DBWI: Reagan defeated Carter in 1980?

genusmap.php

Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (D) 44.2%, 283 EV
Ronald W. Reagan / George H. W. Bush (R) 45.9%, 255 EV
John B. Anderson / Patrick Lucey (I) 8.1%, 0EV

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the popular vote by a 1.7% margin. Republicans gained 4 Senate seats, as well as 28 seats in the House. However, due to Carter's slim victory in Illinois, Reagan was defeated in the electoral college. Republicans would regain both the Senate and the House in 1982, and would keep both of them until 1994.

However, given the economic recovery near the end of his term, Carter is now seen much positively. Indeed, Vice President Mondale defeated Senator Howard Baker in 1984 by narrow margins, but at least he won the popular vote. Mondale would win another close reelection in 1988, beating Jack Kemp by narrow margins. It would not be until 1992 when George Deukmejian regained the presidency for the Republicans. Deukmejian would be reelected in 1996, though his Vice President ___________ would be defeated in 2000 by _________ despite winning the popular vote, exactly a repeat of 1980:p:D Since then, the GOP has been trying to get the electoral college repealed, but with limited progress;)

What if Reagan was elected President in 1980? How would he try to fix the economy? Would he take a really harsh stance towards the Soviet Union, speeding up rearmament and, is it possible for a world war to happen under Reagan:eek: Would he get reelected in 1984, if the economy is, after all, going to get better?

POD: No presidential debates between Carter and Reagan. Reagan still won the popular vote, but by a much smaller margin. As well, on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley assassinated Robert De Niro instead of the President:eek:
 
I know everyone's gonna all me a conspiracy theorist, but people who look positivly on Carter really gloss over the whole "Hinkley incident" I remember reading somewhere that he was interviewed in prision, blaming the murder of De Niro on "CIA mind control under the orders of President Carter" saying that "If Reagan had one I'd have killed him instead. Forcing me to kill De Niro was just the Government's way to get me out of the way". Not saying it's true, but it certianly is creepy.

OOC: I'm not actually a conspiracy theorist, I just play one online;)
 
Well if Reagan won we would all be dead. We all know he was the antichrist. Ronald(6 letters) Wilson(6 letters) Reagan(6 letters) 666. Then boom revelation.
 
Well if Reagan won we would all be dead. We all know he was the antichrist. Ronald(6 letters) Wilson(6 letters) Reagan(6 letters) 666. Then boom revelation.

I disagree.Had Reagan won the election in 1980 the West might have won the Cold War. In 1989 NATO finally broke up and Western Europe became "Finlandized" over the next ten years.The Red Army crushed the Afghan Resistance quiickly despite small scale uprisings which continue sporadically to this day.

The Soviet invasion of Iran in 1985 was not opposed by the West except for a little carping followed by yet another accomodation with the Soviets to keep the oil flowing.

In South Africa the white apartheid regeme was violently overthrown by the ANC in 1986 with Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president. The ANC swiftly went for communism.

In Britain the Tories lost to a Labour landslide after Thatcher's humiliating Falkands debacle. The Foot government began slashing the defence budget and pulled out of NATO in 1985. This was in large part the cause of NATO's finalcollapse as the various left wing governments of Western Europe distanced themselves from a lame duck United States that was obviously in terminaldecline after the defeat in Vietnam which is now seen as the decisive moment when the West lost the Cold War. The second Carter administration and its successors likewise saught Detante with the Soviet Union effectively recognising it as the sole remaining Superpower.

The Bush administration of the late 1980s made a brief attempt to reverse this but Clinton's Democrats put this into reverse again. The George W Bush administration again attempted to rebuild the United States' position but was clearly never going tomake headway. Obama concentrated on social policy at home and accomodation with the Soviet Union abroad.

In the Soviet Union there was some liberalisation under Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor butwhen Vladimir Putinwent into the Kremlin a more hard line policy was again followed.

Today the Soviet Union dominates the world despite a little trouble fromIslamists such as Osama BinLaden and Al Qaeda whose 2001 9/11 attack on Moscow caused some problems and led to the Soviet Union's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bin Laden was finally tracked down and killed by the KGB last year.
 

OOC: What? You didn't read the OP at all. The Democrats ITTL held the White House until 1992. And there was no President Clinton in the 1990s at all. And with the GOP holding Congress, they'd never allow for the USSR to win. The Democrats too.


IC: Well as I'm sure most people are aware, the economic recovery would most likely have occurred no matter who was President at the time. The early '80s was when the Price of Oil started to drop again, remember? The Democrats were simply lucky in that regard ITTL, and had Reagan been President, the same. Though perhaps by a wider margin given that he'd still be fairly fresh in '84 - despite being 73.

Under Reagan? I could see NASA/DoD getting some kind of funding boost, owing to Reagan's harsher anti-Soviet stance, and we could see some real progress being made in Space R&D as a result.

But would that have resulted in an earlier STS Disaster? Like the August 1990 Discovery Re-Entry Failure that killed its entire crew? Perhaps. And let's not forget that the 3.5 year delay in returning to flight may well have cost the Democrats Florida in 1992. And the EC Votes they needed that time.

So many things that could've been....
 
If Reagan managed to win, we'd likely see no economic recovery in the early 80's. Although well respected now, Paul Volcker received a lot of criticism form Conservative Republicans during this time period and Reagan would've probably replaced him at the Fed. Without Volcker, stagflation would likely continue for at least a few years longer. Reagan himself would likely have been a one-term President as a result.
 
I disagree.Had Reagan won the election in 1980 the West might have won the Cold War. In 1989 NATO finally broke up and Western Europe became "Finlandized" over the next ten years.The Red Army crushed the Afghan Resistance quiickly despite small scale uprisings which continue sporadically to this day.

The Soviet invasion of Iran in 1985 was not opposed by the West except for a little carping followed by yet another accomodation with the Soviets to keep the oil flowing.

In South Africa the white apartheid regeme was violently overthrown by the ANC in 1986 with Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president. The ANC swiftly went for communism.

In Britain the Tories lost to a Labour landslide after Thatcher's humiliating Falkands debacle. The Foot government began slashing the defence budget and pulled out of NATO in 1985. This was in large part the cause of NATO's finalcollapse as the various left wing governments of Western Europe distanced themselves from a lame duck United States that was obviously in terminaldecline after the defeat in Vietnam which is now seen as the decisive moment when the West lost the Cold War. The second Carter administration and its successors likewise saught Detante with the Soviet Union effectively recognising it as the sole remaining Superpower.

The Bush administration of the late 1980s made a brief attempt to reverse this but Clinton's Democrats put this into reverse again. The George W Bush administration again attempted to rebuild the United States' position but was clearly never going tomake headway. Obama concentrated on social policy at home and accomodation with the Soviet Union abroad.

In the Soviet Union there was some liberalisation under Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor butwhen Vladimir Putinwent into the Kremlin a more hard line policy was again followed.

Today the Soviet Union dominates the world despite a little trouble fromIslamists such as Osama BinLaden and Al Qaeda whose 2001 9/11 attack on Moscow caused some problems and led to the Soviet Union's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bin Laden was finally tracked down and killed by the KGB last year.
OOC: Thanks for your participation, but since your post is against my first post, your post has been nullified.

IC: Well as I'm sure most people are aware, the economic recovery would most likely have occurred no matter who was President at the time. The early '80s was when the Price of Oil started to drop again, remember? The Democrats were simply lucky in that regard ITTL, and had Reagan been President, the same. Though perhaps by a wider margin given that he'd still be fairly fresh in '84 - despite being 73.

Under Reagan? I could see NASA/DoD getting some kind of funding boost, owing to Reagan's harsher anti-Soviet stance, and we could see some real progress being made in Space R&D as a result.

But would that have resulted in an earlier STS Disaster? Like the August 1990 Discovery Re-Entry Failure that killed its entire crew? Perhaps. And let's not forget that the 3.5 year delay in returning to flight may well have cost the Democrats Florida in 1992. And the EC Votes they needed that time.

So many things that could've been....
Perhaps we already have a man on Mars, if Reagan was president?

If Reagan managed to win, we'd likely see no economic recovery in the early 80's. Although well respected now, Paul Volcker received a lot of criticism form Conservative Republicans during this time period and Reagan would've probably replaced him at the Fed. Without Volcker, stagflation would likely continue for at least a few years longer. Reagan himself would likely have been a one-term President as a result.
So who do you think will replace Volcker? Someone who agreed with Reagan's voodoo economics?:p
 
Last edited:
I was in college during the early 80s. I am thankfully we hada president who believed in education. Reagan and the Republicsn Congress would have destroyed the financial aid programs.
 
Perhaps we already have a man on moon, if Reagan was president?

We did. In 1969. But if you meant returned to the Moon, who knows?

Apollo succeeded on account of not only being stripped right down to the Bone, but the Bone itself was shaved a fair bit as well! Back to Topic though, such an act would almost certainly have been a popular one in certain quarters, but still a very expensive one.

The only thing Mondale ever managed to get right with NASA though, was the insistence on getting the maximum possible return value on any mission performed - still better than his old Hostility towards NASA, if you remember the Apollo 1 and STS hearings - so we at least got a Station that can actually do things.

If Reagan pursued such a programme, it could well have been faster, but the worth is a major unknown here.
 
I was in college during the early 80s. I am thankfully we hada president who believed in education. Reagan and the Republicsn Congress would have destroyed the financial aid programs.

Small wonder the US overtook the UK in the Education League and stayed there since 1991 - that's 21 years and counting!
 

d32123

Banned
Ronald Reagan is exactly the type of President that would wake up the American labor movement.
 
The idea of a superpower having a B movie actor as President is something that most people would prefer not to think about. It didn't help that he was so old and had trouble remembering things by the early 80's.

America would have been laughed at as their elderly actor President struggled to remember his lines during speeches and was seen squinting at his cue cards.

As far as economic policy was concerned even his vice Presidential running mate didn't believe in them calling them voodoo economics. He would have bankrupted the country if he were allowed to carry out his agenda.

With the Cold War it would have been a disaster to have the 1950's throw back in the Whitehouse. Carter was just about succeeding in turning America around in terms of winning the propaganda battle against the USSR.

When Carter arrived in the Whitehouse most people saw America as the arrogant superpower that had bombed Vietnam and supported right wing dictators in the Third World. By 1980 Carter was showing that America had changed while the USSR after invading Afghanistan and the trouble in Poland was being seen as the real bad guy at long last. Reagan would have ruined all that.
 
genusmap.php

Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (D) 44.2%, 283 EV
Ronald W. Reagan / George H. W. Bush (R) 45.9%, 255 EV
John B. Anderson / Patrick Lucey (I) 8.1%, 0EV

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the popular vote by a 1.7% margin. Republicans gained 4 Senate seats, as well as 28 seats in the House. However, due to Carter's slim victory in Illinois, Reagan was defeated in the electoral college. Republicans would regain both the Senate and the House in 1982, and would keep both of them until 1994.

However, given the economic recovery near the end of his term, Carter is now seen much positively. Indeed, Vice President Mondale defeated Senator Howard Baker in 1984 by narrow margins, but at least he won the popular vote. Mondale would win another close reelection in 1988, beating Jack Kemp by narrow margins. It would not be until 1992 when George Deukmejian regained the presidency for the Republicans. Deukmejian would be reelected in 1996, though his Vice President ___________ would be defeated in 2000 by _________ despite winning the popular vote, exactly a repeat of 1980:p:D Since then, the GOP has been trying to get the electoral college repealed, but with limited progress;)

What if Reagan was elected President in 1980? How would he try to fix the economy? Would he take a really harsh stance towards the Soviet Union, speeding up rearmament and, is it possible for a world war to happen under Reagan:eek: Would he get reelected in 1984, if the economy is, after all, going to get better?

POD: No presidential debates between Carter and Reagan. Reagan still won the popular vote, but by a much smaller margin. As well, on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley assassinated Robert De Niro instead of the President:eek:

I dunno exactly what to say.

Deukmejian was a decent guy personally, but he was also too afraid to confront the nutters in his party, as well as get some backbone otherwise. It took until 2009, under the second term of President Clinton(OOC: Hillary), to finally solve the national debt issue.
Had a liberal won in '92, we could have solved this before the year 2000 rolled around.

As for Carter? He did help prevent the recession from becoming a major one. So Reagan winning in '80 would have made things worse. Remember what happened to Britain and West Germany in the '80s? Yeah.......
 
I for one am glad President Carter won re-election, if just barely. I remember the Korean Airlines Incident and the new Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev went before the international press to express his regrets. It was the first time a Soviet head of state was genuinely sorry and took responsibility for what their government did, and was able to stay in power and carry out badly needed reforms. Granted, the Soviets are still around but the old hidebound union is now more like a confederation, and free enterprise, planted by the selfsame Gorbachev, is now the greater part of the Soviet economy. Today the Congress Of People's Deputies in Moscow is even discussing the merits of joining NATO!

Now imagine if Reagan was President. The Soviet Politburo would never have had the confidence to nominate a moderate for the helm. Even after Chernobyl blew up. Believe me, I heard through the grapevine that if Reagan won, someone much less moderate like the ex-KGB Chief Andropov would have gotten the nod.
 
Last edited:
Reagan as president ?
it would have put the world near nuclear war.

He was against the MX-icbm "Racetrack" Basing system, calling it "a Rube Goldberg scheme"
but this system protected the free world !
i think that Reagan if had become president, he would terminated the ABM Treaty with Soviet union and had build big ABM systems at the major citys in US.
and push the Cold war armsrace on new dangerous levels
Or propose even more insane weapon systems like Sci-Fi Death Ray (he is B-Actor from Hollywood ;))

On space program i don't know what he had in mind, but from his quotes in interviews it sound not good
and how the Republicans Presidents had run the space program, it would have be a disaster:
massive budget cuts at NASA, what let to minimal Shuttle program
not like under Carter, were Orbital Platform give the shuttle mission length of 45 days and let to Space Station
even had Reagan had plans for US Space Station, it would be build by USAF under fancy name like LIBERTY or so.
or Planetary missions like Halley probe, Galileo, Solar pole probe one, LPO, VOIR or Viking 3/4 and Viking Phobos would never had be launch.

I have my doubt that Reagan as president would have be reelected in 1984,
so the world would not near Nuclear war as The Soviet invasion of Iran in 1985.
as you remember as the student leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his mob, had attack the Soviet embassy.
and start blackmail the soviet Central Committee to move there forces out of Afghanistan and stop support for Iraq.
But Ahmadinejad went to far with execution of the Soviet ambassador...
 
Had Reagan been elected, with like tax cuts and spending increases in defense, man, there would be deficits, like, I mean, billions of dollars, man! Billions!


On the other hand, maybe he could have shaken up this whole Joe Lunchpail culture, where everybody in the country works in a factory and raises the family in a cookie cutter suburb with cookie-cutter schools, and everyone driving the same kinds of big-ass American cars thanks in part to the goodness-forbid anyone-should-drive-an-evil-import big bro protections of the American marketplace, sheesh.
 
Top