Re: “Can conservative Ronald Reagan possibly attract enough independent and Democratic votes to win in November?”
The key word in that sentence is “Conservative.”
In 1980, no one was speculating that old line, traditional Conservatives would refuse to vote for Ronald Reagan.
But in 2016, that is exactly the issue with Trump. Millions and millions of old line, traditional Conservatives, like me, scoff at the idea that Trump has suddenly become a Conservative Republican.
I have no doubt that Trump will attract millions and millions of former Democrat and Independent voters.
But he will attract them for all the wrong reasons - because he’s not a Conservative.
Your theory simply isn’t supported by the polls nor the vote tallies
They did speculate that many Mathias/Javits style GOP members would bolt and in fact many did.