I agree with you wholeheartedly on this. I just don't think it's limited to California.
Looking over the last 40+ years, with the rise of Goldwater and the conservative movement, his landslide loss, the rise of Reagan and the GOP rebound in 1966, the victory of Reagan in '80 and the capping victory of a 49-state sweep in '84, the Republican Congress in '94, the victories of GW Bush in a clearly divided nation, and all that has transpired over the last 5 years, I have come to the conclusion that ideology isn't enough. Conservatism has become a big tent. Who are we referring to when we talk about "conservativism"? -- 2nd Amendment conservatives? Fiscal conservatives? Social conservatives? Libertarian/conservatives? Religious conservatives? Neo-conservatives? Paleo-conservatives? Isolationist conservatives? American-excellence conservatives? Anti-immigration conservatives? Economic/pro-business conservatives? Tax-cut conservatives? Deficit hawk conservatives? Country club conservatives? Southern NASCAR conservatives? (Sorry, I know you're a NASCAR fan :-) It's a big tent! But we win elections only when we have a leader with the political skills and character who can pull the pieces together into a whole, and project a positive message to the remaining 10%+ of the electorate needed to actually win elections. The "pure conservatives" tend to be back-stabbers, not political winners, IMHO. If conservatism fractures over the next two or three years, it will be because there isn't focused leadership on the national level (in the likeness of Reagan) to keep the factions together. Sadly, I think someone like Ronald Reagan comes around about once every 100 years. We will likely never see another one like him in our lifetime.