I disagree. He was a psychopathic mass murderer, and just cause he was somewhat involved in politics doesn't give us the right to make him into a meme.
AHC: Kill off both the GOP and the Democratic party
- Thread starter Aaaaasima
- Start date
I disagree. He was a psychopathic mass murderer, and just cause he was somewhat involved in politics doesn't give us the right to make him into a meme.
Yes, obviously he was a terrible, vile person, but in terms of writing historical fiction Bundy provides far more interesting opportunities than many other people (for instance, it's hard to think of any other possible politician who was an actual murderer). Again, Bundy was terrible, but I think it's fair to use him because of the opportunities he presents.
Although yes, the frequency of how often he's been used lately is getting to be annoying.
Oh, I'm well aware I'm guilty of it myself.
Though I will say that it seems like he's been used more and more in the months since I made that.
Truman? Not really, at least not with BOTH sides having weapons
Ike? Again, pretty much a one sided event.
Kennedy? now you are getting there, although most damage is in Europe, Soviet capability to hot the majority of the U.S. is very low.
Johnson through now? Ya, now we're talking.
They had atomic weapons by the time of the conflict in Korea
They tested a 70-kiloton bomb in Kazakhstan during his second term, I believe
Agree
It wouldn't have been a nuclear war so much as it would have been the US nuking the hell out of the USSR.
Oh, the Soviets had some weapons. In 1950 they had FIVE of them. Got up to a couple hundred while Ike was in the White House.
Delivery to North America? Not so much.
Have the Populist Party overshadow the Dems during the Gilded Age. If the Dems didn't nominate William Jennings Bryan in '96, pro-silver Dems would defect to the Populists en masse. But because Bryan sided with the Populists on the issue they just endorsed him. This could possibly be enough to make the Populists one of the Big Two.
As for the Great Depression (assuming it still happens), the parties would be vulnerable then and you might be able to remove the GOP from the equation.
As for the Great Depression (assuming it still happens), the parties would be vulnerable then and you might be able to remove the GOP from the equation.
Wallet
Banned
Roosevelt wins in 1912 and wins in 1916, leads America into WWI. The GOP dies out and join the Progressives.
Democrats win in 1920, 1924, and 1928. But the depression is much worst and race relations are really bad.
Progressives win in 1932. The Democratic Party dies out, replaced by a Conservative party that wins in 1952.
Democrats win in 1920, 1924, and 1928. But the depression is much worst and race relations are really bad.
Progressives win in 1932. The Democratic Party dies out, replaced by a Conservative party that wins in 1952.
1932: Democrats nominate a conservative who believes the budget must be balanced--by a combination of slashing spending and insituting a national sales tax. (This, along with repealing Prohibition, was in fact the program of the most business-oriented Democrats in 1932, including party chairman Raskob. https://books.google.com/books?id=1Ay0A9El8fkC&pg=PP327) He wins in November (after all, the alternative is the discredited Hoover) and proceeds to become a very unpopular president. Yet he is renominated in 1936, due to disunity among his opponents and his own powers of patronage. The Republicans also nominate a lackluster conservative in 1936. As a result, a Farmer-Labor party to the left of both national parties is organized (with support from successful state third parties like the Minnesota Farmer-Laborites, Wisconsin Progressives and North Dakota Non-Partisan League ; insurgent western Republicans like Hiram Johnson, Bronson Cutting and George Norris; liberal Democrats; trade unionists; Socialists; and--in their "People's Front" period--Communists) and wins the election. The remaining Democrats and Republicans eventually merge into a "Conservative Party."
Go with something like @Emperor Julian 's
The Ruins of an American Party System: From 1920 Onward
The Ruins of an American Party System, Part Two: Collision
except have both mainline parties collapse instead of just the Democrats.
The Ruins of an American Party System: From 1920 Onward
The Ruins of an American Party System, Part Two: Collision
except have both mainline parties collapse instead of just the Democrats.
There is a possible one right now. Trump loses massive landslide to HRC. Eventually this causes a bigger death spiral for the GOP, which, under alt-right influence, continue to pull even further and further to the right until it splinters into a couple of far right parties. The influx of neocons and moderates to make the progressives in the Democrat party and they split into a new party, with some of the more leftwing ones joining the greens. Eventually this causes a gradual realignment into another two party system between the Clintonites and a Neo-New Dealer faction, or the political system remains fragmented and there is electoral reform transforming America into a proportional democracy
I'm guessing your POD is post-1900 by forum sorting, but I would imagine a GOP that doesn't rebound in the 1930s and later reorganizes with some non-partisans and Democrats for a new party. Then have the Democratic Party linked to communism in a worse red scare and have it be replaced by a "loyal liberal" party.
The problem with this is that the American parties are incredibly resilient.
The problem with this is that the American parties are incredibly resilient.
thorr97
Banned
Kill 'em both off? Simple! And no nuclear war required!
Let's say on or about October 1st, 2016 an "anonymous hacker" releases a series of videos to the various media outlets across the globe. Due to the Digital Age, such a distribution could be both simultaneous and world-wide thus guaranteeing that the content of the videos could not be suppressed by any one or several biased media outlets.
The content of these videos reveal the clandestine meetings which took place in early 2015 between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and... Barack Obama.
In those meetings, the world learns, Hillary and Obama extort & persuade Trump to run for the presidency on the Republican ticket with the predetermined intent of his "throwing" the race to Hillary. The carrot and stick offered to induce the Donald's participation is yet more multi-billion dollar real estate deals he'd been unable to win himself AND also the threat of exposing a secret Trump had thought he'd securely paid off to keep buried. That secret being that Trump's son, Donald John "Don" Trump Jr., managed to kill off not just the son of a Russian mafia boss but his daughter as well when "Don" drunkenly drove them off the road one night in New Jersey. Trump had paid off the local police - handsomely - to make it appear as an hit and run with the negligent driver still at large. The Obama administration learned of this through its NSA surveillance that noted a disparity between the initial police report and the final filed version. Hence Obama's involvement and hence Hillary's since she too has "dirt" on Obama that she is using in her current White House bid.
To say these videos are politically devastating would be understating things. Particularly once its revealed that the videos were originally recorded by Trump himself and only later acquired through NSA snooping. Their release is proof of massive electoral fraud on Trump's part and on Hillary's part. It's also proof of criminal extortion Obama's part. That political firestorm sears through the Democratic Party like little else. The Bernie Sanders supporters demand that Hillary's victories be invalidated and that Bernie be put on the ballots instead. Ballots which are already printed and too far in the process to legally revise.
On the Republican side, the revelations of Trump's deceptions cause their own firestorm within the GOP as his candidacy is declared illegal and Ted Cruz is put forward as they just and legal victor who should be the party's nominee. The infighting there reaches a fever pitch.
Topping it all however, comes the ensuing Trump revelations.
Upon the secret of "Don's" manslaughter being revealed, that Russian mob boss exacts his bloody revenge and suddenly Donald Trump is left without heirs. And he is left without a business empire either as one after another of his loans are called in by former partners who realize that Trump had likely recorded their dealings as well. Once a rush starts like that it becomes a panic as investors desperately try to recoup their loans while there's still any collateral left. In a veritable blink of an eye, Donald Trump's entire life is brought low. His family murdered in revenge, his business empire stripped away from him, and also facing criminal charges for electoral fraud, Trump decides he's nothing left to lose and releases all the rest of his decade's worth of secret recordings and evidence of the dirty dealings he's done.
Dealings with Republicans and Democrats both.
In the span of just a few weeks the leading candidates of both the Republican and Democratic parties are completely discredited and ruled illegal. The parties themselves are revealed as horribly corrupt enterprises as the Trump revelations inspire further such "data dumps" on other politicians otherwise unconnected to Trump or Hillary.
While not happening in time for alternative candidates to emerge in force, the general sentiment of "throw 'em all out" is the rule of the day come the election. And that mood becomes the dominant political force in American politics as each new revelation of corruption and malfeasance just drives the fever pitch ever higher. Hundreds and then thousands of incumbent politicians at all levels of government see the mobs forming and opt to retire before the next set of revelations catches up to them. It makes for some truly spectacular 2018 mid term elections and leaves the political arena of 2020 with both the Republican and Democratic parties mere shadows of their former selves and both desperately trying to reclaim some degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the voting public.
Let's say on or about October 1st, 2016 an "anonymous hacker" releases a series of videos to the various media outlets across the globe. Due to the Digital Age, such a distribution could be both simultaneous and world-wide thus guaranteeing that the content of the videos could not be suppressed by any one or several biased media outlets.
The content of these videos reveal the clandestine meetings which took place in early 2015 between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and... Barack Obama.
In those meetings, the world learns, Hillary and Obama extort & persuade Trump to run for the presidency on the Republican ticket with the predetermined intent of his "throwing" the race to Hillary. The carrot and stick offered to induce the Donald's participation is yet more multi-billion dollar real estate deals he'd been unable to win himself AND also the threat of exposing a secret Trump had thought he'd securely paid off to keep buried. That secret being that Trump's son, Donald John "Don" Trump Jr., managed to kill off not just the son of a Russian mafia boss but his daughter as well when "Don" drunkenly drove them off the road one night in New Jersey. Trump had paid off the local police - handsomely - to make it appear as an hit and run with the negligent driver still at large. The Obama administration learned of this through its NSA surveillance that noted a disparity between the initial police report and the final filed version. Hence Obama's involvement and hence Hillary's since she too has "dirt" on Obama that she is using in her current White House bid.
To say these videos are politically devastating would be understating things. Particularly once its revealed that the videos were originally recorded by Trump himself and only later acquired through NSA snooping. Their release is proof of massive electoral fraud on Trump's part and on Hillary's part. It's also proof of criminal extortion Obama's part. That political firestorm sears through the Democratic Party like little else. The Bernie Sanders supporters demand that Hillary's victories be invalidated and that Bernie be put on the ballots instead. Ballots which are already printed and too far in the process to legally revise.
On the Republican side, the revelations of Trump's deceptions cause their own firestorm within the GOP as his candidacy is declared illegal and Ted Cruz is put forward as they just and legal victor who should be the party's nominee. The infighting there reaches a fever pitch.
Topping it all however, comes the ensuing Trump revelations.
Upon the secret of "Don's" manslaughter being revealed, that Russian mob boss exacts his bloody revenge and suddenly Donald Trump is left without heirs. And he is left without a business empire either as one after another of his loans are called in by former partners who realize that Trump had likely recorded their dealings as well. Once a rush starts like that it becomes a panic as investors desperately try to recoup their loans while there's still any collateral left. In a veritable blink of an eye, Donald Trump's entire life is brought low. His family murdered in revenge, his business empire stripped away from him, and also facing criminal charges for electoral fraud, Trump decides he's nothing left to lose and releases all the rest of his decade's worth of secret recordings and evidence of the dirty dealings he's done.
Dealings with Republicans and Democrats both.
In the span of just a few weeks the leading candidates of both the Republican and Democratic parties are completely discredited and ruled illegal. The parties themselves are revealed as horribly corrupt enterprises as the Trump revelations inspire further such "data dumps" on other politicians otherwise unconnected to Trump or Hillary.
While not happening in time for alternative candidates to emerge in force, the general sentiment of "throw 'em all out" is the rule of the day come the election. And that mood becomes the dominant political force in American politics as each new revelation of corruption and malfeasance just drives the fever pitch ever higher. Hundreds and then thousands of incumbent politicians at all levels of government see the mobs forming and opt to retire before the next set of revelations catches up to them. It makes for some truly spectacular 2018 mid term elections and leaves the political arena of 2020 with both the Republican and Democratic parties mere shadows of their former selves and both desperately trying to reclaim some degree of legitimacy in the eyes of the voting public.