I've said over and over again that Reagan's chief political achievement was uniting the greedheads, warmongers, racists, and evangelicals (big overlap with the racists). The politicization of the racist-ass Southern Baptist convention helped that. It's the money-monger wing of the party that wants "limited government" and they used racism and social wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage to push the other groups into their camp. The party that working class whites reflexively support is cut