Reagan Redux: Democrats, GOP Fight over 1980s but Campaign Strategies May Backfire, since Americans' Views on Reagan Era Are Mixed

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RONALD REAGAN and later George Bush ran against the Carter years, with their stagflation and hostages abroad. That was a no-brainer, as strategies go.

Lately Democrats from Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania to Douglas Stephens, a candidate for an open House seat in Peoria, Ill., are accusing their opponents of seeking a return to the trickle-down Reaganomics of the 1980s.

This is a trickier proposition. Americans hold mixed views about the 1980s and its policies.

"The Reagan years were great. We all made a lot of money," says Steve Korfonta, a real estate developer eating lunch on a downtown park bench on a sunny day this week.

"It was a criminal …