LBJ's 2nd Term

kernals12

Banned
LBJ would also probably accelerate his party's losses in the South at the state level. IOTL Southern state legislatures were almost entirely controlled by Democrats into the 90s and when Barack Obama was elected, they were still in control in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky and even Oklahoma. ITTL Republicans might win state at least one house of the state legislature in places like Florida and Virginia by 1972.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
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As strange as it may sound, LBJ keeping the US out of Vietnam might have cost him a second term.
Middle America only really turned on the War when the Tet Offensive began. Until that point, the only people to oppose it were general isolationists (who were small in number thanks to the whole Cold War thing) and pacifists (who only really gained support amongst the youth when the idea of being sent to die sank in), and in fact, the vast majority (65% by some estimates) supported the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. As a result, we'd likely see a massive backlash against LBJ for daring to let Vietnam (and by extension all of south-east Asia) fall to Communism. This backlash alone., coupled with the lack of a window to OTL that would exonerate the man would cast suspicion that he was a closet Communist, something not helped by his "Great Society" policies being redistributive and government interventionist in nature.

This alone would probably grant whomever wins the '68 Republican primaries an OTL '84-esque landslide victory, coupled with massive Congressional majorites which proceed to drive headlong into whichever 3rd World Nation is currently in the process of being overrun by Reds at that point (my guess is Cambodia), and see it turn into a quagmire probably on a larger scale than OTL Vietnam ever was, while simultaneously scaling back all of Johnson's achievements (outside of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts) if not scrapping them outright.

That said, on the off-chance he wins a 2 1/2th term, I can see him embarking on an attempt to pass a standardised welfare framework (think something akin to a Universal Basic Income) and a system of Universal Health Care, coupled with Health and Safety legislation, and possibly something like the Equal Rights Amendment, depending on how many chambers of Congress are under Democratic control by 1970.

I think that way overstates the political impact of anticommunist backlash from backing out of Vietnam alone.
 
I think that way overstates the political impact of anticommunist backlash from backing out of Vietnam alone.

If South Vietnam falls in say, 1965, then enough time will have passed for the public to have mostly forgiven LBJ by 1968. The Republicans will no doubt attack Johnson on Vietnam, but the popularity of the Great Society and the good economy would be enough to grant LBJ a second term.
 

kernals12

Banned
If South Vietnam falls in say, 1965, then enough time will have passed for the public to have mostly forgiven LBJ by 1968. The Republicans will no doubt attack Johnson on Vietnam, but the popularity of the Great Society and the good economy would be enough to grant LBJ a second term.
If South Vietnam fell in 1965, nobody would give a damn. Americans really don't care about foreign affairs unless it impacts them directly.
 
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