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The “1970’s” meaning the period from 1968 to 1980, and the main priorities for “liberal”, in order of importance, being:
civil rights legislation (eg Fair Housing Act of 1968) and civil liberties (1st amendment freedoms, etc) advance at least as much as OTL
environmental and energy legislation at least as strong as Nixon’s OTL legislation
federalization or welfare or something bringing the US closer to some kind of citizen’s stipend (eg Nixon’s proposed F.A.P., or NIT, etc)
some kind of Universal Healthcare
bonus points for ERA, Full Employment Act, etc
What I’m interested in here is, with no PoDs prior to April of 1968, what is the best PoD for achieving the above by 1980? To make it slightly more challenging, assume any given scenario has to fit into one of three broad categories:
a Democrat defeats Nixon in 1968, but loses to Ronald Reagan in 1972, who serves two terms
Nixon wins 1968, but loses re-election in 1972 to a Democrat who serves two terms
Nixon is impeached instead of resigning, the 1976 election comes down to Udall v Reagan
My main concerns with the above being -- first, would having Vietnam wind down sooner help or hurt in this regard? (On the one hand, the nightmare ends sooner; on the other, we don’t get the learning experience of the Pentagon Papers or US v NYT happening in the midst of the war.) Second, would averting Watergate hurt or help in this regard?
CONSOLIDATE: Just to note -- the three categories above are not referring to PoDs.