He drove them crazy. It was fun to be a conservative back then, the media and the left hated the President but his charm made their efforts to belittle him seem cruel. The national outpouring of love at his death was a refutation of the liberal attack machine. They were SURE they has trained America to hate Reagan... and they were shocked at the reverence shown him.
It seems that he was just plain candid with America. I don’t think we have had a politician like him since.
They demonstrated the same "shock" immediately after 9/11 when an out pouring of American patriotism spread throughout the land. I can only imagine how they must felt over the realization that 40 years of anti-American public education and higher education wasn't able to stem the tide. LOL