One hundred percent. The Republican Party used to be all about fiscal conservancy and social issues weren't their bag. Remember - Richard Nixon not only started the EPA, he wound down the Vietnam War and launched the HMO act, which was sponsored by Ted Kennedy.

When the Democrats managed to run him out of office, however, the sting of "Dirty Tricks" and the annihilation of Barry Goldwater combined to convince the party to listen to Lee Atwater (and others) to appeal to the baser instincts of uneducated whites through the Southern Strategy, religious conservatism and other similar gambits. The only way to get the poor to vote against their own self-interests is through broad values appeal and the Republicans were perfectly willing to become the party of God, Guns and Glory.

Lee Atwater learned from Nixon, Karl Rove learned from Lee Atwater. The Tea Party? Didn't exist prior to a black man becoming president.

Trump is what you get when your party abandons all moderate voters. Something like 80% of the country believes that abortion should be legal in some cases at least, for example, and the number one concern across all spectrums is jobs. Yet the republicans are still about repealing Roe V. Wade and are willing to make Obamacare their Waterloo.