I've been mulling over an idea for a pop-culture oriented timeline, and some of my ideas have been themed around a conservative counter-culture in the US arising in the fifties and flourishing in the late sixties and seventies, in place of the Beatniks and later the hippies.
I was hoping to create a POD no earlier than 1944, though if I have to go earlier, that'd ultimately be fine.
Here are some ideas I had:
-the nation's establishment would almost certainly have to be left-wing, with a more liberal, progressive president (Henry Wallace?), a more moderate leader of the USSR (precipitated by an earlier death of Stalin), and better USSR/USA relations and an avoidance of the Red Scare. I considered having Zhukov take power in the USSR following some leadership crisis in 46 or 47, and developing a strong working relationship with a democratic Eisenhower in the fifties.
-An earlier civil rights movement in the fifties with a strong backlash in the sixties
-A fifties/sixties civil war in Mexico resulting in a "Hispanic scare" whipped up by fear mongers.
-Fascism taking on a role as a revolutionary force in the the postwar world. Ideas being Jose Primo De Rivera's survival (along with a greater spread of his brand of Falangism), and/or Mussolini's neutrality in WWII (obviously both of these would be POD prior to 1944), allowing Fascism a better chance to continue as an ideology viewed as legitimate. Castro would become a full fascist after visiting Spain (he already admired Mussolini and Peron) and would overthrow Batista, founding a fascist Cuba, and would still be seen as a revolutionary hero. A independent Fascist Bloc might be established; Strasserism might become more popular.
-a "Second Great Depression" in the fifties
-a strong isolationist backlash against a neoconservative president (Henry Jackson?)
-a backlash against an especially authoritarian presidency (potentially a worse LBJ or Nixon)
-The Korean War is even more brutal and ends with little gained and is generally overlooked even more than it is in OTL, resulting in veterans feeling more disenfranchised and forgotten by the public and the government
-Or libertarian ideals simply take hold in place of those that appealed to the New Left (eg Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater instead of Marx and McGovern).
-Or some combination of all of the above.
I've trolled the archives and found several threads related to this, but none were very conclusively discussed. As you can see, I've scraped together several ideas, but nothing that I've been able to wrap my head around. What are your thoughts? Could any of this work, or is it all too far out there?
I was hoping to create a POD no earlier than 1944, though if I have to go earlier, that'd ultimately be fine.
Here are some ideas I had:
-the nation's establishment would almost certainly have to be left-wing, with a more liberal, progressive president (Henry Wallace?), a more moderate leader of the USSR (precipitated by an earlier death of Stalin), and better USSR/USA relations and an avoidance of the Red Scare. I considered having Zhukov take power in the USSR following some leadership crisis in 46 or 47, and developing a strong working relationship with a democratic Eisenhower in the fifties.
-An earlier civil rights movement in the fifties with a strong backlash in the sixties
-A fifties/sixties civil war in Mexico resulting in a "Hispanic scare" whipped up by fear mongers.
-Fascism taking on a role as a revolutionary force in the the postwar world. Ideas being Jose Primo De Rivera's survival (along with a greater spread of his brand of Falangism), and/or Mussolini's neutrality in WWII (obviously both of these would be POD prior to 1944), allowing Fascism a better chance to continue as an ideology viewed as legitimate. Castro would become a full fascist after visiting Spain (he already admired Mussolini and Peron) and would overthrow Batista, founding a fascist Cuba, and would still be seen as a revolutionary hero. A independent Fascist Bloc might be established; Strasserism might become more popular.
-a "Second Great Depression" in the fifties
-a strong isolationist backlash against a neoconservative president (Henry Jackson?)
-a backlash against an especially authoritarian presidency (potentially a worse LBJ or Nixon)
-The Korean War is even more brutal and ends with little gained and is generally overlooked even more than it is in OTL, resulting in veterans feeling more disenfranchised and forgotten by the public and the government
-Or libertarian ideals simply take hold in place of those that appealed to the New Left (eg Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater instead of Marx and McGovern).
-Or some combination of all of the above.
I've trolled the archives and found several threads related to this, but none were very conclusively discussed. As you can see, I've scraped together several ideas, but nothing that I've been able to wrap my head around. What are your thoughts? Could any of this work, or is it all too far out there?