Cruz was fought against in a very despicable manner by Trump and his minions, but also by the entirety of the GOP establishment. Saying that we "did not present a good candidate" is just untrue.
Even if Cruz
said all the right things, it is not enough simply to say them.
You're assuming that Cruz was a "good candidate" in the first place; however, events would indicate otherwise. Cruz's problem was that, when attacked, he seemed smaller when he needed to seem bigger: not the sort of man you want as the leader of the free world.
On that count, a comparison of Cruz to Reagan is not flattering. Reagan, too, was attacked despicably by the media and the GOP establishment. However, he had the both the background and personal qualities that allowed him to absorb the attacks -- he handled the attacks in a way that made the
other guys seem small.
What we learned from all this is that the GOP will never let another conservative in the style of Reagan become their presidential nominee, now that they've successfully walked back Reaganism (by their lights) from the bowels of their organization.
That's not correct. Reagan became the GOP presidential nominee over the strident objections of the GOP establishment of the day (the so-called Rockefeller wing of the party). He did so by building both an intellectual platform
and a political machine that was able to beard the establishment lion in its den. Reagan's candidacy was the culmination of
years of patient effort by Reagan and by a host of others. Contrast to Cruz (or Obama), who announced his candidacy for president after only a couple of years in the Senate.
What we've also learned is that a very large group of conservatives now realize that the term "RINO" applies to conservatives rather than to the statist hierarchy of the GOP. All that's left is to acknowledge that to ourselves and pick up stakes and move to a party that actually wants to follow the principles we consider inviolate.
You've used a bunch of terms that have no clear meaning; most particularly, "the principles we consider inviolate." I submit that the GOP no longer recognizes any such principles; nor, apparently, do "conservatives."
