Alternate Electoral Maps III

[X_X]

The 1996 presidential election was one of the most incredible in history. In hindsight, the conditions were just right to catalyst such a change, Americans were sick of moderate politics that the past several decades had brought them and were ready for radical libertarian socialist policies. Economic inequality, the worst in generations, had radicalized the public to look for new electoral solutions for their problems.

Incumbent Vice President Bruce Babbitt was a safe, typical liberal for the Democrats to pick, few doubting that he would be the nominee. Selecting the slightly more right-wing Tennessee Jim Sasser as his running mate, Babbitt hoped that he could demonstrate that his was the way America should follow. The problem was that he was not popular enough, too tied up to the flaccid policies of the party to excite the people. He was the status quo and the people didn’t want that.

If the Democrats where disliked, the Republicans had it worse, unable to forge an inspiring opposition party. New York senator Jay Rockefeller practically bought his way to the top of the ticket, enforcing that he wasn’t the man of the public he desperately wanted to be. Not even selecting Mississippi governor Charles Evers, despite the historic possibility of the first Afro-American vice president, could excite people much beyond a handful of black Republicans.

The issue facing the Conservatives was their platform, pure and simple. Unpopular, far-right positions on practically every social and economic issue did not lead people to flock to them outside of Southern white evangelicals. Governor Carroll Campbell and Senator Virgil Goode where too easily decried as fascists, the American answer to the loathed Le Pen presidency in France.

Governor of Colorado Hunter S. Thompson of the Peace and Freedom Party was the man Americans were looking for, even if they might not have known it at first. Many dismissed him and running mate mayor Jello Biafra of San Francisco as kooks (they weren’t entirely wrong), but those that listened where pleasantly surprised to find thoughtful politics that emphasized an end to the hated wars overseas and an expansion of personal freedoms at home.

Hunter S. Thompson was inaugurated as America’s 42th president in January 1997, the first President from Colorado and the first president to be from the Peace and Freedom Party.

 

[Retiarius]

I assume the above is based on No Southern Strategy?

 

[X_X]

I assume the above is based on No Southern Strategy?

More inspired by than based

 

[prime-minister]

I decided that since I came up with seat allocations for it, I'd try mapping the 2019 election from my Czechoslovakia TL in the style that's common for OTL elections (and that I've used for stuff like my American Federation and China TL maps) on here.

For those who haven't read or don't want to read all the wikiboxes, here's a potted summary of the political parties represented in the National Assembly:

The Direct Democratic Party (PDS) is currently the largest party in the National Assembly, retaining its lead in the 2019 election. Formed by Andrej Babiš and Karel Schwarzenberg after the shift of the OLS towards austerity economics, it gained considerable traction among the centre and the populist right (an unsual coalition to say the least) for its advocacy of direct democracy and a more moderate economic policy. Since around 2015 it’s become a Eurosceptic party too, though nowhere near as much as the ČSS, and so maintained its dominance over the other right-wing parties. Ironically, since 2019 it has been cooperating with the centre under Alena Schillerová.

The Czechoslovak Party of Social Democracy (ČSSD) is by some distance the oldest party still represented in the National Assembly, and is the main party of the centre-left. However, in contrast to most other European social democratic parties, which are generally moderate on economics and liberal on social issues, the ČSSD is more of a broad church- some members are quite socially conservative or very economically interventionist, most infamously former PM and President Miloš Zeman. This makes it quite an internally divided party, but a strong one by the standards of Czechoslovak politics.

The biggest rising stars in modern Czechoslovak politics are the Greens and Pirates (ZaP), an alliance of the Green and Pirate Parties along with several other prominent politicians who have drifted to it from other parties or used to be independents. Like the PDS they favour direct democracy and are by quite some margin the most socially liberal party in the National Assembly, being responsible for pushing through protections for civil rights and the introduction of gay marriage (and the current leader of the Greens, Matěj Stropnický, is the first openly gay Czechoslovak party leader) as well as being vocally hostile to fascist and anti-immigrant sentiments.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Czechoslovak Party of Freedom (ČSS), led by Eurosceptic billionaire (and son of Korean-Japanese immigrants, ironically enough) Tomio Okamura. It’s a fairly standard far-right party in many respects, except that it shares the support for direct democracy espoused by the PDS and ZaP (despite often clashing with ZaP on basically every other political issue). Within Czechoslovakia, something else that’s striking about its platform is its support for Czechoslovak far-right nationalism as opposed to Czech or Slovak far-right nationalism. For these reasons, its supporters rail against comparisons with other far-right parties and claim it is more inclusive of Czechoslovaks despite being just as hardline anti-immigrant and socially conservative as any other far-right party.

The next-biggest party is the most left-wing in the Assembly- the Democratic Socialist Party (DSS). Sometimes compared to other hard-left parties like the PCF in France or Die Linke in Germany, the DSS differs from those in being very willing to ally with the ČSSD as a coalition partner (mostly out of popular front doctrine) and seeking to push it to the left. Originally it was described as ‘post-capitalist and post-communist’ to distance itself from the authoritarian communist regimes of Eastern Europe (and especially the KSČ and KSS that infamously attempted a coup in 1948), but in recent years, its members have become somewhat controversial for advocating for closer ties with China, Cuba and other remaining self-proclaimed communist regimes. Support for or opposition to the CCP is a major dividing issue within the party.

The Civic Liberal Party (OLS) was famously the party of Václav Havel from its foundation in 1980 until the late 1990s. Under his leadership it ran a moderate but neoliberal government that oversaw considerable reforms to the Czechoslovak economy to keep it a market economy without going to the extremes of privatization seen in countries like the US and UK, but after he became President in 1990 the right of the party started to gain traction, mostly thanks to Havel’s longtime rival Václav Klaus. It spent a decade out of power before Iveta Radičová retook it in 2003, becoming the first female Czechoslovak PM and winning three terms before the party collapsed as a consequence of the Great Recession and her rivals forming the PDS. Nowadays it remains a minor force on the right, slightly less populist and more monetarist than the PDS or ČSS.

Like the OLS, the Czechoslovak People’s Party (ČSL) is a former party of government on the right that has been squeezed out over the years. It last won a plurality of seats in 1978 and last supplied a PM in 1993, but has retained a stable presence among the country’s Christian community, though since religiosity in Czechoslovakia has been declining for decades its base has slowly shrunk. Ideologically it’s a fairly common-or-garden Christian democratic party, though easily swayed by its coalition partners (as seen in the 1978-82 government when it instigated intensive neoliberal reforms, and the 1996-2003 period where it backed the moderate ČSSD government of Vladimír Špidla).

The last former governing party in the National Assembly is the Czechoslovak National Social Party (ČSNS), which, despite the alarm bells its name might set off, is a fairly moderate social-liberal and social-democratic inclined party, comparable to the British Liberal Democrats, French PRG or Danish Radikale Venstre, though a bit more nationalistic than any of those. It last provided a PM when Jan Masaryk was PM from 1955 to 1957 and its last President was Rudolf Schuster from 2000 to 2005, and has generally been a left-wing coalition partner for much of its existence (with some exceptions like its support of Havel in the 1980s). Since ZaP formed, it’s eaten into the ČSNS’s vote heavily, and its new leader in 2015 Michal Klusáček supported the 2016-19 Babiš government, which made it unpopular with its old base and led ZaP not to invite it to join the coalition in 2019.

Finally, there’s Coexistence, the party of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia led for over 2 decades by Béla Bugár. Its policy platform has shifted over the years from radical support for the anti-Communist movements in Hungary to moderate nationalist advocacy for Hungarian civil and linguistic rights, and interestingly enough, its leaders’ deft political maneouvering has allowed it to form part of the government for all but three years since it contested its first election in 1982.

 

[X_X]

 

[SakuraFoxBlossom]

Snip

What do you use to get that useful little political chart in the upper right hand corner?

 

[NeonHydroxide]

What do you use to get that useful little political chart in the upper right hand corner?

I made it myself with Inkscape.

 

[Pokemon Master]

@X_X How are the Greens winning Virginia in 1988?

 

[X_X]

@X_X How are the Greens winning Virginia in 1988?

Extreme vote splitting.

 

[X_X]

The Dream Dies: The Assassination of Franklin Roosevelt

Concept belongs to @CanadianTory

1936: Following the death of Franklin Roosevelt in Feburary 1933, John Nance Garner positioned himself as a conservative president working for right-wing solutions to the Great Depression, refusing to pass the most radical elements of the proposed New Deal programs. This made him unpopular with liberals and populists in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Despite this, the selection of William B. Bankhead, one of the most vocally pro-labor politicians in the country, helped him somewhat from being totally despised by union members. Many thought that things would be better if Bankhead was president instead.

Come 1936, Alf Landon attempted to paint himself as the practical choice, one who agreed with Garner on spending concerns, but at the same time stated the administration wasn't doing enough to alleviate the poor. He pointed to his success as governor in response to the Dust Bowl that struck western Kansas as the reason why he should be president. Landon selected another member of the Roosevelt family as his running mate, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. who served as Governor-General to The Philipinnes.

Meanwhile, Huey Long and William Borah believed that neither major party candidate could fix the continuing economic crisis and ran on the Union Party ticket to the left of both Landon and Garner.

Despite the strengths of the Republican platform, Garner would be reelected for a second term. Voters thought that he was handling the Depression well enough, and indeed most of the country had seen some level of relief by this point.

John Nance Garner (TX) / William B. Bankhead (AL): 270 ECV
Alf Landon (KS) / Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (NY): 247 ECV
Huey Long (LA) / William Borah (ID): 14 ECV

1940: After electing a Roosevelt as a Democrat eight years prior, Americans would vote for a third member of the family to be their president, this time as a Republican. Elected as Governor of New York in 1938, beating Thomas Dewey in the primaries, the eldest son of Theodore Roosevelt was a safe, powerful, and respected choice to be the GOP's new Golden Boy. He regularly led in polls, so it was no surprise to see what occurred on election night. Despite holding onto the West Coast and South, Democrats failed to win a single Midwest state, cementing their loss.

Roosevelt promised a progressive mandate, but the great unrest and bloodshed in Europe and East Asia suggested tough times were ahead for the new President.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (NY) / Hanford MacNider (IA): 298 ECV
Alben W. Barkley (KY) / James F. Byrnes (SC): 215 ECV
Huey Long (LA) / Burton K. Wheeler (MT): 18 ECV

1944: By 1941, the United States had entered World War 2 and Roosevelt proved to be a popular leader. Despite his health issues, which were often covered up by the press, the president managed to remain a unifying figure in what felt like end times for many. Few Democrats wanted to run against him in 1944, ensuring that darkhorse candidate Henry A. Wallace would be the nominee, running on an isolationist platform of exiting the war before it was won. Most Americans saw such notions as nearly treasonous, and newspapers unfairly portrayed Wallace as a fascist sympathizer. Wallace's firm commitment to desegregation also hurt him greatly with the Democratics' base. Still, the south reluctantly showed up to vote for him. Huey Long also ran for the third and final time in his life, only winning his home state above Wallace by a slim margin.

Hardly a contest, Roosevelt coasted to a second term in office in a landslide victory, the American people hoping that peace was near.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (NY) / Hanford MacNider (IA): 416 ECV
Henry A. Wallace (IA) / Sam Rayburn (TX): 105 ECV
Huey Long (LA) / various: 10 ECV

More to Come!

 

[Tex Arkana]

The 1980 Presidential election except Ford won in 1976 and is as unpopular (if not more) than Carter was IOTL 1980, Reagan wins the GOP nomination, and Carter is a 2-term governor with more experience who runs a much better campaign than he did in '76 irl because here he's a more experienced politician.

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (D-GA)/Fritz Hollings (D-SC) 61.5% popular vote, 538 electoral votes
Ronald Wilson Reagan (R-CA)/Harold Stassen (R-MN) 37% popular vote, 0 electoral votes

 

[X_X]

snip

1948: President Roosevelt announced in 1947 that he aimed to serve a third term in office, encouraged by the party despite some questions about his health. The war having been won in 1945, the younger Roosevelt had written his place in history as one of the great American presidents, getting the nation through one of its darkest chapters. The Democrats were a strong yet embarrassed force following Wallace's loss in 1944 and despite Roosevelt's popularity, many thought that 1948 was their best chance to win the White House in several election cycles. A number of Democrats attempted a "Draft Eisenhower" campaign, but the good general refused to enter electoral politics, especially against his close friend Roosevelt.

With Eisenhower out of the way, a large number of candidates entered. The two biggest proved to be William O. Douglas of the progressive wing and Storm Thurmond of the Southern segregationist wing. After a nasty showdown at the Philadelphia convention, Douglas won the nomination enraging the Deep South. Putting up with Wallace had been bad enough, now the nomination had once again gone to a civil rights Democrat. Thurmond decried Douglas as a "N*gger-lover" and vowed to run a third-party campaign serving white nationalist interests. With the Democrats deeply divided, there were few shocked that Roosevelt won reelection. It was the sixth, and final, time that a member of America's "royal family" would be on a winning presidential ticket.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (NY) / John W. Bricker (OH): 368 ECV
William O. Douglas (MN) / Harry S. Truman (MO): 113 ECV
Storm Thurmond (SC) / Fielding L. Wright (MS): 50 ECV

1952: After the bitter brawl between Douglas and Thurmond, Democrats decided to go back to basics. Rather than have a candidate be somebody who would alienate any part of their base, they decided to find somebody in the mold of Franklin Roosevelt and his policies. That person proved to be Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson II, a man who promised to finish what Democrats had attempted to pass two decades prior. Stevenson ran on an economically populist platform of a "Fair Deal" for the working class. Roosevelt had spent most of his third term focused on the Korean Crisis, meaning that things at home had soured. The only real domestic policy Roosevelt was supporting in his final years in office were programs to help war veterans. The people were fatigued after twelve years of Republican rule, and the selection of an unpopular conservative as the Grand Old Party's nominee didn't help either.

In 1908, a Taft had succeeded a Roosevelt as president. Robert A. Taft tried to replicate this a generation later but to no avail.

Adlai Stevenson II (IL) / John Sparkman (AL): 335 ECV
Robert A. Taft (OH) / Harold Stassen (MN): 176 ECV

1956: President Steveson managed to pass a massive progressive agenda, resulting in the economy being in its best shape in decades. Welfare, healthcare, education, and labor rights had all greatly expanded.

Challenging the popular incumbent would be General Douglas MacArthur. The Democrats painted their foe as a warmonger whose actions would result in the Soviets leaving the country a lifeless, irradiated wasteland. Whether it was these scare tactics or the true legislative successes of the Stevenson Administration, likely it was both, the president won reelection in a landslide. Stevenson had solidified himself as the Democrats' champion and the man the party would continue to emulate to this day. Come 1960, could they replicate that success though?


Adlai Stevenson II (IL) / John Sparkman (AL): 383 ECV
Douglas MacArthur (NY) / Dan Thorton (CO): 148 ECV

More to come!

 

[X_X]

snip

1960: The late 50s were defined by increased social unrest as the result of the Civil Rights movement, with a sharp rise in race riots, terrorist attacks against black Americans, and desegregation sit-ins and marches. Despite personally finding racism abhorrent, President Stevenson did little to fight against it while in office, preferring to tackle economic issues through the implementation of social programs that he believed would benefit all Americans. Yet the people wanted real change to come, and it came from a somewhat unlikely source. Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York represented the progressive wing of the Republican Party and successfully opined that the GOP should stick to its liberal roots rather than continue to drift rightward. Rather than fight to repeal Stevenson's popular Fair Deal programs, the New Yorker vowed that he would keep them should he be elected president. He also promised the sweeping passage of civil rights legislation. It was a risky gamble, especially as it would alienate conservatives, but it paid off, as seen when he won the nomination over libertarian Barry Goldwater.

Vice President John Sparksman fought hard to provide what pundits dubbed "a third Stevenson term", portraying himself as the popular president's handpicked heir. In reality, Stevenson did not get along well with his VP. He would've preferred somebody more leftwing than the Alabamian but recognized that Sparkman made the most sense as a successor, being the next highest-profile Democrat in the country. 1960 saw the first televised presidential debates. In the aftermath, Rockefeller came off as distinguished, while the press called Sparkman a "dolt" and a "hick". Some accused the media of bias, painting Sparkman as a stereotypical dumb white Southerner.

But accusations of stupidity didn't hurt as much as Sparkman's defense of states' rights in regard to segregation. He called Brown v. Board Of Education, "a grave mistake by the Supreme court" and "an attack on our values as Christians", arguing that the supposed "separate but equal" system was working just as it was intended to. An October surprise came when on election eve, audio was released of Sparkman calling African-Americans "coons". While his failure to win the election stems from more than this singular incidence, it certainly didn't help.

Nelson Rockefeller (NY) / Thruston Morton (KY): 312 ECV
John Sparkman (AL) / Herschel C. Loveless (IA): 225 ECV

1964: Rockefeller rallied liberals in both parties to write the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1961. These federal laws, among other things, prohibited poll taxes and other barriers to voting, made service discrimination based on minority status a crime and declared housing discrimination to be unlawful. While celebrated by progressives and African-Americans, the backlash was immense, especially in the South. A wave of Ku Klux Klan activity arose in response, fueled by hatred against Rockefeller and the black race.

In March of 1962, Rockefeller would be assassinated in Indianapolis by Tom Metzger, a 23-year-old white supremacist. With Rockefeller instantly becoming martyred, the public outrage over the slain president resulted in a large federal crackdown on far-right organizations. President Morton was widely praised for his response to the crisis, helping the nation through this time of devastation. Morton continued the policies of Roosevelt and Rockefeller, cementing that liberalism would be the driving force behind federal Republican politics until the present day.

Morton also handled the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1963, the reign of Khrushchev ending, and communism as a serious political force going along with it. It was a hectic and nervous era in Eurasia as a result, but Morton's commitment to peacekeeping helped ensure that the transition to democracy went smoothly. With all of this in mind, it was no surprise he would earn a second term. Opponent Lyndon B. Johnson tried to attack Morton in every way he could, but such campaign tactics made the Texas senator look too mean and deranged to be president.

Morton's victory would be among the largest in history.

Thruston Morton (KY) / Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (MA): 456 ECV
Lyndon B. Johnson (TX) / Hubert Humphrey (MN): 82 ECV

1968: William Scranton was very much of the same ilk that had served the Republicans well since Roosevelt Jr. The former governor's greatest problem was obscurity, being little known outside of Pennsylvania before he announced his bid for the presidency. The scion of one of the Keystone State's most prominent families, he hoped to replicate the success of Morton, assuming victory was all assured. That proved to be a great error in the face of a radical opponent.

George C. Wallace was elected governor of Alabama in 1958, running on a moderate platform in regards to race. The failure of Sparkman educated Wallace that the racist policies of the Southern Democrats were to be discarded in the past. Rather, Wallace supported integration, even showing up to support black college students on the first day they attended the University of Alabama in 1962. Racism, to Wallace, "made us no better than the bastard who killed our president". He represented a breed of emerging "New South Democrat" that sought after the votes of both the white working class and newly enfranchised blacks. Wallace claimed that the nomination of Scranton proved that the Republicans were just the party of the rich. Rather than come from any prominent political or business family as many of the past few presidents had, Wallace had lower-class roots and a rustic charm. His opponents called him too calculated and wondered if he really believed the things he said. Still, his promise of a "New Frontier" greatly indicted voters.

Because Scranton dismissed Wallace, by the time the polls became razor-thin it was too late to do anything. The race was alarmingly close and nearly went into recall territory. Had just a few thousand more people voted for Wallace in Oregon, he would've won the Electoral College.

After the heavily discussed nailbiter of a race, Scranton hoped to move past and serve as yet another in a line of great Republican presidents. Surely nothing would go wrong to affect his reputation, right?

William Scranton (PA) / Gerald Ford (MI): 273 ECV
George Wallace (AL) / Fred R. Harris (OK): 265 ECV

More to come!

 

[prime-minister]

It's long overdue, but have the 2021 election from my China TL. (Just the simple majorities version for now though.)

The 2021 Chinese National Congress election has been a source of intense tension throughout the country, as since the election of Progressive Jiang Jielian as President the previous December- the first non-Kuomintang President since the advent of democracy in China- the incumbent Kuomintang-controlled Congress emphasized it would work to block his agenda if it saw fit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Congress Chair Wang Jianlin saw fit to block a large amount of that agenda, from stimulus spending for poor families affected by COVID-19 to healthcare reform, and consequently has become one of the most despised figures among the Chinese left, picking up the popular nickname of ‘Wang JY’ (a play on how the pinyin acronym JY is used to mean both ‘jīngyīng’, a term for right-wing intellectuals, and ‘jīngyè’, meaning semen).

The deep unpopularity of the Kuomintang and their obstruction has meant it was seen as almost certain they would lose the next National Congress election, as the party has trailed the Progressives in the polls by up to 15 points. What has been unclear for much of the lead-up to the election is how it would be held- the Chinese left were divided on whether pushing for a change to the electoral system would guarantee a Kuomintang defeat or appear opportunistic. Ultimately, after some deliberation Jiang and the Progressive leader in the National Congress, former internet activist Luo Yonghao, decided to organize support from the other parties and the public for electoral reform.

However, Jiang and Luo decided not to simply convert the National Congress into a proportionally elected body, but to hold a referendum on reform in 2022. This gave the Progressives another policy plank on which they could rally public support against the Kuomintang and avoid coming across as opportunistic, particularly as Jianlin was seen increasingly as a ‘sore loser’ not only by the Chinese left but the public at large. More cynically, it also allowed them to defer the issue and avoid a schism over what sort of system to implement; the most popular idea is to introduce a mixed-member proportional system, but some figures have advocated a switch to a full proportional one.

In any case, the 2021 election saw a massive swing to the Progressives, who won an overall majority for the first time ever, taking 474 seats to 377 for the Kuomintang. All the opposition parties besides the Loyalists also gained seats due to their friendliness to electoral reform and moderate stances on the majority of the Progressives’ reforms.

Progressive: 474 seats, 43.5%
Kuomintang: 377 seats, 30.8%
Communist: 22 seats, 9.7%
Economic Liberal: 11 seats, 4.5%
Turkestani: 6 seats, 0.2% (32.1% of Xinjiang/East Turkestan's vote)
Loyalist: 6 seats, 2.1%
Green: 3 seats, 5.1%
Independent/Other: 1 seat, 4.3%

 

[TheTexasRanger]

The 1980 Presidential election except Ford won in 1976 and is as unpopular (if not more) than Carter was IOTL 1980, Reagan wins the GOP nomination, and Carter is a 2-term governor with more experience who runs a much better campaign than he did in '76 irl because here he's a more experienced politician.


View attachment 745772
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (D-GA)/Fritz Hollings (D-SC) 61.5% popular vote, 538 electoral votes
Ronald Wilson Reagan (R-CA)/Harold Stassen (R-MN) 37% popular vote, 0 electoral votes

I'm honestly surprised I hadn't thought of or seen a reverse 1980 of Reagan being the unpopular incumbent and Carter the challenger, good work and with that kind of popular vote victory the congressional results must be insane.

 

[LAHistorian15]

William Howard Taft wins the 1912 Election after defeating Former President Theodore Roosevelt during the Republican National Convention.

 

[LAHistorian15]

George H. W. Bush wins in 1992 after he is endorsed by Ross Perot.

 

[X_X]

snip

1972: William Scranton seemed like he would be remembered fondly as a president if you were to go off his first year or so in office. But 1970 brought the start of a great economic recession. Things had not looked so bad since the 1930s. Scranton came across as bumbling and dim in his attempts to deal with the crash, the popular caricature of him by his opponents was of a rich, apathetic man in deeply over his head. Out of touch with the American people, Scranton’s emergency executive orders to combat the crisis came across as too little too late. With unemployment and homelessness skyrocketing to their highest rates in decades, people began to have buyer’s remorse over the 1968 election. Everyday goods were too costly and wages too low. “Don’t blame me, I voted Wallace” became a popular bumper sticker seen across the country.

After Democrats had a “blue wave” in 1970, polling showed Wallace in the lead among voters by a large margin. A rematch was in order, this time with Wallace picking Senator Adlai Steveson III, the son of the architect of the modern Democratic Party, as his running mate. Wallace loudly vowed to "take back what was stolen from the average, hard-working American citizen" and "tax the wealthy so the little man doesn't suffer." Republicans tried to paint Wallace as both a hardened psychotic socialist and a racist demagogue at the same time, but these taunts rarely stuck to him.

Come November, a new resident was given the keys to the White House.

George Wallace (AL) / Adlai Stevenson III (IL): 410 ECV
William Scranton (PA) / Gerald Ford (MI): 128 ECV

1976: The Wallace administration had a large agenda to pass, much of it successful. Banking and tax reform, stricter laws on big business, protective legislation for unions and their members, a higher federal minimum wage, and sweeping spending bills to provide housing relief and job creation. Other advancements came in the funding of cultural and scientific institutions, with more money going to public television. NASA, which had languished since the fall of the USSR had brought a premature end to the Space Race, also found a friend in the president, with Wallace vowing to place men on the moon.

While conservatives called these programs irresponsible, one couldn't deny their popularity with the American people. The result was Wallace winning reelection by a safe margin.

George Wallace (AL) / Adlai Stevenson III (IL): 318 ECV
Richard Nixon (CA) / Gerald Ford (MI): 220 ECV

1980: It wasn't supposed to go this way for Adlai Stevenson III. It was expected that Wallace would serve his eight years in office before passing the touch onto him in 1980. Instead, Stevenson ascended to the presidency through national tragedy, when President Wallace died in a plane crash in May 1979. Stevenson pledged to serve as America's head of state for the next 20 months, but the grief-stricken man made it clear that was all he had in him. The spirit to fight for power had died with Wallace that day.

With the popular incumbent bowing out, Republicans saw the opportunity to reclaim the throne. Massachusetts senator Edward Brooke would win the nomination, making history as the first Afro-American candidate on a major party ticket. This unfortunately led to much race-baiting, the moderate Brooke being portrayed as an anti-white radical by his opponents. However, the senator held his head high and countered these racist remarks with grace and charisma. He pointed out that he had served Massachusetts, a state with a white supermajority population, well for three terms, and was extremely popular with constituents of all backgrounds. Brooke stated that he would be a president standing up for all Americans, and the people believed him knowing his history.

For the Democrats, the death of Wallace, the retirement of Stevenson, and the ascent of Brooke brought new challenges on the campaign trail. Like Wallace before, the nomination would go to a Southern governor, George Busbee of Georgia. To the credit of Busbee, he never engaged in the race-baiting against Brooke as some of his rivals in the primary had, making it clear that "I'd never have an issue with color or character. My disagreements with my opponent purely come from policy."

Polls suggested that Busbee would be the victor, riding off the success of the past eight years of Democratic programs. It looked like Democrats would earn four more years of the presidency. However, to the shock of pundits, Brooke would unexpectedly win state after state on election night. It was clear that not only had blacks shown up in record numbers, that more white people were willing to support a black president than the data implied. Busbee conceded and Brooke told to the podium in front of a cheering Boston crowd. "This is not a personal achievement, this moment in history is a triumph for all of you!" he exclaimed. The senator was then famously photographed holding up a newspaper with the erroneous caption: "BUSBEE DEFEATS BROOKE", a wide smile on his face.

The hard work was set to start for the new president.

Edward Brooke (MA) / Bob Dole (KS): 303 ECV
George Busbee (GA) / Frank Church (ID): 235 ECV

More to come!

 

[Osk]

The most recent election in the Republic of California saw the rise of the theonationalist Pedro Adolfo Pacheco Arias of the Between Christ & Country (Entre Pueblo y Cristo). Arias usurped power from the incumbent Californian President, Jose Carlos Cabrera de los Pinos, of the Republican-Federalist Party (Partido Federalist Republicano). Cabrera actually came in third place, his tenure coinciding with the CVR-20 Pandemic and growing crises at the border concerning water demands from the Colorado River to Lake California. Instead, the urbanite and communalist Juan Martin Cervantes de Luna of the Marxist & Equalist Party (Partido Marxista y Equalista) came in a - distant - second.

Arias' victory has ensured a complete shift in the politics of the area, both within California but outside it as well. It had been decades since a party other than the PFR or the PME won the presidency, and not since the late 1940s had a ceasarist party or candidate been popular like this. Many within California were troubled as Arias and his party were hardliners on many social issues. Moreover, California's neighbor's remain unsure if the EPC's explosive rhetoric will translate now that power has been secured.

 

[jpj1421]

Over in the Politics version I was counting backwards the highest vote getting Presidential candidates in each party and pitting them against each other. 2000 George W Bush beat 1996 Bill Clinton and now we're getting 30 years out from the current day...

Unfortunately for 1992 Bill Clinton, he was also unable to keep up 1988 George HW Bush.

Landslide winners 1972 Nixon and 1964 LBJ goes to Nixon with that Southern sweep.

1988 Michael Dukakis struggles when pitted against 1980 Ronald Reagan