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...)
Good thing Donnie came along to make Ronnie seem like a piker.
OR —
The Ronnie-to-Donnie continuum is actually the natural devolution of the Republican Party vis a vis its Southern Strategy.