Its even worse than that.
Somewhere, I think it was in 1980, the Media discovered they could manipulate elections by manipulating voters.
They tried to convince America that nominating Reagan was going to cause WW3.
They were determined to keep Reagan out to the point that Reagan felt he needed Bush on as VP to “unify” the GOP.
One of the few mistakes The Great One ever made.
It makes you wonder if it was the media (working with John Connally and Texas GOP) was how this “unify” story all started.
Talking again about the 1980 election....
I was looking at John Anderson, a House “Republican” from Ill who eventually ran as a 3rd Party.
The media really promoted this guy until polling said he was pulling more people from Carter than from Reagan.
When you follow his career, he moves farther and farther left to the point where he was an early supporter of what became Social Justice.