Not much realignment in 1980

[Sumner 1868]

Quite a few posters regard the 1980 presidential election as a major shift in politics. I don't see how.

Blue- states that have voted Republican since 1968.

Yellow- states that have voted Republican since 1980.

Red- states that voted Democratic after 1980.

So, there are only four states with voting patterns that were set in the 1980 election. Doesn't seem like much of a realignment to me, let alone a "revolution."

[Asian Nazi]

States don't really "realign" over the course of one election, rather they trend over time due to sociopolitical changes in both the states and the parties.  The 70's and 80's were electoral high water marks (at the presidential level) for the GOP because Deep Southern whites were starting to firmly fall into their column, but the party was still strong enough in Northern and West Coast suburbs to outvote the urban centers.

So 1980 wasn't really a "realigning election" anymore than any other, it was just and example of the GOP performing well in a good year for them while their coalition was still demographically strong.

[buritobr]

1932, 1980: political realignment, NO geographic realignment
1956/1960/1964, 1988: geographic realignment
1976: mini geographic DEalignment

[SingingAnalyst]

THe fact that Reagan won several states (MA, TN, AR and many other southern states) by very close margins exaggerated the apparent size of the Reagan victory.

[DS0816]

Quite a few posters regard the 1980 presidential election as a major shift in politics. I don't see how.

People are loose with the word realignment.