I was around for that election - and Reagan never generated the level of revulsion and disgust within the party and in the general population that Trump has. So that is not a good analogy.
That is not true.
1976 Reagan vs. Ford
They did hate Reagan, and they also hated Goldwater.
They were very revulsed by both men.
Listen to Phyllis Schlafly describe the goings on.
My mother was a delegate for Goldwater, she was at that convention.
The real difference now, is that we can see the elites tweeting and gyrating in real time, where it was always kept from view pre-social media.
We have never had such a close up view before. The “news” was always filtered.
Does it look rough? Guess what? It’s always been that way.
“I was around for that election - and Reagan never generated the level of revulsion and disgust within the party and in the general population that Trump has. So that is not a good analogy.”
I was around then too, and remember it distinctly differently.