If they were or are phonies, dj, it’s what the American people truly desired.
They didn’t have decent opponents.. Well, in Bumpers case, he did run against Rockefeller in ‘70, but Winthrop was in deteriorating health. I think Lt. Gov. Footsie Britt should’ve run instead, but he may have realized the ticket was going down and chose not to run for any office that year.
As for Carter in ‘70, he had a very weak left-wing RINO opponent in Hal Suit. A stronger Conservative might’ve done better (perhaps Machine Gun Ronnie Thompson, the Macon Mayor), although Carter was claiming to run as a Maddox Conservative, though that was a lie as well. Gov. Maddox in the late ‘90s personally sent me reams of materials on Carter, with the admonition that he was one of the most amoral and sleazy individuals ever to have run for office. He was dead on the money about that.
I do believe if Reagan had been the nominee in 1976 instead of Ford, he probably would’ve beaten Carter. But as I’ve often pointed out, the downside is that Reagan would’ve faced viscerally hostile Democrat Congressional supermajorities who would’ve been even angrier that they didn’t get a Dem in after Watergate. He would’ve had a very difficult time pushing through his agenda.