08-02-2016, 08:03 PM
When the dust settles I cannot see corporate America leaving the GOP. It is their party. Trump is one man. The rest of Republican dominance was in place before Trump came along and will still be there when he is gone. Nevertheless Trump has revealed the hollowness of the Republican operating orthodoxy of the last 40 years--what is called movement conservatism.
The analysis I have seen is that the core of Trump’s appeal is his anti-immigrant stance, and his strongman shtick. The Republicans have been performing the strongman shtick for sixty years, so that’s no problem. One of the founding elements of the GOP was the xenophobic American Party (Know-Nothings) so anti-immigrant is in the GOP DNA. The pro-corporate GOP curtailed immigration in 1924. They can certainly do it again and remain pro-corporate.
I see no problem with the GOP keeping the Trump base with just a few changes. First they have to drop the war on entitlements. Nothing screams elite like wanting to take away your social security/Medicare that you have been counting on receiving. They can waffle on trade. Trade is a big issue for Trump (its been a thing with him for 30 years). But it is not the main source of his appeal.
Republicans have spent 40 years cultivating social conservatives. All they need do is act as conservatives and slow the onrush of social liberalism spewing forth from the Democrats and the declining number of social conservatives will continue to pull the level for the GOP.
One quarter of the Democratic party are no liberal white voters. As Democrats embrace more things push by the other three quarters of the party (reparations for blacks, amnesty for other minorities, transgender rights for while liberals). I’ll bet there are far more of non-liberal white Democrats willing to consider the post-Trump GOP than libertine republicans who might consider Democrats.