![]() ![]() Unable to lift the nation’s spirits, Carter’s “Scrooge” was no match for Reagan’s “Santa Claus. ![]() His telegenic charisma, unapologetic patriotism (“Make America great again” became a campaign slogan) and sanguine vision overwhelmed an incumbent prone to scolding the public for its profligate ways. Critics pounced on his gaffes questioning evolution and asserting that vegetation caused pollution, but, as with Trump, Reagan’s backers cared little about these blunders or his nescience over public affairs. ![]() Reagan’s biggest handicap was his tendency to blurt mistakes and falsehoods - one commentator said he had a “very loose hold on the real world around him” - when going off-script. More than a decade ago, after years as a contributor to the left-wing The Nation and similar publications, he wrote Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. Though he, too, strove to steer the party away from the “country club big business image” epitomized by Nelson Rockefeller, Reagan never projected a cutthroat persona, earning the public’s affection over Carter, who came off as increasingly coldhearted. Conservatives were fortunate to have Reagan serve as the prophet delivering their radical message. ![]()
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