Alternate Electoral Maps
- Thread starter Tayya
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1984
Pressler took an interesting approach to the Presidency. Knowing that the 'Gypsy Moths' would give him more leverage in Congress than it seemed at first glace, especially because it was leading to significant friction between McDonald and the vocal liberal Massachusetts Representative Tipp O'Neill, whose infighting led the Democratic Congress to be dubbed the 'No Deal Coalition' by Republicans. In terms of actual achievements, the Pressler administration was fiscally conservative in that it worked to cut back on military spending, a choice the President defended by declaring, 'War isn't cheap', as well as working to more fairly regulate campaign funding techniques. At the same time, he shepherded the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress and reduced the budget deficit to such an extent that the economy began to recover.
Despite this, the Republicans still suffered mild losses in the midterms. Numerous members of the party who were skeptical of Pressler, such as Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, had begun to become vocal in their opposition to him, whilst both Democratic loyalists and 'Gypsy Moths' had made headway regionally. Despite this, overall the shape of Congress did not worry Pressler, who spent the next term of Congress quietly defunding arms sales to Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war and gradually building up support for a plan to increase the retirement age for Social Security.
While there were rumblings of discontent in the run up to the 1984 Presidential election, Vice President Baker shored up his superior by reaffirming that 'The President is a bipartisan fiscal conservative with America's best interests in mind.' The real sparks were flying, however, in the Democratic camp. A stark divide had emerged between the party's most vocal figures, McDonald for the right and O'Neill for the left, with both running for the nomination and supported by campaigners who loathed each other. Commentators remarked on the similarities to the Republican schism of twenty years prior, and the convention in San Francisco saw O'Neill just ahead in delegates, clinching the nomination and picking rising Senator Gary Hart of Colorado as his running mate.
This had been intended to appease conservative Democrats, but the Southern delegation would have none of it, and following in the footsteps of McGovern twelve years earlier, walked out of the convention. They reconvened in McDonald's native Atlanta, where he announced he would run on a Conservative ticket alongside North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, nicknamed the 'Yellow Dogs' in reference to the old claim that Southern voters would elect a yellow dog before a Republican, but used by their opponents to describe their agenda as 'barking mad'.
Predictably, this ticket-splitting was not a good sign for the Democrats.
Pressler/Baker (Republican): 455 EVs, 54.8%
McDonald/Helms (Conservative): 55 EVs, 21.3%
O'Neill/Hart (Democratic): 28 EVs, 23.5%
While his margin was somewhat down from 1980, Pressler still won a dominant victory and an absolute majority of the popular vote. What was shocking to Democrats, however, was the fact that McDonald overtook O'Neill in the electoral vote and came close to doing so in the popular vote. Furthermore, down-ballot numerous Gypsy Moths were dispatched by Republicans due to conservative Democrats jumping ship and taking an unknown quantity over the wing of their own party they couldn't stomach- enough, in fact, to flip the House to the Republicans.
Among the more notable jokes to emerge from the scenario were that, in reference to the Apple commercials, 'They said 1984 won't be like 1984. They were right- it's like Animal Farm', and the suggestion that America now had a 'one-and-two-halves party system'.
Despite the glee of Republican loyalists, Pressler's victory speech was suprisingly muted- perhaps he sensed that his second term would not be an easy one.
Deleted member 83898
Orgasmic.How would it look if Richard Nixon did 10% better in 1972?
How would it look if Richard Nixon did 10% better in 1972?
Lol, even if McGovern did 10% better he still would've won only four more states.
A map I created when I thought Hillary Clinton would win the Presidency, and then go on to defeat four years later. I have changed this to reflect an alternate 2016:
Can you guess which states voted for which candidates?
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Besides the duh (MA, VT, RI) I'd say Clinton also won MN, FL, NJ, VA, NC?, maybe NM, GA and CA, and it depends on turnout on IL, CO, NY, WA, OR and a few other blue states.
How wrong am I?
Obama does 10 percentage points better in 2008.
How did you create the inset map of the states?
Clinton does indeed win MA, VT, and RI. Of the others, she wins MN and NJ. Chancellor (changed to Dickenson) wins FL (thanks to Polk, Monroe, Hillsborough, Orange, Volusia, Duval, and Brevard), VA (he wins Loudoun and Prince William Counties), NC (dominating margins in the Lowlands and Appalachia), NM (he wins Bernalillo County), GA (Atlanta suburbs), CA (Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Santa Clara, huge margins in Northern CA), IL (cleanup of everything outside Cook County), CO (Denver suburbs, El Paso, Douglas), NY (sweep of Upstate New York, Long Island, Staten Island), WA and OR (coastal counties).
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you mean the original map?
From what I remember, someone made a map like this but of the Republican primaries so I:
- Copied and pasted the map into MS Paint (or whatever painting software of your choosing
- Colored all the counties white that way I get a blank US counties map template
- Saved the blank map as "blank_map" somewhere in the "My Pictures" folder in windows explorer
- Whenever I wanted to make a new, edited map (such as the one you quoted), I would copy the "blank_map" file, paste it in MS Paint as a new project, and then edit as I please.
No, I mean that smaller map showing the states won by Obama, not the actual county map.
Oh, that map was already there in the blank template. I did not edit it in.
I can see that it was a landslide for the Republicans, and they did generously in the NorthEast.
Basically. Which states do you think went for the Democrats, based off the map?
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