I think you are wholly misguided.
Bush ran as a Conservative, but governed as a Globalist Bakerite. Any attention he gave to the base was incidental. There has not been a Conservative Republican in the run for the White House since Reagan- All have been Bakerites- All have been Globalists, including McCain.
Every single Reagan Conservative is gone from the running by South Carolina in the primaries, and never even offered to the red states for their consideration.
My point being that Reaganism, and the Reagan Coalition is stifled purposefully so that the poser can attempt to mimic it, and hope to control the Conservatives to their advantage. It will always be so, as if the posers allow true Conservatives to be heard, their grasp on power will be immediately ended, and they know it. Globalism and Conservatism cannot be reconciled.
For that reason, the Republican party is finished. It cannot be fixed. It must be undone. Too many in it’s ranks have learned to pose, and are loyal to another.
You may do as you like, but I will not go back to the Republicans. I will go forward with another party, probably the AIP, built from the ground up to service Reagan Conservatism, and loyal to that function to it’s very core.
The answer to your observation is the first, of course. Reagan Conservatism harnesses all three pillars of conservatism nicely, and it works whenever it is tried. But in order for it to work, it must be attempted by those who believe in it- not those who would use it for their convenience. They are found out each and every time.
I spent many years working in the same building as Baker. In fact, right under his offices. You would not want to work there. He ran it as a prison.
The Goldwaterites said the same thing in 64. But the principles on which it is supposed to stand are 100% American as opposed of the Euro-socialism principals of the Democrats.
We will get through this. Obama will fail but we need to help him fail. By that I mean don't give him a honeymoon period.