Here ya go: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...l-night-timeline.444903/page-14#post-21418358You sure can, Gillan1220!Just make sure that you credit me in the description and maybe add a link to your timeline so I can take a look at it.
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
- Status
Bah, Humbug! An Ebenezer Scrooge infobox.
Ebenezer Scrooge (7 February 1786 - 25 December 1866) was a British businessman, accountant and debt collector who lived in London.
Bio
Ebenezer Scrooge was born on on the 7th of February 1786 in London. His mother died when he was a young boy and his father would place him in a boarding school. While Scrooge would enjoy his time at the boarding school, his father would usually leave him there alone at Christmas-time while his schoolmates would return home to loving families. He had a sister named Fan whom he loved very much who would die during childbirth giving birth to his nephew Fred Holywell.
In 1804 at the age of 18, Ebenezer Scrooge would get an apprentice job the warehouse of John Fezziwig. One Christmas Eve during a dance, he would meet and fall in love with a young woman named Belle and proposed marriage. The two would remain engaged for a decade. However, his love for Belle would gradually eventually be overwhelmed by his love for money. Belle realized this and, disgusted by his obsession with money, eventually left him one Christmas.
Scrooge would eventually start up an accounting house, where he would deal with exchanging money obligations, collecting debts and money-laundering. He would later hire Jacob Marley to help him with his business and serve as his business partner. They would work together until Marley died on Christmas Eve of 1836. Scrooge would later hire Robert "Bob" Cratchit to be an employee at his workplace shortly afterwards and would later promote him to be his partner on Boxing Day 1843.
The Christmas season of 1843 would be a time of change in Scrooge's life, and it would be for the better. After rejecting to donate money to the poor, rejecting his nephew Fred's invite to Christmas dinner and telling Bob Cratchit that while he could take Christmas off but would have to come in early on Boxing Day to make up for taking the day off, Scrooge would set off for home. He would state that allegedly that night, he was visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, who would tell him to change his ways or else suffer for the rest of eternity in the afterlife. Scrooge state that he would also be visited by three more ghosts, who would show him the memories of his past, the events of the present, and the possible future if he had remained selfish.
Not likening what he saw in the future, Scrooge would redeem himself and change his attitude for the better. After awakening on Christmas Day, he would treat his maid Mrs. Dibler much kinder, he would give a boy some money to buy a turkey for the Cratchit Family for their Christmas dinner, have Christmas dinner with Fred and his family and make amends with them. In addition, once Bob Cratchit came into work on Boxing Day, he would raise his salary and would promote him to be his new partner. Scrooge would also help improve the health of Cratchit's son Timothy (better known as "Tiny Tim"). Tiny Tim in his later years would mention that Scrooge would become "like a second father to him".
Scrooge would later help out with his nephew's run in the British Parliament in the early 1850s.
He would continue to help out with the poor of London and providing extra money to both his nephew's and Cratchit's families.
On Christmas Day 1866 at the age of 80, Ebenezer Scrooge would die after a period of declining health. Ironically, Tiny Tim would be the only member of the Cratchit family to come to his funeral.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
Ebenezer Scrooge (7 February 1786 - 25 December 1866) was a British businessman, accountant and debt collector who lived in London.
Bio
Ebenezer Scrooge was born on on the 7th of February 1786 in London. His mother died when he was a young boy and his father would place him in a boarding school. While Scrooge would enjoy his time at the boarding school, his father would usually leave him there alone at Christmas-time while his schoolmates would return home to loving families. He had a sister named Fan whom he loved very much who would die during childbirth giving birth to his nephew Fred Holywell.
In 1804 at the age of 18, Ebenezer Scrooge would get an apprentice job the warehouse of John Fezziwig. One Christmas Eve during a dance, he would meet and fall in love with a young woman named Belle and proposed marriage. The two would remain engaged for a decade. However, his love for Belle would gradually eventually be overwhelmed by his love for money. Belle realized this and, disgusted by his obsession with money, eventually left him one Christmas.
Scrooge would eventually start up an accounting house, where he would deal with exchanging money obligations, collecting debts and money-laundering. He would later hire Jacob Marley to help him with his business and serve as his business partner. They would work together until Marley died on Christmas Eve of 1836. Scrooge would later hire Robert "Bob" Cratchit to be an employee at his workplace shortly afterwards and would later promote him to be his partner on Boxing Day 1843.
The Christmas season of 1843 would be a time of change in Scrooge's life, and it would be for the better. After rejecting to donate money to the poor, rejecting his nephew Fred's invite to Christmas dinner and telling Bob Cratchit that while he could take Christmas off but would have to come in early on Boxing Day to make up for taking the day off, Scrooge would set off for home. He would state that allegedly that night, he was visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, who would tell him to change his ways or else suffer for the rest of eternity in the afterlife. Scrooge state that he would also be visited by three more ghosts, who would show him the memories of his past, the events of the present, and the possible future if he had remained selfish.
Not likening what he saw in the future, Scrooge would redeem himself and change his attitude for the better. After awakening on Christmas Day, he would treat his maid Mrs. Dibler much kinder, he would give a boy some money to buy a turkey for the Cratchit Family for their Christmas dinner, have Christmas dinner with Fred and his family and make amends with them. In addition, once Bob Cratchit came into work on Boxing Day, he would raise his salary and would promote him to be his new partner. Scrooge would also help improve the health of Cratchit's son Timothy (better known as "Tiny Tim"). Tiny Tim in his later years would mention that Scrooge would become "like a second father to him".
Scrooge would later help out with his nephew's run in the British Parliament in the early 1850s.
He would continue to help out with the poor of London and providing extra money to both his nephew's and Cratchit's families.
On Christmas Day 1866 at the age of 80, Ebenezer Scrooge would die after a period of declining health. Ironically, Tiny Tim would be the only member of the Cratchit family to come to his funeral.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
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Pretty sure that's meant to be "employee." Scrooge made Cratchit his partner but he never handed over the business completely. Other than that nice work.
Yeah, I meant employee, but I guess I didn't double check my spelling before I took a snapshot of the infobox. I might delete the infobox, make a new one and then add the new one to the page later.
I know.
Thanks, JamesHunter and thanks for the like on my post.
The First State is about to get its first President. But what if the other 49 states had all beaten Delaware to it?
a. Died of natural causes.
b. Assassinated by John Wiles Booth.
c. Assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau.
d. Assassinated by Giuseppe Zangara.
e. Resigned.
f. Mortally wounded in the September 11 attacks.
g. Killed in the September 11 attacks.
a. Died of natural causes.
b. Assassinated by John Wiles Booth.
c. Assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau.
d. Assassinated by Giuseppe Zangara.
e. Resigned.
f. Mortally wounded in the September 11 attacks.
g. Killed in the September 11 attacks.
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Isn’t this current politics?The First State is about to get its first President. But what if the other 49 states had all beaten Delaware to it?
It has the current president and a nationally prominent senator
Nazi Space Spy
Banned
Yeah, but it'd be rather pointless to cut off a list of leaders that dates back to a POD in 1796 because of the last three names on it. My understanding of the current politics rule is when you make a list with a POD of Gore winning in 2000 (or something like that) and then going onwards. Perhaps a moderator could clear the air on this, but I can't imagine that they'd cut off the top of a timeline with such an early POD.
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I recalled an incident a bit over a month ago with something that kinda seemed like this situation. I dug it up, it was this discussion. With the mod comment of...
"I don't think that an excessively literal interpretation of that rule is called for. The things you reported were more about an alternate electoral system than the politicians represented, who were just used as representations of what the parties are like. I don't think "Bernie Sanders is a progressive politician" is the sort of statement that's likely to start a political argument."
So there's some leeway for this. With a literal interpretation of the above comment from a mod, one might say that since this Presidents list would not be acceptable, since it isn't necessarily about an alternate electoral system per se, just the same American system with different Presidents. But if we decide to not be excessively literal, one might say it would be acceptable under the logic of "I don't think 'Mitt Romney is from Utah and Joe Biden is from Delaware' are the sort of statements that're likely to start political arguments". That would make me (someone who is of course not a mod) think that the post here would be fine, then
Chapman
Donor
(Edited 12/30/2020)
I know Roger Stone could be considered current politics, but I hope this is far enough removed from reality that it doesn't matter.
Taken from my own American dystopia timeline.
A little bit of context; America becomes an authoritarian, one-party state in the aftermath of a bombing on the Capitol building at the 1951 State of the Union Address leaves J. Edgar Hoover as the last man standing. After decades of rule under the Citizens United, the sudden assassination of President Jesse Helms less than a year into his term in 1989 leads to the ascension of Donald Rumsfeld from Veep to POTUS. The most right-wing elements of the party fear Rumsfeld is too moderate, and as he attempts to placate urban riots with mild civil reforms, this resistance stiffens into conspiracy. Rumsfeld's plummeting popularity and inability to deal with the social and economic issues of the day also served to seal his fate, as Reform Party candidate Ralph Nader mounted a serious campaign against him. For decades the Citizens United had been effectively unopposed at the presidential level, facing only local opposition parties (many of whom were mere proxies of the CU) at lower levels, until Walter Cronkite's independent bid in 1988. Though unsuccessful, Cronkite electrified the opposition to one-party domination and four years later his supporters drafted Nader to build on this momentum. Establishing the Reform Party ballot line, he chose former Governor Mike Gravel (I-AK) as his running mate owing to his success in third party politics and forceful support for reform. The pair won an upset victory in the 1992 election, or so they thought; in truth, the election had been purposefully rigged as pretext for ousting Rumsfeld. Mere days into his presidency, Nader was charged with a list of crimes including bribery, extortion, "dual-loyalty" and treason on the basis of falsified evidence presented by then-General Oliver North. Gravel too was charged with various allegations of corruption, and Congress swiftly removed them both from office. General North, for his heroism, was made President by an act of Congress and pledged to keep office only until a new round of elections could be held. After 1994 midterms, Congressman Dick Cheney (Citizens United-WY) was elevated to Speaker of the House and North, surprisingly true to his word, resigned in favor of Cheney. North would later be appointed to the Supreme Court by President Stone. Cheney, however, insisted he had no interest in remaining President and would only serve until the expiration of Nader's original term. In this vacuum, FBI Director Roger Stone, longtime supporter of the Citizens United, advisor to Presidents James Buckley and Jesse Helms arose as a popular choice among establishment members of the government. He went on to win the 1996 election, and after his victory was certified by the Electoral College, Cheney nominated him to the Vice Presidency. On January 1, 1997, Cheney resigned and Stone became President. He nominated his own running mate and Vice President-elect, Senator Ted Bundy (Citizens United-UT), who was confirmed without issue. Things don't improve much over the chaos of the last several years, as you might imagine, and in 1999 widespread panic following terrorist attacks in major cities across the US combined with fears of Y2K led to Stone secluding himself in Yakima, Washington at the suggestion of his Vice President. This was a fateful mistake, as Bundy planned to lure Stone to his compound, sneak away from their Secret Service security detail (as the two were often known to do, both for various reasons) and murder the President. His plan succeeds, and after discarding Stone's body in the wilderness, Ted Bundy returns to declare himself POTUS.
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As I understand it the post would fall under current politics if
1) it deliberately prompts a discussion/argument about current politics
2) one has to use current politics to discuss the post
Very neat posts @Omar Bradley! any more information about that setting? also what is that like a "dark mode" wikibox?
Thanks! I haven't exactly developed a narrative for these infoboxes, but I might add some context in the next ones. Also, that Dark Mode is a chrome extension.
Nazi Space Spy
Banned
Perhaps we can create an "After 2000" board or at least move the current politics wikibox thread to this board. There are so many threads in chat that are stickied that I can never find the Current Politics thread. I'd imagine bringing that thread to this board would end the problem of political debates in this thread. Basically a containment strategy.
Just an idea.
Just an idea.
-1964 Elections
-1966 Elections
The two years between the 1966 and 1968 elections saw a continuation of the trends that had been occurring beforehand, further departing from the '64 triumph of liberalism to a more divided and conflicted political sphere. Rioting continued, with the "Long Hot Summer of 1967", with conflicts emerging over matters of racism. urban poverty, and police brutality, vs an increasingly popular rhetoric of "tough on crime". Also seen was the emergence of the "hippie" subculture, as well as its critics. And the Vietnam War had been ramping up in intensity, becoming another fault-line for strong political conflict, protests, and counter-protests, especially during and after the Tet Offensive
The Republican Party entered the 1968 election cycle optimistic. Richard Nixon started off as a clear front-runner for the nomination, and ended up beating Romney and Reagan in order to win the nomination. Nixon made a strong conservative argument to "tough on crime"/"law and order" politics, but was no Goldwater - where the 1964 loser spoke of sawing off the eastern seaboard, Nixon spoke of unity. He broadly sought to pose himself as a pragmatic conservative, seeking a reduction in Federal responsibility while being willing to work and compromise with a Democratic Congress, and wishing to reform and in some cases eliminate Great Society programs but retaining a substantial safety net nonetheless. On healthcare, for example, Nixon preferred the elimination of the National Health Insurance Administration, but advocated for replacing it with a system of mandated private insurance, subsidies for low income healthcare, and the creation of a universal old-age insurance program. On civil rights, Nixon criticized things like forced busing, but nonetheless supported continued federal enforcement of integration. Nixon's orientation was seen as a strong way to balance appealing to the party base, taking advantage of the political situations, and reaching out to voters who had been repulsed by the Goldwater campaign but were also put off by perceived excesses of the Great Society and the social disorder sweeping the nation. Republicans thus went into the election optimistic and unified
The Democratic Party entered the 1968 election cycle in shambles. LBJ sought reelection for a second full term, but faced a strong primary challenge from the left from Eugene McCarthy, and withdrew from seeking a second term after a poor showing in the first state primary. At that point, a three way race emerged between anti-war McCarthy and Kennedy, and incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The race was shaken up again, with the assassination of Robert Kennedy. At the convention, Humphrey was able to attain the nomination, but with controversy - he won without winning a single state of the states that did have primaries at that point. The Democratic National Convention itself saw significant anti-war protest against Johnson and Humphrey, which ended with a 'police riot' of brutality against protesters, one more incident of unrest that, despite the investigation finding police responsibility, was used by the Republicans as another example of why "tough on crime" policy was needed. To make matters worse for the Democrats, southern conservative Democrat George C. Wallace, split from the party, running on a third party segregationist platform, and surging to take between 10 and 20% in polls. The Democratic Party thus presented a chaotic contrast to the organization and unity of the Republican Party
Humphrey entered the general election season a clear underdog in polling, and with a very disunited party - Nixon was widely expected to win without much difficulty. Though once a darling of liberals for his support of the civil rights movement, and an early critic of the Vietnam War, as Vice President, LBJ threatened and intimidated Humphrey to the point where he largely just shut up and repeated the administration's line on the War. Thus by the 1968 Democratic Convention, the liberal anti-war movement frankly loathed Humphrey for his loyalty to Johnson. But Humphrey had remained privately critical of the war, with misgivings over the LBJ administration's contrast of major liberal domestic successes and foreign disappointments. At the convention, Humphrey defied Johnson's suggestion to pick a southern conservative for his running mate, and instead chose Oklahoman liberal Fred Harris. And just a week after his nomination, Humphrey publicly broke with Johnson on the war, calling for an end to the bombings. LBJ was livid, and some cast Humphrey as an opportunist for flip-flopping so vividly, but Humphrey nonetheless saw a resurgence of support from antiwar liberals, solidifying support from former Kennedy and McCarthy supporters
Expected to lose big, Humphrey nonetheless put up a strong fight, with a concerted appeal to union voters in particular, continuing to distance himself from the foreign policy of the Johnson administration while pledging to defend and expand on the domestic achievements, and attacking Nixon for refusing to hold any debates. Humphrey's support began to rise in the polls. Though still leading, Nixon began to get nervous, and eventually reluctantly agreed to debate Humphrey, in the hopes that he'd manage better than he did in 1960 and reverse Humphrey's rise. But in the first debate, Nixon was widely considered to have done rather worse than he did in the 1960 debates, and he pulled out from following debates. Polls after showed a continuing shift towards Humphrey, virtually tied or even beating Nixon, though it was still widely expected that Nixon would hold an electoral college advantage and at the very least see the election go to the House due to Wallace potentially enabling a hung electoral college
Despite the rift between Johnson and Humphrey, the President announced a halt to bombing in early October, and news of positive developments in Vietnam peace negotiations came out. At this point, Humphrey also gained the endorsement of Eugene McCarthy, who had previously withheld endorsement. This so-called "Leif Erikson Peace" generated positive approval for Humphrey and saw him take the lead from Nixon. In mid October, however, the peace talks collapsed, and for a moment it looked like Nixon might halt or even reverse Humphrey's momentum
Then word leaked that Nixon had played a role in sabotaging the peace talks
NSA wiretaps had found evidence that Nixon had authorized "throwing a monkey wrench" into the peace talks. Modern historians are skeptical in regards to whether Nixon's actions actually made a difference or whether a peace deal had any chance of happening without Nixon's actions, but even if ineffectual, such actions have been seen as arguably treasonous. Despite his chilly relationship with Humphrey, Johnson informed him of this information, preferring not to leak the information for fear of making the surveillance publicly known and shocking the nation, but leaving the ultimate decision up to his VP. Humphrey let the information go public, and attempted to play both sides, criticizing Nixon for acting against the peace negotiations, but also casting aspersions on the way the information was gained. Nixon expressed outrage at being bugged, but Humphrey was able to deflect the responsibility for that onto Johnson, and declared that while he thought it would be a dreadfully misguided choice to elect the person who was willing to sabotage a peace deal for political gain, he was also more than willing to launch a commission to study the matter of government surveillance and consider reforms, and that this could very well be a strong argument against Nixon's own "tough on crime" political stance, with too much power to law enforcement agencies potentially infringing on the right to privacy and due process. With these turns of events, Humphrey took a commanding lead in the polls in the final couple weeks of the campaign. Prominent Republicans criticized Johnson for wiretapping but also gave strong criticism to Nixon, and Nixon's running mate jumped ship, with House GOP whip Leslie Arends agreeing to be the sacrificial lamb to replace Agnew in states where the ticket could still be changed
Humphrey started off as a major underdog, but by the end of the election there was no doubt he'd win. In the end, he even managed to narrowly win an outright majority of the popular vote, and beat Nixon by nearly 17 points and 12 million votes. Starting from such a position of strength, Nixon only ended up winning about 5 points and 4 million votes more than Goldwater did 4 years prior, though he had significantly improved on the margin, with a loss of just 17 points, vs Goldwater's 42 point loss
Republicans felt quite disheartened that they lost another election in a big way, though this time they didn't face the monstrous losses they saw in 1964. Furthermore, conservatives argued that Nixon's loss was largely just due to campaign missteps and his scandal, rather than a rejection of conservatism in general like in 1964, and they took some heart in pointing out that the combined total of Nixon and Wallace votes was less than one percent behind Humphrey's totals. The narrative during the election was that Wallace's Dixiecrat campaign split the Democrats and hurt Humphrey, but the post-election narrative shifted to the idea that if anything, Wallace's split helped Humphrey, by giving an alternative conservative choice to the conservative Democrats who disliked the "Party of Lincoln" but otherwise may have just held their nose and voted for Nixon out of dislike for the liberal Humphrey. Republican strategists saw hope in this idea, and looked to the south - a region where Nixon failed to win a single state, but also a region where Humphrey failed to win an outright majority in a single state
At any rate, Humphrey did win, and with a big enough win that he could argue he had something of a real mandate. In the House, his party lost just a handful of seats, with a solid majority even if not as high as it was after the 1964 elections, and in the Senate, his party gained a few seats, reaching the same number it held after the 1964 elections. With such majorities, and after holding the line in a presidential election rather than taking huge losses in midterms, he had a shot at being able to wrangle some policy out of Congress. And he'd be able to ensure that scandalized justice Abe Fortas would see a liberal replacement, as would any other Supreme Court seat openings that might occur (two more would occur) during the next four years, cementing in place a liberal Supreme Court for years to come. The nation certainly faced problems, with the Vietnam War and the collapse of peace negotiations being just one, and it was far from clear at the start of Humphrey's presidency how much he'd manage to do or whether he'd manage to stabilize Great Society liberalism enough to survive in a more "normal" election, but he was certainly now in a position to try
In the House, the Republicans lost a bit in the popular vote, but retained most of their support, and were able to win a slight net-gain, of 5 seats
And in the Senate, the Democrats managed to win a net-gain of 3 seats
_______________________________________________________________________________
(Here, Humphrey comes out earlier against the war, manages to convince Nixon to debate him and beats him, and sees an earlier surge due to those things and due to the Johnson administration doing the "Halloween peace" bombing halt a few weeks earlier than OTL. Nixon's attempts to sabotage the peace negotiations also happen a bit earlier, and when the negotiations break down, Humphrey feels more comfortable going public, since it isn't just a couple days before the election and he feels he has more time to finesse the message and exploit the revelations while trying to avoid backlash to himself over the means of surveillance by which the revelations were made. This all combined allows Humphrey to go from the very narrow loss of OTL to this landslide win)
And here's bigger versions of the maps
-1966 Elections
~-~-~1968 Elections~-~-~
LBJ's 1964 landslide and down ballot coattails allowed for the most productive period of liberal legislation since the New Deal, with his "Great Society" political program vigorously fighting for civil rights and voting rights, establishing a single payer health care system, and significantly expanding the social safety net, among other liberal reforms. But LBJ's popularity, and that of his party, saw a significant decline as a conservative backlash emerged and the Republicans made substantial gains in Congress in the 1966 midterms. After, LBJ was still President, and with majorities in both chambers of Congress, but the liberal wing of the party - especially in the House - had taken a very hard hit and saw a major decline in the midterms, and the reduced majority was rather more cautious in legislation than it had been in the preceding two years, being unwilling to pass any much more substantial liberal legislation
The two years between the 1966 and 1968 elections saw a continuation of the trends that had been occurring beforehand, further departing from the '64 triumph of liberalism to a more divided and conflicted political sphere. Rioting continued, with the "Long Hot Summer of 1967", with conflicts emerging over matters of racism. urban poverty, and police brutality, vs an increasingly popular rhetoric of "tough on crime". Also seen was the emergence of the "hippie" subculture, as well as its critics. And the Vietnam War had been ramping up in intensity, becoming another fault-line for strong political conflict, protests, and counter-protests, especially during and after the Tet Offensive
The Republican Party entered the 1968 election cycle optimistic. Richard Nixon started off as a clear front-runner for the nomination, and ended up beating Romney and Reagan in order to win the nomination. Nixon made a strong conservative argument to "tough on crime"/"law and order" politics, but was no Goldwater - where the 1964 loser spoke of sawing off the eastern seaboard, Nixon spoke of unity. He broadly sought to pose himself as a pragmatic conservative, seeking a reduction in Federal responsibility while being willing to work and compromise with a Democratic Congress, and wishing to reform and in some cases eliminate Great Society programs but retaining a substantial safety net nonetheless. On healthcare, for example, Nixon preferred the elimination of the National Health Insurance Administration, but advocated for replacing it with a system of mandated private insurance, subsidies for low income healthcare, and the creation of a universal old-age insurance program. On civil rights, Nixon criticized things like forced busing, but nonetheless supported continued federal enforcement of integration. Nixon's orientation was seen as a strong way to balance appealing to the party base, taking advantage of the political situations, and reaching out to voters who had been repulsed by the Goldwater campaign but were also put off by perceived excesses of the Great Society and the social disorder sweeping the nation. Republicans thus went into the election optimistic and unified
The Democratic Party entered the 1968 election cycle in shambles. LBJ sought reelection for a second full term, but faced a strong primary challenge from the left from Eugene McCarthy, and withdrew from seeking a second term after a poor showing in the first state primary. At that point, a three way race emerged between anti-war McCarthy and Kennedy, and incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The race was shaken up again, with the assassination of Robert Kennedy. At the convention, Humphrey was able to attain the nomination, but with controversy - he won without winning a single state of the states that did have primaries at that point. The Democratic National Convention itself saw significant anti-war protest against Johnson and Humphrey, which ended with a 'police riot' of brutality against protesters, one more incident of unrest that, despite the investigation finding police responsibility, was used by the Republicans as another example of why "tough on crime" policy was needed. To make matters worse for the Democrats, southern conservative Democrat George C. Wallace, split from the party, running on a third party segregationist platform, and surging to take between 10 and 20% in polls. The Democratic Party thus presented a chaotic contrast to the organization and unity of the Republican Party
Humphrey entered the general election season a clear underdog in polling, and with a very disunited party - Nixon was widely expected to win without much difficulty. Though once a darling of liberals for his support of the civil rights movement, and an early critic of the Vietnam War, as Vice President, LBJ threatened and intimidated Humphrey to the point where he largely just shut up and repeated the administration's line on the War. Thus by the 1968 Democratic Convention, the liberal anti-war movement frankly loathed Humphrey for his loyalty to Johnson. But Humphrey had remained privately critical of the war, with misgivings over the LBJ administration's contrast of major liberal domestic successes and foreign disappointments. At the convention, Humphrey defied Johnson's suggestion to pick a southern conservative for his running mate, and instead chose Oklahoman liberal Fred Harris. And just a week after his nomination, Humphrey publicly broke with Johnson on the war, calling for an end to the bombings. LBJ was livid, and some cast Humphrey as an opportunist for flip-flopping so vividly, but Humphrey nonetheless saw a resurgence of support from antiwar liberals, solidifying support from former Kennedy and McCarthy supporters
Expected to lose big, Humphrey nonetheless put up a strong fight, with a concerted appeal to union voters in particular, continuing to distance himself from the foreign policy of the Johnson administration while pledging to defend and expand on the domestic achievements, and attacking Nixon for refusing to hold any debates. Humphrey's support began to rise in the polls. Though still leading, Nixon began to get nervous, and eventually reluctantly agreed to debate Humphrey, in the hopes that he'd manage better than he did in 1960 and reverse Humphrey's rise. But in the first debate, Nixon was widely considered to have done rather worse than he did in the 1960 debates, and he pulled out from following debates. Polls after showed a continuing shift towards Humphrey, virtually tied or even beating Nixon, though it was still widely expected that Nixon would hold an electoral college advantage and at the very least see the election go to the House due to Wallace potentially enabling a hung electoral college
Despite the rift between Johnson and Humphrey, the President announced a halt to bombing in early October, and news of positive developments in Vietnam peace negotiations came out. At this point, Humphrey also gained the endorsement of Eugene McCarthy, who had previously withheld endorsement. This so-called "Leif Erikson Peace" generated positive approval for Humphrey and saw him take the lead from Nixon. In mid October, however, the peace talks collapsed, and for a moment it looked like Nixon might halt or even reverse Humphrey's momentum
Then word leaked that Nixon had played a role in sabotaging the peace talks
NSA wiretaps had found evidence that Nixon had authorized "throwing a monkey wrench" into the peace talks. Modern historians are skeptical in regards to whether Nixon's actions actually made a difference or whether a peace deal had any chance of happening without Nixon's actions, but even if ineffectual, such actions have been seen as arguably treasonous. Despite his chilly relationship with Humphrey, Johnson informed him of this information, preferring not to leak the information for fear of making the surveillance publicly known and shocking the nation, but leaving the ultimate decision up to his VP. Humphrey let the information go public, and attempted to play both sides, criticizing Nixon for acting against the peace negotiations, but also casting aspersions on the way the information was gained. Nixon expressed outrage at being bugged, but Humphrey was able to deflect the responsibility for that onto Johnson, and declared that while he thought it would be a dreadfully misguided choice to elect the person who was willing to sabotage a peace deal for political gain, he was also more than willing to launch a commission to study the matter of government surveillance and consider reforms, and that this could very well be a strong argument against Nixon's own "tough on crime" political stance, with too much power to law enforcement agencies potentially infringing on the right to privacy and due process. With these turns of events, Humphrey took a commanding lead in the polls in the final couple weeks of the campaign. Prominent Republicans criticized Johnson for wiretapping but also gave strong criticism to Nixon, and Nixon's running mate jumped ship, with House GOP whip Leslie Arends agreeing to be the sacrificial lamb to replace Agnew in states where the ticket could still be changed
Humphrey started off as a major underdog, but by the end of the election there was no doubt he'd win. In the end, he even managed to narrowly win an outright majority of the popular vote, and beat Nixon by nearly 17 points and 12 million votes. Starting from such a position of strength, Nixon only ended up winning about 5 points and 4 million votes more than Goldwater did 4 years prior, though he had significantly improved on the margin, with a loss of just 17 points, vs Goldwater's 42 point loss
Republicans felt quite disheartened that they lost another election in a big way, though this time they didn't face the monstrous losses they saw in 1964. Furthermore, conservatives argued that Nixon's loss was largely just due to campaign missteps and his scandal, rather than a rejection of conservatism in general like in 1964, and they took some heart in pointing out that the combined total of Nixon and Wallace votes was less than one percent behind Humphrey's totals. The narrative during the election was that Wallace's Dixiecrat campaign split the Democrats and hurt Humphrey, but the post-election narrative shifted to the idea that if anything, Wallace's split helped Humphrey, by giving an alternative conservative choice to the conservative Democrats who disliked the "Party of Lincoln" but otherwise may have just held their nose and voted for Nixon out of dislike for the liberal Humphrey. Republican strategists saw hope in this idea, and looked to the south - a region where Nixon failed to win a single state, but also a region where Humphrey failed to win an outright majority in a single state
At any rate, Humphrey did win, and with a big enough win that he could argue he had something of a real mandate. In the House, his party lost just a handful of seats, with a solid majority even if not as high as it was after the 1964 elections, and in the Senate, his party gained a few seats, reaching the same number it held after the 1964 elections. With such majorities, and after holding the line in a presidential election rather than taking huge losses in midterms, he had a shot at being able to wrangle some policy out of Congress. And he'd be able to ensure that scandalized justice Abe Fortas would see a liberal replacement, as would any other Supreme Court seat openings that might occur (two more would occur) during the next four years, cementing in place a liberal Supreme Court for years to come. The nation certainly faced problems, with the Vietnam War and the collapse of peace negotiations being just one, and it was far from clear at the start of Humphrey's presidency how much he'd manage to do or whether he'd manage to stabilize Great Society liberalism enough to survive in a more "normal" election, but he was certainly now in a position to try
In the House, the Republicans lost a bit in the popular vote, but retained most of their support, and were able to win a slight net-gain, of 5 seats
And in the Senate, the Democrats managed to win a net-gain of 3 seats
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(Here, Humphrey comes out earlier against the war, manages to convince Nixon to debate him and beats him, and sees an earlier surge due to those things and due to the Johnson administration doing the "Halloween peace" bombing halt a few weeks earlier than OTL. Nixon's attempts to sabotage the peace negotiations also happen a bit earlier, and when the negotiations break down, Humphrey feels more comfortable going public, since it isn't just a couple days before the election and he feels he has more time to finesse the message and exploit the revelations while trying to avoid backlash to himself over the means of surveillance by which the revelations were made. This all combined allows Humphrey to go from the very narrow loss of OTL to this landslide win)
And here's bigger versions of the maps
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