AHC: President Fred McFeely Rogers

[Silver Priest]

Rogers gave the speech in 1969 to prevent funding cuts to PBS. Maybe he has an off day or even better gives a truly great speech but is unable to sway enough congressman. The funding cuts lead to the cancellation of his show. Deciding he needs a new platform to advocate for his principals, he runs for and wins a seat in congress.

After Watergate, Ford decides to double down on integrity and selects Rogers as veep. They go on to lose in 1976 but Fred is persuaded to run in 1980. Maybe he wins, or maybe he does well enough the victor decides to give him the vp slot again.

 

[MNM041]

Without going into current politics, there have been some old threads on this forum that mistakenly came to the conclusion how certain people are 100% unelectable unless we go into some dystopian Twilight Zone world with Alien Space Bats distorting reality.

AHC: President Donald Trump

AHC: President Donald Trump Get the Donald to the White House. Bonus points if before 2012.

www.alternatehistory.com

So considering that, I can't call anyone unelectable, including Fred Rogers. In fact, mister Rogers was one of the few universally loved people in America, to the point that it's probably off-limits for his political opponents to be running negative ads against him. According to Wikipedia, Fred Rogers was a registered Republican, which limits his window of opportunity somewhat. He's not stopping the Reagan hype train in the 1980s, and by 2000 he's too old to run. 1976 could be his chance to unseat Gerald Ford, as he could be seen as a viable alternative in the post-Watergate world compared to more polarizing figures like Ford and Reagan. Alternatively he could run in 1988 if George H. W. Bush decides not to run for whatever reason, as Jesse Jackson on the Democratic side of the arena has shown you didn't need a political background or any experience as a Senator or Governor to be a strong candidate and win more than a dozen primaries.

I'm not entirely sure it would be impossible for him to stop Reagan's hype.