Ultimate Paragon
Banned
Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to prevent Ronald Reagan from joining the Republican party.
AHC: Reagan stays a Democrat
- Thread starter Ultimate Paragon
- Start date
The easiest way is for the Los Angeles Democratic Committee to endorse him when he wanted to run for Congress. I don't remember the year, but it was probably 1948 or 1950. Either way, they ultimately thought he was too liberal to win. If they change their mind, and Reagan runs and wins, than he's probably going to be a Democrat for the rest of his life.
I actually think it was '52, but yes, this is pretty much all you have to do, IMO. He'd fit in pretty well on the Scoop Jackson wing of the party.
TNF,
+1. He's Scoop without the brains Scoop did have but with all the charisma he didn't. I actually have the draft of a TLIAD in which he marries Rosemary Clooney instead (they were single in the same stretch after Reagan split from Wyman; if he didn't shut down in the face of her bipolarity the bumps in her head might very well fit the holes in his) and things go in a fashion like that.
The other thing, just to keep from trap-dooring him away, is you have to keep him away from General Electric. Nancy was the Lady Macbeth of his conversion, but GE's tv and radio broadcasts were straight-up Mephistopheles to an impressionable Ronnie.
Hcallega,
I had completely forgotten the congressional angle. Many thanks for the pro tip. Keep on sonning Greenfield with that JFK TL of yours, by the way
+1. He's Scoop without the brains Scoop did have but with all the charisma he didn't. I actually have the draft of a TLIAD in which he marries Rosemary Clooney instead (they were single in the same stretch after Reagan split from Wyman; if he didn't shut down in the face of her bipolarity the bumps in her head might very well fit the holes in his) and things go in a fashion like that.
The other thing, just to keep from trap-dooring him away, is you have to keep him away from General Electric. Nancy was the Lady Macbeth of his conversion, but GE's tv and radio broadcasts were straight-up Mephistopheles to an impressionable Ronnie.
Hcallega,
I had completely forgotten the congressional angle. Many thanks for the pro tip. Keep on sonning Greenfield with that JFK TL of yours, by the way
Hmmm... This should be in the 'Things that look like AH but aren't" thread in NPChat.
Reagan. Too LIBERAL. for the Democrats. !?!?!
Yes, I know he, and they, were different then. Still.
There were rumors that Reagan had been in the CP in the '30s or was at the very least, a fellow traveler. I'm not sure how accurate those are (a lot of that was thrown around in the early '50s), but he seemingly absolved himself of these charges by ratting out all the Reds in the SAG before HUAC.