Still skeptical "Trumpists" represent a wing of the party besides being loyal to Donald Trump. Once he's gone, they won't be a factor. They barely have views.
Not sure I follow. Trump won more votes than any other candidate in the history of Republican nominating contests and carried 88% of Republicans in the general election - he's a certified, bonafide Republican.
To think that the style of rhetoric that made Donald Trump President will simply go away after he's President is wishful thinking. This rhetoric was given a home in the GOP (for better or worse) and there will surely be Republican politicians who try to emulate Trump's success in the future.
Exactly. His voters weren't ideologically coherent like Santorum's or Giuliani's were (notice they both lost). Just from people I know, they ranged from "moderate" and apolitical types who were angry about manufacturing job losses to my dad - a staunch fiscal conservative - who simply thought we needed a non-politician in charge, as the Republicans "don't care about cutting anything, it's just a boys' club." He was a catch-all candidate, and his rhetoric, persona and style was incredibly unique and, yes, incredibly effective. If he ran on free trade, he still would have won the primaries, IMO. He represented a stark contrast with both the Republican politicians in the primaries and the veteran Democrat he faced in November, and that was that he was a clear change/a TRULY new option. So many people who would otherwise not see each other as allies and might not post-Trump voted for him, and I'm skeptical that "Trumpism" (which I've only ever seen on Atlas, mostly used by disgruntled "Rockefeller Republican types" like me or by self-assuring Democrats who want the Democratic Party to be the clear "reasonable" alternative for the educated, the intelligent, the worldly, etc., as a term that describes being nativist in your cultural views and populist in your economic views) will live on, as I don't think it ever lived. Trump's supporters cheered when he railed against free trade because it hurt the working factory man while helping big business, and then they cheered when he slashed regulations for big business; their not evangelicals militant about abortion, they're not business conservatives committed to pro-business policies and they're not neoconservatives committed to the military industrial complex's interests ... and I'm skeptical they'll be a coherent "bloc" of the GOP in future primaries (post-Trump) even if his voters remain Republicans.
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