AHC: Elect Theodore Bilbo as President of the US

Theodore Bilbo was twice governor of Mississippi from 1916-1920, and from 1928-1932, and then was a US Senator from 1935-1947. He was also a white supremacist, a staunch segregationist, and was a member of the KKK.

He was a short guy, wore colorful and bright clothing to draw attention to himself because he was very short, and referred to himself in the third person.

He was also a supporter of the black separatist movement, believing that it would help maintain the status quo as far as segregation was concerned.

On the other hand, he has pushed for populist policies as governor, having made school attendance compulsory, creating a state highway system in Mississippi, eliminating public hangings, etc and later did the same in the Senate, advocating for the poor (as long as they were white).

Your challenge is to have Theodore Bilbo be elected as President of the US.
 
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It can't and won't happen; he was far to abrasive on the issue of Segregation and to vocal in his distaste of American Blacks, which would have doomed any effort on his part to capture either Democratic delegates outside of the Deep South or to attract voters outside of the South. That doesn't even touch his actual record as Governor which is........mixed to say the least. You aren't going to get the man as he was anywhere near the Presidency.
 
He gets selected as a vp candidate for the sake of internal party politics. Not sure on the details. I'm not familiar enough with the period to know what pod to use.

President dies.

He somehow does a good enough job as president that he gets a term of his own.
 
I remember a TL where Henry Ford became preisident with Bilbo as vice president. Norman Rockwell (if I recall) assassinates Ford, and Bilbo becomes President.
 
He was also extremely antisemitic and was known to use terms like "kike" and "dago" on the floor of the Senate. Maybe that's not an issue when there's barely any Jews and Italians in the electorate you represent, but when you have to win in areas with many Jews and Italians, that's going to be a bit of a problem.
 
Even apart from his extreme racism, he was too controversial even in Mississippi--in particular, note his quarrel with his colleague Pat Harrison, who was far more influential in the Senate than Bilbo.
 
I think you can make the guy President, but you can't elect him.

In addition to the VP option, there's the "1973/74 disaster year" option:

  • Bilbo lives to be 100, still in the Senate. This takes him to 1977, by which point he is the President Pro Tempore.
  • Spiro Agnew resigns.
  • Nixon fights on, and refuses to appoint a VP. Is impeached.
  • Speaker Carl Albert dies in a car accident.
That leaves a 97 year-old Bilbo as President.

(Curiously, the next in line for the Pro Tempore position is one James Eastland. I think this is the only situation where you can end up with a President more racist than James Eastland).
 
This edges into ASB territory. For the flavor of the man written in contemporary terms, see John Gunther's Inside U. S. A., written in 1947. Check it out and I think you'll get my drift.
 
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