The Federalists believed that intelligent men of income and property would select good men to be officers of state.
Thomas Jefferson added things up and said "all you have to do is win elections" and figured out how to do that ~ he wiped the political slate clear of the Federalists! That never happened again. The Democratic Republicans or Republican Democrats, as he titled it, dominated American politics until a group called the Whigs figured out how to compete!
What you need to do is CUT the GOP-e out of the party. They've learned nothing and forgotten nothing! That's why they keep making the same fundamental errors over and over.
Why do you not see that the GOPe is the party now? ALL of it top to bottom/side to side? There is no Reagan in it anymore. Anywhere. I do not understand.