Big Difference between then and now
Demographics
When things get bad White Socialist will cross over and vote Republican. Black and Hispanics will vote Socialist everytime no matter what
I don't think so. About 30% of the country really is conservative, and they will always vote for small government. Less than 15% really is socialist. The remaining 15% of democrats are big government liberals but not socialist, and the low-information voters who often vote democrat simply vote for The Other. Right now, with Obama in power, republicans are The Other and have an advantage with low-information voters. We're not guaranteed to win in 2016, but our odds are good. That's why we have to work so hard to nominate a real conservative.