2016 Postmortem

And I think Republicans are united in their white supremacy (both conscious and subconscious, both overt and covert), which drives the opposition to the ACA and Medicaid, the opposition to public education, the opposition to 'certain' immigrants, etc. If the Republican Party did a 180 on matters of race and did away with all dog whistling, while trying to maintain their trickle down economics and bloated military, that party would collapse. Just about the only hangers-on would be some extremely wealthy people and persons of color who have internalized oppression. A new party would attempt to fill the void but it likely wouldn't be terribly successful, especially as the country becomes increasingly diverse.

Bigotry, particularly racism, is the glue that holds the Republican Party together.