Reagan was despised by the GOP ruling class, the same as Palin and any tea party type candidate. The GOP was doing everything they could to stop Reagan, it worked until Carter. The ruling class wants to rule, whether or not they are in the majority or not. They want the perks, the social scene and the Sunday shows. They want to be viewed as ‘important’.
They don’t want their gravy train to end (dems and repubs). The tea party is a threat because, we’re going to stop their partying. There are too many of us, and they are running scared. Beware, they’ll talk the talk, but watch their actions. We’ve been fighting these bastards for decades. Palin knows it, Reagan knew it, and the teaparty gets it. It’s so long ruling class, and they aren’t too happy about it.
Reagan may have been despised by the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party (the original RINOs, I guess), but let’s not forget the fact that he made a heck of a run for the nomination in 1976 and quickly brushed past George H.W. Bush early in the primary season in 1980 and became the front-runner. It was quickly apparently that there were a whole lot of us Republicans who bought into his conservative, pro-America, limited government message and were rejecting the more RINO (for the time) Bush. The Tea Party taps into the same vein that Reagan tapped into and is a reaction from people like us who believe that the Republican Party strayed from those roots over the past 20 years.
Palin taps into it in a way that the retreads like Huckabee and Romney don’t. The fact that some of us have doubts about her ability to be elected in today’s environment doesn’t mean we are rejecting the message she is espousing!