Well said Laz!
Anyone voting for Mitt-Witt would have had no problem voting for one of the following candidates as opposed to Ronald Reagan in 1980:
George HW Bush <— King Poppy of RINOland.
Howard Baker <— early model RINO
Bob Dole <— his turn didn’t come until ‘96
Lowell Weicker <— early prototype of Romney
Harold Stassen <— yes, he was still running!
And what did the above RINO GOP country club candidates all have in common?
They were all LOSERS, and the only reason GHWB got ONE term of his own was because it was the vote of the electorate for a Reagan Third Term, not because they were in love with Poppy Bush, and everyone knows it.
Alf Landen
Wendell Willkie
Tom Dewey
Tom Dewey
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
Barry Goldwater
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Jerry Ford
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
George HW Bush
Bob Dole
George Bush
George Bush
John McCain
In general, a candidate who ran to the LEFT of the Republican party base, or who dismissed any interest in Republican social issues, or who actually ran to the left of the Democrat, lost. Those who affected a comprehensive attitude about classical Conservative issues, won.
McCain's interest in "Reach Arounds" definitely dismissed the party base which has no interest in that sort of thing anymore.
We had 12 different guys run, and 5 of them won. One of the winners, Nixon, stands alone. He lost to the more conservative JFK. Sneaking in past George Wallace on his second run, the third time he ran on an out and out Conservative position.
To a degree Jerry Ford, with a many decade's long voting record, ran against Jimmy Carter who claimed the high ground of Social Conservatism ~ and lost. Within weeks though everybody knew Carter was a loser, and that was the end of his career as President.
Barry Goldwater may also have encountered a problem in that LBJ had not had a long career as a Progressive and for many folks was just another in a long line of stoop to loot politicians ~ leaving open the possibility for historians to continue discussing whether or not it was Goldwater's "conservative views' that lost the election, or maybe his inability to differentiate himself from LBJ outside of the voting rights act of 1964.