Jimmy Carter lost to him, and while looking back from fifty years later Carter looks progressive...
At the time there was a fracture of the Dem party from the left because they considered Carter too moderate.
The most important part of learning about our political history is understanding what we've lost over time. Like the existence of a party even remotely leftwing.
Quick edit:
A big reason for Carter's loss was the inability to solve the Iranian hostage crisis right before the election. Which we later found out Republicans colluded with Iran to not resolve it while Carter was in office, then the whole Iran-Contra shit.
Also reminiscent of how Nixon prolonged the Vietnam war for the same reason...
And I won't be surprised to find out in a decade Trump did the same with Israel.
Like, people kept acting shocked about current events just don't know we're watching reruns. It's like when people got excited about Game of thrones and waited years between seasons for cliffhangers. The books already existed and they could have just found out what happened.
But just like they wouldn't read the books, nobody wants to read a history book anymore.s