My read on the American political situation is roughly as follows:
I would consider the "establishment" views of the Republican party to be neo-conservative, whereas Democrats would be neo-liberal. The primary interest of each, is to protect market liberalism from populist uprisings. The Democrats pander to liberal sentiments whereas the Republicans pander to conservative sentiments, but in the end, sentiment takes a back-seat to the core foundation of their politics, which is to protect America's capitalist system. In their case, economics are the focus, whereas social issues are just fodder for the rubes, something that you have to talk about every once in a while in order to win elections.
The populist wing of Democrats is socialist/progressive, whereas the populist wing of Republicans is conservative/nationalist. Both parties are currently under-going a struggle where the "populists" of each party are attempting to assume leadership for themselves, from the so-called establishment figures, because obviously, there is no chance of running with anything other than the Democrat/Republican platforms.
Economically speaking, both nationalists and socialists have a tendency to lean left, even if they disagree heavily on where they stand on social issues. This is partially utilized as a "weapon" against the populists, by neo-cons and neo-libs (who always, above all, come together in their stout defense of market liberalism), keeping the populists divided and occupying the fringes of each political side, even if they might find agreements when it comes to economic policy (which, to them, often takes second place to the social issues that they act so concerned about).
In recent times, I've seen some evidence of something akin to collaboration taking place between the populist fringes of each political side, which is a sign that things may eventually change. But for now, it is mostly a matter of a couple of "far-right" dudes giving "far-left" dudes props for their energy and passion. You'd need a lot more common ground than that, in order to establish a new balance of power, similar to what the neo-libs and neo-cons were able to achieve, for so many decades.