Read my lips, Margaret, no new news here. Reagan had conservative heads exploding when he, among other things, raised taxes, increased the deficit and gave amnesty to millions of illegals. He is the standard bearer of conservatives today. It's a little early to be writing an obituary for the Republicans.
We're spoiled. We want instant gratification and we want it NOW, and anyone who doesn't give it to us NOW, will REALLY be sorry because we'll hold our votes until we're blue in the face.
If we can't have a wall, we refuse to compromise and build a fence.
If we can only get a couple of hundred miles of fence at a time, we refuse to vote for those incrementally trying to get that fence built.
If we can't have a candidate who's "conservative enough" and President Bush campaigned as a moderate with very conservative values about some issues, then we must self flagellate at the alter of "pure conservatism" by voting Democrat.
It was "conservatives" voting "the bums out" that got us a Democrat controlled House and Senate, where NOTHING we want will be accomplished.
President Reagan would disagree with these practices. He would have compromised and he would have kept pounding away until he got all or as much as possible of his and the voters' will accomplished. He wouldn't have recommended a public hanging.