The problem is that said "millions" have virtually no choices to pick from. Whether you believe it or not, Mr. Pode, the establishment is at war with the base. They hate Conservatives, and they hate them with the ferocity of their Democrat buddies. They hate the pro-lifers, they hate the secure-the-borders folks, they hate the cut-the-government types. Many people who don't spend a huge amount of their lives paying close attention to what's going on (instead spending it on their careers, their families, just living) are ones easily fooled into believing people like Willard are "the good guys" and stand up for them (based on a lot of talk and slick commercials).
"They aren't really being controlled by brain wave rays emanating from Karl Rove's garage, you know."
Mr. Pode, it seems readily apparent you don't particularly consider frauds like Willard or Rove to even be a part of the problem with today's GOP. Rove has largely spent most of the past 2 decades waging war against Conservatives in the party. He's the one who went out of his way to champion or recruit big-government liberals to run for office while badmouthing Conservatives.
"This idea that there is a tiny core of moderates in the GOP who repeatedly force moderate candidates upon an overwhelming majority of hardcore conservative voters is not helpful. It encourages complacency and then paranoia."
These are not moderates, Mr. Pode. These are corrupt big-government leftist statists. I don't care about their deceptive talk pretending not to be, it's their ACTIONS that tell me what they're all about. I had enough experience with Democrats coming home from DC to shine on the electorate before election time that they weren't the left-wingers painted by mean-spirited Conservatives, and now I'm seeing the exact same dog and pony show by their GOP successors. It's not paranoia they are actively working to undermine Conservatives, it is a fact, and their actions bear that out.
"I think it would be far more productive to ask "Why don't conservative candidates win 90% or more of registered Republican primary votes??" and then get to work from there."
When you have an active (and well-funded) group of folks that will lie and cheat and misrepresent and go the extra mile to sabotage said "Conservative candidates" by any means necessary, especially because they threaten their power, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why it's very hard to regularly get the right candidates nominated, elected, or even to get them to run.
Tell ya this - I agree with you here, one hundred percent.
There are millions of Republican voters out there who just love them a dignified, grandfatherly, polite candidate with executive-style hair, who doesn't say boat-rocking things. And those millions get a primary vote, just like every freeper does.
The key thing is getting to those voters, one by one, and explaining to them why the Romneys and Bushes and Christies are not going to get our country back on the right path.
I know, that's a lot more effort than indulging in discussion-thread fantasies about a small cadre of conservatives "storming the convention". But it's really the only thing that will work.