Actual conservatives have never been strong in the GOP
all the social lib largesse of the 60s and early to mid 70s was opposed by some GOP and white southern Dixiecrats
And it often wasn’t enough as is plain to see
Many folks are simply ignorant
Many republicans hated Reagan just like the did Goldwater and do Trump
This notion GOP all good since Abe and subsequent reconstruction and all Dems bad is Beck levin poppycock
Wonder if they notice how all that worked out
“Actual conservatives have never been strong in the GOP...Many republicans hated Reagan just like they did Goldwater and do Trump”
That was true then and it’s still true now.
I did some campaign work in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Volunteer stuff, nobody was paying me. But I did get to see the backstage part of campaigns and I met a lot of political people whose names that we all know.
Winning elections means coalition building. There’s all sorts of flavors just within conservative circles, in the Republican party as a whole there’s even more.
They don’t all agree. And trying to get them to cooperate isn’t easy. Among the volunteers I recall in those ‘80s campaigns there was a rebuild the military group, this being the Cold War. There was a 2nd Amendment group. There was a tax reform group. There was a Right to Life group. There was an immigration control group.
There was overlap, but not always. Instead of working towards a common goal and maybe getting half of what you want, some individuals insist on all or nothing. And in a state like California where we are a minority of a minority that’s just nuts. And today the situation here is even harder since the Cali population includes a huge number of foreign born who simply don’t share our culture much less our politics.