Let's be clear: the rehabilitation of Ronald Reagan into a beloved statesman was not organic. It was a years-long propaganda project by Republican PR groups who had no example of a modern successful GOP president and decided to just convince the public Reagan had been one. https://twitter.com/andrewdc_/status/1345066399841071104

At the time Reagan left office, he had middling to low approval, defined largely by Iran-Contra and failure on the AIDS pandemic, and the public consensus was his economic record was mixed.

Even George Bush — his VP — distanced himself from Reagan a bit on the campaign trail.

The modern version of Reagan-nostalgia came later in the mid-90s.

It was contrived by relentless plugs from GOP lawmakers and candidates, and GOP-led pushes all over the country to rename things for him. The more they said his name, the more important he seemed to lay people.

It's really a case study in how obsessed the Republican Party is with branding — at controlling how the public perceives and thinks of things. Something that has further expanded as Facebook, Fox, and OAN shape how people get news.

It's been a fruitful strategy for them.