Conservative scholar and talk radio host Mark Levin said the GOP is “a party in trouble” that must nominate a bold conservative for president in 2016 if they do not want to get walloped yet again.

Speaking at Values Voter Summit on Saturday with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Levin, who is cementing himself as the intellectual godfather for conservatives in the age of Obama, said moderate candidates favored by the establishment and stand for nothing will never appeal to Americans who are hungry for leadership.

“It’s very, very, important that we nominate a conservative for the first time since Ronald Reagan,” Levin said. “There are people under 50-years-old who have never had an opportunity to vote for a conservative president. We want to show them what it’s like. It’s our generation’s responsibility.”

Levin said “it’s invigorating, energizing” and “almost spiritual to get behind somebody with enthusiasm and excitement. To go door-to-door. That’s how you win elections.”

He said conservatism cannot be chopped up “conservatism is a way of life” where faith, spirituality, individuality, individual liberty, respect for the rule of law, and the Constitution are valued. Levin said conservatives try “to project founding principles onto modern day events.”

“We are people of faith,” he said. “We believe in free-market capitalism and private property rights.”

In the 2016 primary, Levin said conservatives can’t be split among various candidates. He said conservatives must look for “the most articulate, intelligent, charismatic conservative candidate that we can get behind” and “we need to start rallying behind one or two.” Levin said Obama was beatable in 2008 and “more defeatable in 2012,” and he just cannot stomach establishment consultants saying candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney are the only ones who can beat someone like Hillary Clinton, whom Levin said was Obama in a pantsuit.

“We need to take this party back,” he said. “We’re taking it back from cowards. We’re taking it back from corporatists.”

Levin said he is a free-market capitalist and blasted crony capitalists who “use government and government policies to defeat their competition and take money from We the People, the taxpayers.”

“I’ve had it with an incompetent Republican bureaucracy and all of their consultants,” Levin said. “These people are not conservative Republicans. They are neo-statist, big-government Republicans.”

Levin said establishment Republican candidates have lost more winnable races than conservatives, but the establishment continues to attempt to re-write history. They pat themselves for winning anti-Obama races and blame conservatives for losing races in which the establishment blunted enthusiasm among the grassroots, he said.

“Their candidates are not appealing. Their candidates don’t stand for anything,” Levin said of establishment Republican candidates. “And when they do stand for something, they’re moving left; they’re not moving right.”

Levin said Americans want leaders who make “emphatic, unequivocal statements about Americanism and American principles” and speak about securing the country’s borders, getting the economy running again, and addressing World War III.

“We need more conservatives who happen to be Republicans,” he said.

Levin talked about the dilemma many conservatives face today. He said they see a tyrannical left with a “totalitarian mindset” who are trying to import “every form of tyranny” and package them as compassionate while talking about “race and genitalia to get people all worked up.” But they also see Nelson Rockefeller Republicans who do not speak about principles, can’t stand up to the left, and don’t know how to “articulate how they will restore the republic and save the Constitution.”

“We damn well better nominate a conservative in 2016 to save this country and save the Republican Party. We don’t have a lot of time left,” Levin said. “We cannot nominate another RINO, or we’re going to get our clocks cleaned again.”