Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
- Status
John Nance Garner had ascended to the Presidency of the United States in 1933, following the Assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt in February of that year. He enacted many policies similar to those adopted by the slain president-elect, calling them the "American Deal". These policies were quite popular among the public, and Garner was a very popular president because of this
Both of the party conventions were deadlocked, with no clear leader on the first ballot. After 24 ballots, the Democrats ultimately decided on dark-horse Senator Albert "Happy" Chandler from Kentucky, after President Garner publicly endorsed him. Chandler would agree to select a northern politician, Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York, as his running mate. After 10 ballots, the Republicans nominated their initial frontrunner, district attorney Thomas E. Dewey of New York, selecting Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, as his running mate.
One of the most pressing matters of this election was how the next administration would deal with the threat of the German Reich in Europe. Dewey stood by an isolationist platform, but he attacked the Garner administration for supposedly making the nation ill-prepared for a potential war. Chandler stood by the administration's foreign policy decisions, stating it was not in the interests of the American people to get into a war. Dewey and the Republicans also attacked the Garner administration for supposed government overreach through the latter's American Deal policies, but these attacks fell flat due to the popularity of these policies among the public. As a last ditch, Republicans attacked Chandler for supposedly being too young and ill-equipped to be president. He and the Democrats quickly dismissed these attacks, and Chandler, at a rally, said in response "The Republicans want to attack me for being 'too young'. Maybe they should look to their own candidate".
In all, Chandler had outmatched Dewey in all fields. Through his folksy populist charm, Chandler was able to excite voters, while the attacks from the Dewey campaign came off as erratic, negative, and out of touch. With these factors combined Chandler won a lopsided victory, winning 391 electoral votes, 34 states, and the popular vote by a margin of 6.1%. Historians consider the Dewey campaign to have ran a very poor campaign, having not been able to make an effective case as to why he was the better candidate. Historians also note how Chandler took advantage of this, often remarking at rallies "Look at them. They have nothing to attack me on."
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The 1912 Presidential election would prove to be a defining moment in shaping the modern party system of American Politics
After president Theodore Roosevelt pledged to not seek a 3rd term and with Roosevelt's support William howard taft would become the republican nominee in 1908 going on to defeat democrat William Jennings Bryan and becoming Roosevelt's successor
However schisms in the two's relationship quickly became apparent. Taft represented a conservative faction of the Republican Party that Roosevelt disagreed mightily with. Despite his best efforts Taft's ideology became distant to Roosevelt's setting him up to challenge the increasingly unpopular Taft
The democrats seing the ensuing split in the Republican party were optimistic about their chances for the presidency in 1912, however they were to go through their own primary process with the main characters being speaker of the House Champ Clark, governor Woodrow Wilson, Governor Judson Harmon and Representative Oscar Underwood. Despite Clark being the favourite on initial ballots Wilson eventually pulled ahead
Despite unsuccessful campaigns in 1904 and 1908 Eugene Debs became the Socialist Party's nominee in the 1912 election as the outlook for the party's chances looked bleak considering the (relative) progressivism of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Alas the Socialist party would run on its agenda of a Pro Labour platform and campaign to supporters in rural and mining areas.
Due to his unpopularity and lack of appeal Taft performed poorly in the Republican primaries with the race seemingly starting off as a competition between Roosevelt and senator Robert La Follette. Roosevelt ended up having a strong lead in primary delegates but Taft gained delegates from conservative southern republican organisations. Going into the convention the winner of the competition was still unclear with many delegates remaining uncommitted but at the final convention vote Roosevelt would win with a slim majority of delegates. Taft was initially hostile towards Roosevelt after his win of the nomination but would eventually quit his public feud with Roosevelt, although he never did formally endorse him for the presidential race. Roosevelt picked progressive William Borah as his running mate.
As Taft was still president he used the opporunity and the strong Conservative presence in congress to influence the passage of policies he liked. As the election campaign begun to heat up in July a small but sustantial General Strike in the West started becoming a thorn in the side of the president who had since tried to ignore in the hopes of the strike disbanding. The strike spread across Nevada, California, Arizona and Idaho with many thousands of strikers from various professions demanding greater pay, stricter anti-trust laws and right to union membership. It was found that the IWW was heavily encouraging workers to join in on the strikes and Taft decided that the best way to aleaviate the pressure on the government was to go after IWW. Painting IWW as a 'radical labour group' congress seeked to ban the organisation in the USA in hopes that doing so would discourage the members of the nearly month old strike. Congress theorised that any backlash that IWW would have would not be effective considering that IWW was already divided into different factions.
The IWW quickly set up public demonstrations in major cities as a way of callig public attention to the treatment of the group. Cities like Chigago and New York were flooded by IWW demonstrators. These demostrations increased public sympathy for the strikers and the IWW itself and made the attempt to ban the organisation deeply unpopular in the North and West. As a founder of the IWW Eugene Debs appeared at many major demonstrations and used them as a way to present himself and the Socialist party to a wider audience. Newspapers across the nation pitted him firmly against not just Taft but the conservative factions of the Republican and Democratic parties causing him to spihon support from progressive republicans and even a few democrats. In an unprecendeted move to survey the voting intentions, The New York times sent out hundreds of thousands of postcards across the state of New York surveying people of their voting intentions over a month. It saw Eugene Debs with a strong 20% of the vote statewide catching up to Wilson's 29% and Roosevelt's 48%. The news of the high level of support of the Socialist Party quickly spread throughout the nation, this event may have made people more seriously consider voting for the party.
Make no mistake, the strikes were escalating in violence and it was indeed controversial to conservative voters to appear sympathetic to them. Although Wilson had appeared to be part of a wing of the democrats that were more sympathetic to Labour, Wilson's public tone quickly changed and he tried to position himself as a candidate of order in a nation of rising chaos. Roosevelt had to balance between the two upsetting his left-wing supporters and once again giving Debs and the Socialist party more support. The New York Times decided to do another survey for the state of New York showing Roosevelt still ahead but with 36%, Wilson with 34% and Debs with 28%
As Roosevelt's support seemed to be floundering he turned his focus against the opinion surveys in New York calling them a "Perversion of Free Choice and Democracy" and gave fiery speeches about his bread and butter topics across the midwest and atlantic. Wilson tired to ride the 'momentum' in states that appeared to be close such as Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More people warmed up to Wilson's pragmatic style than had did for Jennings-Bryan.
Just weeks before the election President Taft declared in the face of the now enormous western general strike that he could no no more to dissipate it and it was now the responsibility of the next president to aide the strikers and negotiate with them. This move was seen as a general win for the Socialist party and a minor one for the Republicans as the issue would not drag their party down too much and in the final stretch issues like Tariffs and Civil Rights became much more prominent
Debs went into election day with a band of strong supporters loyal to the ideas of socialism, Wilson went in with a sense of optimism and Roosevelt was hoping that the events of the campaign had not dampened his populist appeal and that his legacy would speak for itself.
As the candidates waited patiently it was clear by the end of election night that Debs' strong campaign had caused a deadlock and it was now up to congress to decide the election for the first time in 80 years. However, in this case it was decided that the incoming congress rather than the outgoing congress would vote as state delegations to decide a winner. Due to strong republican performances in individual state delegations in congress such as Tennessee and Ohio it became clear that Roosevelt would likely get the 25 states needed to become president. Wilson said publically wished for the states to vote in whichever way they wanted but conceded that it was unlikely that he would win a vote in congress. Both Republican candidates for President and Vice-President were elected by congress and Teddy Roosevelt was set for a 3rd term. The Socialist party hailed the election as a victory as shown by the deadlock in the electoral college and pledged to fight hard for the Strikers wants especially with them controlling who had the majority in the House of Representatives.
The socialist party had done extremely well at convincing voters to elect them in congress as well as the presidency picking up 20 seats and controlling the congressional delegation of Nevada. Their first action was to influence the Republicans to dump Mann as leader in favour of the much more progressive Christensen. Despite the Democrats having the plurality of seats they were effectively a minority with somewhat of a coalition forming between the Socialists and Republicans as the Socialists exerted their influence.
The Speaker election was also notable for having the first Female speaker candidate, Representative Mary Ovington, to receive a vote in a speaker election. Berger gave Ovington his vote to her surprise as a symbolic gesture for the Socialist Party's advocation for gender equality legislation.
The Senate stayed in the Republican's favour and the Socialist party won the Nevada senate seat due to a popular vote race for the seat. Notably it was won by Eugene Debs' brother Theodore.
With a Socialist party to appease only time would tell what Roosevelt would be able to do in his third term and whether he would be able to convince the nation to give him a fourth.
After president Theodore Roosevelt pledged to not seek a 3rd term and with Roosevelt's support William howard taft would become the republican nominee in 1908 going on to defeat democrat William Jennings Bryan and becoming Roosevelt's successor
However schisms in the two's relationship quickly became apparent. Taft represented a conservative faction of the Republican Party that Roosevelt disagreed mightily with. Despite his best efforts Taft's ideology became distant to Roosevelt's setting him up to challenge the increasingly unpopular Taft
The democrats seing the ensuing split in the Republican party were optimistic about their chances for the presidency in 1912, however they were to go through their own primary process with the main characters being speaker of the House Champ Clark, governor Woodrow Wilson, Governor Judson Harmon and Representative Oscar Underwood. Despite Clark being the favourite on initial ballots Wilson eventually pulled ahead
Despite unsuccessful campaigns in 1904 and 1908 Eugene Debs became the Socialist Party's nominee in the 1912 election as the outlook for the party's chances looked bleak considering the (relative) progressivism of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Alas the Socialist party would run on its agenda of a Pro Labour platform and campaign to supporters in rural and mining areas.
Due to his unpopularity and lack of appeal Taft performed poorly in the Republican primaries with the race seemingly starting off as a competition between Roosevelt and senator Robert La Follette. Roosevelt ended up having a strong lead in primary delegates but Taft gained delegates from conservative southern republican organisations. Going into the convention the winner of the competition was still unclear with many delegates remaining uncommitted but at the final convention vote Roosevelt would win with a slim majority of delegates. Taft was initially hostile towards Roosevelt after his win of the nomination but would eventually quit his public feud with Roosevelt, although he never did formally endorse him for the presidential race. Roosevelt picked progressive William Borah as his running mate.
As Taft was still president he used the opporunity and the strong Conservative presence in congress to influence the passage of policies he liked. As the election campaign begun to heat up in July a small but sustantial General Strike in the West started becoming a thorn in the side of the president who had since tried to ignore in the hopes of the strike disbanding. The strike spread across Nevada, California, Arizona and Idaho with many thousands of strikers from various professions demanding greater pay, stricter anti-trust laws and right to union membership. It was found that the IWW was heavily encouraging workers to join in on the strikes and Taft decided that the best way to aleaviate the pressure on the government was to go after IWW. Painting IWW as a 'radical labour group' congress seeked to ban the organisation in the USA in hopes that doing so would discourage the members of the nearly month old strike. Congress theorised that any backlash that IWW would have would not be effective considering that IWW was already divided into different factions.
The IWW quickly set up public demonstrations in major cities as a way of callig public attention to the treatment of the group. Cities like Chigago and New York were flooded by IWW demonstrators. These demostrations increased public sympathy for the strikers and the IWW itself and made the attempt to ban the organisation deeply unpopular in the North and West. As a founder of the IWW Eugene Debs appeared at many major demonstrations and used them as a way to present himself and the Socialist party to a wider audience. Newspapers across the nation pitted him firmly against not just Taft but the conservative factions of the Republican and Democratic parties causing him to spihon support from progressive republicans and even a few democrats. In an unprecendeted move to survey the voting intentions, The New York times sent out hundreds of thousands of postcards across the state of New York surveying people of their voting intentions over a month. It saw Eugene Debs with a strong 20% of the vote statewide catching up to Wilson's 29% and Roosevelt's 48%. The news of the high level of support of the Socialist Party quickly spread throughout the nation, this event may have made people more seriously consider voting for the party.
Make no mistake, the strikes were escalating in violence and it was indeed controversial to conservative voters to appear sympathetic to them. Although Wilson had appeared to be part of a wing of the democrats that were more sympathetic to Labour, Wilson's public tone quickly changed and he tried to position himself as a candidate of order in a nation of rising chaos. Roosevelt had to balance between the two upsetting his left-wing supporters and once again giving Debs and the Socialist party more support. The New York Times decided to do another survey for the state of New York showing Roosevelt still ahead but with 36%, Wilson with 34% and Debs with 28%
As Roosevelt's support seemed to be floundering he turned his focus against the opinion surveys in New York calling them a "Perversion of Free Choice and Democracy" and gave fiery speeches about his bread and butter topics across the midwest and atlantic. Wilson tired to ride the 'momentum' in states that appeared to be close such as Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More people warmed up to Wilson's pragmatic style than had did for Jennings-Bryan.
Just weeks before the election President Taft declared in the face of the now enormous western general strike that he could no no more to dissipate it and it was now the responsibility of the next president to aide the strikers and negotiate with them. This move was seen as a general win for the Socialist party and a minor one for the Republicans as the issue would not drag their party down too much and in the final stretch issues like Tariffs and Civil Rights became much more prominent
Debs went into election day with a band of strong supporters loyal to the ideas of socialism, Wilson went in with a sense of optimism and Roosevelt was hoping that the events of the campaign had not dampened his populist appeal and that his legacy would speak for itself.
The Speaker election was also notable for having the first Female speaker candidate, Representative Mary Ovington, to receive a vote in a speaker election. Berger gave Ovington his vote to her surprise as a symbolic gesture for the Socialist Party's advocation for gender equality legislation.
With a Socialist party to appease only time would tell what Roosevelt would be able to do in his third term and whether he would be able to convince the nation to give him a fourth.
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I wonder how TR will feel if and when he learns that his veep was seeing Alice...
I cannot believe ive never heard of this affair before
The wikibox for Cal Inslee, the winner of the 2006 United States Presidential Election from the FNM-verse I posted a week or so ago:
He is an alternate version of OTL's Jay Inslee. He won the 2006 election by making the environment a central part of his campaign at a time when the country was captivated but the devastation Hurricanes Karl and William brought a year prior. Though a popular President, he was unable to serve his full term after it was discovered he had developed an aggressive form of cancer in 2011. Citing the "realities of my condition," Inslee became the second President in U.S. history to resign the office, and the first under the Second Constitution. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Barbara Baxter, who would go on to become the 2012 Federalist Party nominee. Inslee would pass away at his estate in Yakeema, the Jamison state capital, nine months after his resignation.
The portrait is the product of Face App shenanigans. Jamison is the name of a state that corresponds roughly exactly with the borders of OTL Washington (state). Si'al is the TTL name of a city roughly where OTL Seattle is located.
He is an alternate version of OTL's Jay Inslee. He won the 2006 election by making the environment a central part of his campaign at a time when the country was captivated but the devastation Hurricanes Karl and William brought a year prior. Though a popular President, he was unable to serve his full term after it was discovered he had developed an aggressive form of cancer in 2011. Citing the "realities of my condition," Inslee became the second President in U.S. history to resign the office, and the first under the Second Constitution. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Barbara Baxter, who would go on to become the 2012 Federalist Party nominee. Inslee would pass away at his estate in Yakeema, the Jamison state capital, nine months after his resignation.
The portrait is the product of Face App shenanigans. Jamison is the name of a state that corresponds roughly exactly with the borders of OTL Washington (state). Si'al is the TTL name of a city roughly where OTL Seattle is located.
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Using red for the Republicans and a slightly different red for the Socialists with various shadings for percentages makes these maps very, very hard to read.
Blame Wikipedia, I was intent on using their default party shadings for the map
The 1990 British presidential election was the ninth election for the Presidency of Britain, with its first round taking place on the 14th June 1990 and the second held on the 5th July 1990. Like every British presidential election since 1975, the top two strongest candidates in the first round advanced to the second round, with the second round winner to be elected President of Britain.
Incumbent President Michael Heseltine ran for a second term, but for the first time, faced significant opposition to re-nomination. One of the cabinet’s main right-wingers, Michael Portillo, ran a hard-fought campaign against Heseltine, and received the backing of several newspapers and barons, most notably Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and its affiliated newspapers. While he did manage to drum up significant support during 1989, when the ‘poll tax’ became an issue, he established himself as a staunch defender of the measure, which made him deeply, deeply unpopular with the public at large, and someone (allegedly a supporter of Heseltine at Conservative Central Office) helped leak to the press rumours of Portillo’s homosexual activities as a young man, disgusting his mostly homophobic base of right-wing Tories and causing Murdoch’s press to hastily withdraw its support for him. Heseltine was re-nominated by the party membership fairly easily after that.
By contrast, Labour’s primary process was much less messy than previous years. Kinnock had agreed with his Shadow Chancellor John Smith that they should aim for one to take control of the Presidency and the other become Prime Minister so that a unified Labour government could retake power from the Tories, and Kinnock had steadily come around to the fact that he didn’t have the public clout to be a good presidential nominee, particularly compared to how Smith was fairly affable and inoffensive to the press and the public. With only token competition from a few old stalwarts of the left like Tony Benn, Smith was picked as Labour’s presidential nominee by the end of 1989.
Meanwhile, the still-fledgling Liberal Democrats were struggling to find an identity, and had spent the two years since their foundation bleeding resources to David Owen’s SDP and continuing to lose voter support compared to Labour from its heyday at the beginning of the 1980s. Consequently, leader Paddy Ashdown’s challenge was very much seen as a token effort, though his campaign did raise the Lib Dems’ profile in their early stages.
The first round saw the first instance of the Tory candidate failing to win a plurality since the two-round system was introduced; Smith won out with 41.1% of the vote to 38.6% for Heseltine, while Ashdown won a small but still respectable 17.3%, outperforming the polls. (Just under 1% of voters backed Owen, whose party was moribund after being humiliated in the Bootle by-election a month before, but remained on the ballot nonetheless.)
The result was a wake-up call to the Tories, who aggressively turned their fire onto Smith, trying to find any angle they could to turn voters against him by tying him to the unpopular Kinnock and the Labour left. None of this seemed to stick, though, particularly as Smith enjoyed the support of Ashdown and the Lib Dems, pledged an end to the ‘poll tax’ and pointed to Hesletine’s ten years of unabated power and the ramifications his policies had had, particularly in a famous poster campaign reading ‘Yesterday was his, tomorrow can be ours’. By contrast, Heseltine was still struggling to encourage right-wing Tories to vote for him despite his bruising primary battle with Portillo.
Not only did Smith come out ahead again in the second round, he did it with the biggest margin of victory and vote share Labour had seen in 25 years. 56.3% of voters turned out for Smith to just 43.7% for Heseltine. For the first time in 15 years, Labour would have a figure in Buckingham Palace, and they would not relinquish this for years to come.
Smith’s mandate allowed him to convince Howe to abandon the ‘poll tax’ by the end of 1990, replacing it with the council tax, a tax which was considerably more proportionate to income. Not surprisingly, this instantly worked to make him popular with both his party and the public at large, though this appeal did not really carry over to making Kinnock and his party in the Commons much more well-liked.
Meanwhile in the Conservative Party, orphaned from his old ally, Howe was left mostly rudderless, and when polls in early 1991 were starting to suggest the public thought Kinnock would make a better Prime Minister than Howe, that was the last straw for the Tory right. One of its most prolific figures, Bill Cash, put him through a leadership contest which he failed to win by a large enough margin in the first round to avoid a second, and realizing he had little chance of beating Cash, Howe stood down. In his place his Chancellor, John Major, was put forward in what was effectively a contest between the 1922 Committee and the rest of the party. Warning that Cash and what he stood for would not be popular with the electorate, Major narrowly won the second round.
Surprisingly to most observers, Major did in fact manage to briefly revive the Tories’ fortunes. He managed to flaunt his humble pre-political career and reserved tone in a similar manner to Smith, and enjoyed the same popularity with voters as a result. During the 1992 campaign, one thing that stood out to voters was the stark contrast between Major meeting voters at small meet-ups and giving speeches on soapboxes to Kinnock’s ‘Sheffield rally’ where he bombastically introduced ‘the next Cabinet’ (something that Smith said after the election, though it is difficult to confirm if he was telling the truth or just blame-shifting, he had advised against).
The election ended in a surprise victory for Major’s Tories, who secured a tiny 12-seat majority. For a moment, Major was seen as the Tories’ saviour, but in October 1992, that impression would be shattered forever as he and his Chancellor, Norman Lamont, were forced to withdraw Britain from the ERM after spending millions to prop up the pound in an effort to stay in it. The right of the party, and the British public, immediately turned on Major, his efforts to blame the debacle on Smith being discredited by the President’s fairly disengaged stance in the negotiations.
1993 would only see this conflict get worse. Major continued fighting to create an opt-out of the provisions of the Social Chapter once Britain became a member of the new European Union (EU), but this pleased few- the Tory right wanted to just leave the union, and Labour and the Lib Dems wanted to have the workers’ rights protections the Social Chapter offered implemented. Putting this to a confidence vote, the infighting within the Tories ended up causing Major to lose control of the House of Commons, and a general election was forced upon them that October.
Labour, which had given its leadership in the Commons to Smith’s protégé and fellow Scot Gordon Brown, regained control of Parliament for the first time in 14 years with a strong majority of 97, the third-biggest in its history, and set to work with a reformist agenda. Smith and Brown implemented several major policy changes, most notably implementing a national minimum wage, child benefit reform, abandoning plans to privatize the railways and certain sections of the NHS, and laying the groundwork for devolution to Scotland and Wales.
Having entered opposition, the Tory right started forcing its agenda on the party as forcefully as the Labour left had done when Heseltine came to power. Any chance of this revitalizing the party was snuffed out by two major factors: firstly, the figure chosen to lead the party and spearhead this new image for the Tories was John Redwood, former Welsh Secretary infamous for mouthing the country’s national anthem because he didn’t know the words. Secondly, it launched itself on the so-called ‘Back to Basics’ campaign, intended to engender public support for traditional values, only for several of its MPs to get in sex scandals (one resigning amidst reports that he fathered a child with his mistress, another being found dead after auto-erotically asphyxiating himself).
In May 1994, however, a major tragedy struck the Labour Party when John Smith had a sudden heart attack and died, the first (and to date, only) British President to die in office. There was a national outpouring of mourning for Smith, and his death has often been compared to that of John F. Kennedy in terms of its electoral significance; this was seen for the first time when Labour narrowly won the 1994 EU elections and held up well in the local elections in defiance of the typical anti-government trend of mid-Parliament elections.
With Smith gone, the decision of who would succeed him as President was dependent on a vote within the Labour Party membership, and a touching speech made by Home Secretary Tony Blair at Smith’s funeral was very well-received and this, combined with his youth and strong speaking skills, quickly cemented him as Smith’s natural successor. Sure enough, that August Blair won the vote to succeed Smith, and was inaugurated.
Fairly soon after Smith’s death, however, something interesting started to happen within Labour. Blair, Brown and several of their close allies were determined to make Labour appeal to middle-class voters who had gotten richer in recent years and drifted away from the party; consequently, the party started to take a more centrist track under their leadership, supporting a populist crackdown on crime and decentralizing the banks, with Brown pledging ‘no return to boom and bust’ as the economy grew over the course of the 1990s (a claim that would, of course, come back to haunt him).
Going into the 1995 election, Blair was riding high in the polls, and was widely expected to win re-election easily. But that year’s election would not be without some surprises, even if the surprises in question mostly concerned Labour’s rivals…
(first round results by county)
(second round results by county)Just a little Scandinavian union fluff
(this is not the actual in world wikipedia text it's just my description of the characters)
Johannes Dufva
As mayor of Stockholm
Social democrat Johannes Dufva took over as mayor of Stockholm from the conservative politician Christina Adelson after a corruption scandal which lead to the liberals leaving the government with the conservatives and christian democrats and instead electing to support a Social democratic-green coalition as a support party outside of government.
Under Johannes mayorship things seemed to look up for Stockholm, the city enjoyed an unprecedented amount of attention when it hosted the 2008 summer olympics which was a great success and, the city was named European capital of culture in 2009. Dufva initiated a number of housing reforms to combat homelessness, an issue that had plagued the city for decades finally reaching the lowest levels of homelessness out of the mayor cities in the country in 2010.
Johannes Dufva having a doctorate in criminology made criminal justice and police reform one of his top priorities. His administration would shift the cities focus away from police and towards progressive preventative policies.
Road to premiership
In late 2010 Johannes Dufva announced that he was challenging Tobias Karlsson for leader of the Social Democratic workers' party. Johannes Dufva being from the parties slightly more radical and leftist wing had to win over the moderates in order to unseat leader of the opposition Tobias Karlsson. He was narrowly chosen as leader in mid 2011 not long before election season would start next year.
Johannes Dufva would prove to be the boost the party needed in order to take back control of the government proving to be very popular, especially in two key categories, both among the white stereotypically racist and conservative rural middle class and among the large typically progressive community of Thai-Scandinavians who primarily lived in the big cities (in this timeline Thailand was a Scandinavian colony from the late 1800s to the early 1950s) as well as other ethnic minorities. Earlier leaders would often succeed in gaining support from one group but not the other.
Johannes was popular in large part for the fact that he was very open about his views and would avoid giving the typical politician non-answer when asked a question. He was especially open about his disgust with the old party establishment whom he saw as neoliberal sellouts.
The social democrats came out of the 2012 election with 39 percent of the seats in the federal parliament ruling together with the greens who wield 12 percent of the seats achieving a small majority.
Erik I
Erik I took over as king after his father king Christian got himself in the royal families biggest scandal ever. In late August a Dutch newspaper uncovered that the Christian had funnelled Scandinavian tax payer money to dutch and Scandinavian neo-nazi parties. At first the royal family denied all allegations but ones more proof was made public Christian came forward and admitted to all accusations but also claiming that he had kept this secret from his immediate family. Being the king he succeeded in avoiding any legal consequences but he was forced to abdicate due to public pressure and moved to the neighbouring kingdom of Finland to live with his cousin Queen Victoria.
A referendum on the fate of the monarchy is set to take place on the 11th of February 2021.
(this is not the actual in world wikipedia text it's just my description of the characters)
Johannes Dufva
As mayor of Stockholm
Social democrat Johannes Dufva took over as mayor of Stockholm from the conservative politician Christina Adelson after a corruption scandal which lead to the liberals leaving the government with the conservatives and christian democrats and instead electing to support a Social democratic-green coalition as a support party outside of government.
Under Johannes mayorship things seemed to look up for Stockholm, the city enjoyed an unprecedented amount of attention when it hosted the 2008 summer olympics which was a great success and, the city was named European capital of culture in 2009. Dufva initiated a number of housing reforms to combat homelessness, an issue that had plagued the city for decades finally reaching the lowest levels of homelessness out of the mayor cities in the country in 2010.
Johannes Dufva having a doctorate in criminology made criminal justice and police reform one of his top priorities. His administration would shift the cities focus away from police and towards progressive preventative policies.
Road to premiership
In late 2010 Johannes Dufva announced that he was challenging Tobias Karlsson for leader of the Social Democratic workers' party. Johannes Dufva being from the parties slightly more radical and leftist wing had to win over the moderates in order to unseat leader of the opposition Tobias Karlsson. He was narrowly chosen as leader in mid 2011 not long before election season would start next year.
Johannes Dufva would prove to be the boost the party needed in order to take back control of the government proving to be very popular, especially in two key categories, both among the white stereotypically racist and conservative rural middle class and among the large typically progressive community of Thai-Scandinavians who primarily lived in the big cities (in this timeline Thailand was a Scandinavian colony from the late 1800s to the early 1950s) as well as other ethnic minorities. Earlier leaders would often succeed in gaining support from one group but not the other.
Johannes was popular in large part for the fact that he was very open about his views and would avoid giving the typical politician non-answer when asked a question. He was especially open about his disgust with the old party establishment whom he saw as neoliberal sellouts.
The social democrats came out of the 2012 election with 39 percent of the seats in the federal parliament ruling together with the greens who wield 12 percent of the seats achieving a small majority.
Erik I
Erik I took over as king after his father king Christian got himself in the royal families biggest scandal ever. In late August a Dutch newspaper uncovered that the Christian had funnelled Scandinavian tax payer money to dutch and Scandinavian neo-nazi parties. At first the royal family denied all allegations but ones more proof was made public Christian came forward and admitted to all accusations but also claiming that he had kept this secret from his immediate family. Being the king he succeeded in avoiding any legal consequences but he was forced to abdicate due to public pressure and moved to the neighbouring kingdom of Finland to live with his cousin Queen Victoria.
A referendum on the fate of the monarchy is set to take place on the 11th of February 2021.
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That's because of the special circumstances regarding the scandal and the referendum. The royal family officially does not recognise anyone as heir until after the referendum. If not for that Eriks younger sister Margareta would be the presumptive heir.
In which case shouldn't it be "Heir Presumptive: Margareta of [Housename] or none [footnote that explains why]"?
It became a very touchy subject because of the nature of the parties the old king supported so wikipedia went with the safe option in order to avoid controversy. A German journalist got himself in trouble when he called Margareta the heir presumptive (which is exactly what she is), received death threats and everything. But you're correct i should probably have added a footnote at least.
It may have happened after Roosevelt's death, but it is possible they had a relationship prior to Alice's daughter's birth.
Will next election be 1956 or 1976? Even I don't know!
Stassen Wins! And Doesn't!
1948 (Stassen vs. Truman vs. Thurmond)
Stassen Wins! And Doesn't!
1948 (Stassen vs. Truman vs. Thurmond)
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I love the irony of Strom Thurmond of all people running on a ticket called Liberty. I assume he's sticking up for the liberty of white Americans to subjugate black Americans.
"The 1944 Presidential Elections served as one of the most transformational in American history, as the first election in which the "Solid" Southern United States, which Democrats had often relied on as a reliable voting bloc began to shift in favor of the Republican Party. Historians often attribute the positions which President Henry Wallace held regarding his support of social unionism in the South and his criticisms on the racial disenfranchisement of black communities, which was often fueled by corrupt political machines. These stances alienated many Southern politicians, who began to view Wallace's stances against segregation as "a betrayal of President Roosevelt's patriotic values" and "communist infiltration into the rights of individual states".
As of 1944, discontent in the South was so high, several state leaders had discussed running under a third-party "Dixiecrat" ticket, led by Arkansas governor Homer Adkins. Meanwhile, the conservative Senator from Ohio, John Bricker would be eagerly nominated by the Grand Old Party, buoyed by his fiery criticisms of the incumbent's policies as "a front for the Hillman-Browder Communist Party". Following his nomination, the party apparatus began suggesting moderate running mates such as Massachusetts senator Henry Cabot Lodge or California governor Earl Warren, drumming up support outside of the Midwest. However, Bricker had been a longtime supporter of the "Conservative Coalition" which united conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats against Roosevelt and Wallace's more liberal policies.
While the Coalition had always been a de-facto alliance and had never held much influence outside of policy-making, Bricker remained determined to bring his vision of an anti-Wallace alliance into reality. Eventually, the other half of Bricker's conservative coalition emerged in the form of Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniels, junior Texas Senator and famed western swing musician. While it was clear that O'Daniels joining the Republican ticket would be political suicide, it was an open secret that the Senator did not wish to run for re-election, often being viewed by his constituents as an inefficient legislator. Immediately, this announcement plunged the Party of Lincoln into sheer chaos as liberals denounced Bricker's betrayal of Republican values while the conservatives praised his bold decision and the moderates had entered a state of shock and confusion.
Similar to Bricker himself, Wallace had realized the importance of extending an olive branch towards the South, choosing Burnet Maybank as his running mate, an active supporter of the New Deal, and a fanatic proponent of racial segregation and white supremacy. The resulting election would be one of most unusual at the time, with 1940 Republican nominee Wendell Willkie campaigning on behalf of the Wallace campaign, along with several other prominent liberal Republicans. Pappy O'Daniels would briefly restart his musical career, as Republican voters sang his campaign songs from Tulsa to Montgomery, while Virginia Senator Harry Byrd used his stranglehold over local politics to turn the state towards the Grand Old Party.
In the end, Bricker's "March Through Dixie" would fail to win him the Presidency, as loyal Republican states in New England received massive turnout in Wallace's favor. States such as Arkansas and Florida were only won by Bricker with the slimmest of margins as he even failed to win Texas, the home of his running mate. And while Maybank would later ascend to the Vice Presidency alongside Wallace, the Senator from South Carolina would later regret his support for Wallace after the desegregation of the Armed Forces, eventually resigning in 1946. Following the election, the Republican party apparatus would later view Bricker's southern outreach as a major reason behind their defeat, eventually leading to Thomas Dewey's nomination in 1948 under the promise of liberal leadership.
But in truth, there was little chance that Bricker would have defeated the popular wartime incumbent riding off of Roosevelt's coattails, even if he had chosen Lodge or Warren as running mate. This would soon be realized after Dewey's defeat at the hands of a more moderate Democratic ticket led by the famed General Eisenhower. While Bricker would remain distrusted by his Republican peers for the rest of his political career, his March Through Dixie would be survived by subsequent Republican campaigns. For without his groundbreaking strategy, Robert Taft's 1952 Presidential campaign would have never achieved victory, thanks to Taft's advocacy for state's rights and utilization of a Southern running mate."
-Excerpt from "Elephants Over Dixie: The End of the Solid South", by William Blythe
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