When the election results came in, it was Goldwater in 1964 all over again—only this time it was the incumbent president cast as the electoral loser. In addition to Washington DC—and just as Goldwater had—Jimmy Carter only took six states. Ronald Reagan was elected in a landslide, with his coattails ushering in a Republican Senate for the first time since Eisenhower. As 1981 began, what had been considered an absurdity five years prior became a reality in both the United States and the UK: both governments were now under the control of members of the right-wing half of each nation’s respective
...more
