“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.
O, there were a lot of establishment types that hated Reagan, no doubt, as did the Dems - but Reagan never generated the type of animosity from the public that Trump generates. Even if they opposed him, most of the public did not dislike Reagan personally.