I don't expect to continue to have all my roles as a party leader in Alabama. I will get ousted from some, or burned out.
I get along with the other Republicans; the smart ones want me and the angry ones largely leave me alone. But sooner or later the angry ones will get angry about something and I'll get whacked. For example, there is a move to go after Shelby for his Roy Moore position. There is a move to go after Kay Ivey for appointing a Dem that we can work with to a minority Commission seat. There will one day be a move to go against Trump - in 2020 if not sooner. And there is always the pro-life and pro-gun stuff. It's the Right vs. the Establishment. I'm in the latter. The Smart Right hold all the power, but some time the Angry Right get their way. The Center Right is just along for the ride (in Alabama). One day, after some big fight, the Angry Right will demand my head and get it. That's how this stuff works. Think of me as a local Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Jeff Flake or whomever. People bitch and moan and tolerate because I'm better than a Dem. But then one day they will get mad and demand a "true Republican", not a RINO. No more Bush or Romney. A Santorum, a Cruz or a Trump. Everywhere. Some "RINO"s get purged. Eventually TahoeHorn. It happens.
Survival isn't my objective. Fighting every lost cause isn't either. People with my approach make Colonel but rarely General. The smart survivors are the Generals. The fighters of lost causes get bounced as a Major.
But that has almost nothing to do with whether I get my agenda nationally. And not too much at the state or local level either. To beat up a bad analogy, my army will be pretty much the same without me.
For most of my next thirty years I'll have the same impact as the other sixty or seventy million GOP voters.