The republican party is the party of the rich. And they always have been. So the wealthy will, and have always voted for them. The problem is that fewer and fewer citizens are wealthy, anymore, or have any hope of ever being wealthy. So they have to find a lot of stupid non-wealthy people who will vote for them; and against their own economic interests.
Enter the ignoramus: the folks who routinely ignore science, reason, education, facts, and pretty much any other aspect of reality that they don't agree with. They're easy to manipulate, easy to stir up because they have lots of biases and prejudices against other people, that the republicans could use to aim them against opponents. And once you have them, they remain pretty loyal by their own ignorance. So that they were the perfect solution. Or so Karl Rove and the rest of the republican party thought, anyway.
But over time, the ignoramuses got politicized, and wanted into the party. And the party couldn't refuse them, forever, or even an ignoramus would get wise, eventually. So they let some of them in, and they pandered to them more and more on social issues, until it has now become a real problem. Because most americans recognize real ignorance when they see it. And they're sick of seeing it in the republican party.
The party of the rich is trying to serve the rich and the ignoramus at the same time, but these two groups don't always want the same things. And now that the ignoramuses are feeling their oats (thanks to years of republican pandering and politicizing), they're pulling the party apart, and making it look like the collection of toadies, panderers, and lunatics that they are.
What to do?
I predict they will dial down the rhetoric a little, and remain exactly what they have always been: the party of the rich. They'll try to keep as many ignoramuses as they can, but they already know it's time to trade them off for more main-stream voters, if they can figure out how to get them, which is questionable.