Illinois will NOT trend heavily Republican

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

The only way Illinois is competitive, barring a massive nationwide GOP landslide, is if Cook County rapidly starts losing population.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

The GOP gets back to its centre-right roots and boots out the Trumpists and Taliban-gelicals, which in turn will bring DuPage, Lake, and the northwestern Cook suburbs home.

That's not going to happen, sadly. Trumpism is the future of the GOP.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

The GOP gets back to its centre-right roots and boots out the Trumpists and Taliban-gelicals, which in turn will bring DuPage, Lake, and the northwestern Cook suburbs home.

That's not going to happen, sadly. Trumpism is the future of the GOP.

If the GOP loses bigly in 2018 and 2020, no it won't.

I honestly don't know for sure (I don't see how anyone can be certain about these things), but Trump wasn't just some Republican nominee who disappeared after the election.  He actually won the presidency, and I'm guessing that his stamp on the GOP will linger for awhile.  

I agree with you that no one can be certain about these things. With that said, I can see libertpaulian being proven right if Trumpism does in fact fall flat on its face next year and in 2020 (especially 2020). If Trump does go down in defeat by a large margin, I could see George W. Bush having more sway over the GOP in the 2020s than Trump, and that's saying something. Did Carter's stamp linger on the Democratic party through the 80s after he lost big in 1980? No.

Carter was a conservative southern democrat, the next Democratic president was also a centrist southern democrat...

Dukakis tried LBJ-ism, remember.

I don't think Carter was really a "conservative."

Yeah, "moderate Southern Democrat" would be a better description.