AHC: Reagan Loses In 1984

Again, while I understand the board's desire to establish plausibility, the more interesting question is how Walter Mondale would have governed, or what the lack of Reagan's second term means for American history between 1985-Present Day. Or maybe I'm considerably outside of the mainstream here.

Mondale's cabinet in '84 is an interesting question; I imagine we get Warren Christopher as Secretary of State 8 years early. Maybe Sen. Sam Nunn as Secretary of Defense.

In terms of how Mondale would govern: we know that he was a deficit hawk, so instead of the revenue-neutral Tax Reform Act of 1986, we would have had a much more progressive (in the tax sense, not in the political sense) bill that increased revenues and closed the deficit. Couple that with reduced defense spending and presumably less engagement in Latin America, and the Soviet Union probably hangs on a couple extra years.

Domestically, the greatest impact of Mondale '84 would be that he could fill two Supreme Court vacancies. In OTL, Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, as well as elevated William Rehnquist from Associate Justice to Chief Justice.

Mondale '84 would have probably nominated Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe instead of Scalia, and elevated Thurgood Marshall as Chief Justice. As for his second appointment, what about Mario Cuomo? If not Cuomo, then D.C. Circuit Judge Patricia Wald.

Replacing the very conservative Scalia and the moderate Kennedy with two liberals tips the balance of the Supreme Court rather drastically during the 80s and 90s....
 
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Its hard to conceive of a situation with Walter Mondale winning. Mondale fits squarely into the tradition of colourless, nondescript, non-entities that the Democrats seem to throw up regularly as Presidential candidates. Guys who may be decent, intelligent and competent, but who display the charisma and leadership qualities of a waterlogged stick.
 
DValdron -- no argument there; that's why my fly-over this TL has Gary Hart winning the '84 nomination.

Still, let's be realistic: without supernatural intervention, nobody can beat Reagan in '84. (OTOH -- and in the spirit of bipartisanship -- it took almost ASB-level events in our timeline to manage to elect George H.W. Bush in '88.)
 
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