DBWI: Ronald Kennedy beats Carter in 1980

Status
Not open for further replies.
The world is bored with Kennedys, and the lustre once lent the name by the charismatic John Fitzgerald-Kennedy has long been tarnished. Only a few years ago Bertie Kennedy metaphorically ran the Irish economy into a wall, and Ted Kennedy's hopes nosedived after he literally ran off a bridge at Chappaquiddick.

Ronald Kennedy, a virulently anti-communist actor from the 1940s and '50s found his surname no hindrance when he won the California governorship in 1966. Although sometimes derided as a simpleton, he had an undoubted gift for making the bitterest medicine sound sweet and some tipped him for the Republican nomination in 1980.

But by the late '70s the shine had worn off. Conspiracy theories were already starting to circulate about a secret "society of the name" and GOP strategists worried that the people wouldn't be willing to consider another Kennedy for the Whitehouse for a long time to come. Even though he was no relation, some thought it was crucial in killing Ron's chances.

But the name was just an accident of birth. Let's say that, instead of Mathgamain mac Cinneide decreeing the adoption of surnames in 950, the move had instead been delayed. Let's say surnames were instead introduced by his brother Brian Boruma when he became High King of Ireland in 1002. By that time, the vast Kennedy clan would have been broken up in to many different names: Brien, Gunning, Aherne, Reagan, Kennedy, Kelleher, and so on.

Would butterflies have kept a 'John Fitzgerald-Reagan' from the Whitehouse? And how would the world have fared had Ron Kennedy beaten George Bush for the republican nomination in 1980?
 
Last edited:
Orwell's 1984 didn't do their reputation any good. There's surely a dissertation waiting to be written comparing Arthur Conan Doyle's Sebastian Moran and Professor Moriarty to the sinister, mononymous Kennedy:

Kennedy smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately-
unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly.
You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness,
her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness — everything has been
burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case."

"You tortured her?"

Kennedy left this unanswered. "Next question," he said.

"Does Big Brother exist?"

"Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the
embodiment of the Party."

"Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"

"You do not exist," said Kennedy.


Pure evil.
 
OOC: h...how exactly does Ronald Reagan become Ronald Kennedy? That part still confuses me. You might want to change it to just "DBWI: Ronald Reagan beats Carter in 1980"

IC: Well, the period of peace and detente with the USSR wouldn't have continued, for one. You may have no Soviet invasion of Afghanistan if they thought America was going to intervene with a President that wants to destroy the USSR, and not just contain it.
 
Cennétig mac Lorcan's sons included Donn Cuan, Echthighern, Mathgamain and Brian, or Duncan, Ahern, Mahon and Brian in English. Duncan's sons were Conaing, Riacán, Lonngargán, Cennétig and Ceileachair or (in English) Gunning, Reagan, Lonergan, Kennedy and Kelleher. It appears that Ceileachair and Riacán were undistinguished, but the others were important princes.

So if you delay the adoptation of surnames until 1000AD or so, all those people would have different names. Instead of becoming "O'Cennétig" (descended from Kennedy), they'd be O'Gunning, O'Reagan, O'Kennedy etc. because these names have a single identifiable point of origin historically.
 
Cennétig mac Lorcan's sons included Donn Cuan, Echthighern, Mathgamain and Brian, or Duncan, Ahern, Mahon and Brian in English. Duncan's sons were Conaing, Riacán, Lonngargán, Cennétig and Ceileachair or (in English) Gunning, Reagan, Lonergan, Kennedy and Kelleher. It appears that Ceileachair and Riacán were undistinguished, but the others were important princes.

So if you delay the adoptation of surnames until 1000AD or so, all those people would have different names. Instead of becoming "O'Cennétig" (descended from Kennedy), they'd be O'Gunning, O'Reagan, O'Kennedy etc. because these names have a single identifiable point of origin historically.

OCC: A DBWI needs to be connected with an event that did occur in OTL, which this is not. I echo Superman's suggestion that you begin a new thread - "DBWI: Ronald Reagan beats Carter in 1980"
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
I have no damned idea what this is. I know it isn't a DBWI. Since I can't move it, and since it is clearly not what it represents itself to be, I guess the best thing to do is close it.

Locked.
 
Top
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top