It has been almost 36 years since California Gov. Ronald Reagan took his fight for the Republican nomination all the way to the 1976 convention. The party hasn’t seen as close a race since. But that may change this year, if the current candidates keep failing to articulate a conservative vision that can unify the party.

Six months after he had conceded in Kansas City, and two months after President Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in the general election, Reagan addressed a fledgling gathering of activists in Washington called the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.