NO IT DID NOT!
You keep equating the two.
The base is still the GOP, there are over 20 million of them. They are the same thing they were before RINOs were ever even thought of. Read their platforms, state by state. Smaller government, lower taxes, slash regulations on business, pro-life, cut welfare, etc etc etc.
The "GOPe" (elected RINOs, the RNC, other and RINO party officials) number in the hundreds, or thousands, they continuously betray and insult the base. Once in power....they laugh at, and wipe with the people's platforms.
They are the ones who need to be evicted (and they may well be if they keep p!$$ing off the new head of the party)
Why do you think they oppose him?
Get it?
Yes, but apparently you don't.
Man, if you think the GOP today is the base, then either the base has lost its way, or you have.