. Hispanic voters are proven to be on the more conservative side. However, the only conservative party has turned their backs on these voters. The party endorses politicians who call them rapists, thieves, politicians who want to give them less rights than any other American, who want to stick them behind a wall or send them back to whichever country they so desperately tried to escape. The GOP has to open its stance on immigration. I’m not saying the party should adopt a platform which is pro illegal immigration, but the party does have to adopt plans similar to Jeb Bush’s immigration plan earlier on this year.
3. Reaffirm the parties fiscal conservatism
The Republican party has detracted from its most important message; the message that sets it apart from the democrats: fiscal conservatism. The GOP prides itself on this message, but it’s become a footnote in the parties platform. The Republican party has to recenter its focus on reducing government spending, reducing income taxes and corporate taxes, while closing loopholes and keeping up with regulations which are necessary to prevent further market crashes. This being said, the party has to adopt smart fiscal conservatism. The current party wants to reduce taxes for the very richest in the United States, however it’s been proven this doesn’t stimulate the economy and doesn’t “trickle down” to the middle class and lower class. I would love to believe trickle down economics works, but it doesn’t. The GOP needs to stay strong in their ambitions to cut taxes on the middle and lower class, reduce corporate taxes, reduce military spending, and reinvest into education and infrastructure. Only then can our countries economy truly grow.
4. Work with the other party
Congresses approval rating is at an all time low; we have a vacant supreme court seat and have important bills to pass, but nobody to pass them. Over the past eight years, I have seen Republicans refuse to pass common sense gun control bills, even when a majority of the population thinks doing so would be a good idea. I have seen Republicans who once supported positions similar to Obamacare, positions similar to gun control, and clean energy solutions have now turned their back on these policies because…the Democratic President supported them. The Republican party has to find bipartisan compromises with the democrats, and vice versa. We can’t have a stagnating congress because Republicans don’t want to give the democrats a victory. Just recently, Republicans wanted to pass a Zika Virus bill, but had placed so many different positions such as regulating access to contraception and environmental deregulation with pesticides, the Democrats were forced to vote against the bill. This is not a party with the best interests for its population, but for its own benefit.
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