Dewey Defeats Truman: A Progressive Proto-Wank

Highways
Upon entering office, President Dewey was determined to not become a Permanent Lame Duck the way his predecessor had been. And so, having come to the the conclusion Truman's administration went the way it did because he could not get his agenda through Congress, Dewey decided that he not only needed to defeat the 81st Congress, but to break the 81st Congress. In order to do this, he needed an issue that he could act on while simultaneously opposing Congress and having popular support among the electorate. Throughout the entire transition period, Dewey was thinking what this hypothetical issue could possibly be. Then, after a Conversation with Secretary of Defense Dwight Eisenhower, he had his issue.


Highways.
 
Vandenberg is an excellent choice for SecState seeing as how he strongly supported the Truman Doctrine and more less helped the Republican Party shift away from isolationism. Also he did seem to be more of a supporter of sending aid to the Nationalist forces in China, so that result could be interesting.
 
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The American Reconstruction and Defense Act of 1949
In late March, President Dewey made his move. He and Secretary Eisenhower gave a speech advocating The American Reconstruction and Defense Act which proposed $22 Billion in spending to build 41,000 Miles of Interstate highway, to be paid for through additional taxes on cars, tires, trucks, and fuel. In their estimation, this would not only create thousands of well paying jobs, and therefore lift the economy out of it's recession, but also increase National Security by allowing the military to move quickly and efficiently around the country in the case of an invasion or civil uprising. At the end the speech, Dewey said he had no power to pass this bill without the cooperation of Congress, and said to all those listening that if they wished for the The American Reconstruction and Defense Act to become law, that they should let the Democrats in Congress know.

In the following weeks and months, the Democrats stubbornly refused to hold a vote on the ARDA (instead trying and failing to Repeal legislation passed during the 80th Congress over Dewey's Veto), and President Dewey stubbornly refused to focus on anything else. He and National Republicans who supported the plan (Like Oregon Senator Wayne Morse) went on national stumping tours to push for the bill to be given a floor vote. Throughout this whole process, the economy was still in recession, and President Dewey's Approval was dropping by the week. In the mid-summer, the Congressional Democrats came up with a plan. They would allow the bill to pass the Senate with the votes of Liberal Democrats like Hubert Humphrey by going easy on the whipping, then delay giving the bill a vote in the House, and when they did, they would ensure the Bills defeat, leaving President Dewey with egg on his face, and the Democrats in a good position heading into the 1950 midterms. On August 21, the ARDA passed the Senate 51-45, and President Dewey seemed to be gaining an upper hand in his power struggle with the 81st Congress. In reality of course, he was doing no such thing.

And then, on September 21, something happened which meant the Democrats didn't have to do anything to leave the President with Egg on his face.

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Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong declaring that China would henceforth be ruled by the Communist Party, following the Communist victory over the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War
China would be ruled by the Reds. The world's most populous country, the country which countless numbers of Christian missionaries had preached in, and the country which millions of Americans could claim ancestry from, was now ruled by America's greatest enemy.

Despite the fact that this event was not in anyway related to the ARDA, the reaction to it was centered around ARDA. Congressional Democrats slammed President Dewey, and declared that had he focused not on passing the ARDA, but on fighting the spread of Communism as his predecessor had, China would not have fallen to Communism. President Dewey declared that there was nothing he could have done to stop China falling to Communism because of the bad situation left by Harry Truman, but that the nation could secure itself from Communism by passing the ARDA. In the aftermath of Mao's Speech, President Dewey was booed wherever he went, and his approval rating fell to 38%, down from 74% on his inauguration day.

And 2 weeks later, it got worse for Dewey.

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The Mushroom Cloud resulting from First Lightning, the first atomic bomb test carried out by the Soviet Union
President Dewey announced to the nation that the Sovet Union had successfully developed and tested an Atomic Bomb. The nation went into a panic. The weapon which had leveled 2 entire cities only a few years before, and the weapon which in the mind of many Americans had prevented a WWIII, was now in the possession of America's greatest adversary. When President Dewey said the nation should respond to this by passing the ARDA, it was seen as a copout. The nation didn't care about Interstate Highways anymore, they cared about feeling secure from Communism, and Dewey just didn't make them feel secure. Dewey seemed a defeated President 9 Months in to his 4 year term.

Needless to say, the ARDA was not passed.

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So no interstate highway system (at least for now)? That'll change a lot of how the country grows and develops...
 
Dewey's Supreme Court Nominations
Even if Dewey was defeated on ARDA, he still had 2 Supreme Court Vacancies to fill. Dewey understood he needed to nominate moderate-to-liberal justices if he wanted his nominees to be confirmed. First, Dewey nominated Robert La Follette Jr., the former Senator from Wisconsin who had lost his seat in 1946 and the son of Progressive Icon Robert La Follette Sr. to replace Frank Murphy. And to fill the other vacancy in the court, left by the death of Justice Wiley Rutledge, Dewey nominated former Governor of Minnesota and his opponent in the 1948 Republican Primaries, Harold Stassen, who, like him, was an internationalist. Both men were confirmed by the Senate and took their seats that year.
 
The 1950 Midterms
Despite the fact the he had been in office for nearly 2 years, by the time of the 1950 midterms, President Thomas Dewey had no major legislative accomplishments to showcase to the American electorate as a reason to endorse his party. This, combined with Dewey's poor approval rating (34%), his controversial handling of the Korean War, and a nation tired of Joseph McCarthy's claims of communists having infiltrated the Democratic Party, meant Dewey's Presidency, much like Truman's 4 years earlier, felt "tired". And when a Presidency is tired, it's party suffers loses downballot. Dewey's Presidency would be no exception.

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The Democrats picked up 5 seats in the Senate, pushing them above the 3/5ths mark. They defeated Republican incumbents in Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Idaho, (and came within a few points in Ohio) but lost the election in Idaho's other seat.

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In the elections in the House of Representatives, the Democrats won their largest majority since FDR's 1936 landslide, and took a veto-proof majority in the chamber.
 
The 1950 Midterms, Continued
Sheridan Downey, the incumbent Democratic Senator from California, faced strong populist primary challenges from James Roosevelt, the son of late President Franklin Roosevelt, and Representative Helen Douglas. In response to this, Downey dropped out of the race and endorsed newspaper publisher Manchester Boody (who would enter the race the next day) to succeed him. Roosevelt would go on to win the primary by a fairly comfortable margin. His general election opponent would be Richard Nixon, a staunch Anti-Communist and Representative, who had won his party's primary easily. Despite the fair amount of division the Democrats suffered in their primary, Roosevelt's name recognition advantage and the national environment gave Roosevelt an advantage Nixon just couldn't overcome, and Nixon would lose the race by double digits, launching speculations of a potential third President Roosevelt.

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Alben Barkley, the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1948 and Senate Majority Leader for 10 years, had initially planned to retire, but changed his mind and ran for re-election, easily dispatching of Republican Nominee Charles Dawson, former United States Federal Judge and failed Gubernatorial Nominee for Governor of Kentucky in 1923.

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After the defeat of ARDA, the Democrats became very confident of potentially defeating Wisconsin Senator Alex Wiley. Wiley had not only been a strong supporter of Dewey in 1948, but had also been a strong supporter of Dewey in 1944. This made it very easy for Thomas Fairchild, the Democratic nominee and sitting Attorney General of Wisconsin, to run a populist campaign painting Wiley as out of touch with Wisconsin and a rubber-stamp for Dewey, a message which resonated with Dewey's approval rating in the mid 30's.

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