We couldn't get a conservative nominee for president in the Republican party. What makes you think we can turn the country around?
Based on the election results the majority of Republicans are not FR style Reaganite conservatives. Some are moderates, a few are libertarians, a much larger group are people who don't like high taxes but don't care about abortion or homosexuality one way or the other, and the remainder are Reagan conservatives and social issues conservatives. Because the more balanced Reagan conservatives (who combine social and fiscal conservatism along with supporting a strong national defense) can't agree with the purely social conservatives they haven't been able to nominate anyone since George W. Bush, and even he was weak on fiscal conservatism.
In congress one thing we need to remember is that there are states where only a moderate or liberal Republican can win. We should not campaign against people like Scott Brown or Olympia Snow if they're the nominee. Sometimes that's the best you can do.
I will grant you one thing, if a strong conservative leader came forward he could move the country to the right the way Reagan did, but that means getting in the arena with a well financed, professional campaign. Complaining and arguing here won't do it.
Bush's policies were not only fiscally not Conservative; his foreign policy was basically a revival of the Dean Rusk policy of the 1960s, which was a disaster. His social stands were almost as far Left. (Making a show of defending traditional marriage, hardly offset the Bush White House "leadership" on related issues--such as reversing his Attorney General's decision in 2003, to stop the celebration of "Homosexual Pride week" in the Justice Department, etc.)
William Flax