Reagan and most of America having voted for FDR in a long distant pre WWII, pre Cold War history, is no reason for being a democrat after the 1960s and Vietnam and JFK and LBJ, Roe v Wade, Jimmy Carter and the dismantling of the CIA, and the anti-military shift of the Democrats and the Reagan Revolution, and supporting Al Gore against Reagan’s veep in 1988.
That is why Reagan supported and campaigned only for Republican Presidential candidates starting in the 1952 election.
Were you confused about the Democrat Party in 1988? Does anyone here really think that Perry secretly voted for Reagan just as he himself was signing up to become a leader within the Democrat Party, and then in 1988 going back to fighting to elect Al Gore and his 9 ACU rating to defeat Reagan’s veep?
The exodus of conservative Dems from the party was not complete until after the 1994 election. I’m not going to hold what happened in the 1980s against Perry. There’s plenty in perry’s record as governor to be upset about, just as there’s plenty to laud. He’s not my first choice, but I’d proudly vote for him against Obama.