Heinlein for President?

Some Note on Robert Anson Heinline.

he had this strange extreme point of view
like The importance of individual liberty and self-reliance
in same time advocating militarism, loyalty and leadership

perfect exsample his novels "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land"

his military servis at US Navy was a great influence on Heinlein
He served on the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, in radio communications.
Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis in 1934. (Heinlein had been smoker)

after 1934 he goes to in politics for Upton Sinclair's "Socialist End Poverty in California movement".
and ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but with no success.
wat a POD imagine: R.a. Heinlein bevor the McCarthy hearings.

1939 he start to writing SF-Storys
after his divorced in 1947 he married Virginia "Ginny" Gerstenfeld
Isaac Asimov claim that Heinlein made a drastic swing to the politic right , after that.
Heinlein and his wife worked in the 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign !

begin 1970 Heinlein had attacks of peritonitis, and stop for 2 year writing and his belove hobby of stonemasonry.

in 1984 He and Arthur C. Clark had heavy dispute about Reagan SDI Program at Heinlein home
(with Larry Niven, Isaac Asimov presend at time)
Clark and Asimov were against SDI because the technical problem
Heinlein & Niven was for the program
in the end Clark leave Heinlein home and Heinlein never talk a word with Clark again to his death in may 1988
 
I think it was Larry Niven who wrote a story once where Heinlein became president. Later he said he was glad he managed to get that out in time for Heinlein to read it.

Paul DiFilippo wrote a story "Mairzy Doats" where Heinlein becomes POTUS (Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1991). Since Di Filippo dislikes RAH immensely, the story is bitterly negative. He also gets the date of the California governor's election wrong.
 
One word for all of you: peritonitis. If you want Heinlein to run in either 1980 or 1984, then the POD has to be at 1970 or earlier, so that Heinlein doesn't almost die from peritonitis. Heinlein may have been healthy enough to resume his writing in 1980, but he certainly was not healthy enough to be running a serious, 50-state election campaign.
 
Just an idea I am kicking around tonight. What if science fiction author Robert Heinlein ran as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate? what effects will this have on the party, and what effects will it have on history? Will a stronger Lib showing in 84 combined with the momentum from 80, as well as presumed support from the moderates in the party and more importantly the billionare Koch brothers make the party a viable third option today?

I guess that the problem is that Heinlein had already tried a political career, and got his fingers burnt [1]. The campagn left him "flat broke" with "a heavily-mortgaged house". He turned to writing fiction as a way to repay his loans. And the rest, as they say, is history.

So, the best way to get Heinlein into politics is to handwave an election victory. This shouldn't be too hard. Heinlein was standing as a Democrat (with no opposition from within the Democrat party), and it was a good year for Democrats. However, in spite of that he was beaten in the Democratic Primary by a Republican (apparently California's election laws allowed this).

So Heinlein gets elected as a Democrat and supporter of Upton Sinclair. This probably butterflies away his writing career. Also, when McCarthyism gets started in the 1950s, there is a good chance that Heinlein gets blacklisted. After all that, it's going to be difficult for Heinlein to move to the right, even if he wanted to [2].


I think it was Larry Niven who wrote a story once where Heinlein became president. Later he said he was glad he managed to get that out in time for Heinlein to read it.

IMS, the Niven story ("The Return of William Proxmire", I think) made Heinlein an Admiral and head of America's Space Program, which was of course much more successful than OTL.

Cheers,
Nigel.

[1] See Ham and Eggs and Heinlein for details, although a lot of this article is speculation.

[2] His marriage to Ginny is also probably going to be butterflied away and apparently she influenced Heinlein's political opinions rightwards.
 
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