They don't need to do anything as extreme as the Democrats did because they aren't promoting anything as extreme as segregation. They are pretty much rid of the Southern strategy as is, while some bigotry may show up here and there at more local levels, the party hasn't been doing anything on the national level to court racists for decades. They haven't had to even if they are gung ho about having them. Courting social conservatives has kept them around as there is not inconsiderable overlap between the two. But nothing about the party platform now has to do with racism. The only widespread mainstream position amongst their leadership that can be seen as devaluing humans without some serious stretching is the opposition to gay marriage. But they should recognize that if they drop the opposition to gay marriage and other less-bigoted socially conservative positions that are hurting them with other demographics it isn't like the social conservatives are going to throw their hands up and vote Democrat. They will keep most of their Southern vote even as they move away from social conservatism because they will still be the lesser of two evils to social conservatives and that will enable them to pick up at least some votes elsewhere. For example, they don't need to suddenly demand an Amendment allowing gay marriage, they just need to stop opposing it. As far as race goes, there is nothing racist about their platform, but they have way too many people more than happy to say racist things which allows the Democrats to paint them as the party of racism. They just need to re-embrace the parts of their platform about economic liberalism and fiscal responsibility and shut it about the socially conservative nonsense that will keep being a bigger and bigger loser in national elections. That they have a tremendous crop of young governors poised to take over as the faces of the party, many of which are not white males, puts them in a position to make the needed changes quickly and seamlessly if they play their cards right. The old guard could not do that because they have long track records to live up to, the new class of Republicans can because how they are perceived on the national level is still largely up to them.
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