Craig Shirley on Ronald Reagan

The author of Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All, Craig Shirley previews his forthcoming Rendezvous with Destiny in op-ed an for Townhall. A few insights, turns of phrases, and points that need repeating:

• "Ronald Reagan so thoroughly dominates the Republican Party that no one calls themselves a 'Ford' Republican let alone 'Nixon' Republican. . . . Reagan's name has so much power in the Republican Party that so-called Republican lobbyists on K Street invoke his name to convince Republican lawmakers to do very un-Republican things."

• "Reagan also had a strong libertarian streak and as late as 1975 was still describing himself as a 'libertarian conservative.'"

• "Reagan put Soviet communism under the heel of his cowboy boot and crushed it."

• "The Reagans were always fond of one particular young war hero: John McCain."

• Reagan "didn't feel the need to redefine [conservatism] as 'kinder and gentler' or 'compassionate'," since he knew that "meant the noun was the enemy of the adjective."