In 1980 I was certainly not as politically aware as I am now. I think the reason for RR’s win over Carter is much simpler. Carter had become associated with a pretty fetid decline in everything America. The gas crisis was big deal, the Iranian situation was very uncomfortable; and those things happened one after another right after the 1776 celebration which was of course a big deal....but right after that adrenaline shot came event after event that Carter got tattooed with. I was a Dem at the time, having been brought up in an East coast lib household. Even to me, Carter looked like such a fool and whatever the heck he was doing was not benefiting America, nor Americans.
The stark contrast with today is how all the miserable crap going on in the world is somehow never, ever the fault of 0bama. This, I find astounding. “He got us out of the worst financial crisis since the GD”. Yeah, right. “He got Bin Laden”.
22% interest had nothing to do with it, right?