Goldwater, in 1964, lost in a landslide. The main reason President Ronald Reagan got elected in 1980, despite his many gifts and his conservative principles, was voter disdain for President Jimmy Carter — gas lines, the Iran rescue debacle, stagflation. Most conservatives who romanticize about Reagan don’t get this point! Yes, we “need” another Reagan. But to bring that about, given the ever-increasing leftward tilt of the country, we need another Jimmy Carter.

Americans never embraced Reagan’s stated conservative agenda — advocating pro-life policies; standing down the Soviet Union by, among other things, funding “Star Wars”; dramatically lowering taxes; and encouraging true free trade (despite his protection of the auto industry with stupid Japanese car “voluntary” import quotas, and protecting Harley-Davidson, among other measures).

David Stockman, Reagan’s young, fiscally conservative then-House member — a Paul Ryan-type numbers guy — headed his Office of Management and Budget. He wanted to take a machete to the size of government. But he failed to roll back much of anything. After leaving in frustration, Stockman wrote “The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed.” He laments that with the combination of special interests and Reagan’s refusal to bat them down, the size of domestic government grew even under the “Great Communicator.”