That's something to mull about for a long time. Theodore Roosevelt was a progressive, and by today's standards, no good Republican. TR would have said that he was acting to prevent revolution, and therefore conservative in his own way, but most conservatives today would disagree with that.
For the rest of Kelly's list, the times were different then. Democrats had a strong desire to change the country, and in opposing them, Eisenhower, Ford, Nixon, Dole, and Bush were in a sense good "conservatives," though the Conservative Movement of their day wouldn't have thought of them as its favorite candidates.
Today, when conservatism also implies a desire for change -- if only to get things back to how they were -- it's easier to paint those old Republicans as not really conservative.
With the changs that followed the end of the Cold War, it's getting harder to hold on to that "Movement" sense of things, though. There may not be any one "Conservative Movement" right now.
But the basic point -- that in a two party-system, a party has to be bigger, wider, and more than an ideological movement or faction or tendency if it's going to win elections -- is undoubtedly true.
“But the basic point — that in a two party-system, a party has to be bigger, wider, and more than an ideological movement or faction or tendency if it’s going to win elections — is undoubtedly true.”
True no doubt, but the Reagan coalition was always center right...through times moderates and independents have trended center-right. Now there is a change.
I’ve been saying for 20 years that people are underestimating the socializing (indoctrination) of our citizens in school, universities, and media. The long payoff for the liberals/socialists is coming in now - and it’s going to get worse because conservatives don’t know how to play the game being played out in the media and educational system. All we do is complain about it. You never see any substantial programs or movements (that are funded)to counter the misinformation out there. We have talk radio, but it’s not enough - we are losing big and the losses are becoming huge (the fall of the conservatives in the GOP).