Interesting AH ideas that aren't commonly used

Ted Kennedy is a subject one brave historian might tackle one day, but that is frankly off topic (^^^) and not something I would discuss. Bobby Kennedy, on the other hand, seems to be in the middle of historical revision right now and seems a quite fit PoD as an anti-Nixon treatment or possibly a Carter replacement?

I always thought RFK would work as a kind of Democratic equivalent of Reagan. I imagined an RFK-MLK ticket in 1980 and 1984 speaking to the Democrats in the way that the Regan-Bush ticket speaks to the GOP. Obviously, you've got a hell of a lot of butterflies to get to that point...
 
One that stands out at the moment would be a post-war US democratic party splitting between the Left and Right (along with the Republicans), with the UK experiencing a similar post-war split in Labour (e.g. Bevanites and Gaitskellites) and the Conservatives where the separate Blue Labour and Red Tory parties either compete against each other or merge into a new centrist party (with a similar situation unfolding in the US).

The only issue would be figuring out the list of candidates for such parties on both sides of the Atlantic from the post-war era up to the present day.
 
George W. Bush successfully passes his 2006 immigration bill. This could result in an immigration backlash keeping McCain from getting the nomination in 2008, but the major effects would come in the 2010s. The US would have slightly stronger economy and anti-immigration politics would be muted because you'd have a larger population of foreign-born voters,
I doubt it given how this turned out elsewhere.

Just look at PEW Research data regarding views on immigration among Hispanics in USA: when comparing 1st generation immigrant Hispanics to US-born ones as well as Spanish-speaking ones to English or bilingual individuals it is the foreign-born & Spanish-speaking groups who are more likely to think USA has “too many” immigrants.
 
I doubt it given how this turned out elsewhere.

Just look at PEW Research data regarding views on immigration among Hispanics in USA: when comparing 1st generation immigrant Hispanics to US-born ones as well as Spanish-speaking ones to English or bilingual individuals it is the foreign-born & Spanish-speaking groups who are more likely to think USA has “too many” immigrants.

The important breakdown to look at there is education level. The Bush reform would have dramatically increased the number of H-1B visas, whose holders would typically have college educations.
 
One that stands out at the moment would be a post-war US democratic party splitting between the Left and Right (along with the Republicans), with the UK experiencing a similar post-war split in Labour (e.g. Bevanites and Gaitskellites) and the Conservatives where the separate Blue Labour and Red Tory parties either compete against each other or merge into a new centrist party (with a similar situation unfolding in the US).

The only issue would be figuring out the list of candidates for such parties on both sides of the Atlantic from the post-war era up to the present day.

This did happen to some degree in the UK with the Social Democratic Party in 1981. An earlier split would be interesting although perhaps less likely, the only departure that comes to mind is if Bevan is elected Labour leader, although he was enough of a pragmatist to moderate his views (eg his stance on the Bomb). You probably need someone like Benn who is ideologically ruthless enough to drive social democrats out.
 
In 1937 Kim Philby (the Cambridge spy) was ordered by his NKVD handlers to assassinate Franco while undercover as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War. He was wounded and awarded a medal by Franco, he contemplated shooting him during the ceremony but backed out.

Ironically it was this experience of being wounded and rewarded by Franco during the Civil War that encouraged the British Secret Service to recruit him.
 
What if titles of nobility were bestowed by US states? While some might point to the Kentucky Colonels, which was created to be given to Governor Gates of Indiana and Senator Taft of Ohio, leading to Gates making the Sagamore of the Wabash to give to Acting Governor Metcalfe. Of course for earlier titles you would probably need to prevents the Poltroons (whatever the old landowners in New York were called) and the aristocracy elsewhere. Also, just learned about the concept of Headright, saying that people got more land for more slaves and indentured servants they had.
 
This did happen to some degree in the UK with the Social Democratic Party in 1981. An earlier split would be interesting although perhaps less likely, the only departure that comes to mind is if Bevan is elected Labour leader, although he was enough of a pragmatist to moderate his views (eg his stance on the Bomb). You probably need someone like Benn who is ideologically ruthless enough to drive social democrats out.

While open to the idea of an earlier analogue of the Social Democrat Party in the late-1950s (one that together with the Red Torys even revives the Liberal Party either by directly joining the latter or establishing new parties beforehand), was hoping to see the Gaitskellites manage to push the Bevanites out of Labour (making the party into Blue Labour) in the aftermath of the former succeeding in amending Clause IV (albeit with any potential issues laying the groundwork for such a split). With the post expulsion Bevanites themselves establishing one or two parties.

Not sure how a post-war split can be achieved in the Conservatives, let alone the US Democrats and Republicans.
 
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No Opium. Or at least no Opium trade. ( Don't know if this is possible without ASB though)
You would basically need to get rid of the family of that flower entirely. I do wonder if their is something else that could replace poppyseads. Both in texture and it's ability to be mashed into a past. And of course there is the pain killing applications. I wonder how it would effect the tobacco trade, and if there would be much hirer demand for it or less. Apparently many drugs, such as opium, were smoked with a bit of tobacco. Heck, I am sure their plenty of flower and grass seeds that can give you highs and lows, though some are harder to harvest than others. Incense as well, though looking at Wikipedia quickly it mentions (without citations, but understandable a person wouldn't have a book at hand with the info) that Chinese incense was burned mainly for the smoke and they type they used was odorless. Still, is people sniff markers and from paper bags filled with spray paint, I am sure there will be someone out there who can find unorthodox uses for everyday objects.
 
In 1937 Kim Philby (the Cambridge spy) was ordered by his NKVD handlers to assassinate Franco while undercover as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War. He was wounded and awarded a medal by Franco, he contemplated shooting him during the ceremony but backed out.

Ironically it was this experience of being wounded and rewarded by Franco during the Civil War that encouraged the British Secret Service to recruit him.
The death of Sanjurjo OTL is a strange POD that seems easily avoidable. His place crashed on the way from Morocco to Spain because it was overloaded with too many trunks of expensive clothes, apparently he wanted to be the world's most stylish Caudillo.
Franco was a relatively marginal figure in the nationalist coalition before the plane crash and the beginning of German aid to the nationalists, largely through him.
 
Being realistic and factoring in economic impacts of stuff like UHC/even just expanding healthcare early or more than otl into the culture, a basic income or even just stronger labor laws is something we need to see in timelines.

notice alot of cancerous aspects of the modern internet really took hold as employers Noticed the great recession shifting the balance of power between employers/employees, plus 2005 student loan changes. A "normal" recession in 2005 with say some finance scandal preventing the '05 fixes might prevent it. You'd still have the usual normie crowd posting whatever on facebook/the like but at least it'd STAY on that side of the internet with te norms not infecting here.

As a bonus, without the big boom in social media you wouldn't have the kind of horrendous elitism/smugness you see from STEM types. It just goes to show why
@darklordoftech is right on there being too much surveillance/authoritarianism/"anti-bullying" in schools
 
Interesting butterfly effects for WW II. Especially for airpower.

I suspect someone else would discover tetraethyl lead or other organometallic octane booster before WWII but keep it a military secret. Likewise, the Manhattan project would find Freon and Teflon, but keep those classified too.
 
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