New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline

Prince Daemon Targaryen

Star Trek

“If someone tells you they can’t solve a problem, it’s not because the problem’s impossible to solve. It’s because they gave up.”

-Edward Teller-​

It was supposed to be a new strategy for the Soviet Government. Taking a page from his rival, President Reagan, General Secretary Vladimir Semichastny decided to boost morale among the Soviet military and defense industry with an in-person rally despite advice against it from the Politburo. Flying from Moscow in October 5, a Tupolev Tu-154 airliner and the Soviet version of Air Force One, he stopped in Magnitogorsk to speak to the workers at the city’s metallurgical works. The visit was a public relations goldmine for the Soviet leader, and all seemed well as October 5 began to head toward Vladivostok.

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Panic spread through the entire apparatus of the Soviet Union and Communist Party upon news that October 5 had crashed somewhere in the Uzbek SSR. Rumors and charges were banded about from sabotage, terrorism, and American jets sneaking in from Iran were the cause – a leak to the BBC about the “disappearance of the personal aircraft of the Soviet General Secretary,” only increased the paranoia of the Politburo. Semichastny had ruled the USSR with an iron fist for the past decade, his policies expanding the reaches of Communism across the globe. No one had expected him to approach death so soon, and the different factions that would normally jockey to replace him were unprepared for the political maneuvering that finding a new General Secretary would entail. Strategic nuclear forces were put on alert, causing the tension to spread across the earth to Washington.

White House audio transcript, July 11th, 1978

Meeting between President Reagan, SecDef Teller, SecState McCarthy, National Security Advisor Jim Webb, and Chief of Staff Cheney

McCarthy: That was the embassy in Moscow. They don’t have any new information for us on the General Secretary.

Reagan: [Sighs] Jesus Christ. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead. [pause] Who would replace him if he does in fact die?

Webb: Dobrynin is the most likely choice, yet we believe that Viktor Grishin or even Brezhnev could have an opening. Dobrynin has made too many enemies, and KGB head Andropov seems to be suffering from an unknown illness. He’s out.

Cheney: We cannot stay silent forever Mr. President. The public is paranoid, and rightly so, after the BBC report made news…

Reagan: Don’t you think I know that, Dick?! What is the status of our forces? Are they on alert?

Teller: They are at DEFCON Four, Mr. President. Zumwalt and I recommend that they be upgraded to DEFCON Three if there’s no change in response from the Soviets after three more hours.

McCarthy: That would needlessly antagonize them.

Webb: I agree with Gene. They’re paranoid right now, and any aggressive moves would only play into that.

Teller: They’re paranoid right now, Jim! For all we know one of the hardliners will have taken over and is prepared to attack us at a moment’s notice.

Webb: Unlikely…

Cheney: But we cannot be sure, can we?

Teller: Kissinger and Langley says there’s a non-zero chance…

Reagan: Enough. We’ll give the Soviets another twelve hours. If there’s no response, go to DEFCON Three.

Teller: Yes, Mr. President.

[phone rings]

Reagan: The hotline. [answers] This is President Reagan… Yes?... That’s a relief… Yes, thank you Minister Dobrynin… Semichastny is alive, and expected to recover.

[relived breaths]

(end transcript)
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Discovered in the wreckage – one of the roughly two dozen survivors, only one making it out without injury, miraculously enough – Vladimir Semichastny was in a coma for one week before waking, spending five months in the hospital/rehabilitation. For the rest of his life, he’d walk with a limp. Yet, his iron rule and immense reputation from doubling the size of the Soviet Empire so soon after the disaster of Prague Spring allowed him to remain General Secretary against a rabidly ambitious Politburo.

Yet, everyone could tell that Semichastny had changed. Oftentimes one would find him staring into space – especially at the towers of St. Basil’s Cathedral, closed since the Revolution. Arriving to become the General Secretary’s personal bodyguard after all others had died in the crash, a young KGB Senior Lt. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin would later recall the quiet brooding of Semichastny. “Almost as if he was… haunted by something.” He told no one of it, not even his family. No one would ever know what had changed him so greatly, but the ramifications would soon be heard across the world.

In Europe, the mid-seventies was a time of tumult. Portugal had fallen to communism and was going through a round of purges and radical social change, Spain was democratizing after longtime ruler Francisco Franco passed away, France sputtered along under the unstable Second Mitterrand Government, and Greece faced clashes between far-right elements and the emboldened communists. Only Germany, under the steady hand of the popular Helmut Schmidt, managed to recover quickly from the violence and economic stagnation from before – but it was a close call, and his government only stayed strong due to the fracturing of his opponents.

In Italy, the moribund coalitions brokered by the State Department and Foreign Office that kept the Christian Democracy governments of Aldo Moro and Giulio Andreotti collapsed after stagflation, trade union strikes against austerity measures, and the increase in Red Brigade terrorist attacks caused the Socialist Party to break the coalition. In the following election of 1978, the Communists topped Christian Democracy, but couldn’t form a coalition government with the Socialists because of a splinter third party – the Free Democratic Left. Founded by the charismatic and popular Enrico Berlinguer, it split from the Communists over anger at the latter’s continued allegiance to Moscow. It combined a novel concept called “Eurocommunism” with explicitly Freyist beliefs (from the left rather than the right, as was the case with the German NPD and Japanese Minseito). To the relief of NATO, Berlinguer and the FDL were able to get enough concessions from Andreotti to be able to form a working coalition without the Socialists. Italy stayed in NATO, on firmer ground.

Pushing back against the apoplectic rhetoric many in the media were fond to use over the tensions in Europe and the implications of Semichastny’s near death, Reagan and his team saw the personnel shifts (conducted by Semichastny in the aftermath of October 5) within the Politburo as a subtle change in Soviet policy. Whatever it was, they were going to run with it.

And the newfound fear over Soviet power and instability could be utilized for Reagan’s next defense policy rollout.


Edward Teller had a distinguished scientific career prior to assuming the mantle of Secretary of Defense. He was one of the original members of the Manhattan Project, vital to the development of the first nuclear fission bomb. After his controversial testimony in the security clearance hearing of his former Los Alamos Laboratory superior J. Robert Oppenheimer, Teller was ostracized by much of the scientific community. He continued to find support from the U.S. government and military research establishment, particularly for his advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program. He was a co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and was both its director and associate director for many years. He would gain notoriety in the 70s for being a proponent of using state of the art scientific solutions for major problems in the world.

Thus – especially considering Teller’s volatile temper – eyebrows were raised when Reagan selected him for Secretary of Defense over a large field of distinguished officials, generals, admirals, and businessmen. Teller would institute much of Reagan’s agenda quite well, but any decent manager could have done so. Why was a physicist required? It would become apparent in May 1978, when Reagan addressed the nation from the Oval Office.

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“After careful consultation with my advisers, including Defense Secretary Teller, I believe there is a way to protect our nation from potential annihilation without a game of chicken that would lead to world holocaust. Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope. Let us turn to the very strengths in technology that spawned our great industrial base and that have given us the quality of life we enjoy today.

What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?

Conceived by the combined scientific minds of our best and brightest – Secretary Teller among them – current technology has attained a level of sophistication where it's reasonable for us to begin this effort. It will take years, probably decades of efforts on many fronts. There will be failures and setbacks, just as there will be successes and breakthroughs. And as we proceed, we must remain constant in preserving the nuclear deterrent and maintaining a solid capability for flexible response. But isn't it worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war? We know it is.”​

The reaction was swift. Initial confusion turned into a media buzz of massive proportions, not seen since the Assassination of Mickey Hargitay nearly five years before. Liberty Conservatives, political moderates, and Minaprogressives were ecstatic at the plan, which Gallup would find getting over 70% support from the public after further explanations from Teller and the Defense Department. The Press dubbed it “Star Trek” after the popular TV show and movie franchise, and it greatly upended the traditional defense doctrine of the Cold War era. If the Strategic Defense Initiative worked, then Mutually Assured Destruction would be irrelevant.

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The creation of SDI would be made by Executive Order, Reagan and Teller knew that for the initiative to truly bloom it would need massive funding via congressional appropriation. Ironically, many of Reagan’s toughest critics on the left such as Ramsay Clark, Pat Leahy, and Leo Ryan would back SDI to the hilt. The greatest skepticism actually came from the hawkish wings. Given their past support for MAD, many felt that gambling the nation’s security on an unproven technomarvel would be a risk not worthy of being taken. Equipped with his physics knowledge and brilliant mind, Teller would acquit himself brilliantly at five congressional hearings on the subject. Yet, there still remained a little opposition to the plan among the old guard of congress (younger members like James Buckley, Clark McGregor, Jesse Helms, and Prescott Bush Jr. being fully in support of it).

Many would credit the push for SDI to what would happen next, but Reagan and his team would later recall their shock at the Soviet Union’s actions. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky was immediately recalled to Moscow in September. His replacement was a relative unknown to nearly everyone in the west and the Soviet Union, but SecState Eugene McCarthy understood the significance of the pick as soon as he met with the new ambassador. Semichastny’s new choice, Mikhail Gorbachev (Gorbachev wouldn’t be Semichastny’s only new appointment; he would slowly retire hardliners such as Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev and promote others like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Boris Yeltsin, and Alexander Yakovlev).

These massive replacements of senior officials by less tested moderates was possible in the Soviet Union for several reasons. First, the Focoist coups and almost overnight expansion of the Soviet Empire to hard to control places such as Brazil and Africa worried many about biting off more than they could chew. “We’ve expanded gloriously, Comrades,” Semichastny said to the Politburo. “Now we must rest in preparation for the next meal.” If moderating slightly would give them breathing room to digest their gains then it would be worth it. Additionally, the notification by Red Army commanders that the arms race was slowly bankrupting the nation also sobered many. But mostly, Vladimir Semichastny had the mantle of leadership. He held the loyalty and respect of party members and the Soviet people for expanding the nation’s domain, bringing them glory, and saving the USSR from humiliation after Prague Spring. Even though KGB leaders such as Andropov or Chebrikov disliked him following the replacements, the KGB rank and file were behind their former boss 100%, as was the Red Army. Removing him like they did Khrushchev was suicide, and only Semichastny had the force of will and dignitas to attempt such a sea change in policy at the perfect moment.

Gorbachev’s first action as Ambassador was to inform Reagan that Semichastny wished to hold a summit to decrease the astronomical tensions between the two superpowers. This stunned Reagan, who imagined this would eventually happen, but not as soon as it did. Agreements to meet were discussed, along with a state visit to Moscow by Vice President McCall next January. However, Reagan first wanted a mandate to approve SDI. And he would seek such a mandate in the 1978 midterm elections, hoping to turn what was usually a rebuke of the President into an endorsement.
 

Prince Daemon Targaryen

1978 Midterms

“Our message is simple, more jobs, less expensive goods, and better services. That is the goal of the Democratic Party”

-William Fitzgerald-​


Of all the persons to come out with a loss on election night 1976, the most crippled was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham. His career taking off in 1962 as a bombastic, far-right candidate with a populist flair, his low-energy campaign for President (everything is relative) and overshadowing by running-mate John G. Schmitz had hurt him and his personal brand considerably. Arizona Republicans and Democrats saw the opportunity to destroy him once and for all, and took the opportunity quite seriously.

Contested primaries on both sides ended up conjuring two strong contenders, Secretary of State Bruce Babbitt for the Democrats and Attorney General William Rehnquist for the Republicans. Once more, the strategy was a base-turnout one, the GOP doubling down on the Phoenix/Tucson suburbs, Democrats canvassing the working-class, American Indian, and Spanish-American areas, while Mecham barnstorming the rurals. However, unlike the past, it was becoming clear that the voters were growing tired of Mecham’s shtick. Increasingly angry on the trail, impressions were negative rather than positive. Instead of a crusader for the little guy, he just “Came off as an asshole” in the words of Barry Goldwater.

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It could have swung either way, but the Republicans had convinced enough anti-Mecham swing voters that Rehnquist was the best bet to kick out ol’ Evan. Taking office, the new Governor would be forced to deal with a Democrat-controlled legislature, but all were happy that Mecham was defeated. The election resembled the showings for all of Mecham’s last three, only this time his career was gone for good. He would never return to elected office, though Arizona would never truly be rid of him.

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Sam Yorty wanted to be Governor. Given his last two tries to do so, it was the worst kept secret in California. He had never really stopped running since his narrow defeat to Barry Goldwater Jr. four years before, and the defection of many Kennedy Democrats to Jerry Brown’s Progressive campaign (California being one of the two states that actually possessed a working Progressive apparatus) had left Yorty and his allies as utter a control as Spiro Agnew had of the Maryland GOP. Readying his third bid, two advantages that he had not possessed in 1974 asserted themselves. One, Jerry Brown was back and stronger than ever. Two, Barry Goldwater Jr. had a record of his own to defend instead of running as the third term of a popular Ronald Reagan.

Goldwater Jr. was just as conservative as Reagan, if not more so. However, the relatability and Hollywood-nurtured charisma the now-President deployed in spades was lacking, and it hurt him when explaining his policies. To head off the stagflation and oil crises, Goldwater slashed public spending and a full fifth of the start workforce through attrition – though balancing the budget, it was a public relations nightmare that the Governor couldn’t explain adequately enough to convince skeptics. Thusly, he was vulnerable to the twin campaigns of Yorty and Brown, the pieces set for a repeat of 1974. Yorty attacked the “incompetence” of Barry Jr., oddly seeking to run as the “Real Reaganite” and “Wallace Democrat” at the same time. California, Yorty said, needed to be husbanded and prepared for the future by robust infrastructure developments as opposed to Goldwater’s “Hatchet job.” Republicans trotted out old racial rhetoric and criticized Yorty’s tenure as LA Mayor in response, hoping to fire up the base. Brown, playing a liberal George Wallace, crisscrossed the state to find the “Men and women the two main parties had forgotten.” Liberals and impoverished workers flocked to the young candidate at a rate outpacing his 1974 bid, this time backed up by a more robust Progressive apparatus.

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Third time was the charm for Mayor Sam Yorty. Though both he and Goldwater would lose percentage points from their 1974 numbers due to the surge in votes for Jerry Brown, Yorty bled the least and emerged triumphant by a hair over 40,000 votes. While holding up the margins in the GOP SoCal base, Goldwater lost many moderate voters in the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to Jerry Brown, the Governor’s own political instincts nowhere a match for Ronald Reagan’s to be able to push a solid liberty conservative agenda. Demoralized Republicans could at least console themselves with the fact that Yorty was someone they could easily work with, unlike the liberal minaprogressive Brown, who’s surge in the Bay Area further pulled Kennedy Democrats and rural libertarians away from the two major parties. The calls for a viable third party on the left would only increase after the race, national politicians taking notice.

Largely, the Governor’s race was overshadowed by a downballot race in 1978. After Henry v. Minnesota gave the gay rights movement a running start, many on the communonationalist left and traditional, religious right were worried about the results of such a decision. Few felt that resisting the decriminalization of homosexuality was a fight that they could win – liberty conservatives as well as Kennedy liberals and minaprogressives would oppose such a plan. However, the mainstreaming of the homosexual agenda was something that drew countless support from grassroots activists. The activists would be given considerable support from figures such as Anita Bryant, Curtis LeMay, Joe Shell, Jerry Falwell Sr., and John Schmitz (who was riding high from his reinvention in the 1976 election).

While succeeding in several local initiatives, such as the repealing of anti-discrimination ordinances in Miami-Dade and Portland, there had yet to be a major test of the movement. It would soon come when State Senator John Briggs of Orange County managed to get Proposition 187 certified for the November Ballot. What would be dubbed the “Briggs Initiative” would amend the State Constitution to ban homosexuals and pro-homosexual agenda from schools, a move that Briggs stated was “for the safety and security of our children.” Led by San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (himself gay), opponents would quickly form a well-funded coalition to fight the initiative.

Gay men and lesbians came out to their families and their neighbors and their co-workers, spoke in their churches and community centers, sent letters to their local editors, and otherwise revealed to the general population that gay people really were "everywhere" and included people they already knew and cared about. In the beginning of September, the ballot measure was ahead in public-opinion polls, with about 61% of voters supporting it while 31% opposed it. By the end of the month, however, the balance of the polls shifted to 45% in favor of the initiative, 43% opposed, and 12% undecided.

However, the apparent momentum of the “No” side would grind to a halt with several developments. Major figures, not knowing what to do, would balk at associating with either side. Presidents Reagan, Rockefeller, and Kennedy were silent, while both Yorty and Goldwater made mum references toward opposing radical homosexuality while supporting civil rights for gay Californians. Jerry Brown supported the “No” side, but was mum as well to avoid alienating working-class voters he needed. The “Yes” side would get two massive shots in the arm when former President George Wallace (revered by working-class voters across the state) and Reverend Jim Jones of People’s Temple Church in San Francisco (loved by many minaprogressives, formerly a solid bloc of “No” votes) both came to California to support the Initiative. Both fiery and excellent on the stump, the polls turned around and the Initiative’s supporters felt they had the advantage.

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By a solid margin, the Briggs Initiative had become the law in California. Advocates cheered, while the enraged opposition vowed to challenge it in the courts. Across the United States, state governments that felt the initiative was a good one nevertheless balked in following in California’s stead – at least until the courts ruled. The fate of the nascent gay rights movement rested in their hands.

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Graced with a major metropolitan center, Denver, Colorado had resisted the Democrat gains in the Mountain West that most of its neighbors had been affected by. Packed with suburban workers and stubbornly Liberty Conservative rural areas in Grand Junction and the eastern part of the state (basically west Kansas), the only Democrat to carry it for President since Harry Truman was John F. Kennedy in 1964, and even that was a near run thing. Republicans dominated the state, winning 14 of the last 16 statewide races. When longtime Senator Gordon Allot announced his intent to retire, it was only natural that Governor John Love would be favored to win the seat.

Those predictions didn’t take into account who would emerge from the Democratic Primary. Defeating union democrats from the rurals, Denver Mayor and former college professor Richard “Dick” Lamm was a different breed of Democrat. Known for his minaprogressive views, the small government liberal was hardly a fit for the Democratic Party of Maddox, Mahoney, and Wallace. “You are the people!” he once said at a rally at city hall featuring Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and close friend Hunter S. Thompson “You deserve to have both your money and your bedrooms!” But, the small government liberal had an issue, a potent one: Social Security and Amcare. Announcing his run, he vowed to fight to make sure the Reagan Administration left both in place, earning him a decisively populist issue while avoiding the distasteful parts of Wallace communonationalism. Enthusiastically endorsed by the Progressive Party (which had a modest presence in the state), Lamm would enter the general election with the best chance of any Democrat in a high-profile race in decades.

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Uniting the Progressive left and the Communonationalist left, Dick Lamm had finally took a major statewide race for the Democratic Party. The Grand Junction region was flipped, and Democrats took Boulder, Ft. Collins, and the Ski Resorts by huge margins. Love still managed to carry the suburbs and military-heavy Colorado Springs on Reagan’s popularity, but it wasn’t enough. At his victory party, Lamm would walk on stage with a chainsaw and proclaim, “Time to bring the Mountain Sprit to Washington!” All attendees would cheer.

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Taking office in the final two-year election in 1968 when George Romney accepted Barry Goldwater’s offer to be his running mate, William Milliken was one of the last major Rockefeller Republicans left outside the Northeast. A strong opponent of liberty conservatism (he backed John Volpe in the 1972 primaries and Mark Hatfield in 1976), he nevertheless was a party stalwart and benefited greatly from Romney’s legacy and the Detroit machine of retiring Senator Louis Miriani. Many in the state didn’t find him particularly appealing, but when Representative Don Riegle – the only person credible enough to challenge Milliken – decided to run for Senate, the Governor was cleared to run for a third four year term.

Michigan Democrats, reduced to a rump of rural and industrial populists, ended up turning to an unlikely source. Much like Sam Yorty and Dick Lamm, William B. Fitzgerald Jr., was an odd choice for the Wallace Democratic Party. Only thirty-six years old, he had risen to become minority leader in the Michigan Senate after winning two narrow elections in Detroit. The Republican base of Michigan, where Miriani’s machine would routinely churn out Stalinist Margins among the African-American residents. But Fitzgerald, himself married to an African-American woman, had ridden on an anti-corruption message to defeat scandal-tainted Republican incumbent Coleman Young. Hopes for the demoralized party that Fitzgerald could save the party from becoming irrelevant.

Both the Governor and Fitzgerald played hard and dirty, Milliken casting Fitzgerald as a “kid” and “disgustingly unqualified” while the Democrat decried the Governor for “presiding over the state’s ruin.” In fact, the state was uniquely poised for a change candidate. Unlike the rest of the nation, which was beginning to recover from the Stagflation Crisis, decreasing exports and competition from cheap goods from Minseito Japan was miring Michigan in a continuing economic slump. People, especially in working-class and middle-class neighborhoods, wanted change. Fitzgerald spoke to them with his championing of what he called “Reform Communonationalism.” The tenets of it were a rejecting of the Wallace-era focus on anti-counterculture and social normalcy for a laser-like focus on kitchen table issues. How could communonationalism lower the cost of living for poor to middle-class families? How could it get them good-paying jobs? Fitzgerald harped on this to the exclusion of much else, batting attacks on his civil rights record with the devastating quip “If I was a racist, I wouldn’t be married right now.”

The Democrats had found a new star, one untainted with the baggage of the Wallace era.

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Reform Communonationalism beat out the structural leanings of the state. In spite of Don Riegle’s solid nine point victory for the open senate seat, Milliken was dragged down by heavy turnout in the industrial regions north and south of Detroit. Fitzgerald would pull upwards of seventy percent of the vote in the economically devastated Upper Peninsula, them joining their brethren in Flint, Pontiac, Sterling Heights, and Monroe in seeking change.

Upon taking office, Fitzgerald would institute a broad-based middle-class growth initiative, focused mainly on promoting higher standards of living and encouraging blue-collar job growth, what he would call “The gateways to prosperity.” By the end of his first year, the Michigan economy would be growing at a 5% rate (thanks to the auto industry’s competitive strength against Minseito Japan). While many would say this was incidental to the Reagan recovery, Fitzgerald would sport a 71% approval rating.

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One of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate and an ardent supporter of President Reagan’s foreign and fiscal policies, James Eastland decided to finally retire after decades of service to his state. Nestled in the heart of the Deep South, all expected the open seat to go the way of all Deep South open seats – a heated Democratic primary followed by a sleepy general election. However, Mississippi was not a normal Deep South state. Having the largest black percentage in the nation, Reagan’s policies regarding energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico were music to the ears of the coastal cities. One of the few states where Progressives made alliances with Republicans, widely heralded frontrunner Governor Cliff Finch ended up facing the GOP’s star candidate.

Representative Medgar Evers.

Having run for the Senate seat of Eastland’s colleague John Stennis, Evers duplicated his same strategy as before – only now with flush coffers a record to run on. Exhibiting the highest energy of any senate challenger in the nation, he stormed the entire state in a flurry of events, rallies, and meet-greets with voters wherever they were. He united blacks, suburban Republicans, and liberals into a unity ticket, campaigning with Ronald Reagan and Democrat State Attorney General William Winter. Finch didn’t react to the fact that this was a competitive race till only a month out, giving Evers a huge head start.

This was Mississippi, however. All but the most optimistic of Republicans remained bearish on the race.

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Networks initially called the race for Finch, him taking a modest lead on the backs of the same white voters that cast their votes for Strom Thurmond and Orval Faubus in past Presidential Elections. However, the calls were quickly retracted as Evers inched up further and further as the delta and urban Jackson began to trickle in. Breaths bated as he crossed into the lead, and spontaneous cheers were heard in black neighborhoods in the Magnolia state when the AP called it for the congressman. Taking the stage alongside his family, Medgar Wiley Evers had become the first popularly elected African-American Senator in the Former Confederacy.

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Having served in congress since the FDR’s third year in office, Representative George Mahon had become only two years before as Dean of the House. The state being one of the most ancestrally Democrat states in the nation, the Lubbock native usually never faced a serious challenge.

However, the Texas of 1978 was a far different animal than the Texas of 1934. It sported both a Republican Governor and two Republican Senators, having been carried by Republicans in two of the last three Presidential elections. Mahon had only won reelection by 55% of the vote two years before, solid but underwhelming compared to his record of blowouts. Soon, a candidate would emerge.

George Walker Bush had kept a low profile since being freed from Portuguese custody in the resolution of the Crisis – and receiving a Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. Settling back in his home in West Texas (Midland) with his wife Tricia Nixon Bush, he got into several business ventures regarding energy drilling and welcomed his twins, Barbara Bush and Richard M. Nixon Bush, into the world. With his father running for a third term in 1978, George Jr. got bit by the political bug and threw his hat in the ring for congress. He would win the primary easily.

Mahon’s staff – so used to blowouts – slung everything at W to cripple him early. They lambasted him as a Connecticut-born Yankee (his uncle being a senator from that state) and dredged up the drunk driving arrest from the 1970 Tower campaign. W, campaigning with his father and Gubernatorial nominee Judge Antonin Scalia, refused to take the bait. Money pouring in from both his father’s and wife’s connections (Tricia and Pat Nixon being favorites on the trail), Bush and campaign manager Karl Rove countered with a robust strategy of highlighting his military heroism with a change message against the “insider” Mahon. Old members of the Air National Guard appeared in ads for Bush, while district residents got a kick out of seeing Bush and the Nixon family campaigning in battered jeans and shirtsleeves. Mahon’s quips on Bush insider connections, directly referencing his in-laws in Buckingham Palace, fell on deaf ears after Bush focused on supporting Reagan’s energy policies in the final stretch. In oil heavy West Texas, Mahon’s vote against the energy bill cost him dearly.

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On election night, Mahon delivered his usual strong margins in Lubbock and the rural north of the district, areas where a majority of residents had only known him to be their congressman. Those margins weren’t enough. The Midland-Odessa region went similarly for Bush, voting dark red and bleeding out into the southern rurals as well. The Reagan energy agenda was extremely popular there, the oil industry booming after the President’s drilling expansion. With Senator Bush and Judge Scalia carrying the entire district by hefty margins, the coattails pulled George Jr. over the finish line with just under a 1,200 vote margin.

Son had joined father in toppling a titan, though some wondered if being married to Tricia had rubbed some of the Nixon luck into W.

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Overall, the midterms were a wash for the Republicans, the communonationalist reformers netting the Democrats a net five governorships (though not a majority) and gaining three senate seats. However, the Senate saw a midterm gain for the GOP – causing smiles in the Reagan Administration. In addition to Medgar Evers’ win in MS, Republicans snagged open seats in OR and MN (that of former Majority/Minority leader Hubert Humphrey) and defeated Democratic incumbents in Iowa and a shocking upset in West Virginia – where Incumbent Jennings Randolph was defeated by Republican Arch Moore. No one saw that one coming, except perhaps Majority Leader George Murphy, who campaigned hard for Moore in the closing days.

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History was also made on election night 1978. Medgar Evers would be joined by two other African American-Republicans. Seats opened up due to Richard Schweiker and Rogers Morton being appointed Labor Secretary and UN Ambassador respectively, appointee W. Wilson Goode retained his PA seat while appointee William Safire gave way to Representative William T. Coleman Jr. in MD. Three black Senators popularly elected – a first for the senate and cheered by Civil Rights Advocates.

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Despite the success of the Reform Communonationalist governors such as Yorty, Fitzgerald, and John Glenn (reelected), the Democratic Party struggled in the overall congressional landscape. GOP seats in the north and west that fell due to Reagan’s coattails were offset by gains in the south, especially with the success of Medgar Evers in Mississippi (Republicans taking a majority in the Magnolia state’s congressional delegation for the first time since Reconstruction). With Gerald Ford heading into retirement at his home in Michigan, Tennessee Republican and longtime deputy Bill Brock took the Speaker’s gavel, while longtime Democratic stalwart in reliably Republican Hawaii Dan Inouye took over as minority leader from the retiring Mo Udall. Democrats did gain modestly, but the Progressives added two more seats to their column.

While their lost opportunity had rankled Democrats, what happened only three months following the swearing in of the new congress only hurt them even more. Angry at the Democratic leadership over resistance to Ronald Reagan’s push to implement a second round of tax reform, newly-elected Senator Joe Biden (a constant critic of the Wallace-era Democratic Party) announced he would switch parties to Independent – and caucus with the Republicans. George Murphy smiling in the background of the press conference in the well of the Capitol, combined with James Buckley the GOP now had a sixty-vote filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber (Murphy having changed the requirement for cloture from 67 to 60).

Nothing could stop the Reagan agenda.
 
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Asami

Asami

Banned
That Prop 187 bullshit makes me very angry. It is just as senseless and fucked up as Putin's bullshit 'homosexual propaganda' law. ATL California is the current front-runner for 'Worst State in the Union'. I've also lost all respect I had for ATL George Wallace. 'Working class candidate', my ass. Once an intolerant shithead, always an intolerant shithead.
 

PunMaster

While I am disappointed by George Wallace siding with Prop 187, I can't say I'm all that surprised to hear it. I'm more disappointed by everyone who supported the No side and stayed silent. It shows a lack of conviction, and you know how the saying goes: "All that is required for Evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
 

Bookmark1995

Banned
Yeah, Dick Lamm and Medgar Evers!

What exactly is a "minaprogressive"? Is it what we would call "social libertarian" OTL?

Asami said:
That Prop 187 bullshit makes me very angry. It is just as senseless and fucked up as Putin's bullshit 'homosexual propaganda' law. ATL California is the current front-runner for 'Worst State in the Union'. I've also lost all respect I had for ATL George Wallace. 'Working class candidate', my ass. Once an intolerant shithead, always an intolerant shithead.
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Well, there is apparently going to be a Supreme Court challenge. Potentially, the court could violate the State's Rights of California (sarcasm) and overturn the bill. Something like that would make a very interesting Hollywood movie.

And you've got every right to hate Wallace, but most people ITTL will still thank them for their Amcare, the same way anti-war protesters now thank LBJ for Medicare OTL.
 
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