I hope this doesn’t get considered politics, since what I’m asking for is that you create the most libertarian USA possible, not a commentary on the validity of libertarianism.
The challenge is to create the most libertarian possible modern USA with the first PoD between 1858 and 1899 (thus putting this thread firmly in pre-1900 forum) and any number of fairly reasonable PoD’s from then on. By reasonable, I mean don’t make a PoD be some extreme libertarian presidential candidate win an election that he stood no chance of winning OTL unless the timeline has diverged to the point that the candidate is mainstream enough to win.
I’ll do an abbreviated example: Salmon Chase, who was not a tariff man, wins the GOP nomination in 1860, and thus ensures that the GOP wouldn’t unify behind tariffs as per OTL. He wins the Civil War in a somewhat longer war, lasting into 1867, since he is not as good an administrator as Lincoln was. However, in this alt-Civil War, the losses in terms of human cost radicalize the North to be firmly in favor of an extreme Reconstruction that lasts nearly 30 years, ensuring black civil rights would be generally protected. However, the big divide in the party is over the issue of tariffs, and after the Democrats are discredited in the late 1860s, the party splits in two—the Liberal Republicans (who oppose tariffs) and the National Republicans (who favor tariffs). After a few election cycles of control of government switching back and forth, finally there is a major recession in 1889 brought on by the tariff policies of the National Republicans. The Liberal Republicans win the 1890 midterms in a landslide and win the election of 1892, after the discreditation of tariffs. The Liberal Republicans hold unmitigated power for 40 years, especially after they expanded the right to vote to women in 1907 until the election of 1932 when they were defeated by the extreme hawkish/imperialist New Democratic Party, which favored entry into the First Great War on the side of the Russo-Italian-German Alliance. Other than war and military spending, there was little variation in the policies of the LibReps and the NDP, whose victory in the First World War (1931-1936) kept them in power until 1948 when the LibReps won due to the fall of Japan to communism. The parties up to today have minor political differences, basically differing on the role of federalism vs nationalism in government. There
The challenge is to create the most libertarian possible modern USA with the first PoD between 1858 and 1899 (thus putting this thread firmly in pre-1900 forum) and any number of fairly reasonable PoD’s from then on. By reasonable, I mean don’t make a PoD be some extreme libertarian presidential candidate win an election that he stood no chance of winning OTL unless the timeline has diverged to the point that the candidate is mainstream enough to win.
I’ll do an abbreviated example: Salmon Chase, who was not a tariff man, wins the GOP nomination in 1860, and thus ensures that the GOP wouldn’t unify behind tariffs as per OTL. He wins the Civil War in a somewhat longer war, lasting into 1867, since he is not as good an administrator as Lincoln was. However, in this alt-Civil War, the losses in terms of human cost radicalize the North to be firmly in favor of an extreme Reconstruction that lasts nearly 30 years, ensuring black civil rights would be generally protected. However, the big divide in the party is over the issue of tariffs, and after the Democrats are discredited in the late 1860s, the party splits in two—the Liberal Republicans (who oppose tariffs) and the National Republicans (who favor tariffs). After a few election cycles of control of government switching back and forth, finally there is a major recession in 1889 brought on by the tariff policies of the National Republicans. The Liberal Republicans win the 1890 midterms in a landslide and win the election of 1892, after the discreditation of tariffs. The Liberal Republicans hold unmitigated power for 40 years, especially after they expanded the right to vote to women in 1907 until the election of 1932 when they were defeated by the extreme hawkish/imperialist New Democratic Party, which favored entry into the First Great War on the side of the Russo-Italian-German Alliance. Other than war and military spending, there was little variation in the policies of the LibReps and the NDP, whose victory in the First World War (1931-1936) kept them in power until 1948 when the LibReps won due to the fall of Japan to communism. The parties up to today have minor political differences, basically differing on the role of federalism vs nationalism in government. There