I was expressing the hope that the populist right could be steered away from its worst impulses, and that, if that could be done, it might be a better partner for getting certain kinds of policy enacted than Reagan Republicans would be.
But instead, that wing has been taken over by white ethnic stuff and culture war (like right populist parties in other countries), which makes that sort of alliance very difficult.
Big business would seem to be the beneficiary of this situation.
Though obviously yes, in the voting booth, "Republicans bad" is a sufficient level of nuance.
Really not sure how that would be possible. The Republican party is fairly evenly split between corporate/Reaganesque Republicans and the populist right. There are no other power blocs that could enact the kind of steering you're hoping for. Even electoral defeat doesnt seem to phase them much (they're all voting against popular progressive bills in lockstep).
The best we could probably hope for is that those two wings of the party turn on each other but as Trump demonstrated they seem to be able to find enough common ground to work together.
This is the two wings of the business party arguing over which one of them better represents actual people.
Yeah, Trump attempted some left wing populist rhetoric just before he won but it was just rhetoric.