“Why were genuine conservatives Coolidge and Reagan succeeded by big-government Republicans Hoover and George Bush Sr. and then by far-left Democrats Roosevelt and Clinton (who only tacked right after the 1994 midterms)? Why aren’t successful conservatives replaced by conservatives?”
Reagan beat George H.W. Bush for the nomination in 1980. In order to unify the party (i.e. get the establishment/moderate support), he made Bush his running mate. Reagan’s big failure was not replacing Bush in 1984 with a conservative VP candidate. He placed party unity over ideology. As soon as Bush became president he pushed conservatives out, even though he ran as a conservative.
In hindsight if Reagan had run with a conservative in 1984 and won, then focused on filling the key party positions with conservatives, there is a chance the conservative revolution would have been consolidated and perpetuated.
thank you. This is the first I remember hearing about George Bush engineering a purge of the party after he was elected in 1988. Who were the victims?