OOC: OK, can someone please explain what's going on?
OTL, it's conventional political wisdom that literally no Republican could have won 1976, after the mess that was Watergate and the tarnishing of the Republican brand; but equally so that no Democrat could have won 1980. OTL, the Democratic response after the losses of 1980 and 1984 was Jackson/Hart/Clinton "triangulation" -- a move towards a centrist/rightist position, rather than doubling down on the more liberal stances displayed by, say, Mo Udall. (By comparison, see the 21st century Republican party's continued moves towards more conservative stances following electoral defeats in 2008 and 2012.)
Clearly, in this DBWI, something
else happened, and OTL's conventional wisdom is the DBTL's cliché of AH.