If you’re Mitch McConnell, and you’re thinking about the future, you can’t like what you see. On your own side, the PBP/Reactionary bargain that is the cornerstone of the GOP, and which you practically embody, is under threat from Reactionaries who want complete control of the party–even over economic issues that have always belonged to the PBPs. Even worse, the country itself is changing demographically and ideologically; millennials and minorities overwhelmingly prefer socialism and political correctness to free markets and fundamentalist Christianity. In a decade or so, your most reliable voters will be in the ground, and you will be a dinosaur. Since you, like Trump, are not willing to sacrifice the relatively pleasant present for the uncertain future by changing course, what do you do?
There are already two guardrails built into the system: the Electoral College and the Senate, particularly if the filibuster remains in existence. The third possible guardrail is the judiciary. And so, you labor day and night to get as many Federalist Society judges confirmed as possible. They can stop socialism and political correctness in its tracks even if the GOP has become a permanent minority in the other two branches.
Will it work? Only if the left-leaning millennials are willing, in the long run, to live with a political system that doesn’t respond to the will of a clear majority. On that point, I have my doubts. If the GOP doesn’t bend to the future, you’re going to see lots of pressure for significant constitutional changes in the foreseeable future.