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Hello and Cheers, I am writing a TL based on the history of an independent Confederate States starting at 1963. If you have any questions about history before that, feel free to ask, but for now, lets being:


History of the Confederate States, 1963- 2011

Over the last six years since 1957, the nation of the Confederacy went through a period of relative prosperity with the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Whig of Texas, and a political moderate. Eisenhower had governed "through the middle" not removing but making more "efficient" the Domestic programs put forward by the four Democratic Presidents before him, Huey Long (1933- 1939), James Byrnes (1939- 1945), Alben Barkley (1945- 1951), and Happy Chandler (1951- 1957). After twenty four years of liberal rule, the Confederate Right rebounded, and catapulted Ike to the presidency from 1957- 1963.

On February 20th, 1963, Confederate voters march to the polls to cast their votes for the next President of the Confederate States of America. One of the candidates is Vice President John Sherman Cooper, the Whig Nominee from Kentucky, is a Moderate Whig, who had a somewhat liberal voting record when he was in the Confederate Senate, and has controversial positions on Civil Rights, but hoped to use the popularity of the Whig Administration of Dwight Eisenhower to secure victory. Cooper mainly ran with his support for Confederate Business and his support for some of the domestic programs President Long (1933- 1939) had created including social security, and the beginnings of welfare programs.


The other candidate, the Democratic Nominee, was Confederate Speaker of the House, Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas. Johnson has also a liberal voting record, but mostly on Domestic spending programs, such as Social Security (created by President Huey Long (D- LA)). Johnson, a formidable political opponent skirted around the Civil Rights issue, to obtain Conservative Whig Support. The tactic appeared to be working, and Johnson had obtained the endorsements of several Conservative Whigs, such as Strom Thurmond (W- SC) and Richard Russell (D- GA). It looked even though the Whigs had a popular administration that the Democrats might pull out a victory yet. Johnson had been able to attract Conservative support by remaining quite about the civil rights issue, while his opponent, John Cooper was very boisterous about his support for Civil Rights.


The campaign especially got dirty during the later stages of the campaign, Speaker Lyndon Johnson and his trusted political aide, Bobby Baker, had broke into the Whig's campaign headquarters (This wouldn't be discovered until 1985) and uncovered evidence that Cooper had taken campaign donations from Martin Luther King Jr., an Alabama Pastor who had said some very controversial, yet legal statements, and was a widely hated figure in the Confederate States. When the news had been broken out, the race went from a Whig advantage to a statistical dead heat. The Running mates of both candidates would be very helpful in drawing support, so Cooper took Harry Byrd (W- VA) as a running mate, hopeful to attract Conservative support, while Johnson took his good friend and mentor Richard Russell (D- GA) to retain it.

Another issue that was beginning to become more and more on the minds of the Confederacy's citizens was Cuban Communism, the independent nation of Cuba, a Confederate ally, was beginning to look more and more unstable by the day. Communists, led by Fidel Castro and his brothers, appeared to be growing in strength, and the Confederacy was divided on what to do. Hawkish Confederates wanted to send troops immediately, or at least if Cuba collapsed, but dovish Confederates felt that the Confederacy had no part to play in Cuba. Johnson had strategically moved to Cooper's right on the issue, and to the Confederate public, Johnson was a tough, unsophisticated cowboy from Texas, and John Cooper was an upper class "Pansy."

The Results were still close, if Cooper had uncovered some of Johnson's scandals or at least been able to defend his own record, he probably would have been victorious. Johnson narrowly won the popular vote, 49.8% to Cooper's 49.7%, and won 73 electoral votes to Cooper's 65. Johnson had swept his home state of Texas, and the deep South. Cooper kept his strength in the Upper South, pulling out a narrow win in Arkansas and Florida. A narrow ten thousand votes changing their minds in Mississippi would have resulted in a Cooper victory, but Cooper declined to challenge the results, and Lyndon Johnson would be sworn in as the next Confederate President of the United States, with Richard Russell as the next vice president.



Lyndon Johnson/ Richard Russell: 49.8% PV; 73 EV (Democratic Party)
John Sherman Cooper/ Harry F. Byrd: 49.7% PV; EV (Whig Party)
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