So re-reading this, I had a couple of thoughts - first, that I hadn’t even realized before how much focus this TL has had on world events and US FP, meaning we really must going to be getting a lot of Domestic Policy goodness with the next update.
In the words of the late Ed McMahon, you are correct, sir!
Seriously, there’s the farm law, native nations policy, some brief mention of veterans, and that’s about it.
Well, a
little more than that, and that includes some big stuff from a McGovernite perspective, but yes. We've mostly just seen "hundred days" stuff and the chapter around the corner is MADE OF TASTY TASTY POLICY GOODNESS. After delving into that graveyard of hopes the Middle East (and also backing up to make sure I ran over some of those hopes again just to make sure), it's actually been delightful researching and editing the Legislative Sausage-Making stuff. Truly the early Seventies were a "failed to turn" point for a
lot of big things in US public policy, we were a
lot closer to getting
some version of things that loom as large now as universal health care policy (the ACA is essentially a version of Nixoncare which was the most conservative option at the time), basic income, universal child care, and several other things. IOTL the answer to "what happened next?" is pretty much THANKS, WATERGATE with a
soupcon of the Nixon Shock thrown into the economics of it. But we are on different terrain here at
McGovening Acres so butterflies flit about.
@Yes has already confirmed that we’ll be seeing a Supreme Court nomination, and reaction to the oil embargo (with likely ties into energy and environmental policy), with tax and welfare reform pretty much guaranteed (given its prominence whenever priorities were discussed). We still have yet to see if the administration has time for health care reform in all of this.
This stuff also! Clark Clifford is already at work in the background prying his old friend "Wild Bill" Douglas' pernickety and often self-destructive fingers from Douglas' SCOTUS seat and we shall see shortly what happens next.
The other thing that sticks with me - even as we are still a ways off from 1976, I can’t shake the feeling that the real prize, TTL as OTL, will be 1980 (40 year cycles and all that).
Its good to see that The Readers take the long view. The long view is often useful in all sorts and conditions of history, the alternate kind included. Not always, but quite often.
@Yes Additional quick question - have you given any thought to when we start seeing pop culture effects? (Like, for example, something on the 45th Academy Awards? If you want, I could offer something on that.)
Thanks! If you check the last threadmark (thus far) in the thread you'll find some
McGoverning SPORTSBALL outcomes of different sorts, and a few posts back of that IIRC I made some brief mention of the (44th and 45th? Well, 1973 and 1974 in any case) Oscars when prompted by an interesting party. But as time goes on and the TL matures we will
definitely see both in background and foreground, pop cultural ripples in the
McGoverningverse.
Also,
Let me take a few moments to do two things.
First, I want to
thank, with humbled, slightly befuddled, but very very deep gratitude, all the kind folks who first nominated and then
actually went and voted for what goes on around here this Turtledoves season, both in part (Best Character and Best Quote, the former a guy who likes to be in the middle of things and the latter a sentimental favorite) and for the whole kit-and-kaboodle in Best Cold War to Contemporary. The Readership here are smart, they are vibrant, they pay attention, they have good manners and great humor, and they're good eggs. Thank you
all.
Second, I want to point out that voting is
still afoot in all Turtledove categories so, whatever it is that steams your personal wontons, go vote for it! It's part of what gives this board that special extra something of actual community - and, as you might have guessed, a guy writing with wistful vigor about the last charge of social-democratic Democrats is kind of big on community
(On that front let me also say an especially large
thank you to the shockingly large number of folks who backed me, That Guy With That TL With the
Really Long Chapters, for a Perkins of all things. I am Just This Guy but greatly and gladly in your debt.)
There's great stuff out there! And some really really cool things done
by The Readership and Friends of
McGoverning Acres generally. I mean there's
@President Lincoln's outstanding
Blue Skies in Camelot, there's
@Gentleman Biaggi's
Twists and Turns which is both twisty
and tasty in its wikiboxed goodness, and there's lots more besides from spaceflight to milspec to potboilers with Nazis to the Hashemite Hejaz (I am
always up for some enterprising Hashemites) and loads of other goodness. Also, PSA: PRE-1900 EXISTS AND IS PRETTY COOL.
More too from our readership: I want to give a shout out among The Readers to the invaluable
@wolverinethad's
Protect & Survive Miami: End of Watch, which I find the smartest and most engaging of the P&S progeny that still walk among us, and his
criminally underread (really, The Readers, go get some)
Texas Two-Step which is a
delightfully detailed and charmingly jaded romp through my own temporal stomping grounds in the company of the Nixon Crew and also Big Bad John Connally and a cast of other compelling folk besides (it's a hell of a lot of fun what you can do by setting down Leon Jaworski on the other bench, I'll say no more.) And
@Expat's wonderful
Playing With Mirrors - come for the richly textured Anderson Administration goodness and snappy-as-all-hell dialogue, stay for AL AND HASHIM because they're irreplaceable. Really. These too have been highlights of Turtledoves season. It's a pleasure to share the board with these folks. So read widely, discover cool new stuff, and vote vigorously!