I am inclined to agree with you but it will only work if someone emerges as the true leader of the GOP (the way that Reagan did in the mid to late 1970s). Ronald Reagan brought Democrats to the GOP because he appealed to their core values NOT by promising them to make the GOP “Democrat Light.”
Yes, I think you’re right. I think it could be easier to unite the party in 2012 because of the dismal performance of the white knight(McCain) of the moderate wing of our party being so thoroughly rejected and repudiated. This electoral drubbing could help clear the way for a bonafide Conservative to bring the party together in the next Presidential election.
The two front runners (Palin and Jindal) are linked to the Conservative wing of the party, and many pundits are saying that they are the odds on favorite to be the standard bearers for the GOP in 2012.
Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, was faced with a burgeoning mushy moderate middle in the party that forced him, in the name of party unity, to ask former POTUS Gerald Ford to join him on the ticket as Reagan’s VP. Ford instead pushed Reagan to bring Reagan’s other political nemesis in the GOP primary, Bush41, to balance out the ticket.
Hopefully we can unify the party without putting a ticket balancing moderate on the ticket. And, yes, I think we can.