The republican establisment not only has to fight off the democrats, It has to reserve time, effort and resources fighting off the increasing numbers of conservatives and tea party types that are trying to enact needed change in the party.

No I don´t believe it can be saved. If it continues to be run by the elites who love Jeb Bush, make no significant effort to cut spending except for minor across the board reduction in the rate of increase, agree to amnesty, tout Hillary Clinton, stand idle while Obama trashes the Constitution, makes little effort to investigate Fast and Furious and Benghazi, willing accepts Obamacare and provides funding for it. What is worth saving?

The GOP ARE stupid enough to run Jeb Bush in 2016. Who else do they have?

There is talk of needing a big tent, embracing all the disparate groups. First that big tent needs to hold itself up with a strong pole and firmly anchored stakes before it can expect people to enter into it. It has to demonstrate, espouse and practice conservative values and be ready to educate and fight for these.

No.

I agree with the posters above. Under the current management, the Republican Party will continue to wither away until either it dies a painful death or someone cuts out the cancer eating away at its internal organs; the big money power hungry incestuous cabal running the show.

The point that the author is trying to make is dead on. It would be foolish and futile to try to move left to attract gays, blacks, etc. It´s not going to happen and it would lose even more of their conservative base.

They (blacks, etc.) are not going to vote Republican again for many years if ever. They have been captured and brainwashed onto the Dem plantation. Being mostly low info voters they are unlikely to realize what the Dems have done to them.

Harris almost gets it. The GOP can only survive by living up to its conservative "brand", to be sure. However, there are conflicting interests among those who label themselves as "conservative" under the "big tent". These differences are irreconcilable, as exposed in the current immigration distraction. The interests of Wall Street investors and global corporatists clash with those of middle-class workers and professionals when green cards, H1B visas, offshore manufacturing, and outsourcing are concerned. Constitutional compatibility has been overshadowed by economic self-interest. That is why the GOP big tent is doomed to ultimate collapse, despite all efforts to keep it propped up.

Vote Libertarian. Your freedom is assured.

#1 it is true conservatives,Tea Party members,military & Christians with true Bible Doctrine in their souls like our Founding Fathers in 1776 who are keeping your freedom. God will not put up with this crap - study your history of nations past like Greece,Rome,South Africa & Europe. When true doctrines left those nations went down. GOP should put forth: 1.Explain that Democrats are "globalists". 2.Explain how our military during WWI & WWII kept us a free nation 3.Read some of Douglas McArthur´s speeches to brainwashed voters 4. Explain in plain language about our economy & immigation like Marco Rubio,Rand Paul & Ted Cruz. Paul Ryan understands economy but cannot explain in plain language - I have a hard time understanding when he explains. Change is never right in a nation that has once been God´s "client nation".

The effort to try and return the country to pure
conservatism is a waste of time.
That train has left the station.
Obama was elected twice.
In November , Romney won states where the voters then
rejected far right , pure conservative Senate candidates
like Akin and Mourdock and Raese.
We lost 8 House seats ( including purists like West and Walsh ) and are now 10 seats
behind in the Senate.
A better strategy would be to try and save the country before it slips completely away.
And that would mean supporting electable Republicans who may not be 100 % pure conservatives, but, they will be with us when it counts.
DeMint said he would rather be in the minority and adhere to conservative principles
than be in the majority.
This foolish and selfish concept , also echoed by Limbaugh before Obama was elected in 2008 ,
make make conservatives feel better , but, it´s obviously a losing strategy.
If you care about the direction of the country.
The purists , like DeMint and Limbaugh, enable Obama.
Hope they enjoy their purity and Obamacare ,the deficit,
the spending ,the rules of Justices Kagan
and Sotomayor and
the other radicals Obama will install on the court the next four years.

Reports of the GOP´s demise are greatly exaggerated. A poor campaign effort was the major reason for losing in 2012. My guess is that Republicans will do well in 2016 as a result of the abject failure of Obamacare.

Amnesty or Jeb Bush will be the end of the party. What is the difference between today´s tattered GOP and the Reagan Revolution? Three Bush terms.

The true patriots of this country are increasingly becoming non-Republicans. They already were non-Democrat.

I don´t know how many read the article, but when you read down the writer suggests that the way to reach the gay population for example, is by doing what the Democrats did in 2012: embrace gay marriage; make sure that all GOP candidates from then on embrace gay marriage.

This is just one of his examples of course, but is this the way you´re going to attract patriots back to your party? By becoming more like the Democrats? By mimicking the Democrats?

You better realize right now that that´s what the GOP thinks.

The answer would be no. They are too far down the trail to backtrack and regain their identity. Morally corrupt and weak to boot. They are in the process of a full merge with the dem party and don´t have too far to go to finish the transformation.
As I have said before, there is NO political party in this country that represents me.

#11, by your very sensible, mature logic - one where we support ´electable Republicans who may not be 100 % pure conservatives´ - it seems like we should´ve won the White House this time.

The fact is, voters didn´t reject a far right, pure conservative candidate . . . . that guy never showed up.

The Republicans and Democrats are now of one. There really is very little that separates them.

A Democrat will be elected in 2016 as there is no Republican on the horizon who can articulates conservative values and the benefits they bring to the table for the poor and uneducated.

Don´t give me that Rubio (wolf in sheepsskin) Bush (Bush fool elitists) Christe (joke) and all the other´s.

The Repubs are done, I for one will never vote for another Repub as sad as It is for me to say that I will not vote anymore.

No more lessor of evils. Romney would have been a good president even if he was a left center Repub at least he had the smarts to save this countries economic problems and delay the move to Marxism as Reagan did.

Its all about race now and the whites are the target as they are perceived by the poor and uneducated as the evil ones.

Whites built the greatest country the world has ever seen bit the so called people of color and self serving political elite are destroying.

why fight. the tea party should start ita own party. the repugs would be free to be RINOs and they would actually attract Dimms who no longer can be part of a progressive party.

#16, that is how we got to $16 trillion in debt and amnesty. understand history

sorry #16, meant #11

One thing is for sure, if the wimpy Republicans give Obama and the liberal Democrats the political cover that they need to pass a massive amnesty, path to citizenship, or whatever they want to call it, for 11 to 20 million illegal aliens, the Republicans will eventually be handing the Democrats ten million or more new voters, with which the Democrats will use to flip States like Arizona, Florida and Texas into the Democrat column, as California is now, and send the Republican Party, that will no longer have a chance to win national elections, into a downhill spiral to political oblivion.

Obama and the liberal Democrats would never be pushing for a special streamlined path to citizenship for that many million illegal aliens if they ever thought that more then a small percentage of those people would ever have an epifinany and vote for conservative Republicans.

The handwriting is on the wall for the Republicans.