BTW, I don't agree that "pragmatism" brought us to the state we are in today. After Reagan and Clinton our country was in the best shape it had been in a century. BushII put his neocon ideology to work and pretty much destroyed the economic, political and social progress that several years of pragmatists had built. I don't think of BushI as a contributor, he was basically just Reagan light for a few years until we could find someone better.
In fact, the best president in the 20th century was Calvin Coolidge, not any of those you mentioned. Coolidge ran a presidency that was as close to being Constitutional as recorded since that of
Martin van Buren's nearly a century earlier. No president since Coolidge has made the slightest attempt to live within the law, particularly those you mention.
Reagan did campaign as a Goldwater Republican, then employed far too many men loyal to the Bush crime family to get even half of his plans into action. That makes Reagan a failure as a president.
Nixon's position on the presidency is summed up best by his statement to David Frost during an interview, "if the president does it, it's not illegal".
I think the country wants a law abiding president. When we get one who forces the government to act within the law, punishes those government agents that act illegally, fires those that act incompetently (FBI incompetence led to the successful completion of the 9/11 attacks, no one was fired), and gets the federal government out of our faces; we'll all be better off.
For those that think Ron Paul isn't
pragmatic I'll just point you to his reputation with his constituents in serving them when they ask for help. It's among the best in the House of Representatives. While others have claimed that Ron Paul is
feeding at the federal trough when requesting a portion of funds delineated for earmarks, funds that are committed regardless of whether or not he requests a portion of them, that is in fact a pragmatic reaction to documented needs of the people in his district.
Unwavering dedication to lawful government combined with pragmatism within that law will make a good president.