Want to be the party of ideas?

Max Borders has some. I'm largely on board, though I've seen no evidence most Republicans would be.

But firstly, let's not let perfect be the enemy of good. One of his proposals is civil unions for all, civil marriage for none. Civil equality must happen, and this approach would be useful to help religious devotees understand that their right to believe and practice whatever they want about marriage isn't being infringed. However, due to Republican failure to engage on this issue much earlier, this horse has left the barn: we've got equal marriage in 5 states and all momentum seems to be in this camp.  I don't think we can now reverse course on the grounds of pleasing some bigots with semantics. 

Secondly, funding green technologies is something out of liberal La La Land. Conservatives should understand that picking winners and losers via government subsidies is exactly the wrong approach. Max says no new taxes, but why not a revenue-neutral carbon tax? Tax it early before it reaches the consumer--this is fairly transparent and easy to implement.  Then, return all carbon revenue via an across the board payroll tax cut. This lets the market do its thing and price technologies seamlessly, with no net tax increase.