I mean, if we're finger-snapping people I'd have started with Nixon. Much of what Reagan was, Nixon paved the way for. Most of the modern GOP's playbook can be traced back to Nixon -- that includes the overt racism, the antisemitism, the warmongering, the proto-fascist behavior, the war on drugs, all of it.

Nixon is the original ratfucker. His second term was explicitly all about getting revenge on his perceived "enemies." Sound familiar? Nixon said in an interview, "When the President does it, that means it's not illegal." Sound familiar? When he was under investigation regarding the Watergate break-in, he responded by firing the attorney general in charge of investigating him. Sound familiar?

It's uncanny. Where he faltered was just being so blatantly unlikable. If Nixon had managed to be charismatic in addition to remaining as much of an utter bastard as he was, I think the world would be an even worse place today than it is already.