As the presidential primaries in New Hampshire and Iowa grow closer (just 3 months away now), it's important to remember that presidential campaigns were not always several year long affairs. Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for president on the 13th of November in 1979, just under a year before the national elections.
Ronald Reagan invoked a lot of things that have still remained constant throughout American politics. In his speech, you can hear him talk about how he's a government outsider, coming from humble roots and becoming a self-made man. He talks about being proud to be an American, and keeping the American Dream of a great tomorrow. In true political fashion, he also talked about how much the other guy (in this case, Jimmy Carter) was un-American.
Of course, he never mentioned President Carter by name, but only by policy and idea. "[Leaders] tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where – because of our past excesses – it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true." As true as this may have been (as we can see with Climate Change), people did not want to hear about it. Ronald Reagan told them what they wanted to hear: "I don't believe that."
Reaganomics was set forth that very day: the government over-spends and we need to cut taxes. Businesses are surprisingly not people yet, and they sure as hell shouldn't pay any taxes either.
Even though it's a popular trope to say Reagan in today's presidential race would have been too liberal, a look at his policies puts him at just about the right flavor of conservative too actually have been successful, even today. He had his rendezvous with destiny; will another Republican be as lucky?
