The GOP won't necessarily move right. They could decide to go where the votes are. In which case, conservatives are marginalized, and we are in worse shape than we are now.
IMHO the best thing for conservatives would have been for Bush to have gotten trounced by Gore in the last election because the Republican base had fled to the 3rd parties. If that had happened you could be damn sure they would have been kowtowing to the conservatives in the next election.