“Reagan was “palatable” to the left in the sense that he was consistent and predictable.”
OH!!
Well from my point of view that’s not really ‘The Left’, that’s ‘The Democrats’. At the time, Reagan did work with the Democrats to get things done and yes it did cost him and us. That was when they tried to maintain a veneer of respectability. “The Left” didn’t really take over the democrat party until just after 9/11. When they were all forced to stand on the capitol steps and recite the pledge of allegiance, including Under God. Bush didn’t cut their jugular when he had the chance and it cost him.
That’s when they realized their vulnerability and cast out the Democratic Leadership Committee in favor of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition and ACORN. Essentially The Communist Left has coopted the entire democrat party which is now pretty much a Zombie of what it used to be. They no longer possess a sense of Shame or Conscience. They will go to war until they win, and then inflict their policies until they are thrown out of office. Then they go to war again.
If we were all characters in Orwell’s 1984, how would it be much different?
Looks to me like the Republican establishment has not yet noticed or changed their tactics to effectively counter this dramatic change in the Democrat Party.