Comrade Chomsky

In 1979 Carter flies to Tehran immediate after the storming of the embassy. He meets with Ayatollah Khomeini, and negotiates a deal: In exchange for the hostages and eventual restoration of relations, Iran will receive US aid in the event of an Iraqi invasion. This deal is secret: The US public only hears that the hostages have been released. Carter wins a second term.

1980-The incoming US congress is far more to the right then Carter would like. Bickering between the president and congress becomes a way of life in Washington, and under pressure to increase home ownership Carter signs the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act into law.

1984-Stagflation really wasn't ended, and when the savings-and-loan crisis erupts, the economy goes into freefall. Crime increases, and when a gunman robs a bakery, and shoots one Bill Ayers who happens to be buying bread, the police cannot solve it. Rumors start flying. Regan wins, Volker becomes fed chief.

1985-Volker starts raising interest rates to reduce inflation. It increases unemployment.

1986-Protests at the Federal Reserve turn violent. Noam Chomksy starts the Left Party. It quickly swells to 1 million members, concentrated in urban centers. Regan is the same bastard as always, and so decides to use any means to crush this fifth column.

1987-A black block member is unmasked and revealed to be a police officer at a protest in Seattle. It becomes a violent riot. The economy is not doing much better, and the military buildup is becoming hampered by this. Soviet Russia is therefore in a better economic position then OTL because of needing fewer weapons to maintain parity.
 
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JohnJacques

Banned
An interesting note you may want to include: IOTL, Reagan's staff negotiated with Iran through back channels to delay the release of the hostages.
 
An interesting note you may want to include: IOTL, Reagan's staff negotiated with Iran through back channels to delay the release of the hostages.

I heard that allegation, and am inclined to believe negative things about Reagan and his circle.

What is the evidence?

However if this were true and came out just before the election is surely seeas Reagan defeated overwhelmingly
 
Something to take of note: I think it was really only in the 1990s when Avram "Noam" Chomsky began getting more politically involved. Before that, it was still mainly academia.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
I want more of this story, much more than the tiny piece that tantalizes me like a dream about living in a working commune on a tropical island.
 

JohnJacques

Banned
I heard that allegation, and am inclined to believe negative things about Reagan and his circle.

What is the evidence?

However if this were true and came out just before the election is surely see as Reagan defeated overwhelmingly

It has been proven that there were contacts between his staff and the Iranian government. When Reagan himself was asked about this (after he was president), he said he did do private negotiations to get them out earlier but couldn't say more as it was still classified.

The most recent thing I've read which mentions it is Anything for a Vote- which is non-partisan and hits everyone for their dealings during elections. However, I have read it in other sources, but it would take me a bit to find those again.
 
How is Carter's trip kept secret?

What motivates the Ayatollah to make a deal w/Carter rather then throw him (as President he is the embodiment of the Great Satan) in w/the other hostages (alright, he wouldn't do this, but still...)?

How are Carter's domestic economic policies different from OTL?

Who is the GOP nominee in 1980 and why does Carter win a 2nd term?

Why does the 97th Congress move to the right (especially the House)when a liberal Democrat has won reelection as POTUS?

How long prior to 1984 has the US economy been experiencing stagflation?

Wasn't Garn-St. Germaine a Reagan administration initiative? Also, why would it arise 2 years earlier in this TL and why would Carter have signed it, even if under pressure to do so?

Why do you think Reagan wins the GOP nomination in '84?

What other policies of the 2nd Carter Administration led to the accelerated advent (and severity?) of the S&L crisis in this TL?

How quickly and why does Chomsky's Left Party blossom and grow so rapidly?
 
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So I'm going to answer some questions, then continue this timeline.

Carter negotiates the deal via Swiss intermediaries, then flies to Tehran to claim the PR points.

Carter's domestic policies are not different. But because he has a foreign policy coup on his record, he stays in power while citizens take out their anger on congress. This is going to be a pattern in this TL: Foreign policy impacts presidential races alone

I'm assuming that Regan doesn't get Alzheimer's until late 1986. He is a very conservative man and charismatic. In a time of troubles his message of looking back to a glorified past is going to play very well.

As for questions about Chomsky leading this, my question is "Who else?". Chomsky has the ability to pull together the left, and Howard Zinn would also. But most of the recognized names would have trouble because of the legacy of the 1960's infighting.

1988- It's election year in America. And with a Soviet Union victorious in Afghanistan, Regan's foreign policy is looking bad. Lucky for the Republicans, Regan is steeping down from the presidency due to "health reasons". George H.W. Bush is also going back to his ranch in Crawford. Into this vacuum steps Newt Gingrich, ready to make the jump up Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Democrats nominate Bill Clinton. With the liberal wing of the party membership defecting to the Left only the New Democrats remain. Many key house and senate members look at the numbers, and join the Left, knowing that to remain a democrat and face a third party challenge means certain defeat.

The Left has fun. Realizing that the distribution of support rules out a serious candidacy, they also see that a candidate with a substantial coattails effect will eat into the Democratic majority and potentially qualify for the debate. CPD rules use only national polls: It is possible for a candidate to qualify for the debate and be out of the running in the electoral college. Time to nominate an effective, left-wing, law professor whose oratorical skills have won him renown.
 
Sorry, but if Reagen ran and lost in '80 he would not have been the GOP nominee in '84, and if he skipped 1980 he would have been seen as too old in 1984 to win the GOP nomination. Also, I'm not so sure that Gingrich and Clinton were politically strong/well known enough in 1988 to win their respective party's nomination. Plus, the in OTL the ideologically centrist Democrats who became known as "New Democrats" in 1990 had only formed in 1985 and for reasons specific to a 1980 "Reagan Revolution" which is not present in this TL. Two questions: Why was the Commission on Presidential Debates established in this TL (as the OTL reason for its' coming into being has been butterflied away)? How and why does Chomsky become politically active and gain wider recognition in this TL as opposed to OTL?
 
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