“Ronald Reagan is another example. He is so smooth and so effective a performer that he completely won over the American people,” Trump wrote. “Only now, nearly seven years later, are people beginning to question whether there’s anything beneath that smile.” - 1987 D Trump, Art of the Deal
Reagan had warmed up the American people because of his familiarity with every age group. The WWII generation remembers his movies. The baby boomers remembered him as a genial host to Death Valley Days. All for the GE Theater when he would come to a family’s living room and be a welcome presence.
To me his ideology was not the reason for his victories but his personal relationship to the People. Others have espoused his ideas and gone nowhere. Until Trump NONE had the same ability to understand and control the damage of the media.