Reagan is a special case. As I've written about before, Reagan didn't merely promise to make government smaller and balance the Federal budget, it was his entire campaign for 16 years. He excoriated Democrats and Republicans alike for deficit spending. And yet the first thing he did once in office was the biggest flip-flop in American political history. I trace much of the conservative's disconnect with reality to 1981, when cognitive dissonance forced the far right to deny what was obvious to everyone else, and the concomitant savaging of anyone who dared to point out the reality of the situation.

But I digress.