PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Reagan agreed with these old conservatives about communism and other things. But he transformed their movement from a past- and loss-oriented movement to a future- and possibility-oriented one, based on a certain idea about America. As early as 1952 during a commencement address at William Woods College in Missouri, Reagan argued, ”I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land.”

Reagan described America as a driving force through history, leading to the empire of liberty. He seemed to regard freedom’s triumph as a historical inevitability. He couldn’t look at mainstream American culture as anything other than the delightful emanation of this venture. He could never feel alienated from middle American life, or see it succumbing to a spiritual catastrophe.

So of course he was an optimist; he knew how the human story ended. While others regarded the Soviet Union as permanent, he couldn’t. ”My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple and some would say simplistic. It is this: ‘We win and they lose,’ ” he once said.

—David Brooks, June 10th, 2004: “Reagan’s beliefs fueled his optimism.”

● “David Brooks Praises Trump for Crushing the ‘Dying Husk’ of Reaganism.”

—Rick Moran, PJ Media, yesterday. As Rick writes, “Trump didn’t destroy the ‘dying husk’ of Reaganism. That’s because Reagan’s ideas are timeless. His basic message of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets have been with us since the Founding. Reagan only reminded us of their importance.”

And conversely, regarding today’s elites such as Brooks and the man in the oval office whose pants he creases, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions,” as G.K. Chesterton once said. Most conservatives understand this intuitively; the fact that Brooks doesn’t speaks volumes.