I'll say straight out that the majority of most states GOPs voting base are Conservatives. The problem is that a lot of them chose not to look at the substance of the candidates and looked merely at the outer package and rhetoric instead. Their stupidity at doing so has already doomed us in this election. There will be enough of a depressed turnout for the GOP (pay attention to the rash of retirements in Congress, they see what's about to happen and they want no part of it) that all Hillary (or Obama) have to do is turn out the same numbers they got in 2004 (59 million) and we won't be able to match that. Take a look at the dropoff in party support for GHW Bush in 1988 (49 million) vs. 1992 (39 million), and that gives you an idea. Except Conservatives (at this point) don't have a 3rd party to support in protest, so their failure to turn out will have ghastly repercussions for the Congressional vote (and I'm expecting upwards of losing 7 seats in the Senate and perhaps upwards of 30 in the House).
Correct, as relates to SC at least.
Second, before “fly-over” Republicans, which make up the lions share of conservatives in the party, could cast a single vote, all conservatives were already run out of the race by early RINO state primaries where Independents and even Democrats have as much say about the RNC nominee as Republicans do.
The fact is, the RNC nomination process is designed to net a “moderate” candidate, not a conservative candidate. In this regard, it works perfectly.
But it is the conservative base of the party which is repeatedly out in the cold via that process.