How We Got Two Serial Killers Competing for the White House in 1996 (And a Victim in 2004)
[AKA: If You Kill Someone, You Make Sure They are Dead (Just Joking, Don't Attempt Killing)]
Fifth Party System (1932-1981):
Characteristics: Generally Democratic wins, with only three exceptions (1952, 1956, 1968)
35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (D-MA) (1961-22/11/1963)
VP: Lyndon Baines Johnson (D-TX)
1960 def: Richard Milhous Nixon (R-CA) / Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R-MA) ; Harry Flood Byrd (D/Unpledged-VA) / James Strom Thurmond Sr. (D/Unpledged-SC)
36. Lyndon Baines Johnson (D-TX) (22/11/1963-1969)
VP: Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (D-MN) (1965-1973)
1964 def: Barry Morris Goldwater (R-AZ) / William Edward Miller (R-NY)
37. Richard Milhous Nixon (R-NY)* (1969-1973)
VP: Spiro Theodore Agnew (R-MD)
1968 def: Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (D-MN) / Edmund Sixtus Muskie (D-ME) ; George Corley Wallace Jr. (AIP-AL) / Curtis Emerson LeMay (AIP-CA)
Points of divergence:
John Wayne Gacy does not begin his criminal acts of sodomy in 1967, but rather began murdering in 1972, removing his encounters with the Iowa state government in the process.
Ted Bundy does not drop out of the University of Washington in 1968, but still becomes a delegate at the 1968 Republican National Convention. Thereafter, he began his political career as a state representative from the 2nd Legislative District in the Washington State Senate, whilst still beginning to murder women in 1969.
Richard Nixon is found to have caused the Vietnam War negotiations to be stalled, resulting in a worse performance in 1972.
38. Edmund Sixtus Muskie (D-ME) (1973-1981)
VP: Walter Frederick Mondale (D-MN)
1972 def: Richard Milhous Nixon (R-CA)* / Sipro Theodore Agnew (R-MD)
1976 def: Ronald Wilson Reagan (R-CA) / George Herbert Walker Bush (R-TX)
*Nixon changed his home state to New York in 1964, but did not change back to California until 1972.
During Muskie's first term, Gacy was elected to the position as Mayor of Waterloo, Iowa, while Bundy entered the United States House of Representatives, representing District 6 of Washington. During a private visit to Colorado in January 1975, he raped and nearly murdered Caryn Campbell (a nurse from Snowmass Village, Colorado), a mistake that would prove to undermine his reputation 21 years later.
Sixth Party System (1980-2005):
Characteristics: Alternating Dem-Rep Presidencies, increased participation from independents and third party candidates
39. George Herbert Walker Bush (R-TX) (1981-1989)
VP: Paul Dominique Laxalt (R-NV)
1980 def: Walter Frederick Mondale (D-MN) / Gary Warren Hart (D-CO)
1984 def: Geraldine Anne Ferraro (D-NY) / John Wayne Gacy (D-IA) ; John Bayard Anderson (I-IL) / Hugh Carey (I-NY)
Gacy became Governor of Iowa in 1981, and his murders became significantly more discrete. The 1984 elections were stated to be as jackass as possible, with Bush being highly unpopular, intervening in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but the Democratic Party at the 1984 Democratic National Convention pushed Ferraro as their nominee, resulting in a landslide defeat, with only New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C. voting for Ferraro. Anderson on the other hand secured Illinois, and the extremely close margins in New Hampshire, with Bush, Ferraro, and Anderson all getting 32 percent of the popular vote, resulted in three recounts.
As to Caryn Campbell, she was elected to the Colorado State Senate that year.
40. Michael Stanley Dukakis (D-MA) (1989-1997)
VP: Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (D-TX)
1988 def: Paul Dominique Laxalt (R-NV) / Robert Joseph Dole (R-KS)
1992 def: Hillary Diane Rodham (R-IL) / Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (R-NY) ; Henry Ross Perot (I-TX) / Patrick Joseph Buchanan (I-VA)
At this point, the Rpublican Party suffered an internal schism, with Perot running an independent campaign against the inexperienced Illinois Governor Hillary Rodham, capturing Texas, Virginia, and Arizona in the process. Dukakis proved himself unpopular by waging war against Iraq in 1994, resulting in Bentsen declaring that he would not run in 1995. The Soviet Union survived, but was truncated to most of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, alongside neighboring parts of Uzbekistan, but excluding the Budjak, Chernivtsi Oblast, Hrodna Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast, or the North Caucasus.
41. Theodore Robert Bundy (R-WA) (1997-18/05/1998) [IMPEACHED]
VP: James Danforth Quayle (R-IN)
1996 def: John Wayne Gacy (D-IA) / John Herschel Glenn Jr. (D-OH) ; Ralph Nader (G-CT) / Winona LaDuke (G-MN) ; Harry Edson Browne (L-TN) / Joanne Marie Jorgensen (L-SC) ; Caryn Eileen Campbell (R-CO) or Henry Ross Perot (R-TX) / James Danforth Quayle (R-IN) ; Robert Carlyle Byrd (D-WV) or Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (D-CA) / John Herschel Glenn Jr. (D-OH) [FAITHLESS ELECTORS]
At first Gacy was considered to be the likely choice for president, but him being bisexual, exposed in early October 1996, resulted in his support to fall to 32 percent.
Then came the bombshell: on October 29, 1996, just a week before the 1996 election, it was revealed that both Bundy and Gacy were involved in spree murders dating from 1969 and 1972 respectively. Caryn Campbell, by then the Representative from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, also stated that Bundy was the person who raped and nearly murdered her in 1975.
Bundy vehemently denied the accusations, but the accusations contributed to abysmal 41 percent turnout at the 1996 Presidential Elections, and while Bundy managed to win in a landslide of 420-89 due to Gacy's sexuality (the 18 electoral votes from CT and MN went to the Green Party, and the 11 electoral votes from TN to the Libertarian Party), and conclusive evidence pointing at his murders (Gacy managed to hold to IA, OR, NM, LA, NY, OH, NH, and DC however), 147 electors defected from Bundy, 94 supporting Representative Campbell, and another 53 supporting Ross Perot, leaving only 273 electors to give Bundy the presidency. Gacy lost 78 of his pledged electors (all but those from Iowa and DC), 63 of which went behind Senator Robert Byrd, and 16 to former Governor Jerry Brown.
In December 1996, discussion revolved on declaring the 1996 Presidential Election null and void, and let Michael Dukakis either serve for a third term, or until a makeup election takes place on November 4, 1997. Unfortunately, this was met with Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona, Nevada, and California threatening secession. As such, Bundy was still sworn in as president, with impeachment trials beginning in mid-1997, when conclusive evidence pointed against him. Bundy, to date, remains the only president to be removed from office, with the only other memorable action done under him being his decision to invade Sudan during the Darfur Genocide, which happened since 1995 TTL.
The 1996 Presidential Election is as of 2019, the last presidential election where both major party candidates are deceased. Ted Bundy was killed on Spetember 11, 2001, when Tacoma, Washington was struck by a nuclear weapon; while John Wayne Gacy was executed on May 21, 2008 by lethal injection in Chicago, Illinois.
42. James Danforth Quayle (R-IN) (18/05/1998-2005)
VP: Donald Henry Rumsfeld (R-IL) (30/06/1998-2001); Caryn Eileen Campbell (R-CO) (2001-2005)
2000 def: Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (D-TN) / Richard Douglas Lamm (D-CO) ; Ralph Nader (G-CT) / Winona LaDuke (G-MN) ; Ronald Ernest Paul (L-TX) / Nancy Theresa Lord (L-MD)
Many made this claim: Dan Quayle would have led a lame duck government, and lost most states in 2000, if it weren't for his vice presidential choices. They were right, and it was possibly his work that prevented the collapse of the Democratic and Republican parties, but major reforms led to the transition into the Seventh Party System by 2004.
Experts extrapolated estimates in the change of support to the Quayle administration between 1998 and 2000, and deduced that had Quayle picked anyone other than Rumsfeld, Campbell, Cheney, Kemp, or Dole, he would have lost in a landslide, with most states voting for Gore at margins ranging from 0.4 to 94 percent, and Minnesota, Connecticut, and Maryland lost to third parties.
Many agreed that his VP picks were as optimal as things get, with Rumsfeld helping to reconstruct the Republican Party's reputation, and Campbell further distancing the Republican Party from Bundy.
Unfortunately, the Quayle/Campbell ticket win in 2000 was one which lost the popular vote, with Gore winning 44.1 percent of the vote but losing 249-261-18-10, and having the election decided in Congress, barely able to hold onto both positions.
9/11 happened during his second term, with a 40kt nuclear bomb exploded in Tacoma, Washington, killing 20 thousand people, including former President Bundy. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was right and just to destroy the hometown of the Devil. President Quayle's decision? Set Kabul ablaze with air strikes, until nothing remains. In his words, "The Taliban just asked for the imposition of an eye for an eye."
Seventh Party System (1996-Present):
Characteristics: Weakened party strength among Dem/Rep governments, significant Green Party presence in elections
43. Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (D-TN) (2005-2013)
VP: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (D-DE)
2004 def: Caryn Eileen Campbell (R-CO) / Donald Henry Rumsfeld (R-IL) ; Ralph Nader (G-CT) / John Forbes Kerry (G-MA)
2008 def: Willard Mitt Romney (R-MA) / John Sidney McCain (R-AZ) ; Matthew Edward Gonzalez (G-CA) / Cynthia Ann McKinney (G-GA)
No one at this point wanted the Republican Party to win a third term, after the disaster that was the 1996 election. Despite the efforts of Campbell and Rumsfeld, they lost 175-355-8, voter fatigue playing a huge part in their losses. Gore, however, was rather mediocre himself. While he managed to push forth a Green New Deal, he was criticized for not being able to pull out from Afghanistan. His defense? "Dan Quayle started the war in Afghanistan. I'm picking up the pieces from his administration."
44. Hillary Diane Rodham Bush (R-NY) (2013-2017)
VP: Paul Davis Ryan (R-WI)
2012 def: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (D-DE) / Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (D-IL) ; Cynthia Ann McKinley (G-GA) / Jill Ellen Stein (G-MA)
Eventually, Hillary returns. Married to George W. Bush. She managed to win the presidency on a moderate platform, but while she pulled out of Afghanistan, the United States Army was bogged down in Sudan. A blunder made by her in June 2012, saying that she supported Bundy's decision to invade Sudan, cost her a second term. Prior to leaving office, Puerto Rico was finally admitted as the 51st state, absorbing the U.S. Virgin Islands alongside it.
45. Amy Jean Klobuchar (D-MN) (2017-Present)
VP: Jay Robert Inslee (D-WA)
2016 def. Hillary Diane Rodham Bush (R-NY) / Paul Davis Ryan (R-WI) ; Willard Mitt Romney (G-MA) / Cheri Lynn Honkala (G-PA)
And so we arrive at the present day, with Amy Klobuchar as president. Under her, same-sex marriages are recognized in the United States, but her position on abolishing the Electoral College has made her at odds with the Republican Party, and some high-profile Democrats have stated that they will not support her at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
