Has the Republican Party Completed Its Realignment?

Has Trump secured control over the direction of the GOP platform, and if so will that direction persist once he's out of office?

Looking at recent results, actions, and Trump's approval rating within the party, I'm fairly confident that the party has relinquished control of it's current direction to Trump. I'm less sure that the change in direction will last beyond his term(s), but I'd still place the odds at better than even.

What do you think? And do you think that's a positive development?

I think it's safe to say that there are very few people willing to outwardly oppose Trump since people are towing the party line at this point. Positive? I would never call a realignment to protectionist and xenophobic policies as positive.

This administration is built around saying one thing and doing another, not afraid of lying in any scenario when it can be fact checked almost instantly. Trump fans simply don't care about reality when they're given false reassurances. We're living in an era of 'alternative facts'.

@HoolaHoopMan: Any thoughts on whether the change will persist beyond his term(s)?

It depends on the outcome of the Nov. midterms and 2020 presidential elections IMO. If Trump loses in 2020 the GOP might not see any incentive to continue a losing narrative and Trump might be viewed as an anomaly of the times and conditions.

If democrats can't even take back control of the House? Sure, the party of Trump is here to stay for a while.

No, I don´t think Trump has secured the GOP, they are just waiting their time until he is gone either in 2020 or 2024.

But i do believe Trump has managed to push back on the Obama narrative of catering to the ultra-far left agenda and moved the political correctness bar. Which is a huge benefit if they keep it up, maybe not on Trump level but don´t return to Obama level either.

Trump is a cult of personality. When he goes, most of his followers will go with him. Given that, I don't think this shift will be permanent. The silver lining for Republicans is that for deplorables, immigration is the number one issue. As long as they keep fielding candidates who use racial demagoguery to drum up support, the deplorables will support them.

Funny, you may want to watch this.

@theone86: Where will they go? Will they simply cease voting? Fall back in line with the 1980-to-2016 Republican agenda?

Liberals are going to sabotage themselves again hardcore next election. You can already see it happening and it's hilarious.

Whataboutism from a deplorable. Shocking.

Cease voting, vote for a third party candidate, and I imagine some will continue voting Republican. Basically, they'll do what they did before. If they were Republicans before, they'll continue voting Republican. If they were disaffected, they'll continue to be disaffected. I'm sure some new candidate will crop up and accuse Republicans of turning the country over to illegals once Trump is gone and they start showing a modicum of humanity again. Or they'll die of old age and/or heart attacks from raging over what kids are doing these days (you wouldn't believe).

Indeed

Obama supporting mandatory payments to private companies for your health insurance and printing money to bail out large banks = 'ultra-far left'

I nearly spit out my coffee all over my monitor

Hypocrites from the left.

IMO it is not permanent. I think the shrewd and opportunistic politicians will lick his ass for now for political gain. The principled ones we already seen are being hurt by not doing so and calling Trump out on his bullshit. When Trump is gone, the need to do so will fade and you'll likely see a migration back to the GOP's core principals. I'm assuming they'll be a few Trump wanna-be's popping up trying to duplicate his success but I don't think they'll be nearly as successful. The country gets tired of old acts pretty quick.

What will be interesting is that Trump proved in part that crazy works. So I think they'll be a time where we have politicians trying to out-crazy each other.

as a side note I think I have discovered the automatic shutdown win in a political debate over trump which is

'If Obama did that the world would be exploding with anger right now'

usually no response after that

This time a thousand.

What direction? There is no direction when everyday you adjust policies and degree of emphasis based upon whim, twitter posts, newspaper articles, and random conversations. When everything is designed simply around self image.

You can't seriously believe that a year from now the set of 'policy' tracks are going to look the same as they do now.

The republican party has been officially destroyed by Trump.

I know this completely random but the similarities are striking.

Yep. Not that that makes me sad. Maybe we can get some better ideas.

Would you be in favour of changing up the system to allow multiple parties a chance to win the election?

Been saying that for awhile now. I'd like to get rid of the EC and go popular vote only. More parties that way. More choices....and they might actually work for the country at that point.