History doesn't repeat but it rhymes. In the late 1960s and early 1970s you had leftist insanity gripping the country, traditional institutions destroyed, domestic terrorism, the promotion of degeneracy, etc. The 1970s were then malaise, military failures, general decline.
The country swinging culturally to the right in the eighties was in large part a response it all that. It's not a perfect 1:1 comparison but theres definite similarities between then and now.
Personally I think our culture is too pozzed for a repeat of Reagan. It's all downhill from here on out. I really really hope I'm wrong though. I personally loved the 1980s.
EDIT: Yeah I get Reagans policies were often shit. But as a figurehead for society to rally around he was great. And we need that, we need to fix our culture if we are ever going to fix our politics.