By BI: The candidate “knew what the sophisticates and elites did not — that the American people were thirsting for leadership and to be told that it was OK to cherish their children’s future.” The passage sounds like every postmortem on Donald Trump’s march through the Republican primaries. In truth, it was written about Ronald Reagan’s quest for the 1976 nomination.

What you probably also don’t remember is that during Reagan’s winning campaign for the presidency in 1980, he used the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again.”

NY Post  It comes from Craig Shirley’s 2005 book, “Reagan’s Revolution,” and pinpoints the Gipper’s losing ’76 campaign against Gerald Ford as the foundation of the world-changing success that followed.

I am not making a case that Trump is the second coming of Reagan, yet they share the distinction of stoking the enthusiasm of the party’s rank-and-file despite powerful internal resistance. Reagan was regarded by top Republicans such as Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater as a dangerous simpleton. #NeverReagan would have been their hashtag.

Worse things are said about Trump, and defectors include the 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, and some GOP senators. House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s not ready to endorse Trump, and both former Presidents Bush may not support him.

The resistance seems genuine and can be respected on one condition: that the dissenters acknowledge they are playing with fire.

Because the next president likely will be either Trump or Hillary Clinton, it is irresponsible for Republican leaders to say, as Romney and Jeb Bush have done, that they will vote for neither. Those who stay home could be helping elect Clinton.

It’s possible that some of those huffing and puffing the loudest actually prefer Clinton. Under her, they would keep their seats at the elites’ table, while Trump will disrupt their comfort and turn over the table. In his own way, that’s exactly what Reagan did, and it saved the country and the party.

Breitbart reported that the liberal media tried to attack Trump’s famous “Make America Great Again” slogan by claiming that it came from a Democrat.

This rumor was quickly put to bed, ironically enough by a liberal Buzzfeed reporter, after it was revealed that anyone with two thumbs and a partially functioning brain can simply type “Reagan” and “make America great again” into Google and find this: