Reagan in a real sense ran on being all things to all people within the context of groups whose support he thought would be valuable. One of these groups was racists, yes.
Also, 'Reagan Democrats' were people like David Lynch (the real person David Lynch, not a David Lynch character), not people like Archie Bunker.
I tend to agree with the first part (to be clear he certainly dabbled in race-baiting quite a bit). That being said, David Lynch is more of a Libertarian IIRC. I'd argue that Reagan Democrats did tend to be more blue-collar (although the extent to which this was the case probably gets exaggerated somewhat). I think Reagan had a great deal of appeal to a large and diverse variety of Democrats (and especially independents) due in part to his mastery of political theater and his ability to use his charisma to make people feel like the sun would come up tomorrow. His talents in both those areas rivaled even FDR's and as with FDR, they were both a core part of his appeal to those outside of his party.
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