Typical RINO hack pap. The literal translation is: "Conservatism can't win."
1984's electorate isn't today's electorate. Today's electorate is less white (thanks to Kennedy's "We-are-the-world" immigration reform in the 60's, Reagan's amnesty and Clinton's and Bush II's open borders policies), less conservative and less "American" (thanks to the multicultural ethos espoused by the media elites). People say they're conservative, but 80's conservatives wouldn't have turfed Virginia's George Allen for saying "macaca".