They do: the Democrats. THEY are the conservative party. What you NEED is a liberal party to oppose the Democrats, or at least to counterbalance the Republicans.

And it’s been a long time since politicians knew how to be an opposition.

That’s why, after a quarter century as an unaffiliated voter, I finally gave up the pretense and am now a registered Democrat. When I first moved to this state, it was so Republican-dominated that I needed to be able to vote in Republican primaries, which were too often the de facto election (we have semi-open primaries). That’s no longer the case, and I am not willing to wear a hazmat suit to the primary polls.

The current Republican party is not viable, long term, in its present form. They can try to go back to actual conservative principles, but IMHO they are too far down the rabbit hole to succeed at that approach. More likely, they will conclude (correctly, but for the wrong reasons) that Trump wasn’t conservative enough, just as McCain and Romney weren’t conservative enough. But the genie that Trump has let out of the bottle won’t be easy to put back in.

/s but not really. I have already seen articles talking about his family strategizing for just such a horror show after he loses. It is appalling to imagine the content and contributors.

You would not end up with a new party (or old GOP) that included both Minnesota Republicans and Texas Republicans, for instance. If the DEM party could at all do so, it would bring in some refugees, but some sort of settlement or understanding would have to happen on abortion.

In any event, with enough chaos at the outset of primaries, or before they start, a split or fractionation could occur, that might or might not leave the GOP as a trimmed down second party, or as a third party nursing a butt hurt, and a different party in its place.

But its voter base, AKA “the deplorables”, have been led away by Trump to form a party that is very loyal to him & his “cult of personality”.

And in the last week or so, Trump has been focusing on turning his base against the GOP and its leaders (such as Lyin’ Ryan).

He’s either to going to completely co-opt the GOP and claim its name (after engineering a takeover of the RNC from Racid Rebus), or he’ll simply form his own Trumpkin Party as an official third party.

If he abandons politics after losing, though, his party would collapse, leaving his voter base with no where to go except slithering back to the gutted rump of the Republican Party and their internal cancer, the Teahadists.

Then more fireworks would ensue… Grab some popcorn, folks!