it was more symbolic for how people felt about him - it mattered way more to Reagan as an issue of optics.

And the Iranian hostage crisis was intentionally prolonged for the purpose of becoming that symbol...

Many Americans felt he was ineffective

Yes, I already mentioned the party fractured before the election due to his moderate policies compared to the party.

Now that I write this in some ways it mimics a lot of what happened with Biden.

It literally is, but I had hoped you had realized that already after reading:

people keep acting shocked about current events just don’t know we’re watching reruns.

But in any case what matters now is realizing this isn't unique, and we're not heading down the right path.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Isn't just an old time saying, it's the fucking truth and right now people need to read their history. You can't just look up a random event to check against current events, you need to have an existing knowledge of history and be able to realize where, when, how, and most importantly why things are connected...

Or at least listen to people who do.