Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72

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I don't think the Wiki people would approve if they knew, though. This is, while very good, not a book or anything.

Well, not to be immodest, but I added the paragraph onto McKeithen's wiki and it took some work to get it past their reviewers. I originally posted a wiki on this Time Line too, but they pulled it within an hour. I might try adding something to Agnew's and Wallace's on a pop culture reference, but I don't know if they'll let me get away with it.

McKeithen may have passed muster because I had previously added some additional factual information about him and corrected some errors on their biography.
 

Thande

Donor
I'm so pumped up for election 1980... gahh! The clusterfuck is gonna be glorious.

I think what will happen is that Koufax and the third parties won't carry any states (maybe a couple of small or unusually-minded ones) but they will carry enough of the vote that some states that normally vote Democratic flip Republican and vice versa, so we end up with a very unlikely looking electoral map, where (if you use the Dave Leip system) everything is in really pale shades of red or blue, sort of like a more extreme version of the OTL 1992 election. Carey or Rumsfeld (I'm guessing probably the latter) will win based on only like 30% of the vote, and this will spark calls for reforming the voting system.
 
I think what will happen is that Koufax and the third parties won't carry any states (maybe a couple of small or unusually-minded ones) but they will carry enough of the vote that some states that normally vote Democratic flip Republican and vice versa, so we end up with a very unlikely looking electoral map, where (if you use the Dave Leip system) everything is in really pale shades of red or blue, sort of like a more extreme version of the OTL 1992 election. Carey or Rumsfeld (I'm guessing probably the latter) will win based on only like 30% of the vote, and this will spark calls for reforming the voting system.

That seems likely. Though Im sure, as you said, a few small states might go for the third parties. Also you should keep in mind that with so many sort of viable candidates, we could end up with one of the major parties winning the electoral college, while losing the popular vote by millions and millions....

However congressional and gubernatorial elections...those could get ugly, ugly, ugly.
 

Thande

Donor
That seems likely. Though Im sure, as you said, a few small states might go for the third parties. Also you should keep in mind that with so many sort of viable candidates, we could end up with one of the major parties winning the electoral college, while losing the popular vote by millions and millions....

However congressional and gubernatorial elections...those could get ugly, ugly, ugly.

I agree with both of those points--what we've seen in this TL so far is that the third parties tend to do best in gubernatorial elections, followed by congressional and then senate elections. (I should think they are also doing well in state legislatures, but of course that's not a level of detail that even this TL would go into...OTL barely does, after all ;) ).
 
(I should think they are also doing well in state legislatures, but of course that's not a level of detail that even this TL would go into...OTL barely does, after all ;) ).

Hahaha, truth. I'm politically apt, but even I only know the name of one CA assemblyman (or senator for that matter), and that's because Mark Leno proposed single payer.....

The only reference this TL (the fact that it has is impressive on its own) to state legislatures is the New York one where the SWP got a whole bunch of seats.... I think.
 
I just finished reading this timeline, and I can't say anything but "Holy shit."

--
Also I made some Senate maps.
Before the special elections in 1978:
flgsen1977.png


After the special elections but before the regular midterms:
flgsen1978.png


After the 1978 midterms:
flgsen1979.png



Correct me if I've missed anything. :)
 

Thande

Donor
Apologies for the bump, but I just wanted to praise A Person for his very fine maps. Normally with US Senate maps you can just have colours for "2 Republicans, 2 Democrats, 1 Republican and 1 Democrat, 1 Republican and 1 Other, or 1 Democrat and 1 Other" and get away with it...but with the flowering of third parties in this TL you really need to use the diagonal shading ;)
 
I think what will happen is that Koufax and the third parties won't carry any states (maybe a couple of small or unusually-minded ones) but they will carry enough of the vote that some states that normally vote Democratic flip Republican and vice versa, so we end up with a very unlikely looking electoral map, where (if you use the Dave Leip system) everything is in really pale shades of red or blue, sort of like a more extreme version of the OTL 1992 election. Carey or Rumsfeld (I'm guessing probably the latter) will win based on only like 30% of the vote, and this will spark calls for reforming the voting system.

My prediction is that Carey is defeated by losing his home state -- New York City will have it's revenge.

(Especially since Koufax is himself a New Yorker.)
 
My prediction is that Carey is defeated by losing his home state -- New York City will have it's revenge.

(Especially since Koufax is himself a New Yorker.)

Yes, the streets of New York are mean, but the blood sport is coming out in Jersey. This election will be ... well, I don't want to give it away. I hope to have it all done by June 5.
 

John Farson

Banned
My prediction is that Carey is defeated by losing his home state -- New York City will have it's revenge.

(Especially since Koufax is himself a New Yorker.)

Yes, but if that means throwing the election to Reagan or Rumsfeld...

Well, "cutting off your nose to spite your face" would apply here. And remember that the GOP nominee will also have to worry about 3rd party candidates from the right. Specifically the Christian Values Movement and American Independence Party. Particularly in the South, they could screw up the GOP vote so badly that Carey might win states that he otherwise wouldn't win. And then of course there are the gubernatorial and congressional elections.
 
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Yes, the streets of New York are mean, but the blood sport is coming out in Jersey. This election will be ... well, I don't want to give it away. I hope to have it all done by June 5.

Let me officially say, I can't wait! Part of me almost wants to see Reagan take the nomination and the Presidency, only to be swamped by the political chaos that you've hinted this alt-1980s will be.
 
Personally I'm looking forward to the Senate races, particularly as they regard Jimmy Carter (D-GA) and Jacob Javits, who will certainly be primary-challenged as per OTL (and perhaps not by D'Amato this time...)
 

John Farson

Banned
Personally I'm looking forward to the Senate races, particularly as they regard Jimmy Carter (D-GA) and Jacob Javits, who will certainly be primary-challenged as per OTL (and perhaps not by D'Amato this time...)

Who knows, Jimmy Carter might be better off ITTL as a senator than IOTL as a one-term president. Of course, then we wouldn't get the Carter Center and all the things that came with it.
 

John Farson

Banned
Also, one would think that Gov. Carey would be only too aware of his problems with New York City and would therefore try to placate them in some matter of fashion.

Granted, many would probably call it too little, too late, but doing nothing about it would be worse.
 
I read in the obituaries of my statewide (Queensland, Australia) paper that Nick Katzenbach (TTL Wallace's first vice president) passed away earlier this month.
 
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