Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

RoxyLikeAPuma · Jul 1, 2022

1984 United Pacific States Senate Elections
The 1984 United Pacific States Senate elections was an election for the United Pacific States Senate in the middle of Ronald Reagan's presidential term. The Democrats had to defend an unusually large 9 seats compared to the Progressive Republicans who only had to defend 3 seats. The Progressive Republicans won a net of seven seats, defeating five elected incumbents including that of Democratic Majority Leader James McClure of Idaho. The Progressive Republicans also picked up two seats held by Democratic appointees in special elections and regained control of the Senate for the first time since January 1981. This remains the largest number of Senate seats that flipped in a single election cycle since the adoption of the UPS Constitution in 1961.

The 1984 elections gave the Progressive Republicans control of both Houses of Congress since Democrats gained control in the 1980 midterms. The Progressive Republicans would remain in control of the Senate until the 1990 elections coinciding with the election of Slade Gorton to the Presidency.

Alaska- Incumbent Senator Ted Stevens easily defeated Alaska Attorney General John Havelock in what was the best performance for a Senate Democrat in 1984. Following this election, Stevens would be chosen as the next Democratic leader in the Senate following James McClure's defeat.	Arizona- Freshman Senator Dennis DeConcini defeated Congressman Dan Quayle to be elected to a second term in office.
Frontier- Freshman Senator Mary Estill Buchanan was defeated in her attempt at a second term by Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. This is the first Senate election between two women nominated by major parties.	Idaho- Democratic Majority Leader James McClure was defeated for reelection by Governor John Evans. Another party leader would not be defeated for reelection until 2014 when Democratic leader Gorton Smith of Oregon would be defeated by Jeff Merkley.
Oregon- Incumbent Senator and 1974 Vice-Presidential nominee Mark Hatfield was defeated for reelection in his attempt at a fourth term in office by Congressman Paul Simon in the closest Senate election of the cycle. Simon would go on to be the 1986 Progressive Republican nominee for President.	San Francisco- Freshman Senator and future Progressive Republican leader John Burton was easily reelected to a second of six terms in office.
San Joaquin- Incumbent Senator Bob Mathias was defeated in his attempt at a third term by Congressman Richard Lehman. The margin in San Joaquin was the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent in this election cycle.	Shasta- Incumbent Senator Bizz Johnson defeated State Senator Stan Statham to be elected to a fifth term in office. Johnson would not serve the entirety of his last term due to his death in 1988.
South California- Freshman Senator Bob Dornan was defeated for reelection by South California Attorney General John Van de Kamp. Dornan was first elected in 1978 when he successfully defeated Minority Leader Sam Yorty in the Democratic primary.	Utah- Freshman Senator Paul Hawkins defeated Salt Lake City mayor Ted Wilson to secure a second term in office.
Washington Special (1983)- In 1983, Congressman Mike Lowry won the special election to fill the seat vacated by Slade Gorton who was appointed as Attorney General earlier that year. Lowry defeated appointed Senator and former Governor Dan Evans.	Washington Special (1984)- In 1984, former Udall Cabinet Secretary Brock Adams won the special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Scoop Jackson in 1983. Adams defeated appointed Senator and former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro.

Ulysses Orbis · Jul 1, 2022

Conspiracy Theories in the Star Wars Galaxy

"We've decrypted the intel from the First Order Spy and it confirms the worst: Somehow Q returned."

Lacktoastandtolerant · Jul 1, 2022

Just a one-off (two-off, I guess) 1988 thing

In real life, the 1988 elections saw Reagan's VP George H. W. Bush solidly beat democratic nominee and former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Bush actually went into the election with a fairly weak position, and Dukakis had a solid lead in the polls for a while (even a very large one at a couple points), but would go on to run a strong campaign and aggressive gutter attacks (aided by GOP strategist Lee Atwater) while Dukakis ran a weak campaign and made various missteps. Dukakis is sometimes considered to have blown an entirely winnable campaign

But what if Dukakis had better campaign sense, and perhaps different campaign management, and made better choices?

Here, Dukakis doesn't spend the few weeks after the democratic national convention in Massachusetts attending to governor's business, and instead focuses on campaigning, so Bush isn't as free to take the momentum early in the campaign. Also, rather than taking the high road and ignoring the Bush campaign's attacks, he attempts an actual defense (hitting back at the Willie Horton attacks by pointing out Reagan administration prison furlough issues, among other things). He also doesn't do the tank/hat thing, and does give the whole cliche "West Wing" response to the "your wife has just been brutally raped and murdered, wyd?" question (giving an emotional and convincing response as opposed to his more aloof and cold response citing statistics and such of OTL) and has a stronger debate performance in general

Dukakis is still Dukakis, so he's not the strongest campaigner even doing things rather better than OTL in all sorts of ways. His polling lead, which at one point was as large as around 17 points, drops significantly as the campaign goes on, but here, he's still able to maintain a solid lead, and ends up winning by as much as Bush won by in OTL

Since this was back in the 1980s before politics was so polarized and congressional results so closely resembled presidential results, the congressional swing vs OTL is smaller compared to the presidential swing - half as much (a 15.46 swing for president, and 7.73 swing for congress). This still allows for the democrats to make some gains in congress. In the house, they expand their majority, gaining 11 seats (with independent democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who would go on to caucus with the democrats, gaining a 12th seat for the caucus). The senate also expanded their majority in the senate, gaining 5 seats, coming just one seat short of a filibuster-proof majority

So Dukakis enters office with decent majorities, though, again, short of the filibuster-proof majority. In order to enact policy, perhaps he could get some support from the remnant liberal republicans in the senate, or perhaps he'd have to just focus on budget reconciliation bills. There's also the matter of the southern democrats - by 1988, democrats in the south weren't staunch segregationists of yesteryear, but many still leaned to the conservative side of politics, and they could cause issues for democratic attempts at legislation, too. Plus Dukakis himself (despite how he was portrayed by the GOP OTL) was far from some staunch liberal, having enacted policy of tax cuts and such during his governorship. Perhaps the Dukakis administration wouldn't actually be all that different from the early Clinton administration, with the difference of Dukakis just kind of being less charismatic than Clinton. But who knows for sure

And now here's an alternate one where Dukakis actually gets the 17 point victory that his best polling at one point suggested. How does it happen? Apart from the stuff mentioned in the first scenario... idk, maybe some stuff goes differently, the Iran-Contra affair becomes a bigger scandal, and Bush and the GOP get significantly damaged from it. Maybe Lee Atwater also overreaches and goes a bit too far into the gutter, causing some backlash. And maybe something like the vomiting incident of 1992 can happen four years earlier, perhaps at one of the debates, Bush vomits and falls down in a fainting spell, and then people start worrying a lot more about the potential of a Quayle presidency

So Dukakis gets around a 24 point swing vs OTL to get a 17 point win, and (as in the previous scenario, having half the swing from the presidential election for congress) a 12 point swing for the house and senate races

Of most note, the democrats end up with a filibuster-proof majority, with 62 seats. Though there's still the matter of the conservative wing of the party, and its not clear that Dukakis would necessarily push a particularly liberal agenda. So idk what he'd actually do with these majorities. Perhaps succeed at some form of healthcare reform where Clinton would fail OTL in the early 90s

The early 90s recession could also become an issue for the administration, though if it could manage the recovery more effectively than the Bush administration of OTL, perhaps it (well, the response/recovery) would end up a strength for the administration instead

(Also, it turns out that with the 17 point presidential victory and the half-swing in congress, the democrats have the same net gains in the senate and house that they had in 2008, as a little coincidence)

CalBear · Jul 1, 2022

Ulysses Orbis said:
Conspiracy Theories in the Star Wars Galaxy

"We've decrypted the intel from the First Order Spy and it confirms the worst: Somehow Q returned."
SNIP

I will, without hesitation, toss you the next time you drag current politics into this, or any other non-Chat thread.

hagersalthist · Jul 2, 2022

Ulysses Orbis said:
Conspiracy Theories in the Star Wars Galaxy

"We've decrypted the intel from the First Order Spy and it confirms the worst: Somehow Q returned."

View attachment 755208

I think this belongs in your Face the Storm TL.

Bésikly · Jul 2, 2022

Bésikly said:
What if the water could not have been drained from the Chernobyl tanks?

I enjoyed making this style of infoboxes so I wanted to expand this TL a bit by showing the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Among other things I would have liked to show, here global warming is amplified by a chaotic exit from nuclear energy and a massive recourse to coal and oil to meet energy needs and the lack of an ambitious response by States to the gigantic economic crisis of the 1990s has led to a serious weakening of confidence in democracy in the West

CalBear · Jul 2, 2022

Bésikly said:
I enjoyed making this style of infoboxes so I wanted to expand this TL a bit by showing the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dear GOD!

That formatting should be considered a Crime Against Humanity!

Bésikly · Jul 2, 2022

CalBear said:
Dear GOD!

That formatting should be considered a Crime Against Humanity!

Thanks, you can't imagine how time consuming it is to make it so unpleasant

Newne76 · Jul 2, 2022

Just some Presidential elections, nothing out of the ordinary.

prime-minister · Jul 3, 2022

Something I just got thinking about is 'what if Edward never met Wallis Simpson and just served as an unmarried King?' The answer is not very flattering to the monarchy, it has to be said.

*

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire (from 1936-49) and then the British Commonwealth (after 1949) from 1936 until his death in 1972. He was also the last Emperor of India, which was dissolved during his reign in August 1947.

Ascending the throne in 1936 on the death of his father, King George V, Edward became the second monarch of the House of Windsor. He proved very controversial, showing apparent disregard for many established constitutional conventions (such as by paying little attention to legislation he was asked to sign and his remark that ‘something must be done’ about the poverty in the South Wales valleys when he visited them) and seeking to continue the numerous sexual affairs he had conducted as Prince of Wales.

These remained a fairly minor issue early in his reign, and the intervention of his mother Mary of Teck and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin set his poor behaviour towards constitutional protocol relatively straight, but what became a larger problem was his association with the pro-Nazi Cliveden Set and vocal support of appeasement. He stopped this after the declaration of World War II, but the public largely felt he was too distant in regards to supporting them during the war. After the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and his succession by Winston Churchill, the new Prime Minister secured Edward’s support with radio broadcasts to aid morale, but his own speeches greatly overshadowed the King’s.

After the war ended and the Labour government of Clement Attlee came to power, Edward did not stand in the way of decolonization and gave a statement in late 1945 publicly apologizing for his support of appeasement, though this statement was written by advisors and did little to dispel his negative reputation. He tried to rebuild his reputation by giving forceful speeches against communism, which shored up his support among right-wing Britons, but was reportedly privately depressed and distant with the governments that ruled during his reign.

Following the close of the Second World War, discussion of whether Edward should abdicate the throne abounded, and some left-wing politicians such as Aneurin Bevan even suggested that Britain should be proclaimed a republic. These plans proved unfounded both due to a lack of pressure and the preemptive death of most of his potential heirs, as his older brother Albert died in 1952 and his sister Mary died in 1965. His Silver Jubilee in 1961 was infamous for its lack of enthusiasm, both on the part of the King and the public; the topical comedian Peter Cook nicknamed it the ‘unjubilee’, a term which has evolved to refer to opposition to the Royal Family or monarchism in a broader context.

Also sullying the celebration over Edward’s Jubilee were the revelations of his promiscuity early in life (which later proved particularly salient to the British public after the Profumo affair) and his declining health. He had to be operated on for an aneurysm in December 1964 and a detached retina in his left eye in February 1965. In late 1971, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and given cobalt therapy, eventually dying in May 1972, less than a month before he was to turn 78.

As he died unmarried and childless, Edward was succeeded by his only surviving brother, Henry, who became Henry IX. However, ascending to the throne at the age of 72 and barely able to attend his own coronation having suffered a number of strokes, it was clear to all that Henry would not rein long, and he died in June 1974, barely 2 years after his ascension. Henry’s son William, aged 32 at the time, succeeded him as William V*, and served as king from 1974 to his death in 2013. His brother Richard succeeded him as Richard IV, and has served as King since.

Edward’s legacy as a monarch is generally negative, as he is widely seen as having been distant towards the British government and public and uninformed on serious political issues. He is also thought to have given greater momentum to British republicanism, though this movement’s goal of abolishing the monarchy has not been realised.

*ITTL his father ascending to the throne stops William from getting in the plane crash which killed him in OTL. (Ik the succession might be a bit off, but I felt like it'd be more fun than going 'and then Elizabeth II became Queen and things reconverged with OTL'.)

King of the Uzbeks · Jul 3, 2022

In 1323 Stefan V of Reitherman died, leaving the Kingdom to his daughter Aurora and her husband Phillip, also King of Perrault. However Aurora’s cousin Bosely denied her rights, alternating between claiming that a woman had no right to the throne and claiming that Aurora, who was conspicuously absent from court for much of her childhood, was an imposter. Bosely was supported by a coalition of the Kingdoms of Luske, Christina, and Beaumont, all of whom feared the power of a Perrault-Reitherman Personal Union. Early on things grew dire for Philip, but he was saved by the intervention of Sharpsteen and Caselotti. Sharpsteen was a historic ally of Perrault, and in addition John’s heir Ferdinand had claimed the throne of Caselotti by right of his wife, and did not desire to see that claim challenged. The war thus became a stalemate and eventually peace broke out. Aurora was confirmed in her inheritance but was forced to recognize the important fief of Nielsen now came under the functionally independent rule of Bosely.

theflyingmongoose · Jul 3, 2022

King of the Uzbeks · Jul 3, 2022

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1543704370352513024

Brky2020 · Jul 3, 2022

Bésikly said:
I enjoyed making this style of infoboxes so I wanted to expand this TL a bit by showing the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
View attachment 755292 View attachment 755296 View attachment 755297

Among other things I would have liked to show, here global warming is amplified by a chaotic exit from nuclear energy and a massive recourse to coal and oil to meet energy needs and the lack of an ambitious response by States to the gigantic economic crisis of the 1990s has led to a serious weakening of confidence in democracy in the West

The formatting is so god-awful it deserves to be nominated for a Turtledove.

JCC the Alt Historian · Jul 4, 2022

Happy 4th of July everybody!

🇺🇸 To celebrate, here's another one of my 1864 United States presidential election in Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South infoboxes.

The 1864 United States presidential election in Michigan in Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South

The 1864 United States presidential election in Michigan took place on November 8, 1864, as part of the 1864 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Michigan voted for the voted for the Republican Party candidate, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln, over the three other candidates, Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour, Radical Republican candidate John C. Frémont and Independent candidate George B. McClellan.

Lincoln won the Great Lake State by a narrow margin of 1.9%.

WheelyWheelyLegsNoFeely · Jul 4, 2022

So apparently Nixon tried to set up his daughter with the Prince of Wales during the latter's visit to the White House. He found her to be "plastic and artificial," and obviously this never went anywhere, but the idea of the daughter of the U.S. President marrying the Prince of Wales was too interesting to not at least make a simple infobox of Prince Charles ITTL.

I don't know if it's blasphemous for me to be making an infobox of the Prince of Wales on July 4, but now the future Kings of the United Kingdom will be descended from a U.S. President so I figured it evens out.

Sir William Jol · Jul 4, 2022

WheelyWheelyLegsNoFeely said:
View attachment 755978
So apparently Nixon tried to set up his daughter with the Prince of Wales during the latter's visit to the White House. He found her to be "plastic and artificial," and obviously this never went anywhere, but the idea of the daughter of the U.S. President marrying the Prince of Wales was too interesting to not at least make a simple infobox of Prince Charles ITTL.

I don't know if it's blasphemous for me to be making an infobox of the Prince of Wales on July 4, but now the future Kings of the United Kingdom will be descended from a U.S. President so I figured it evens out.

What about Princess Diana marrying JFK Jr. in the late '90s? And then JFK Jr. wins the presidency in 2008.

bindle · Jul 4, 2022

Posting without comment. I'm interested to see what people glean about the world from this wikibox alone.

JCC the Alt Historian · Jul 5, 2022

The 1864 United States presidential election in Wisconsin in Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South

The 1864 United States presidential election in Wisconsin took place on November 8, 1864, as part of the 1864 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Wisconsin voted for the Democratic candidate, Horatio Seymour, over the three other candidates, incumbent Republican President Abraham Lincoln, Radical Republican candidate John C. Frémont and Independent candidate George B. McClellan.

Seymour won the Badger State by a narrow margin of 1.9%.

prime-minister · Jul 5, 2022

Since I'm feeling self-indulgent, have some infoboxes for fictional bands from TV shows I like.

Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

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