Yes he does.
After 4 years, everyone knew exactly what Obama stood for:
1) a larger federal government
2) Keyneasin economic policies
3) government backed businesses
4) the federal government micro-managing entire industries
5) clean/green energy (and killing fossil fuels)
6) higher taxes on the rich and business
7) expanding government benefits
He was reelected with all that front and center.
On the other hand, the GOP-D is shell-shocked. Romney was their perfect candidate, and he lost. They are abandoning the idea that they can win with conservative ideas, and are already talking about moving to the left.
The result of this election is a political setup like they have in Europe:
1) a far left party (Democrat)
2) a “conservative” party that is slightly left of center (GOP).
As a practical matter, there will be no major “conservative” party in the USA, just a liberal and a very-liberal party.
I don’t know what to do, or what our answer should be, but we’ve got to start by facing reality. And, the reality is the Reagan revolution (at least at the federal level) died yesterday—and so did the GOP (they just don’t know it yet).
The Reagan revolution died under Bush. Bush never made the case for it- he just played Rove-style base politics.
Reagan knew in the 60s and 70s that the electorate had become collectivist. He knew that he had to persuade people- to reveal through humor and logic that free market economics were superior to Nixon-style rigorismo.