Ronald Reagan: What Happened?

Ronald Reagan did not build a structure; he cast a spell. There was no Reagan revolution, just a Reagan bedazzlement. The magic is going off almost as mysteriously as the spell was woven in the first place. There is no edifice of policies solid enough to tumble, piece by piece, its props being knocked out singly or in groups. The whole thing is not falling down; it was never weighty enough for that. It is simply evanescing.

To measure the disenchantment we must remember the power of the trance being dissipated. The Republican Convention of 1984, the love-in at Dallas, was...