Carter was a classic centrist. Both sides hated him. And by today's standards, Reagan was only slightly right of center. Reagan is remembered more fondly than Carter because of attitude. Carter told American: if we all sacrifice and work really hard, things will be pretty good again. Reagan told us: Everything going to be great because we deserve to be great. And yes, cheap oil destroyed the USSR, not the US military build up. The military build up pushed them over the edge, but they were already failing. US military leaders knew this at the time, that's why the build up happened when it did.