1980 was my second Presidential election as a voter. I remember friends saying they would vote for Reagan because of his optimism, or that Carter seemed inept (yah, seems the press had already begun to crater).
Two years later most of them wouldn't own up (but he still won again in '84, mounting scandals notwithstanding, partly because, well, the press, which is how GHWB came away unscathed...)
I wasn't old enough to vote, but I remember Carter v Reagan. Carter got a lot of shit in the press for being a "hick" from Georgia. Reagan was polished. People wanted that movie star impersonation of a "Real Americanβ’ ". Reagan is like the AI version of the nonsense they create on Trump.
My dad voted Democrat until Reagan. He believed the "they're gonna take our guns" nonsense. If he was alive today he'd be voting for Trump, because he became more openly racist after Reagan, too.
(Oh the irony of dad retiring to rural GA - like that "hick" he voted against because after all that Republican rule, that's what he could afford on his retirement benefits.)
Good thing Donnie came along to make Ronnie seem like a piker.
OR β
The Ronnie-to-Donnie continuum is actually the natural devolution of the Republican Party vis a vis its Southern Strategy.
@InUnfunky The second.
@t_heislen