Conservatives have been dreaming that a political reincarnation of Ronald Reagan would lead them to an electoral promised land. I never put my faith in such a possibility, because the past is a dangerous place to live. Reagan never lived in the past, though he did learn from it.

Yet among the contemporary political figures who closely represent the substance and style that made Ronald Reagan who he was is Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican. At a fundraising event for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad last Saturday, Rubio touched all the Reagan bases and focused on solutions, not just a recitation of well-known problems. Probably his best line of the evening was, “The way to turn our economy around is not by making rich people poorer. It’s by making poor people richer.” In this, he resembled Reagan’s favorite president, Calvin Coolidge, who said, “Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”