Dole was the ultimate liberal Republican. He was no more inclined to fight the democrats than McCain, Boner or McConnell are today. He surrendered on the Gingrich backed government shutdown at the very moment Clinton was about to surrender because the senate was looking bad. Dole wasn’t about a change in direction he just wanted his turn to run the show and control the $$$.
If I accept your premise the political environment has changed then the self-outing of the Republican party as socialist lite should have helped them correct? They ran Dole, GWBush with his compassionate conservative BS, McCain who is a traitor and should never have been called conservative or a Republican and Romney who should own the name Waffle House, all liberals and if your premise is correct they should have had a chance, especially Romney and yet lost and badly. The Republicans have accepted your premise which the media has perpetuated and have lost in most cases and barely won twice.
If you accept the changed political environment you promote then Jeb, Krispy Kreme or Romeny again should be a shoe in for 2016 and yet no one wants them except big business and liberal democrats/republicans. The conservatives loath all three of them. Democrats voters are not going to vote for them why should they?
Why would any self-respecting mooch vote for someone who says here have some other persons money, say $300 a month which you might have to pay back when the out of the closet liberal democrat says, here take a cool $1000 I took from this other guy and paying it back, don’t worry about that, just remember who stole it for you and gave it too you when you vote.
Yeah there is a choice but the choice is cheap liberal versus the real thing. How is that a choice? The only difference we are being offered in this new environment is the price tag each party will offer for votes. For a country that claims to be 60% conservative in nature that is no choice so tell me why am I going to waste my time voting and supporting someone who is liberal lite?
There has been no stark choice from either party since the 1984 election and in 1980 and 1984, the country was offered a very different path by each party. Since then we have been offered one path with the speed we travel down it being the only difference. My question is do we get another squish liberal go along, get along candidate or a real choice?
Some day, maybe soon, conservative sentiment will be so strong in the electorate that it will sweep a conservative to the Republican nomination and the White House, but if conservatives haven't been able to win the nomination since Reagan, could that be a sign that conservative sentiment in the country isn't as strong as some people think, and may not be strong enough in itself to carry any of the conservatives who've run to the nomination, let alone the presidency?
It could be that 60% of the country is conservative enough about some things to call themselves conservatives (Gallup says it's less than that, with almost as many people calling themselves moderates as conservatives, and we know how a lot of those moderates vote), but that doesn't mean that those voters are conservative about everything and would respond to a candidate who is conservative in ways that they aren't.
With people who say they are fiscally or economically conservative but socially liberal and those who are socially conservative but think Republicans are for the rich guys, it can be hard for Republicans or conservatives to get to 50%.