York: Reagan’s real legacy is the man himself

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Reagans-real-legacy-is-the-man-himself-44329832.html

Walking around the ranch, you can't help thinking about the current Republican party and its relationship to Reagan. One feeling the ranch produces -- nearly forces on you -- is the realization that the 1980s were a long time ago. When Reagan took office, the top income tax rate was 70 percent. The Cold War was in one of its most dangerous phases.

By the end of his administration, Reagan had reduced that confiscatory 70 percent tax rate to 28 percent. And he won the Cold War. Most presidents don't leave much for us to remember them by. Reagan has two great legacies.  ...

Over a lifetime of thought and study -- he was 69 when he became president -- Reagan developed a set of core principles that guided whatever he did. To those core principles -- liberty, free enterprise, American exceptionalism -- he added his own personal qualities. He was a serious reader, a self-improver, decidedly non-cynical, temperamentally non-Washington, and deeply patriotic. A gift for communicating made those qualities instantly recognizable to the American public.