Trump’s single-minded focus on wedge issues is making the Republican Party stronger, says leftwing commentator Jeet Heer at the New Republic website:
What’s striking is that this so-called war between the establishment and the populists always ends in the same way: with the establishment absorbing elements of the populist agenda to win elections. Seen in this light, these so-called insurgencies or civil wars never really hurt the Republican Party. Rather, they give it more energy by riling up the base. The gamble that Bannon is making is that religious extremism will create a more powerful GOP. Alas, there’s no reason to think Bannon is wrong.
The leftist worldview is an insane pipedream, but the reds have more political savvy and realpolitik abilities than their appointed "opponents," the conservatives.
If Trump accomplished anything of value, however involuntarily, it was to shatter established battle lines, amplify contradictions, and polarize, polarize, polarize.
Bottom line — whites don’t want to go quietly into that dark night.
Their healthy ingroup/outgroup instincts are still being chaperoned into doltish patriotardism, but two and a half decades of neocon battle-foddering has taken a toll on their willingness to crusade on behalf of a hostile, implacable Other.