No, of course not, and I'm almost insulted that you asked the question. But people like Reagan do matter - he was able to bridge gaps on the right between the Christians and the marketeers, win over a corporate elite that was originally skeptical of his agenda, and seduce enough of the electorate to win. He was a very successful spinner of fantasies, and that mattered. In Carrol's world, individuals and even institutions don't seem to matter - it's just the Forces of History working. There's no agency in CoxLand at all.
^^^^^^^ CB: Well, I'm overposted already. Nice discussions. Can't wait to post more tomorrow.
Just want to throw in here that Marx or one of the Big Marxists' formulation in criticizing Big Man theories of history was that important individuals can slow down or speed up historical trends set by historical laws and forces, but they can't change them altogether.
Reagan was an important individual in reversing to some extent the social democratic and civil rights reforms and trends won in the thirties, forties ,fifties,sixties and seventies. Of course, we know that there were other important players, like Lewis Powell with his infamous "memo". But we also can infer that the class conscious leaders of the ruling class used their money and power to swing it behind Reagan's public leadership, no ?
It's those class "forces" that are the forces of history , I think, in Marxist discussion. So, when we break it down, the "forces" are people with "agency" , too. The "forces" are classes and their most class conscious members leading them.