George Romney

Republican primary voters tend toward primogeniture and they may make a cause out of a closely fought loss, as Nixon’s supporters did over his 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy and Reagan’s conservative supporters did in 1976 after he was denied the Republican nomination, but it appears that general election voters have a higher standard and they will never forgive or look at a sore loser as worthy of the highest office in the land.

There are a lot of parallels between 1964 and 2016, but the most important one is this: By defeating Goldwater, establishment Republicans created the opportunity for Democrats and their progressive Republican allies to bankrupt the country in a war that lacked a strategy for victory and to enact the regulatory and welfare regime that continues to plague our economy and limit our liberty fifty years on.