The way to win elections is not to drive people away.
Take a tour of the Log Cabin "Republicans" site. Change a couple of words around and it becomes just another Leftist site promoting the virtues of Regression.
They're nothing but Infiltrators, and we don't need them, any more than Conservatives need to bend and start welcoming abortionists or race hustlers or ecoterrorists or Appeasers/Collaborators. The Right has too much of a soft underbelly as it is.
Either you stick with principles or prostitute yourself for votes.
I don't recall the party collapsing between 1980-1988, although Mary Crisp and much of her ilk did leave.