If Donald Trump loses in November, and most especially if he loses in part because of the malign influence of the #NeverTrump dead-enders, then the "Grand Old Party" is doomed.
Certainly whatever rotten rump is left would stay around for an election or possibly two in a truncated form, as the finance from the Beltway/country club elite's would be there to prop it up. It would be enabled also by the leftist media which would wish to perpetuate a Republican split to aid the Dem's.
When the previous conservative splits happened the Federalist and the Whigs managed similar last gasp efforts before expiring as would the GOP rump.
There is, most certainly, no place for myself in such a GOP, and I suspect a massive number of Trump/Palin-ite supporters too.
I, and I believe many others, would prefer a socially centrist party with a states rights method of implementation, allied to traditional conservative economics and a strong "America first' foreign policy outlook allied to a major commitment to the armed forces.
The nuts and bolts of such an underpinning to a new conservative party would be for the founders, in convention, to develop into a cohesive whole but the elements are clear.
The question arises that if the GOP breaks up would it be into two or three groups initially?
That the Romney et al group is anathema to the Trump followers is unquestioned and a post Trump defeat would see them as irreconcilable. What happens to the Cruz supporters would be the determinate factor as to how many groups would form.
I, as a centrist conservative, can't see myself joining a party whose social outlook is completely rigid on abortion and Gay relationships. I, like Trump and Palin allow for exceptions in abortion and I have no problem with civil unions.
Those matters apart I see little difference between the Cruz and Trump supporters. If, in developing a new conservative party the Cruz element could move to a states rights view of these matters then a broad tent, rid of the elitists, is more than possible.
If the Bourbons retain hold of a deeply factionized GOP after November they are welcome to it and I will join the "write in" party. Of course the best thing would be for Trump to not only win in November but win handily and have a Republican congress to support him.
But if the worst comes to the worst I would believe that the 2020 election will see very different parties competing and and by 2024 a Trump-ite/Palin-ite party would be poised to achieve the presidency.
