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Bertrand de Jouvenal was a big influence on Reagan, and I assume he read Richard Weaver as well. Much of Weaver is imprinted in some of RR's themes

Chambers was a brilliant writer--Ghosts on the Roof, his collection of essays is a good companion to Witness.

If I'm not mistaken every Republican president in the last century has been portrayed by the leftist elites as an intellectual lightweight who is bound to be outwitted at every turn; I think the president who got the most intellectual recognition from the elites was Bush 41 (but then again he basically folded everytime the Democrats forced his hand). The irony is the last time a Democratic president every had a real foreign policy victory was FDR and Truman in WW II, on the domestic side everything they've tried has been a disaster.

When Reagan took office, inflation was at 12.5% it dropped to 4.4%, interest rates were 9% and fell to 7%, unemployment was over 7% and fell to 5.5%, and after tax personal income (after adjusting for inflation) rose over 16%, the Dow was under 1000 and look where it is today. There is no way a "dunce" could pull this off, and we still enjoy the benefits of "Reaganomics today (inspite of the lefts efforts to derail it). And no "B movie" actor" would have the ability to stare down communism and prove to the left that it was a worthless sham. If we live long enough to have a leader of Reagan's stature we will be truly blessed.