Why Do Conservative Politicians Age So Much Better Than Liberal Ones?

From Thought Mesh:

Even Barry Goldwater is held in high esteem for someone who got totally plastered by LBJ in the 1964 Presidential election. Ronald Reagan, of course, is effectively the archetype. I think it’s quite reasonable to expect current President Bush’s reputation to increase over the next few decades. But what liberal politicians since, say, WWII have aged well? Jimmy Carter? Ted Kennedy? Michael Dukakis? George McGovern? Bill Clinton? Eliot Spitzer? Even John F. Kennedy — his name may be used iconographically, but his policies are anathema to the very people who do that. It’s another aspect of how MAL is the political ideology that dare not show its true form, and whose practitioners can only be protected while they have the power to suppress dissent. Once that slips (due to death, retirement, loss of influence) the inevitable molding begins.