From Nixon to Prager–What Happened?

From Nixon to Prager–What Happened?

Alan Johnson: From Nixon to Prager

How to account for the transformation of American conservatism? Well, first let’s take its measure.

1974: GOP President Richard Nixon teams up with arch-liberal Ted Kennedy and tries to pass universal health care. ?The time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American,? says Nixon, who was no stranger to illness or poverty.

2010: Conservative Denis Prager writes:
“I write the words ‘civil war’ with an ache in my heart, but we are in one.” And why is that? Because a “terrible thing happened to America on Sunday, March 21, 2010.”

What accounts for the journey “from Nixon to Prager”?