Really?
No one is saying they’re the determiners. They’re giving their take.
They’re political observers and pundits.
Make your counter case.
Will relentlessly attacked Reagan in a personal and political way from 74 on. He referred to supporters as “kamikaze’s” and advocated the “cleansing” of us from the party.
There’s a plethora of hitjob articles from him (easily found), and Mark Levin called him out as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R40lcJddbAc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
These aren’t the vanilla political observers or pundits as you kindly described them. No. They are the paid kneepad hitmen of the “Statists” and Rockefeller, Bush wing. Let them rot.