Then, as now, there was a sense that events were beyond the control of statesmen, and that the two political parties offered an unpalatable choice. Carter seemed hypnotized by the gathering storms around him, and was sufficiently weakened politically that Sen. Edward Kennedy, a dozen years after Chappaquiddick, felt emboldened to challenge him in the Democratic primaries. The Republican favorite—harried from the right by Jack Kemp and from the left by George H.W. Bush—was the right-wing onetime movie actor, and ex-California governor, Ronald Reagan.

It's not difficult to see Anderson's appeal to 1970s independents. By 1980, he was a liberal by any reasonable measure—in favor of licensing guns, opposed to increases in military spending, pro-abortion—but a self-described fiscal conservative. He had also tapped into what we now regard as the populist, but essentially nonpartisan, disdain for business-as-usual in Washington. The fact that Anderson, at 48, was prematurely gray and favored black suits, solemn expressions, and horn-rimmed glasses, gave him the look of a Puritan divine or Sen. Elizabeth Warren's uncle.