AHC: President David Duke

[Lard Cow]

Your challenge is to elect David Duke to the office of president between 1992 and 2016. The POD can be as early as 1960 to account for perhaps an alternate civil rights movement, because frankly I dont see Duke being elected without more strained race relations by the 90s, but for this I'd like Duke to stay on the path of white nationalist former grand wizard (however a later POD if possible would be perfect). Perhaps he could be elected in a Trump style populist campaign in response to growing opposition on the left due to stronger racism.

Note: I'm not a racist or a Duke supporter, I'm just interested to see how something like this could play out.

 

[John Farrier]

With a POD of 1960, you have Duke at 10 years old. That's early enough for him to be anything from a conventional conservative in the mold of the Bushes or a progressive like Obama.

 

[Lard Cow]

Let's say for this Duke stays relatively the same in his beliefs, I was mainly just putting that there for some leeway to account for potential changes in the social climate during the civil rights movement.

 

[Anarcho-Occultist]

You could have Duke leave the Klan and hide the extent of his views from voters. In this position, he seems like Peter King IOTL-says a lot of borderline racist things but is careful enough about it to avoid actual consequences. Now Duke (being like this) can’t really run for POTUS and win but what could happen is some moderate Republican (McCain maybe?) picks Duke as their VP. They win and then the president dies. Now you’ve got Duke in the Oval Office.

 

[Lard Cow]

Would Duke possibly be able to win the next election capitalizing on the death of McCain (or even Bob Dole is probably more likely) in that scenario?

I was wondering if the election of 92 and the Republican wave of 94 could play into this, with perhaps a further left Democrat (Cuomo or Brown?) and a stronger challenge from Perot inspiring a larger Republican wave with a more pronounced nativist, paleoconservative strain (Pat Buchanan-esque), which Duke could be a part of, especially assuming he wins the election of Senator in 1990, forcing McCain/Dole to compromise.

 

[Lard Cow]

You could have Duke leave the Klan and hide the extent of his views from voters. In this position, he seems like Peter King IOTL-says a lot of borderline racist things but is careful enough about it to avoid actual consequences. Now Duke (being like this) can’t really run for POTUS and win but what could happen is some moderate Republican (McCain maybe?) picks Duke as their VP. They win and then the president dies. Now you’ve got Duke in the Oval Office.

Also about this, how would Duke be able to hide his Klan affiliations compared to OTL?

 

[Anarcho-Occultist]

It’s not so much hiding as outwardly renouncing. Prominent politicians were able to survive pasts in the Klan (eg: Byrd) by renouncing it.

 

[Maeglin]

It’s not so much hiding as outwardly renouncing. Prominent politicians were able to survive pasts in the Klan (eg: Byrd) by renouncing it.

Byrd was running for Senator, not President. It's far trickier to pull off the latter when you have baggage. Also, Byrd's Klan past was from an era where it wasn't politically toxic (or in his case, not particularly toxic in West Virginia) - once past the Civil Rights era, it becomes far harder to countenance.

 

[Lard Cow]

Byrd was running for Senator, not President. It's far trickier to pull off the latter when you have baggage. Also, Byrd's Klan past was from an era where it wasn't politically toxic (or in his case, not particularly toxic in West Virginia) - once past the Civil Rights era, it becomes far harder to countenance.

I suppose if Duke could get around 43% for Senator in OTL he could win the Senate race (or Governor race in 91 if he loses here) which would give him slightly better chances from there.

 

[Erin Go Bragh]

The concept, with him staying true to his views, is ASB.

 

[Lard Cow]

The concept, with him staying true to his views, is ASB.

What if he pulled a George Wallace, only speaking moderately and claiming to not be racist (although still making questionably racist statements, just not as overt?)

 

[jonnguy2016]

You could have Duke leave the Klan and hide the extent of his views from voters. In this position, he seems like Peter King IOTL-says a lot of borderline racist things but is careful enough about it to avoid actual consequences. Now Duke (being like this) can’t really run for POTUS and win but what could happen is some moderate Republican (McCain maybe?) picks Duke as their VP. They win and then the president dies. Now you’ve got Duke in the Oval Office.

Steve King is the racist one IIRC

 

[Anarcho-Occultist]

Steve King is the racist one IIRC

Ah yes you are correct. I get them mixed up a lot both because their names are similar and because I dislike both of them (Steve for racism, Peter for neoconservatism). My bad.