I agree with what you said. The GOPe, working in conjunction with the Dems, has done a lot of damage. The entitlement mentality is strong. Yet Reagan faced many obstacles as well. His likeable, positive nature, as you pointed out in your first post, overcame many of them for his first win. The wave of prosperity he ushered in during his first term carried him to a great victory for his second win.
I really don’t see how it’s fundamentally different now. Yes, the entitlement mentality is deeply entrenched. But the right conservative, with a sufficiently powerful message, could quite easily win a first term, if only by a couple of percentage points. Like Reagan, they could sweep to a major second term victory on the strength of the positive developments engendered by their conservative policies. All is not lost. It just takes one really strong candidate to turn the tide, at least temporarily.
I hope you’re right, but that hope appears to be fading. My pessimism stems from the fact that actions of the Republican party today would have been condemned by most Democrats of the Reagan era. Genuine conservatives are being increasingly marginalized, even painted as enemies of the state, and not just by Democrats. Republicans are joining in.