In this, today’s conservative politicians have become the opposite of Reagan. Reagan would have told the story of the Little Sisters of the Poor rather than relying on stale phrases. It would have been the story of women who dedicated their lives to helping the indigent and the lonely. It would have been about how arrogant and malicious politicians and bureaucrats were trying to force these nuns to choose between helping the poor and living by their faith – and how this conflict was totally unnecessary and created by bullying politicians.

Reagan was an avid collector of stories that illustrated his beliefs. It is those stories that that give issues their salience. Whether the issue is abortion, or health care, or immigration, it is those stories that make people understand, and then care. If they don’t hear it from Ted Cruz, who are they going to hear it from? Katie Couric?

This was especially frustrating coming from Ted Cruz. I say this as an unconflicted Cruz voter. Cruz should have been the best at this. Cruz’s Supreme Court arguments were all about talking. Being a senator is all about talking (at least the way Cruz does it.) Cruz’s debate championships were all about talking.

Then Cruz would begin big victory speeches with baffling digressions about his personal life, or with agonizing recitals of campaign minutiae. He would eventually (far too late) turn to issues that might actually impact people’s lives. Cruz then spoke about those issues in a language that was partly designed to speed up communication among political obsessives, and partly designed to exclude the persuadable from understanding.