New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline

Indicus

Indicus

The Congressman said:
Idea!!!!!
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The biggest issue with Minitel was that the terminals used for it were not very powerful computers, and mass-produced computers that were fairly powerful weren't really a thing until the Mac came in 1984. So, you really need a smooth transition between dumb terminal and personal computer for Minitel to be the foundation of the Internet.
 
Asami

Asami

Banned
The internet as we use it today was invented in the United States in 1969 as ARPANET. the World Wide Web was a separate thing in the 80s.

TCP/IP was invented by the DoD.
 

Prince Daemon Targaryen

fjihr said:
The biggest issue with Minitel was that the terminals used for it were not very powerful computers, and mass-produced computers that were fairly powerful weren't really a thing until the Mac came in 1984. So, you really need a smooth transition between dumb terminal and personal computer for Minitel to be the foundation of the Internet.
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Larm said:
Hey man with Cousteau investing heavily in science and technology that seems somewhat feasible
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Asami said:
The internet as we use it today was invented in the United States in 1969 as ARPANET. the World Wide Web was a separate thing in the 80s.

TCP/IP was invented by the DoD.
Click to expand...
I could easily see French innovators take the lead while partnering with those in the US and UK to develop and internet-like concept. Let me ponder this, but Minitel is an excellent twist :)
 

Exitstencil

The Congressman said:
Next time on NDCR:

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PROGRESSIVES
 
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Prince Daemon Targaryen

Return of the Bull Moose

“The tension within the parties was simmering for a while. McGovern’s campaign and the Amendment process only were the spark”

-John Anderson-​


President Ronald Reagan was arguably one of the most successful Republican Presidents in history. Despite massive congressional majorities, charisma, and good working relationships with much of the opposition many were still stunned at the legislative and foreign policy breakthroughs he had achieved in his first five years in the Oval Office. Taxes had been cut, energy production expanded, a large scale arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union ratified, anti-Communist governments and movements bankrolled, a huge reduction in the federal workforce achieved thanks to civil service reform, Cuba reunified, an overhaul of the military passed, and three textualist conservatives had been appointed to the Supreme Court (James Meredith, Robert Bork, and Phyllis Schlafly). And, with tax reform legislation on its way to becoming law – which it would be in September 1981 – the President wanted to use the Republican Party’s half-century high to do what even FDR had been unable to largely do. Amend the United States Constitution.

Many different proposed amendments had been introduced in the last few decades. Three had been passed since 1960, all of them in the 1960s. The 23rd Amendment gave DC electoral votes, the 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, and the 25th Amendment cleared up presidential succession. Others languished in forgotten corners of the House and Senate, including but not limited to an amendment outlawing abortion or repealing the 22nd Amendment (two term presidential limit). However, Reagan and his personal staff (Lyn Nofziger, Dick Cheney, Martin Anderson, John Sears, and Art Laffer) had identified four amendments or proposed amendments along with Republican Leadership in congress that would be a fitting use of the GOP’s immense political leverage.

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On July 5th, 1981, President Reagan spoke directly to the nation from the Oval Office announcing his request for Congress to consider four Constitutional Amendments to send to the states for ratification. First, was a proposed amendment by Republican Senator Pete McCloskey to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 (which had almost passed congress during the Wallace Administration, but died in the House). Second, was Rep. David Stockman (R-MI) and Rep. Jack Kemp’s Balanced Budget Amendment, which sought to institute a requirement – with some exceptions baked in – for the federal budget to be deficit-neutral. Third, was a Line-Item Veto Amendment, allowing the President to veto individual appropriations from any budget bill. Reagan had initially wanted Congress to pass it, but Majority Leader Roy Cohn (who authored the Amendment) said it would likely be overturned by the courts and needed to be in Amendment form. Lastly, was James Madison’s Congressional Pay Raise Amendment which had languished since the 1790s, one that Reagan had personally found and advocated for.

The battle lines were soon drawn, members of Congress preparing for one of the most arduous processes in the entire United States.

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McGovern’s third party candidacy in 1980 had done little to relieve the tension between the minaprogressives and the respective majorities in both parties. In fact, the tension had only increased. Anger that had been leveled at the defectors from the Democratic Party (and the Republican Party, but to a lesser extent due to Reagan’s landslide victory) was demonstrated, senior defectors stripped of committee assignments and national party funding. Additionally, the conduct of the Reagan Administration and the minority leadership over the Amendment processes and the appointment of Phyllis Schlafly to the Supreme Court – many minaprogressives had never forgiven her for her work against the ERA – fanned the flames. It was a badly kept secret to political reporters and congressional pages that certain members of congress weren’t on speaking terms.

Finally, the hammer blow fell on September 7th, 1981. After announcing his opposition to the nomination of US Attorney Jeff B. Sessions to the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. The move was highly supported by Minority Leader Strom Thurmond, Sessions a friend of his from his work on an interstate kidnapping case involving one of Thurmond’s extended family members, and he indicated that all Democrats were going to vote yes or face the repercussions. When McGovern carried out his threat to vote no, Thurmond responded by stripping the Senator of his coveted Ranking Member position on the Senate Agriculture Committee (Sessions would be confirmed with a vote of 91-8).

McGovern took the news with grace, merely expressing disappointment in his message to the press. His colleagues weren’t as forgiving. Pushed to the limit by the retribution of the Democratic leadership, two days later Senator Ramsay Clark (D-NY) and Congressman Frank Serpico (D, NY-14) announced at a press conference that they were switching to the Progressive Party (rather their NY affiliate, the Liberal Party).

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The move by Clark and Serpico opened the floodgates, and once they were open there was no stopping the onrushing torrent. In the next few weeks more members that had been hanging on by a thread to their respective parties ratted, stampeding towards the open arms of the Progressive Party. Press conferences were organized hastily, some states finding themselves with a massive new infrastructure developing overnight. In North Dakota and Minnesota, members revived the Non Partisan League and the Farmer-Labor Party, splitting with the Democrats decades after they had merged. The last major defection was George McGovern himself, taking the position as the Senate Progressive Leader.

Previously, the only Progressive Congressmen, Senators, and Governors were the following:

· Senator Patrick Leahy (VT)

· Governor Tom Salmon (VT)

· Congressman Don Edwards (CA-10)

· Congressman Jim McDermott (WA-06)

· Congressman Paul Soglin (WI-02)

· Congressman John Anderson (IL-16)

· Congresswoman Bella Abzug (NY-12)

· Congressman Pete Stark (CA-09)

· Congressman Paul Wellstone (MN-02)

· Congressman Les AuCoin (OR-01)

As such, the following high-profile individuals had switched sides:

· Senator George McGovern (SD); Democrat

· Senator Ramsey Clark (NY); Democrat

· Senator Dick Lamm (CO); Democrat

· Senator Bill Bradley (NJ); Democrat

· Senator Lowell P. Weicker (CT); Republican

· Governor Bob Packwood (OR); Republican

· Governor Arliss Sturgulewski (AK); Republican

· Congressman Leo Ryan (CA-11); Democrat

· Congressman Martin Olav Sabo (MN-04); Democrat

· Congressman Arne Carlson (MN-05); Republican

· Congressman Jim Jeffords (VT-At Large); Republican

· Congressman Steve Gunderson (WI-03); Republican

· Congresswoman Barbra Jordan (TX-18); Republican

· Congresswoman Eunice Groark (CT-01); Republican

· Congressman Paul Tsongas (MA-05); Democrat

· Congressman Jim Leach (IA-01); Republican

· Congressman Tom Harkin (IA-04); Democrat

· Congressman Byron Dorgan (ND-At Large); Democrat

· Congressman Tom Bates (CA-06); Democrat

· Congressman Henry Waxman (CA-24); Democrat

· Congressman James Oberstar (MN-08); Democrat

· Congressman Daniel Kemmis (MT-02); Democrat

· Congressman Frank Serpico (NY-14); Democrat

· Congresswoman Ruth Bader Ginsburg (NJ-08); Democrat

Old-guard Progressives such as Jerry Brown, Paul Wellstone, Pat Leahy, and Jim Jones integrated the new arrivals into the party, proclaimed to the nation as the “Return of the Bull Moose” in reference to Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party in 1912. Once an empty vessel outside of Vermont, the mass exodus had given the party the needed boost to begin a nationwide and state-level organizations, a move that would take most of a decade to accomplish. With the tension blown, both major parties and the new third party began to settle. The internal pressure had been greatly alleviated, but the electoral implications were still unknown and causing great anxiety among many members.

With the nation still shaking from the torrent of defections and the swelling of the Progressive Party into a sizable national force, it took an almost herculean effort by Roy Cohn and George Murphy (who was retiring in 1982 after an eventful three terms) to prevent the derailment of the Amendment processes. It took until the March 1982, but finally each amendment was brought up for a vote. First was the Voting Age Amendment, which passed easily in the house and narrowly in the Senate with tripartisan support. Next up was the Balanced Budget Amendment, which cleared the House but failed in the Senate to the dismay of President Reagan and the GOP. The Line-Item Veto Amendment passed by the skin of its teeth, Roy Cohn personally cajoling, convincing, and coercing Representatives with promises of pork and loss of committee assignments to get it through. After the Balanced-Budget Amendment failed, the Reagan White House staked everything on the Line-Item Veto, telling Cohn he had the President’s full backing on any commitment (which was used lavishly in the form of pork commitments and intense threats that everyone knew Cohn would see through). And lastly, James Madison’s Congressional Pay Amendment sailed through with a unanimous vote, no one willing to antagonize the voters.

Now it was up to the state legislatures, Reagan, Vice President Ford, and former President’s Kennedy and Rockefeller (George Wallace was ill at this time and had been semi-retired for over a year) joining to convince many. Popular with the American people, the Congressional Pay Amendment was ratified first in February 1982, becoming the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Line-Item Veto Amendment was far trickier, many states concerned that Presidents would strike away state funding. However, enough Republican and Progressive controlled legislatures managed to band together to get 35 states to ratify it. It only needed three more, and after much cajoling, Alabama, Iowa, and Idaho cast their votes for ratification, sealing the deal for the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. As for the Voting Age Amendment, it initially saw a large surge of states, but a coalition of 17 southern and industrial Midwestern states banded together to deny enough votes for ratification. Congress would extend the deadline, but the damage was done. The amendment would fail.

Though only two out of four would be ratified, both of them constituted a lasting achievement of President Reagan, who pointed it out upon exercising his first line-item vetoes in the budget for FY1985.

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Unlike the charismatic Lindsay and the flamboyant yet straitlaced Bill Buckley, Mayor Hugh Carey held a distinct lack of charisma or flair. It didn’t fit his style, that of the competent manager of the city. While the Buckley Administration had largely repaired the worst of the city’s problems, with the economic growth of the late seventies and early eighties, the newly peaceful and prosperous New York City was ground zero for a flurry of growth and development. Carey dove into the management of these projects hands first, using municipal funds as carrots to keep development costs down and personally negotiating with the municipal unions to avoid labor disputes – unlike Buckley, who saw breaking the strikes as a necessary evil to end the city’s stagnation, Carey viewed preventing them as a goal to allow for greater development. He also took a hard line on “quality of life" issues, such as giving police broader powers in dealing with the homeless and signing legislation banning the playing of radios on subways and buses. Though his popularity was high as a result, what should have been an easy reelection was dashed when former-HUD Secretary Charlie Rangel announced his intention to seek the GOP nomination. Rangel was a top tier candidate with a solid base in the black neighborhoods of NYC, and immediately took a modest lead over Carey and Liberal candidate Councilman Bernard “Bernie” Sanders.

All of this changed with the Return of the Bull Moose. The Progressive Party didn’t need to open up a state-level chapter in New York, relying on the existing Liberal Party of New York to serve as their in-state organization. With the national Progressives riding high, opportunity was seen to make a significant dent in the Big Apple – money and resources poured into Sanders’ campaign, the little-known councilman making a big splash in the October mayoral debate. All eyes previously on Carey and Rangel, Sanders brought a folksy populist charm to the mix, decrying the maze of special interests behind the two frontrunners in a fiery performance that turned eyeballs. His poll numbers doubled from an anemic 8% to 16% after the debate, taken from both leading candidates. The final poll had Rangel up narrowly, though it was complete jump ball.

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Initially favored as a landslide winner on par with Bill Buckley only a year before, after months of trials and tribulations Mayor Carey was reelected by a narrow 25,000 vote margin against Rangel. His campaign was dubbed the best in the city’s history, combining the normal left-wing and populist working-class base of the Democratic Party with a large amount of traditionally conservative voters turned off by Rangel’s social views (Carey’s unabashed pro-life stance greatly helped in this regard). This undercut Rangel in usually 70% GOP Staten Island – at least for municipal races – garnering a mere 61%. Rangel held most of the other components of the GOP base, namely black voters and suburbanites. While he attempted to use his social liberalism to graft more left-wing voters to supplement Carey’s appeal to social conservatives, Sanders’ dashed this strategy by drawing an underwhelming (based on expectations) yet strong (based on historical precedent) 15% of the vote.

Not the best start for the new Progressive Party, finding themselves in a third place here and in the New Jersey Gubernatorial race (and not even registering in Virginia, where Republican John Dalton replaced outgoing Democrat William Spong), but one tidbit did emerge. The conventional wisdom had been that the great exodus had hurt the Democrats, but Rangel lost partly due to Sanders. Perhaps the Republicans weren’t home free after all?
 
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Bulldoggus

Bulldoggus

Banned
You know, I could see, Matt Taibbi (although he could be butterflied away, since he was born post-PoD) becoming an important Progressive politician. Same goes for Keith Ellison. Just a thought.
 
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