AHC/WI: no/reduced second red scare

. . . isn't a sign of incompetency but of self priority. . .
Like the challenge, going to swing on the pitch!

Hoover came of age during the more serious red scare of 1919 in which there were anarchist bombs. But all the same, he was a hardcore-er, more than he needed to be, more monofocused, as well as centralized authority, secretive, etc. Toward the end of her book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, author Betsy Medsger (briefly!) sets up an alternate history WI. What if the Attorney General who appointed the young Edgar to head the FBI had believed Edgar's track record about how hardcore he was, rather than believe he could change him?

And I think pretty much every new immigrant group has had a mob, maybe with the rare exception. Sometimes organized crime acts as a hybrid between de facto government and ongoing criminality. So much so, that occasionally we should work with them, I mean would you rather have generally honorable gentlemen running the neighborhood, or out of control street crime? Not always an easy decision. Provided that we only compromise 30%, and organized crime 70%, that is, that we get a lot from the negotiations. For example, we need to make damn sure that people aren't in prostitution coercively. They need to agree that they're not going to sell heroin to new people, or only visitors and it can't get out of hand. I mean, there needs to be real negotiations where we generally win.
 
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And what about J. Edgar's fixation on Martin Luther King, Jr. As well as his misreading of the Civil Rights movement as "communist"? I mean, that is a bad misreading of historical proportions.

Yes, MLK slept around, he had rock star fame, wish he didn't, he would have had a happier marriage, but all the same he did. And bizarrely, Hoover sent an audio recording of one of Martin's sexual liaisons trying to get him to commit suicide? Yes, Hoover did.

And much more seriously, what about the murders of the civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner on June 21, 1964? It sure seems like the FBI could have used their sources and their informants to pass on to the Klan, hey, we're watching the civil rights workers, which means we're watching you guys, too, you're going to have to back off. If I can figure this out with only my fair to middling negotiating skills, I'm not sure why the seasoned agents at the FBI cannot.
 
And what about J. Edgar's fixation on Martin Luther King, Jr. As well as his misreading of the Civil Rights movement as "communist"? I mean, that is a bad misreading of historical proportions.

Yes, MLK slept around, he had rock star fame, wish he didn't, he would have had a happier marriage, but all the same he did. And bizarrely, Hoover sent an audio recording of one of Martin's sexual liaisons trying to get him to commit suicide? Yes, Hoover did.

And much more seriously, what about the murders of the civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner on June 21, 1964? It sure seems like the FBI could have used their sources and their informants to pass on to the Klan, hey, we're watching the civil rights workers, which means we're watching you guys, too, you're going to have to back off. If I can figure this out with only my fair to middling negotiating skills, I'm not sure why the seasoned agents at the FBI cannot.
That to me seems more of a conflict between conservatism vs. progressivism. The Civil Rights movement scared a mostly conservative government by changing the status quo at the time. To those in charge reasoned a change of status quo was a communist plot.
 
. . . To those in charge reasoned a change of status quo was a communist plot.
I expect a little more from my elected officials!

Alright, with a briefer red scare:

1) Both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations have a closer relationship with MLK and the Civil Rights movement in general. In particular, they're not put off by the fact that he sometimes gets advice from Stanley Levison, and then Martin makes up his own mind thank you very much.

2) A higher trajectory for the American union movement, more citizens right now in 2017 in the middle class. And probably, a more left-leaning, humanistic, realistic foreign policy, with much more emphasis on building people up (yes, I can be pretty idealistic, and so can you :) )
 
I expect a little more from my elected officials!

Alright, with a briefer red scare:

1) Both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations have a closer relationship with MLK and the Civil Rights movement in general. In particular, they're not put off by the fact that he sometimes gets advice from Stanley Levison, and then Martin makes up his own mind thank you very much.

2) A higher trajectory for the American union movement, more citizens right now in 2017 in the middle class. And probably, a more left-leaning, humanistic, realistic foreign policy, with much more emphasis on building people up (yes, I can be pretty idealistic, and so can you :) )
Despite the power of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations the real power in this country is technically Congress; they make the laws that the President is suppose to enforce, they determine how much money the government can spend on the budget and what that budget is, while the President can veto any law they make congress can override that veto with a two-thirds vote. In the long run the president has no real power.
 
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