OMG! and then there’s this statement:
“Cruz sits in a Senate that has no Republicans akin to the liberals Goldwater served with”
Susan Collins
John McCain
Lindsey Graham
Mitch McConnell
Lisa Murkowski
Orin Hatch
etc...
Jeffrey Lord doesn't get it either: "A GOP Senate that features Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake may not be the party of Brooke and Percy but it is nowhere close to the party of Reagan."
Republican Senators in the Reagan years included Brooke, Matthias, Weicker, Specter, Rudman -- all probably more liberal than any Republicans in the Senate now.
The "party of Reagan" included a lot of people who would never be considered Republicans today. Reagan managed to win and accomplish things all the same.
There are things one could criticize in Will's article. IMHO, the basic point which he should have emphasized would be that a candidate who alienates potential supporters early on (Goldwater's sawing off the Eastern seaboard and extremism in the defense of liberty", Cruz's "mushy middle") isn't likely to win. Ronald Reagan didn't do that (which may be one good reason why he did win).