alternatehistory.com

1984: The Year of Three Elections

And How They Changed The World

An Alternate History by

Lawrence Watson



NEW ZEALAND
"I think that everyone agrees that Muldoon's handling of the economy was disastrous. His National Government really did stand for privilege and that was something I hoped we would remedy and I feel we took steps to do so, but we didn't go far enough." - Roger Douglas

"Muldoon was increasingly a lonely figure. On the fateful night that he called the election, he'd clearly been drinking, and I think his diabetes and the fact that he'd had too much to drink cloud his judgement when Marilyn Wareing told him she was backing Labour's nuclear free bill, he lost his temper and blundered into an election he couldn't possibly win." - Richard Harman

"It was absolutely unprecedented in the history of New Zealand. Muldoon created the crisis entirely by himself, denied there was a crisis, and then when it became obvious there was a crisis, refused to do anything to fix it. He just stood there like King Canute, saying everyone is wrong but me." - David Lange




GREAT BRITAIN
"When the Falklands War went sour, I think it became obvious that she was going to carry on till the end of the Parliament. She thought the Alliance would eventually lose steam and that voters would continue to trust her over Michael Foot. We felt the momentum building for us from the start. It was a thrilling campaign and we felt like we were finally going to be able to do things the right way, unlike in the 70s." - Shirley Williams

"When we held rallies and walkabouts, voters treated her with either disdain or indifference. I thought they were being very ungrateful to the Prime Minister who did the best possible job with the war. Certainly better than what Michael Foot would've done. I thought these people must've taken leave of their senses." - Alan Clark

"Most of us saw it coming. Some of the smarter ones ratted to the Social Democrats. Many of the rest of us fought on, hoping that voters would see that with Michael's stance on the war, that we really could be trusted with defending the country. We just forgot that people still didn't like us very much... The bastards." - Denis Healey




THE UNITED STATES
"Reagan thought we were in for a nice, easy campaign. Everyone liked him, everything was just moving along fine. The Democrats couldn't find a top tier candidate, and they knew they were in for one of those "growing pains" elections that parties sometimes have to go through. Then the shit hit the fan." - Ed Rollins

"Absolutely no one thought he would run. They were going around thinking it was going to be Mondale or John Glenn. A few people even asked me. No one believed Teddy would make a go of it this time, not after 1980." - Mo Udall

"By the time of the conventions, we'd already seen the Reagan Administration went from inevitable winners, to maybe not. I think that possibility had most journalists salivating. I think in retrospect we may have enjoyed the show a bit more than we should've, but it was amazing theater." - Bob Schieffer.


Top