Challenge: GOP Collapses

Okay, this has actually occurred in other threads BUT I'm adding some rules to it.
1. The date it must occur after is 1950. So this isn't something with Teddy.
2. At first, it must completely wipe the laize-fair and religious fundamentalist parts out of existence at least briefly politically speaking. Miminum time for that is 8 years.

Those are my rules. Now, this is probably ASB, but I've been proven wrong many times here. I hope to be again.
 
I guess it would just split into the Libertarian and Conservative Christian parties basically, right? Rockafeller Republicans will join Dems.
 
ok this is pretty simple have the republicans win, a lot were talking over 20 years of dominace kind of wins. Get them to a level where the thought of losing becomes unthinkable. Then have them lose and lose big, suddenly the party is looking for scapegoats to define what it is and what it stands for. Only thing is in order to become the leader of the country for so long they would have had to create a coalition of forces that don't see the world the same way, while the party won these differnces were papered over but now the knives will come out. Worst case issue the party breaks apart as this unweildy coalition disolves.
 
Oh, true.

But okay, the latter is possible, but requires a point of divergence at the beginning of America that causes the right wing to suffer a lot(traditional right wing anyway.)
 
Umm, the other election one involves Rockafeller Republicans becoming the new right wing, who still aren't nearly as left wing as Bernie Sanders.
 
Umm, the other election one involves Rockafeller Republicans becoming the new right wing, who still aren't nearly as left wing as Bernie Sanders.

OK, before we go on any longer, it's ROCKEFELLER Republican, based Nelson ROCKEFELLER. It's an "e".
 
Well, now I know that the legislative and executive branches of the two countries' governments are significantly different constitutionally speaking, but I believe that the key to this riddle can be found if just study the Brian Mulroney's premiership of Canada, the rise of the Reform Party and the disintegration of the Progressive Conservatives...
 
Have them connect the dots better on Iran-Contra. A second GOP President identified as a criminal in one generation ought to cause a lot of support loss.

Eliminate the IDEAS of the GOP, such as they are, is probably impossible. But they'll start calling themselves Conservatives and Libertarians, the Republican Party as an institution will be dead.
 
Sorry, Rockefeller, I apologize.

In the meantime, would the replacement party call itself the Libertarian Party, or would that alienate too many voters? Assuming two party system remains, which is in doubt.
 
Sorry, Rockefeller, I apologize.

In the meantime, would the replacement party call itself the Libertarian Party, or would that alienate too many voters? Assuming two party system remains, which is in doubt.

A one-party state would not happen in America, and more than two is unsustainable unless done very cleverly (see MaskedPickle's "A Giant Sucking Sound" Ross Perot TL for an example).
 
Okay, this has actually occurred in other threads BUT I'm adding some rules to it.
1. The date it must occur after is 1950. So this isn't something with Teddy.
2. At first, it must completely wipe the laize-fair and religious fundamentalist parts out of existence at least briefly politically speaking. Miminum time for that is 8 years.

Those are my rules. Now, this is probably ASB, but I've been proven wrong many times here. I hope to be again.

OK. Leftist-wank, but here goes:

Nixon decides to fight it out during Watergate. He resists any calls to resign, and works the phones HARD to line enough Congressional support to resist impeachment through threats/blackmail/bribes/whatever. He also COMPLETELY panders to the extreme right-wingers by going after Draft Dodgers much hard than IOTL, fighting Roe Vs Wade with judicial appointments, scaling back social spending, and doubling down on Vietnam.

All of this keeps his administration creaking along until 1976. With Vietnam still going on, Kennedy decides to run and wins the Democratic nomination. By now, the country is a mess. Mass protests over Vietnam, growing alienation overseas, a resurgent USSR and grinding recession virtually guarantee a Kennedy victory.

With that, the Republican nomination is a mess. No one 'serious' in the party wants the nod because the Republicans aren't going to win. However, Nixon's pandering has inflamed the right-wing base of the party; call it the Tea Party 30 years early. For a while, the nomination looks to be Reagan's, but he is dumped eventually in favor of Strom Thurmond, a better avatar for this proto-tea party.

Needless to say, Kennedy wins easily. After inauguration day, new AG goes in, turns up lots of evidence against Nixon, and some who supported him. This demonizes the mainstream Republicans who worked to keep him in power. Meanwhile, Kennedy ends the war, and through stimulus spending stabalizes the economy. Vietnam falls to the communists, and Kennedy pardons the draft dodgers - and Nixon, though not Nixon's political allies and cronies.

Kennedy's liberal domestic politics, 'socialistic' tendencies and the quiet 'mainstream' Republicans cause the Tea Party - under Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms - to erupt in a viturpous orgy of hate. Using the new cable channels and talk radio, the Republicans whip themselves up into a frenzy of half-baked conservative ideas that go from the unlikely (return to the gold standard) to the impossible (eliminate income tax) to the bizarre (Kennedy is a KGB agent) to the downright scary (adopt Aparteid in the United States).

All of this kills the Republican Party. Despite a lackluster economy, no foreign triumphs and some questions about his personal life, Kennedy easily wins re-election in 1980. The mainstream is unhappy with him, but downright terrified of Strom & Co.

As the 1980s progress, the Democrats enjoy uninterrupted control of the legislature and executive branches. Strom and Jesse's longevity account for this. However, that control does not equal legislation. Many 'conservative' Democrats come into the party. Intra-caucus fights in the House and Senate become legendary as Democrats fight amoung themselves.

Eventually, in 1996, a conservative Democratic Senator from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, disgusted at the election of Paul Simon as POTUS, forms a new party - the Constitutionalists. The Constitutionalists actually attract the fiscal conservatives and libertarians. The Constitutionalists platform differs from the democrats on economic, foreign policy and domestic spending issues; it is socially liberal and open to all. In 2000, Clinton beats Simon to become POTUS...

There. The Republicans are not dead, but win no electoral votes. There are still two parties, but the overt religion is gone, at least at the national level. After more than two decades of Deomcratic rule, social programs are entrenched and (for now) accepted. The USA is still capitalist, so I guess I missed on that.

Mike Turcotte
 
Hey, that was great. And more importantly, I don't mean for the USA to become Socialist(not that far anyway, if I wanted that I'd create a revolution timeline.)
 
Another scenario in which this could happen is the election of Nixon in 1960, after Nixon's Philadelphia assassination in 1964 there a serious division takes place between the extreme right and the moderate Republicans and in 1971 split into two factions the moderate party and the conservative party. Both are very unpopular at the time of Humphery's election in 1972. The Democrats become a purely progressive party and many of the blue dogs join the moderates in the mid 90's putting a hold on regulation and government programs.
Since 2008 polices from America's Liberal Period have been reenacted by Dennis Kunnich

Richard Nixon (R) 1961-1964
Henry Cabot Lodge (R) 1964-1973
Herbert Humphrey (D) 1973-1981
Edmund Muskie (D) 1981-1989
Mario Cumo (D) 1989-1997
Colin Powl (Moderate) 1997-2005
Mark Warner (Moderate 2005-2009
Dennis Kunnich (D) 2009-2017



 
@MikETurcotte: Paul Simon, from what I know was a fiscally conservation democrat like Tsongas & co. I doubt he of all people would ignite libertarians against him. I'd suggest someone more liberal. Bill Bradley maybe?
 
Truman wins in '52, the late '50s depression is worse with no Ajax. With the '58 recession lasting longer, the Republicans just can't get to seem to be in power without the economy breaking. That's a good start.
 
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