by Patrick J. Buchanan

When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, he talked of a new generation of Americans taking charge, of heading out bravely for a New Frontier. He did not call up the shades of FDR or Harry Truman, or go back 45 years to Woodrow Wilson.

The same was true of Ronald Reagan in 1980. He offered a vision of a grand future where America would become again, after the malaise of the Carter era, a “shining city on a hill.” There was no hearkening back by Reagan to the great days of Ike.