See the little trick they play? It sounds as if the argument is there hasn’t been a Reagan since Reagan. But that’s not the bar. What they’re actually saying is there hasn’t been as good a conservative candidate as the actual Pub candidates since Reagan. All you’d have to be is as good as the Bushes, Dole, McCain, and Romney. Quite the lower bar.
The Establishment strategy if tge past generation is transparent. To them it’s always ‘64, not ‘80. It’s as if Reagan never happened, and we’re perpetually in danger of being Goldwatered. They flip the usual process upsidedown. Whereas traditionally you play to the base in the primaries and spread out for the general, Pub primaries these days are about finding the most milquetoast candidate possible, then throwing chum to the party faithful with their relatively conservative running mate (Ryan, Palin, Kemp, though notably not Cheney). It’s also based stupidly on whose “turn” it is.
Penultimately, the goal is to produce an MSM-proof candidate, which always fails. There is no such creature on earth as a Pub that gets good PR from the MSM, unless it’s in preference to other Pubs. The ultimate goal is to hang onto the Establishment’s preferred position as the Slightly Less Than Democrat Party.
That is because the GOP establishment is all about its members holding on to their power and perks, not about winning. The GOP wins hands down on corporate campaign contributions. The Dems do well and now have Wall Street in their pocket as well as Hollywierd but the GOPers rake money in from every business PAC imaginable. That is the key. The GOP establishment just needs to keep its position as as insider stakeholders and they can make deals for their campaign contributors and make themselves rich. There is less and less community of interests between the party establishment and the largest block of Republican loyalist voters. People like Karl Rove (who was defended with near fanaticism on this site back in ‘06 and ‘07) detest most of the party base and just wish it would go away and let him and his ilk continue the important business; making deals and defending a wide range of corporate interests and pork.