DBWI: Conservative Republican Party?

During the past few decades, the right wing has come this close to taking over the Republican Party but they have fallen short.

Is there any way that conservatives could have become the dominant faction in the GOP and if that happened, would the Republican have been able to go through a period where they would have won most of the Presidential contests?

Or is this just ASB?
 
The conservatives have had a few opportunities and given different circumstances I think they could have come out on top. The main hindrance was 16 years of Kennedy's in the white house, JFK from 61-69 and RFK from 69-77. Goldwater was destroyed in 64, Nixon in 68. I think that it's possible that if Reagan hadn't gotten the nomination in 76 or had waited to run in 80 that it might have happened. The country was experiencing fatigue with the Democrats after 16 years in the white house but of course Reagan's tight victory in 76 and then his disastrous presidency hamstrung by the lagging economy and the failure to rescue the hostages in 1980 destroyed any chance for the conservative principles that he championed from finding a voice in main stream America.
 
Indeed, I think it was the Kennedys that kept conservatives from becoming the dominant majority in the GOP.

I think the best POD would have been no RFK. Let's say that assassination attempt on him in June '68 succeeds. Vice President Johnson may have jumped into the race after President Kennedy turns to him to stand as the pro-Administration candidate. Johnson was so old, so uncharismatic, and even relatively unknown in 1968, so he would have only a slim chance against Nixon, who was only barely defeated after facing a power-Democrat like Bobby Kennedy.
 
The conservatives have had a few opportunities and given different circumstances I think they could have come out on top. The main hindrance was 16 years of Kennedy's in the white house, JFK from 61-69 and RFK from 69-77. Goldwater was destroyed in 64, Nixon in 68. I think that it's possible that if Reagan hadn't gotten the nomination in 76 or had waited to run in 80 that it might have happened. The country was experiencing fatigue with the Democrats after 16 years in the white house but of course Reagan's tight victory in 76 and then his disastrous presidency hamstrung by the lagging economy and the failure to rescue the hostages in 1980 destroyed any chance for the conservative principles that he championed from finding a voice in main stream America.

Are you implying Nixon was the more conservative candidate? That's a tad bizarre considering Kennedy's tighter fiscal policy (relative to the Nixon-Rockefeller wing anyway) and shall we say, laissez faire stance on civil rights after the Detroit Riots and appointing of Smathers in the wake of Goldwater's primary challenge. But yes, Reagan's nomination was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for 'Conservative Republicans' and old New Deal coalition. Although the election of Anderson in '80 didn't exactly kill Conservative Democrats (or 'Constitutionalists'/'Libertarians' for that matter) relevancy even if they were a tad ineffectual in dealing with the 'new progressivism.'
 
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