The way I see it, Trump is the front man for a conservative agenda that Pence, and the rest of the far Right, still fully support (even though they may have lost control of him). Pence may not find it possible to explicitly impose that agenda in the event Trump is removed, but he will still do everything he can behind the scenes to make it happen, and he will have plenty of allies, not all of them ignorant and alienated masses. Any failures on his part to do so will be tactical, not strategic. He may fail to pull it off, but he won't stop trying. And he will carefully avoid Trump's mistakes this time around.

The Right has already demonstrated that they will put up with downright immoral, illegal, treasonous and criminal activity in order to get their program passed. If Trump goes too far and must be removed, they won't feel any differently about it, they'll just act a little more judiciously.

As front man, Trump is the big motivator for the Deplorables, the Archie Bunkers in the GOP, the Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus, the fundowackos, the Alt-Right and the neo- and crypto-fascist elements that have been scurrying out of the woodwork since Obama got elected. The rest of the leadership of the Party, the money people and theoreticians, the Big Business caste and the intellectuals, pundits, think tanks, academics, bloggers and so on, will simply change their tactics. The Trumpers are
their Penal Battalions, sent out to find the minefields and identify the strongest points of resistance. Their follow-up, benefiting from that reconnaissance-in-force, will be more subtle.

But the final goal is still the same, a nation organized for the benefit of the ownership class and the corporate elite and their executive leadership; where all other national issues are subordinate to a policy of no taxes, no welfare, no entitlements, no safety net and no labor, safety, workplace, financial, consumer or environmental regulation. A nation where the working class is so terrified of losing their job that they will put up with any crap at work to be able to hold on to that job. The nation will remain forever divided as the bulk of its citizens compete desperately against one another for a constantly diminishing resource base. GDP and productivity rise, but the standard of living falls. Its been happening for half a century now. So where is all that wealth going?

This policy requires that the average citizen be always one step behind, just short of poverty, living from paycheck to paycheck, in debt and constantly threatened. The Conservative movement wants an America that looks like the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th century, great extremes of wealth and poverty, with all the benefits of the new technology flowing up, to a tiny elite at the top.

Maybe I'm a little bit too ideological, but that's how I see it. This ain't about Trump. We've been at war with this crowd for well over a century now. He's just their latest weapon.