You read that correctly and no, I did not only include my opinion to get to that conclusion. For years Conservatives have been pounding anything that symbolizes our Progressive values. One of their biggest punching bags has been former president Jimmy Carter. At the same time the Conservative media machine has been portraying Ronald Reagan as a rock star, he isn't. In my opinion Reagan is the worst president in US history and yes, he has many challengers to being worst. Even though George W. Bush brought us into multiple illegal wars, lied to the American people and destroyed the global economy Reagan did something far worse. Reagan was the first president in modern history to begin shredding the fabric of America with restructuring and destroying the American Dream. To control inflation he forced people out of work by tightening the money supply. He was the first president in modern times to begin a full front assault on unions and the poor.
Even though Reagan may have higher approval ratings today and throughout much of his presidential term when it comes to who united the nation and had a higher approval at a given that would be Jimmy Carter.
According to a Gallup poll Reagan's highest approval rating was 68%, relatively low. Compared to Jimmy Carter's 75%. This was actually higher than Presidents Ford, Nixon, and Clinton.