And the left also, after Nixon’s horrific (to them) 49 state landlide, became determined that any repulican nominee going forward was to be repudiated, despised and destroyed. Only Reagan beat them, because he had the people behind him and they were horrified again in both 1980 and 1984. 1988 was a landslide too but Bush was a go-along moderate who could be duped, then detroyed in four years (and was).
And since, the pressure has been on republican nominees to never, ever run as a conservative or all hell and damnation will be brought down upon you. What the moderate nominees since Reagan haven’t realized is that, hell and damnation will be brought anyway, no matter what, so you might as well stand for something. But moderates don’t stand for anything. And conservatives have been convinced that running as conservatives leads to political oblivion, the examples of ‘80, ‘84, 00, and ‘04 notwithstanding. Yet they’re more than happy to follow the examples of ‘76, ‘92, ‘96, and ‘08.
Then, how did GWB get away with running as a conservative and still winning? Twice?
I'll grant you that GWB may not have been the conservative he claimed to be, but there were many conservative aspects to his administration. Respect for the military, respect for life, etc.
Indeed, during the 2000 campaign, I was convinced that GWB was the 3rd most conservative candidate to run for the Presidency in my lifetime -- after Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Not my idea of "conservative", to be sure, but still "more conservative" than his dad -- or Bob Dole or Richard Nixon, e.g.