Been sort of reflecting a bit on the AH works I've read, and probably the biggest work I've completed was Turtledove's Southern Victory series. A lot of said about how hamfisted the historical parallelism is in that series, but one thing that's been my mind the past couple months is how likely the deviations are themselves.
As TL-191 has it, after blowing a chance at Revanchism in a new war against the CSA in the 1880s, the Republicans stop being a viable national party, which is partially caused by Lincoln defecting to support a nascent Socialist Party (don't ask). This leads to nearly 40 years of Democratic dominance of US politics, which proceeds to govern both very conservatively and very nationalistically, using the German Empire as a model.
Now putting aside the specifics of Turtledove's timeline, is this a likely post-war position for Northern Democrats to take? I know a lot of Northern Democrats in the gilded age were conservative, but I do not think they would've necessarily pushed for the sort of nationalism that the TL displays. AFAIK it was the Whigs and Republicans who consistently pushed for a strong national government; I don't think federal supremacy became a feature of the Democratic Party until the 20th Century.
Obviously there are probably some of you who know 19th/early 20th Century political parties better than me, but it's been a question that's been nagging at me for a while.
As TL-191 has it, after blowing a chance at Revanchism in a new war against the CSA in the 1880s, the Republicans stop being a viable national party, which is partially caused by Lincoln defecting to support a nascent Socialist Party (don't ask). This leads to nearly 40 years of Democratic dominance of US politics, which proceeds to govern both very conservatively and very nationalistically, using the German Empire as a model.
Now putting aside the specifics of Turtledove's timeline, is this a likely post-war position for Northern Democrats to take? I know a lot of Northern Democrats in the gilded age were conservative, but I do not think they would've necessarily pushed for the sort of nationalism that the TL displays. AFAIK it was the Whigs and Republicans who consistently pushed for a strong national government; I don't think federal supremacy became a feature of the Democratic Party until the 20th Century.
Obviously there are probably some of you who know 19th/early 20th Century political parties better than me, but it's been a question that's been nagging at me for a while.
