"It is a quirk of American culture that each generation of nonconservatives sees the right-wingers of its own generation as the scary ones, then chooses to remember the right-wingers of the last generation as sort of cuddly. In 1964, observers horrified by Barry Goldwater pined for the sensible Robert Taft, the conservative leader of the 1950s. When Reagan was president, liberals spoke fondly of sweet old Goldwater. Nowadays, as we grapple with the malevolence of President Bush, it's Reagan we remember as the sensible one." -- Rick Perlstein, "The Reagan Legacy", 2004-06-07 [link goes to a reprint with a preface regarding its current relevance, from 2008-01-16]