Excellent summary:
“Reagan have been demonized for not being willing to fall on his sword for every single issue, had FR been around in 1980. “Why, he’s a FORMER DEMOCRAT!!!” they would cry...
Not only that, but as pointed out on the other thread, the country is not the “right of center” place it was in 1980. Reagan was smart enough to pick his battles, but today that just gets a candidate vilified for not being all things to all voters.
“The perfect is always the enemy of the good”
The moderates and GOP establishment really hated Reagan too