In 1981, one of Washington’s most respected Democratic elder statesmen dismissed the new president as an “amiable dunce.” Clark Clifford, a former Secretary of Defense, said it at a dinner; the phrase leaked and became the era’s shorthand. Kind, but foolish. Likable, but lost.

Forty years later, Gallup found that 69% of Americans, nearly half of Democrats among them, ranked Ronald Reagan one of the best presidents in the nation’s history. Today, the same voices reach for nearly identical language about President Donald Trump. History may be preparing the same verdict.