I'm not sure you understand what you just said. With elections that close, tell me how a POTUS can take all hardline conservative positions and get elected or re-elected. HE CAN NOT! Only certain delusional people think otherwise.
It's called leadership and character. Ronald Reagan had it. Reagan believed in doing what was right regardless of the apparent political implications. Reagan was elected in a landslide and won re-election with an electoral blow-out. If it were not for Reagan's willingness to buck the political tide, you might be speaking Russian.
There are two reasons that our elections have gotten closer. When you can't tell the difference between the candidates or the two political parties, there isn't much reason to bother voting. Voter turn-out continues to decline, virtually setting new record lows with each election. Illiteracy rates are higher than voter turn-out rates. And I would be the last to dispute that these are related, but they are not related in the way that you might first be tempted to think. The people who are smart enough and able to recognize the differences stay home when there are not enough differences to actually make a difference in government. As long as both parties and candidates want to grow government and increase socialism it no longer matters how much or how fast. And to tell you the truth, Republicans have been moving left and growing government more than Democrats.
The second reason our elections are getting closer is that more people are recognizing that they themselves are conservative. They are recognizing that socialism doesn't work. Once people realize that socialism doesn't work, they cannot vote for Democrats at all. Grover Cleveland was the last Democrat that wasn't a socialist. After Reagan proved what a real conservative can do, the Republican Party surged as this group of former Democrat/ex-socialists started voting Republican. Do you remember the "Contract with America"? The Contract with America was the first time in my lifetime that the Republican Congressional candidates ran on a truly conservative agenda. If you can remember the candidates "taking the pledge", you will understand what a big deal this was and how it illustrates how little credibility political candidates have deservedly had. The result of actually running on a conservative agenda turned Congress over to Republicans, something that only happened once before in seventy years. For voters that cannot see or tell the difference, this looks like a one-off event. But to voters with a little more understanding, if you give them a strong conservative reason to turn out and vote; they do and did and in droves. The lesson of Ronald Reagan and the Contract is give conservatives a reason to vote and they will.
The problem lies on the other side of the realm. Since the XVIIth Amendment passed and due to a lack of term limits in the original Constitution, America is ruled by professional politicians instead of being governed by concerned citizens. Professional politicians are the world's second oldest profession. Professional politicians are professional promisers. They win election and re-election with promises to buy the votes of their constituents. Pandering for votes means the votes go to the highest bidder. In the minds of dumbed-down Americans, CFR was important. But it isn't campaign money directed at buying votes that is important to politicians. Over time no candidate or group of candidates can control the balance of power with the tiny equally balanced sums available in campaigns. Professional Politicians are using the treasury (where the big unlimited amounts of money are) after election to perpetuate themselves in office so that nothing ever changes.
Republicans came to power on Reagan's coat-tails and on the Contract with America. But it appears that once in power Republicans have become more interested in pandering for re-election than in serving their country by being statesmen.