DBWI: If Jimmy Carter had lived.....

As it says on the tin. Today was the 34th anniversary of the assassination of President Carter, in Cicero, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. At 7:30 pm on June 16, 1981, Carter had just finished his now infamous "City on a Hill" speech, when he was shot twice by a mentally ill Vietnam vet, with rumored ties to a far-right militia group(some of whose other members were reportedly sympathetic to white supremacism), named James W. Dobson from Gadsden, Alabama. President Carter survived the initial incident, but passed away on the morning of July 7th due to further complications; Dobson was convicted in late November and sentenced to life without parole, he was reportedly beaten to death by another prisoner just 16 months later in March, 1983.

But, what if Carter's assassin had missed? Or what if that Illinois State Trooper in White County had decided to do a search of Dobson's 1966 Ford Falcon after he was pulled over, just outside of Carmi(which would have resulted in Dobson's arrest)?

OOC: The POD was sometime in 1979, and Ronald Reagan narrowly lost to Carter. Walter Mondale stayed as Carter's running mate as in OTL, and ascended to the Oval Office upon Pres. Carter's death.

Also, here are the Presidents ITTL:

1976-1981: James E. "Jimmy" Carter** (Democratic-GA)
1981-1984: Walter Mondale (Democratic-MN)
1984-1992: Howard Baker (Republican-TN)
1992-2000: Jerry Brown (Democratic-CA)
2000-2008: Charlie Crist (Republican-FL)
2008-2016: Elizabeth Warren (Democratic-OK)



 
I think Colonel Carter could have rose to the rank of General and perhaps overtaken Hooker and become commander of the Army of the Potamac, where he would obviously lose to the superior generalship of General Robert E. Lee.
 
I think Colonel Carter could have rose to the rank of General and perhaps overtaken Hooker and become commander of the Army of the Potamac, where he would obviously lose to the superior generalship of General Robert E. Lee.

OOC: He's talking about the president.
 
OOC: Anyway.....

IC: One must wonder how the discussion of social issues might have gone. Mondale himself was already fairly liberal in a standard sense during the '80s, and, after Reagan's loss in the '80 elections, not to mention several damaging scandals, the Religious Right would begin to falter by the time of Howard Baker's re-election, and started burning out entirely during the 2000s, especially after the rise of the "Tea Party" movement during the 1994 midterm election season ended up eventually alienating many moderate conservatives in the long run.

Firstly, if Reagan, the favorite of the religious right, had won, how long could the advance of LGBT rights have been slowed down(if they were, to any notable extent)? IOTL, the Supreme Court(3 conservatives, 4 liberals, and 2 moderates) just recently ruled 7-2, in March of this year, that, in their view, that same-sex marriage was a civil rights issue, and, therefore, that LGBT persons were entitled to the same rights as "straight" individuals. It's also interesting to note, by the way, that it was Hawa'ii, of all places, that first fully recognized same-sex marriage in 1992(via a State Supreme Court ruling in '90)-by 2012, only Utah and a few Southern states(GA, MS, AL, and SC), still did not allow same-sex marriage.

Apparently, one of the most famous collaborative TLs on the Internet these days(somehow, I've forgotten the title at this exact moment), had it where same-sex marriage did not become fully recognized by any state until Massachusetts in 2004(versus 1997 IOTL).....it does seem a tad unlikely, IMO, but maybe Reagan's victory in 1980 emboldened the right? I dunno, haven't read it in a little while, TBH.

OOC: The ATL alt-historical Collaborative timeline I've referred to happens to be OTL, by the way. ;)
 
Maybe the Soviet Union fell would have not been so bad as it was, and they might be a European Union, or something like that if the UK and France had try to slow down German reunification, making Germany leave EEC and form they own bloc.
 
Another social issue is drug legalization. With Carter basically eliminating the discrepancies in crack vs. powder cocaine as well as starting the end of the War on Drugs and the decriminalization of marijuana, I doubt we would have seen the legalization of marijuana in 2009, under President Warren.
 
Maybe the Soviet Union fell would have not been so bad as it was, and they might be a European Union, or something like that if the UK and France had try to slow down German reunification, making Germany leave EEC and form they own bloc.

I dunno. Actually, the Soviet Union's dissolution was mostly peaceful, by and large. Yes, we did unfortunately see some Islamist terrorism in the 'Stans and Chechnya during the late '80s, early '90s, but, frankly, I'm actually of the mind that Reagan as President might actually have made the situation a lot worse(assuming the Islamists still rise up as they did, especially after the Saudi Crisis and their comrades losing the Iranian Civil War in 1987-88), even if Gorbachev still became Premier as he did IOTL(he's still regarded as one of Russia's best ever leaders, by the way); Baker knew when to hardball things, and when to be diplomatic, whereas Reagan had a much harder time with that, as he showed in the '80 debates.

OOC: I'm afraid this whole idea about Germany forming their own economic bloc is fairly implausible, TBH. I can see Islamist elements trying to take advantage of the USSR's fall, though, especially if the Iranians implode.

Another social issue is drug legalization. With Carter basically eliminating the discrepancies in crack vs. powder cocaine as well as starting the end of the War on Drugs and the decriminalization of marijuana, I doubt we would have seen the legalization of marijuana in 2009, under President Warren.

You might be right, sadly.
 
I dunno. Actually, the Soviet Union's dissolution was mostly peaceful, by and large. Yes, we did unfortunately see some Islamist terrorism in the 'Stans and Chechnya during the late '80s, early '90s, but, frankly, I'm actually of the mind that Reagan as President might actually have made the situation a lot worse(assuming the Islamists still rise up as they did, especially after the Saudi Crisis and their comrades losing the Iranian Civil War in 1987-88), even if Gorbachev still became Premier as he did IOTL(he's still regarded as one of Russia's best ever leaders, by the way); Baker knew when to hardball things, and when to be diplomatic, whereas Reagan had a much harder time with that, as he showed in the '80 debates.

OOC: I'm afraid this whole idea about Germany forming their own economic bloc is fairly implausible, TBH. I can see Islamist elements trying to take advantage of the USSR's fall, though, especially if the Iranians implode.

.

OOC: OK, and that can work.

IC: Things might be more peaceful if Iran was still in one piece. Yes, most of the nation is back together, but thous smaller bits of it is causing a lot of trouble, then and now. And they was the little border war Russia and China had.
 
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