In fact, they will be an endangered species.
Wouldn't be the first time the Republican party has abandoned its principles and sold out, either for the benefit of a few lining their own pockets, or as part of an agenda found nowhere in the party's platform.
In the '92 election Bush 41 enraged the party's base with his betrayal of his *no new taxes* promise, and enraged Second Amendment supporters with his ban on foreign-made rifles and shotguns. And so 10 million gunowners stayed home or backed Perot in that ellection, and Bush deservedly got no second term as one American in five voted for Perot.
In 1912 the Republican string-pullers figured the party faithful had nowhere to go and gutted the reforms and policies that previous President Theodore Roosevelt had worked to bring forth. The enraged Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate, and the Republicans came in as a distant third-place finisher; in a couple of states, they finished fourth, behind Socialist Eugene Debs.
Of course, no third party candidate could possibly emerge this election cycle....
