To be fair, the republican party was NOT in control of the process either... the conservatives are, in the long run, the real losers of this election cycle, because they lost their party to the "right wingers". I think it will be easier for the democrats to regroup, because the GOP will have to pretend that everything is honky dory with Trump while he takes a shit on their values... I'm not saying that you're wrong about the vacuum being filled from the right, what I'm saying that it's the default spirit of the times, and not the result of the right having the foresight to build the momentum.