“Conservatives rarely unite around a candidate with even a slight chance and this race was no exception.”
If that is the future then there will never be another Reagan.
No there never will be another Reagan. Reagan was so successful with the voters because he was able to negate the media’s anti-conservative bias because he was TRAINED by that media.
American families were raised with RR as a sort of father/grandfather figure in their homes. He introduced Westerns for years then after the kids had become grownups he came into their homes as the host of the GE Theater on Sunday nights where he was introduced to a whole new set of people.
His genial qualities made him ideal for those roles which then inoculated him against the media attacks after he became a politician. Years of acting lessons and experience did not hurt either.
Reagan could have been elected with any beliefs and on any platform, we are fortunate that he was conservative.