New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

A Foreign Snapshot
​

Taking office in 1957 and winning a decisive election in 1959, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had accomplished much in his six years as Prime Minister. Military modernization was rammed through to rejuvenate British prestige after the disastrous Suez Crisis, the economy was growing, and the British Colonial Empire was peacefully set toward decolonization. However, after all of this and what was coming to 12 years of Conservative Party governance had exhausted the party and left the fatigued Prime Minister in poor health.

The revelation that Secretary of State of War John Profumo was engaged in a torrid love affair hammered the nails in Macmillan’s coffin. Already wracked by stress, the scandal caused Macmillan to announce his resignation, leaving the leadership race for the Conservatives wide open.

After several possible candidates were either too divisive or refused to run – the most notable being Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home – many of the liberal wing and the conservative Monday Club wing settled on Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod. Though disliked by many on the right due to his pushing of rapid independence of Britain’s Colonial Empire (though close ties were maintained in the French model, except in the case of South Africa, Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia, all three of which declared themselves republics) the lack of other consensus choices lead to his appointment in Summer 1963.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party was rapidly gaining in the polls following the appointment of the center-left, youthful Harold Wilson as Leader of the Opposition. Attacking the Government at every turn, Wilson ran on a forward looking message aimed at the working class, stating that the "white heat of revolution" would sweep away "restrictive practices... on both sides of industry.” Having delayed holding a General Election for as long as conceivably possible, Prime Minister Macleod eventually was forced to call one for the fourteenth of August, 1964.

Wilson and Deputy Leader George Brown, a strong campaigner despite his penchant for gaffes, touted further expansion of the Atlee-government labour reforms while smearing Conservative leaders as immoral aristocrats – invoking the Profumo Affair. The Tories advocated keeping Great Britain as a world power, criticizing Wilson’s proposed slashing of defence spending – an unpopular policy after the Berlin Wall crisis and the assassination of Richard Nixon. Quite adept at this was the fiery Lord Havisham. Once, interrupted by hecklers at a rally in Manchester, his face reddened to that of a ripe tomato as he hit at one of their Wilson placards with his brass tipped cane – far from a detriment, these actions injected a needed passion into the moribund Conservatives.

The moment of the campaign, however, came as a response to Wilson’s repeated charges of Tory attacks on the working class. Scoffing in a national television interview, Macleod replied that he didn’t seek to impose a “Nanny State” like Wilson, “Where one treats the working class Briton as a mere lad just needing to be watched and guided through life.”

On election day, BBC election specialist David Butler initially predicted a hung parliament with the Liberals holding the balance. However, as marginal constituencies began to pour in the picture rapidly changed. Modest Labour swings across most of the nation were cancelled out with Tory swings in Central England, Yorkshire, and northern Scotland, dashing opposition hopes to form even a minority government. The Liberals did reasonably well, earning double digit support once more with ten seats.

​

Buoyed by a stronger than expected hold on rural Scotland, the unanimous holds in Northern Ireland, and nearly a dozen gained seats in central England (including the seat of prospective Foreign Secretary Gordon Walker by Conservative Peter Griffiths, Smethwick, in a campaign dominated by dirty attacks and race baiting), Iain Macleod retained a narrow 13-seat majority to be able to visit Her Majesty to form a new government.

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After the near constitutional crisis that the French Fourth Republic faced in the late 1950s, Georges Bidault knew the broad unity government (including all but the communists and far-right) wouldn’t last much longer. Despite the surge of support his government recieved following the assassination of Charles de Gaulle, Bidault found himself unable to draft a new Constitution with a powerful executive due to the sluggishness and inertia of the National Assembly. Instead, the WWII hero placed both the proposed Toulon Accords and several changes to the Fourth Republic’s Constitution to the people for the next general election. A mandate from them could break the legislative deadlock.

Though the two center-right parties had merged into Bidault's Popular Republican Movement, what was originally looking like a win for the centrist/left parties (MRP, the Radicals/Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance, and the French Section of the Workers' International), the entrance of two new parties shook up the entire race. As negotiated, the Algerian FLN was allowed to run candidates in the new proportional system in the proposed districts of Algeria-littoral. Countering this was the new right-wing National Front, founded by former Paratrooper General and Algerian War veteran Jacques Massu. To secure his right flank, Bidault campaigned hard on his war record and desire to preserve France’s status as a great power, using the strong communist push as a perfect foil.

​

Bidault did rather well in the proportional election, winning a strong thirty-two percent of the vote. His allies in the Radical-UDSR alliance were the major losers aside from the underperforming communists, and this would force Bidault to make a deal with Massu and the FN in order to form a government not including SFIO.

The FLN cleaned up among the native Algerians, allowed the vote for the first time in France’s history. Observations pointed out that the FLN and communist dominated native vote contrasted blatantly with the Pied Noir and Harki vote, cast for the FN and MRP for the most part.

After the ratification of the Toulon Accords and the passage of Bidault’s constitutional amendments –basically increasing the executive power of the President of the Council – the governing coalition government found itself in great disagreement over the issue of France’s colonial empire. With the rapid decolonization in the British Empire, the French defeat in Indochina, and the largely successful Algerian insurgency, independence movements were gaining ground both across the colonies and on the home front. The Communists, FLN, and SFIO joined with the Radicals and many within Bidault’s own party in pushing for decolonization. However, the MRP right wing and FN were categorically against the move, now Defense Minister Massu threatening to resign and break the coalition if independence was given.

Though personally desiring to rid the still economically problematic Fourth Republic of the headache, Bidault decided not to risk the stability of his government. Calling independence movement leaders to the Élysée Palace in 1962, a week of negotiations lead to the formation of the French Community, a military and economic confederation styled after the British Commonwealth.

Hope soared among the French people that the battered nation could maintain its place in the sun.

---------------------------------​

The conservative Coalition government of Australia (the Liberal Party representing the more populated areas while the Country Party was more rural in scope) had been in power two years longer than the British Conservatives, and unlike them were led the whole period by the towering Victorian Sir Robert Menzies. The government had survived all attempts by the leftist Labor Party to dislodge it as it oversaw Australia’s post-War economic boom, but a mild recession and the appointment of the new opposition leader Arthur Calwell were leaving it in real danger of losing the next election.

However, two things would save the long-serving Menzies government. The dogged campaigning of Minister of External Affairs Harold Holt (promoted to Treasurer after the election) consistently hit the theme of the Government that with Southeast Asia flaring up the people couldn’t risk changing the government. Menzies and American President Nixon worked quite closely on the Vietnam situation, and any development there worried the nearby Australians more than any other western nation.

The Second was the Democratic Labor Party, an anti-Communist offshoot of Labor that was nominally allied with the Coalition. Come election day, DLP preference votes (Australia using instant runoff voting) kept the swing against the government from getting too large.

​

Three seats were immediately focused on. Moreton, a marginal Queensland seat, was narrowly won by Labor while the Victoria seat of Bruce, held by future Prime Minister Billy Snedden, was narrowly retained for the Coalition thanks to DLP preferences. Lastly, the seat of Wills was retained by the sole DLP member of Parliament, former Labor MP Bill Bryson – having lost his seat in 1955 but won it once more in 1958. While the two major parties were divided 61-60, Bryson’s decision to sit with the Coalition as a crossbench MP allowed Menzies to form his ninth ministry.

After three further years in office the Menzies Government was looking in far better shape. The stable economy and disputes regarding private school funding and the inclusion of Aboriginal Australians onto the voting rolls (approved by the Government in time for the election) had dramatically improved the Coalition’s position. Calwell and Labor had never really recovered from the narrow loss three years earlier, their position further hurt by a negative news story showing Calwell and Gough Whitlam waiting outside a meeting of Labor insiders – dubbed the ‘Thirty-eight Faceless Men’ by the press.

However, as Menzies prepared to call an election the main issue turned out to be foreign policy and defence. With the Vietnam War heating up to the north – several thousand Australian troops and advisors in South Vietnam – and the assassination of US President Nixon brought fears of Communism to a new high. Labor’s opposition to several new joint RAN (Royal Australian Navy)/RN bases and RAN/USN submarine communications stations were trumpeted to the skies by the Coalition. Still beset by the Petrov Affair nearly a decade before, Labor struggled to overcome the Coalition’s latest barrage.

​

With the DLP having officially joined the Coalition (Bryson joined by a second elected member), the coalition reversed Labor’s gains from 1961 as the size of the House of Representatives was increased to 130. Menzies found himself elected to his ninth and final ministry, just as the fight for Southeast Asia would begin to escalate.

 

[Israel]

A Foreign Snapshot
​

Taking office in 1957 and winning a decisive election in 1959, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had accomplished much in his six years as Prime Minister. Military modernization was rammed through to rejuvenate British prestige after the disastrous Suez Crisis, the economy was growing, and the British Colonial Empire was peacefully set toward decolonization. However, after all of this and what was coming to 12 years of Conservative Party governance had exhausted the party and left the fatigued Prime Minister in poor health.

The revelation that Secretary of State of War John Profumo was engaged in a torrid love affair hammered the nails in Macmillan’s coffin. Already wracked by stress, the scandal caused Macmillan to announce his resignation, leaving the leadership race for the Conservatives wide open.

After several possible candidates were either too divisive or refused to run – the most notable being Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home – many of the liberal wing and the conservative Monday Club wing settled on Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod. Though disliked by many on the right due to his pushing of rapid independence of Britain’s Colonial Empire (though close ties were maintained in the French model, except in the case of South Africa, Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia, all three of which declared themselves republics) the lack of other consensus choices lead to his appointment in Summer 1963.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party was rapidly gaining in the polls following the appointment of the center-left, youthful Harold Wilson as Leader of the Opposition. Attacking the Government at every turn, Wilson ran on a forward looking message aimed at the working class, stating that the "white heat of revolution" would sweep away "restrictive practices... on both sides of industry.” Having delayed holding a General Election for as long as conceivably possible, Prime Minister Macleod eventually was forced to call one for the fourteenth of August, 1964.

Wilson and Deputy Leader George Brown, a strong campaigner despite his penchant for gaffes, touted further expansion of the Atlee-government labour reforms while smearing Conservative leaders as immoral aristocrats – invoking the Profumo Affair. The Tories advocated keeping Great Britain as a world power, criticizing Wilson’s proposed slashing of defence spending – an unpopular policy after the Berlin Wall crisis and the assassination of Richard Nixon. Quite adept at this was the fiery Lord Havisham. Once, interrupted by hecklers at a rally in Manchester, his face reddened to that of a ripe tomato as he hit at one of their Wilson placards with his brass tipped cane – far from a detriment, these actions injected a needed passion into the moribund Conservatives.

The moment of the campaign, however, came as a response to Wilson’s repeated charges of Tory attacks on the working class. Scoffing in a national television interview, Macleod replied that he didn’t seek to impose a “Nanny State” like Wilson, “Where one treats the working class Briton as a mere lad just needing to be watched and guided through life.”

On election day, BBC election specialist David Butler initially predicted a hung parliament with the Liberals holding the balance. However, as marginal constituencies began to pour in the picture rapidly changed. Modest Labour swings across most of the nation were cancelled out with Tory swings in Central England, Yorkshire, and northern Scotland, dashing opposition hopes to form even a minority government. The Liberals did reasonably well, earning double digit support once more with ten seats.

View attachment 280631
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Buoyed by a stronger than expected hold on rural Scotland, the unanimous holds in Northern Ireland, and nearly a dozen gained seats in central England (including the seat of prospective Foreign Secretary Gordon Walker by Conservative Peter Griffiths, Smethwick, in a campaign dominated by dirty attacks and race baiting), Iain Macleod retained a narrow 13-seat majority to be able to visit Her Majesty to form a new government.

-----------------------------------------​

After the near constitutional crisis that the French Fourth Republic faced in the late 1950s, Charles de Gaulle knew the broad unity government (including all but the communists and far-right) wouldn’t last much longer. Unable to draft a new Constitution with a powerful executive, the WWII hero placed both the proposed Toulon Accords and several changes to the Fourth Republic’s Constitution to the people for the next general election. A mandate from them could break the legislative deadlock.

Though the two center-right parties had merged into the de Gaulle lead Union for the Republic, what was originally looking like a win for the centrist/left parties (UPR, the Radicals/Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance, and the French Section of the Workers' International), the entrance of two new parties shook up the entire race. As negotiated, the Algerian FLN was allowed to run candidates in the new proportional system in the proposed districts of Algeria-littoral. Countering this was the new right-wing Movement for France, founded by former Paratrooper General and Algerian War veteran Jacques Massu. To secure his right flank, De Gaulle campaigned hard on his war record and desire to preserve France’s status as a great power, using the strong communist push as a perfect foil.

View attachment 280632
​

De Gaulle did rather well in the proportional election, winning a strong thirty-two percent of the vote. His allies in the Radical-UDSR alliance were the major losers aside from the underperforming communists, and this would force De Gaulle to make a deal with Massu and the MPF in order to form a government not including SFIO.

The FLN cleaned up among the native Algerians, allowed the vote for the first time in France’s history. Observations pointed out that the FLN and communist dominated native vote contrasted blatantly with the Pied Noir and Harki vote, cast for the MPF and UPF for the most part.

After the ratification of the Toulon Accords and the passage of De Gaulle’s constitutional amendments –basically increasing the executive power of the President of the Council – the governing coalition government found itself in great disagreement over the issue of France’s colonial empire. With the rapid decolonization in the British Empire, the French defeat in Indochina, and the largely successful Algerian insurgency, independence movements were gaining ground both across the colonies and on the home front. The Communists, FLN, and SFIO joined with the Radicals and many within De Gaulle’s own UPF in pushing for decolonization. However, the UPF right wing and MPF were categorically against the move, now Defense Minister Massu threatening to resign and break the coalition if independence was given.

Though personally desiring to rid the still economically problematic Fourth Republic of the headache, De Gaulle decided not to risk the stability of his government. Calling independence movement leaders to the Élysée Palace in 1962, a week of negotiations lead to the formation of the French Community, a military and economic confederation styled after the British Commonwealth.

View attachment 280634
​

Hope soared among the French people that the battered nation could maintain its place in the sun.

---------------------------------​

The conservative Coalition government of Australia (the Liberal Party representing the more populated areas while the Country Party was more rural in scope) had been in power two years longer than the British Conservatives, and unlike them were led the whole period by the towering Victorian Sir Robert Menzies. The government had survived all attempts by the leftist Labor Party to dislodge it as it oversaw Australia’s post-War economic boom, but a mild recession and the appointment of the new opposition leader Arthur Calwell were leaving it in real danger of losing the next election.

However, two things would save the long-serving Menzies government. The dogged campaigning of Minister of External Affairs Harold Holt (promoted to Treasurer after the election) consistently hit the theme of the Government that with Southeast Asia flaring up the people couldn’t risk changing the government. Menzies and American President Nixon worked quite closely on the Vietnam situation, and any development there worried the nearby Australians more than any other western nation.

The Second was the Democratic Labor Party, an anti-Communist offshoot of Labor that was nominally allied with the Coalition. Come election day, DLP preference votes (Australia using instant runoff voting) kept the swing against the government from getting too large.

View attachment 280635
​

Three seats were immediately focused on. Moreton, a marginal Queensland seat, was narrowly won by Labor while the Victoria seat of Bruce, held by future Prime Minister Billy Snedden, was narrowly retained for the Coalition thanks to DLP preferences. Lastly, the seat of Wills was retained by the sole DLP member of Parliament, former Labor MP Bill Bryson – having lost his seat in 1955 but won it once more in 1958. While the two major parties were divided 61-60, Bryson’s decision to sit with the Coalition as a crossbench MP allowed Menzies to form his ninth ministry.

After three further years in office the Menzies Government was looking in far better shape. The stable economy and disputes regarding private school funding and the inclusion of Aboriginal Australians onto the voting rolls (approved by the Government in time for the election) had dramatically improved the Coalition’s position. Calwell and Labor had never really recovered from the narrow loss three years earlier, their position further hurt by a negative news story showing Calwell and Gough Whitlam waiting outside a meeting of Labor insiders – dubbed the ‘Thirty-eight Faceless Men’ by the press.

However, as Menzies prepared to call an election the main issue turned out to be foreign policy and defence. With the Vietnam War heating up to the north – several thousand Australian troops and advisors in South Vietnam – and the assassination of US President Nixon brought fears of Communism to a new high. Labor’s opposition to several new joint RAN (Royal Australian Navy)/RN bases and RAN/USN submarine communications stations were trumpeted to the skies by the Coalition. Still beset by the Petrov Affair nearly a decade before, Labor struggled to overcome the Coalition’s latest barrage.

View attachment 280636
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With the DLP having officially joined the Coalition (Bryson joined by a second elected member), the coalition reversed Labor’s gains from 1961 as the size of the House of Representatives was increased to 130. Menzies found himself elected to his ninth and final ministry, just as the fight for Southeast Asia would begin to escalate.

Good update

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

So what does everyone think?

 

[Knightmare]

Interesting TL.

And it has the Racist traitors down South of the M/D line being smacked down. Added bonus.

 

[Israel]

So what does everyone think?

I love it! Rocky is President, Civil Rights passed early, Conservatives in UK and Lib/Counties in Australia

 

[Israel]

Btw, what is the situation of Israel?

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

Btw, what is the situation of Israel?

Same as OTL for the most part. The big changes ITTL won't be for a few years.
Lets just say Iain Macleod will be much beloved by the Israeli people

 

[Israel]

Same as OTL for the most part. The big changes ITTL won't be for a few years.
Lets just say Iain Macleod will be much beloved by the Israeli people

Ah, so the Conservatives are more pro-Israel in the 60s... awaiting development

 

[Gonzo]

Lovely.

A more pro-Israeli right-wing in the 1960's is interesting. Considering it was the left which was more pro-Israel and the right which was more pro-Arab before the 1980's OTL.

 

[Lost Freeway]

So America gets ensnared in Vietnam like OTL?

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

So America gets ensnared in Vietnam like OTL?

Yes, but much differently. The Diem Government is gutted by the Viet Cong rather than in a coup, so there is less instability. Also, the US/ARVN/multinational coalition institutes a Malaya-like counterinsurgency campaign. The North at this point is considering sending most of its army to attack the south and the US with the insurgency faltering under pressure.
Vietnam will be covered more in later chapters

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

1964 Presidential Nominations​

President Nelson Rockefeller had his work cut out for him. Taking office on the heels of the assassination on Richard Nixon, his first move as chief executive was to instruct Director J Edgar Hoover of the FBI to compile a full investigation into the killing. To ensure nonpartisanship, he authorized a bipartisan commission to be formed to conduct a separate investigation – it would be called the Burger Commission after its chairman, Nixon appointed Associate Justice Warren Burger (one of the late President’s two, along with former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey).

After months of testimony, both Hoover and the Burger Commission declared that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and his motivation was simultaneously revenge for the blocking of his wife’s visa application and Marxist-Leninist zeal against the United States.

Even before the full report was authored, President Rockefeller prepared a package of legislation in response to the assassination. Thundering in his first State of the Union Address, the patrician New Yorker delivered a fiery speech that would later be determined as the beginning of the Third Red Scare.

A Constitutional amendment to allow for the appointment of a Vice President was proposed by the former holder of that office. He called on Congress to pass legislation placing strict security restrictions and monitoring protocols on immigrants from Communist or Third World nations, and to ban repatriation of defecting citizens. Several projects once deemed on the back-burner (including nuclear powered cruisers) were funded along with the appropriation of additional funds to the CIA and FBI, directed with monitoring suspicious individuals both of the American far-left (mostly the fringe groups rather than established and respected ones) and many immigrants from the third world. The efforts drew support from across the political aisle, Senators John Stennis and Henry M Jackson among their strongest proponents.

Though controversial, generous foreign aid packages were set up – with collaboration with Prime Minister Iain Macleod in Britain – for the anti-Communist white-minority governments in South Africa, Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia. Despite Rockefeller’s opposition to the racial oppression, the cause of fighting communism was considered more vital at that point.

Overseas, Rockefeller ordered the deployment of 25,000 additional ground troops to Vietnam as well as further military aid to the country. Increased Soviet and Chinese funding had emboldened the North Vietnamese, which in turn had stepped up supply to the Southern guerillas. The Viet Cong were reeling from Thieu and Lansdale’s efforts however, and to bolster them General Vo Ngyuen Giap authorized two divisions of the NVA south along the ‘Ho Chi Min’ trail, a series of footpaths and tracks through the Laotian and Cambodian jungles from North Vietnam to the South.

Mostly continuing the Nixon domestic policy, Rockefeller would push through two final pieces of legislation before the Presidential campaign would halt most of Washington. The Anti-Discrimination Act of 1964 would outlaw private discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and national origin, though the law was watered down slightly to earn the votes of prominent conservatives concerned about government power (Rockefeller not wanting to split the party while running for a full term). The second would, however, render all previous efforts moot. By a strong margin – though with every conservative Republican opposed – the Public Works Act was passed, establishing the United States Department of Public Works, a full cabinet department enthusiastically signed by President Rockefeller.

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There was no doubt that President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, amenable to big government solutions and pro-New Deal. As the conservative wing of the party was growing in power (though subject to its own divisions), many observers considered it likely that the President would face a challenger for the GOP nomination. However, the strength of the scion of one of the nation’s wealthiest families and as an incumbent President was still daunting. There was no doubt that Nixon would have sailed to the nomination unopposed, so one by one conservatives lined up behind the President or – such as Barry Goldwater – declared neutrality.

Suddenly, a challenger emerged in the form of Freshman Arizona Senator Evan Mecham, the famous gadfly and John Birch Society member. Declaring his candidacy to a packed Phoenix crowd of Republicans and Birchers, Mecham immediately zeroed in on Rockefeller as a “toady of the New York elite” and a “closet socialist.” Riding into New Hampshire and camping there for nearly three weeks, he furiously attacked the President and championed “Constitutional conservatism in the mold of Thomas Jefferson and Barry Goldwater” (despite the immediate denunciation of the speech by Arizona’s senior senator).

Due in part to Rockefeller’s campaign deeming that the President had to appear above the fray – and considering Mecham an insect unworthy of replying to – the New Hampshire primary stunned the nation. The final results were razor thin, Rockefeller 50.2%, Mecham 49.5%, a disastrous showing for the incumbent. Rockefeller thus began hitting the trail, top tier surrogates such as California Senator Thomas Kuchel, New York Governor Malcom Wilson, Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn, charismatic Manhattan Congressman John Lindsay, and even former President Eisenhower began stumping for him and attacking Mecham – Kuchel taking the point on the attacks.

Meanwhile, influential conservatives met in Philadelphia in early March to discuss the Mecham candidacy. It was almost unanimous that the Arizona Senator and his Birch Society allies had to be stopped from taking over the movement, even if it meant for Rockefeller to win the primary. It was decided that an alternate candidate was needed to serve as a true Conservative alternative to Mecham’s “reactionary insanity” and racist remarks. Not three days later, influential journalist and founder of National Review William F Buckley announced his run for the Presidency, referencing Rockefeller only indirectly as he trained his fire on Mecham and the southern Democrats.

The remainder of the primaries would be relatively sleepy, Mecham winning Florida, West Virginia, and Oregon, Buckley Nebraska, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, and Rockefeller sweeping the rest.

At the convention, the fracturing of the conservative block by Buckley (whose candidacy was mainly as a foil of Mecham, not a serious bid) and the persuasions of many swing votes to give Rockefeller the nomination as to prevent Mecham from gaining ground sealed the deal. On the first ballot the President was renominated handily, Buckley beating out Mecham for second place – which it was reported the Arizona Senator let out a profanity and racially charged rant as he and his delegates stormed out of the convention for the day.

Despite winning the nomination only through the support of many conservatives, Rockefeller stirred up the hornet’s nest when he announced Thomas Kuchel as his running mate. The California Senator was a vociferous opponent of the rival faction, but a last ditch effort by conservatives to push Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton fizzled out. Rockefeller and Kuchel left the convention ready to take on whomever the Democrats nominated.

​

With Rockefeller facing sky high approval ratings, the casual observer would be reasonable in assuming that many Democrats wouldn’t try to challenge the incumbent. However, the Democrats as a whole rightly recognized the flaws in the New Yorker and soon, a modest crop of top tier candidates had lined up.

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With four additional years of experience in the Senate and on the campaign trail under his belt, the conventional wisdom once again declared this was John F. Kennedy’s race to lose. Having stumped across the country for Democratic candidates, Kennedy and the family team headed by the crafty Democratic electioneer Joseph P Kennedy Sr had cornered a massive amount of institutional support. Groups such as the Democratic machines of the Upper South, former President Harry Truman, and the influential Teamsters Union and its President, Jimmy Hoffa. Unlike before, Kennedy surrogates lobbied Deep South delegates hard, unwilling to take any chance for the nomination to slip between the Massachusetts Senator’s fingers once more.

Kennedy however faced intense opposition, winning no more than half of the primaries. His “New Horizons” agenda that combined old New Deal-era solutions with classical liberal ideas to better society drew much opposition from core Democratic constituencies, as did Kennedy’s modest support for civil rights (angering both segregationists and the far-left). Former Vice Presidential nominee Wayne Morse quickly emerged as the main threat to Kennedy outright, winning several western and plains state primaries along with West Virginia. He targeted the same populist demographic as Johnson did four years earlier, but was blunted by two other Democrats for the anti-Kennedy vote. Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was back for another try, but he was increasingly sidelined as the liberal alternative by California Governor Pat Brown, fresh from his decisive re-election win. Humphrey narrowly clinched Wisconsin, while Brown convincingly carried California (54%) over Kennedy (41%) and Morse (15%).

The Southern Wing of the Democratic Party coalesced early for Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr, an ardent opponent of the Nixon/Rockefeller civil rights agenda – unlike Kennedy, who had voted for every bill – and firmly a member of the party’s populist wing on most other issues. Winning the Florida primary with the endorsement of longtime Senator George Smathers, Gore nipped at the heels of Kennedy and Morse but was dealt a blow when Kennedy clinched Texas with the late endorsement of former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson – a surprise to many, also seen as a massive snub of Morse.

At the convention in Atlantic City, no one was in the position to take the nomination outright as the first ballot arrived. Kennedy cleaned up in the Northeast, Upper South, and Midwest; Morse in the West and plains states; Brown on the West Coast and many urban delegations; Gore in the south; Humphrey’s low haul quickly doomed his candidacy, half of his delegates scrambling to Kennedy on the second ballot.

Between the second and third, a tip was sent to the Missouri delegation that Kennedy was planning to pick his friend and colleague Stuart Symington as his running mate. The news that their senior senator was in line swung the crucial delegation from a Brown/Gore split to Kennedy, allowing him to win the nomination on the third ballot. The rumor was proven right, the smiling JFK announcing Symington as his running mate, approved by a unanimous vote.

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The nomination of two pro-civil rights senators angered many within the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. In protest, nearly eighty percent of the delegates revived the 1948 Dixiecrat ticket to showcase their displeasure with both political parties. Running on firm platforms of populist economics, uncompromising anti-Communism, and firm pro-Segregation, the delegates selected Governor Orval Faubus of the Little Rock Nine fame as their candidate. He subsequently chose Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett as his running mate, setting up for a three-way election between Rockefeller/Kuchel, Kennedy/Symington, and Faubus/Barnett.

 

[Israel]

1964 Presidential Nominations​

President Nelson Rockefeller had his work cut out for him. Taking office on the heels of the assassination on Richard Nixon, his first move as chief executive was to instruct Director J Edgar Hoover of the FBI to compile a full investigation into the killing. To ensure nonpartisanship, he authorized a bipartisan commission to be formed to conduct a separate investigation – it would be called the Burger Commission after its chairman, Nixon appointed Associate Justice Warren Burger (one of the late President’s two, along with former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey).

After months of testimony, both Hoover and the Burger Commission declared that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and his motivation was simultaneously revenge for the blocking of his wife’s visa application and Marxist-Leninist zeal against the United States.

Even before the full report was authored, President Rockefeller prepared a package of legislation in response to the assassination. Thundering in his first State of the Union Address, the patrician New Yorker delivered a fiery speech that would later be determined as the beginning of the Third Red Scare.

A Constitutional amendment to allow for the appointment of a Vice President was proposed by the former holder of that office. He called on Congress to pass legislation placing strict security restrictions and monitoring protocols on immigrants from Communist or Third World nations, and to ban repatriation of defecting citizens. Several projects once deemed on the back-burner (including nuclear powered cruisers) were funded along with the appropriation of additional funds to the CIA and FBI, directed with monitoring suspicious individuals both of the American far-left (mostly the fringe groups rather than established and respected ones) and many immigrants from the third world. The efforts drew support from across the political aisle, Senators John Stennis and Henry M Jackson among their strongest proponents.

Though controversial, generous foreign aid packages were set up – with collaboration with Prime Minister Iain Macleod in Britain – for the anti-Communist white-minority governments in South Africa, Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia. Despite Rockefeller’s opposition to the racial oppression, the cause of fighting communism was considered more vital at that point.

Overseas, Rockefeller ordered the deployment of 25,000 additional ground troops to Vietnam as well as further military aid to the country. Increased Soviet and Chinese funding had emboldened the North Vietnamese, which in turn had stepped up supply to the Southern guerillas. The Viet Cong were reeling from Thieu and Lansdale’s efforts however, and to bolster them General Vo Ngyuen Giap authorized two divisions of the NVA south along the ‘Ho Chi Min’ trail, a series of footpaths and tracks through the Laotian and Cambodian jungles from North Vietnam to the South.

Mostly continuing the Nixon domestic policy, Rockefeller would push through two final pieces of legislation before the Presidential campaign would halt most of Washington. The Anti-Discrimination Act of 1964 would outlaw private discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and national origin, though the law was watered down slightly to earn the votes of prominent conservatives concerned about government power (Rockefeller not wanting to split the party while running for a full term). The second would, however, render all previous efforts moot. By a strong margin – though with every conservative Republican opposed – the Public Works Act was passed, establishing the United States Department of Public Works, a full cabinet department enthusiastically signed by President Rockefeller.

-------------------------​

There was no doubt that President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, amenable to big government solutions and pro-New Deal. As the conservative wing of the party was growing in power (though subject to its own divisions), many observers considered it likely that the President would face a challenger for the GOP nomination. However, the strength of the scion of one of the nation’s wealthiest families and as an incumbent President was still daunting. There was no doubt that Nixon would have sailed to the nomination unopposed, so one by one conservatives lined up behind the President or – such as Barry Goldwater – declared neutrality.

Suddenly, a challenger emerged in the form of Freshman Arizona Senator Evan Mecham, the famous gadfly and John Birch Society member. Declaring his candidacy to a packed Phoenix crowd of Republicans and Birchers, Mecham immediately zeroed in on Rockefeller as a “toady of the New York elite” and a “closet socialist.” Riding into New Hampshire and camping there for nearly three weeks, he furiously attacked the President and championed “Constitutional conservatism in the mold of Thomas Jefferson and Barry Goldwater” (despite the immediate denunciation of the speech by Arizona’s senior senator).

Due in part to Rockefeller’s campaign deeming that the President had to appear above the fray – and considering Mecham an insect unworthy of replying to – the New Hampshire primary stunned the nation. The final results were razor thin, Rockefeller 50.2%, Mecham 49.5%, a disastrous showing for the incumbent. Rockefeller thus began hitting the trail, top tier surrogates such as California Senator Thomas Kuchel, New York Governor Malcom Wilson, Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn, charismatic Manhattan Congressman John Lindsay, and even former President Eisenhower began stumping for him and attacking Mecham – Kuchel taking the point on the attacks.

Meanwhile, influential conservatives met in Philadelphia in early March to discuss the Mecham candidacy. It was almost unanimous that the Arizona Senator and his Birch Society allies had to be stopped from taking over the movement, even if it meant for Rockefeller to win the primary. It was decided that an alternate candidate was needed to serve as a true Conservative alternative to Mecham’s “reactionary insanity” and racist remarks. Not three days later, influential journalist and founder of National Review William F Buckley announced his run for the Presidency, referencing Rockefeller only indirectly as he trained his fire on Mecham and the southern Democrats.

The remainder of the primaries would be relatively sleepy, Mecham winning Florida, West Virginia, and Oregon, Buckley Nebraska, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, and Rockefeller sweeping the rest.

At the convention, the fracturing of the conservative block by Buckley (whose candidacy was mainly as a foil of Mecham, not a serious bid) and the persuasions of many swing votes to give Rockefeller the nomination as to prevent Mecham from gaining ground sealed the deal. On the first ballot the President was renominated handily, Buckley beating out Mecham for second place – which it was reported the Arizona Senator let out a profanity and racially charged rant as he and his delegates stormed out of the convention for the day.

Despite winning the nomination only through the support of many conservatives, Rockefeller stirred up the hornet’s nest when he announced Thomas Kuchel as his running mate. The California Senator was a vociferous opponent of the rival faction, but a last ditch effort by conservatives to push Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton fizzled out. Rockefeller and Kuchel left the convention ready to take on whomever the Democrats nominated.

View attachment 280935
​

With Rockefeller facing sky high approval ratings, the casual observer would be reasonable in assuming that many Democrats wouldn’t try to challenge the incumbent. However, the Democrats as a whole rightly recognized the flaws in the New Yorker and soon, a modest crop of top tier candidates had lined up.

-------------------------​

With four additional years of experience in the Senate and on the campaign trail under his belt, the conventional wisdom once again declared this was John F. Kennedy’s race to lose. Having stumped across the country for Democratic candidates, Kennedy and the family team headed by the crafty Democratic electioneer Joseph P Kennedy Sr had cornered a massive amount of institutional support. Groups such as the Democratic machines of the Upper South, former President Harry Truman, and the influential Teamsters Union and its President, Jimmy Hoffa. Unlike before, Kennedy surrogates lobbied Deep South delegates hard, unwilling to take any chance for the nomination to slip between the Massachusetts Senator’s fingers once more.

Kennedy however faced intense opposition, winning no more than half of the primaries. His “New Horizons” agenda that combined old New Deal-era solutions with classical liberal ideas to better society drew much opposition from core Democratic constituencies, as did Kennedy’s modest support for civil rights (angering both segregationists and the far-left). Former Vice Presidential nominee Wayne Morse quickly emerged as the main threat to Kennedy outright, winning several western and plains state primaries along with West Virginia. He targeted the same populist demographic as Johnson did four years earlier, but was blunted by two other Democrats for the anti-Kennedy vote. Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was back for another try, but he was increasingly sidelined as the liberal alternative by California Governor Pat Brown, fresh from his decisive re-election win. Humphrey narrowly clinched Wisconsin, while Brown convincingly carried California (54%) over Kennedy (41%) and Morse (15%).

The Southern Wing of the Democratic Party coalesced early for Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr, an ardent opponent of the Nixon/Rockefeller civil rights agenda – unlike Kennedy, who had voted for every bill – and firmly a member of the party’s populist wing on most other issues. Winning the Florida primary with the endorsement of longtime Senator George Smathers, Gore nipped at the heels of Kennedy and Morse but was dealt a blow when Kennedy clinched Texas with the late endorsement of former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson – a surprise to many, also seen as a massive snub of Morse.

At the convention in Atlantic City, no one was in the position to take the nomination outright as the first ballot arrived. Kennedy cleaned up in the Northeast, Upper South, and Midwest; Morse in the West and plains states; Brown on the West Coast and many urban delegations; Gore in the south; Humphrey’s low haul quickly doomed his candidacy, half of his delegates scrambling to Kennedy on the second ballot.

Between the second and third, a tip was sent to the Missouri delegation that Kennedy was planning to pick his friend and colleague Stuart Symington as his running mate. The news that their senior senator was in line swung the crucial delegation from a Brown/Gore split to Kennedy, allowing him to win the nomination on the third ballot. The rumor was proven right, the smiling JFK announcing Symington as his running mate, approved by a unanimous vote.

View attachment 280936

-------------------------​

The nomination of two pro-civil rights senators angered many within the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. In protest, nearly eighty percent of the delegates revived the 1948 Dixiecrat ticket to showcase their displeasure with both political parties. Running on firm platforms of populist economics, uncompromising anti-Communism, and firm pro-Segregation, the delegates selected Governor Orval Faubus of the Little Rock Nine fame as their candidate. He subsequently chose Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett as his running mate, setting up for a three-way election between Rockefeller/Kuchel, Kennedy/Symington, and Faubus/Barnett.

Rocky Vs Jack... interesting

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

Rocky Vs Jack... interesting

With the Little Rock Nine governor nipping at their heels

 

[AdrianoChika]

Great update.
This election divides me, like both Rockefeller and Kenendy. But I assume that Rockefeller will win because of Faubus / Barnett. And I liked Kuchel as VP.

 

[Indicus]

Well, Rockefeller can't paint Kennedy as a reactionary as LBJ did to Goldwater or what Hillary is doing to Trump right now, but there's no chance in hell Rocky can lose.

 

[Prince Daemon Targaryen]

1964 Presidential Election​

Ironically, as both conventions gave way to the general election campaign, the nominees to both major parties had very similar stances on most issues. Both Rockefeller and Kennedy were vocal anti-Communists. Both Rockefeller and Kennedy supported smaller marginal tax rates (though the President was more in line with the majority of his party on the issue than the Senator). Both Rockefeller and Kennedy were vocally in support of civil rights – Kennedy and Symington reversing the anti-civil rights changes Sam Ervin made to the platform four years previously. And both Rockefeller and Kennedy were supportive of government efforts to form as a sort of scaffold for society, both supporting of New Deal efforts.

Thusly, when it came to the ratcheting up of the campaign against the other, policy contrasts took the backburner for the most part. Certain issues of contention were brought up, Kennedy denouncing Rockefeller’s immigration changes – the base of white ethnics in the northeast and Midwest a vital demographic for the Democrats – and Rockefeller declaring that the Democratic nominee’s New Horizons initiative was bloated and inefficient, a means to calm right-wing fears that had persisted since his establishment of the Department of Public Works and his choice of Senator Kuchel to be his running mate. However, for the most part when policy was discussed, it was the candidates bringing up their records.

Attacks and contrasts placed on style, relatability, and personality dominated the back and forth between the two. Kennedy and Symington focused their charges on Rockefeller’s wealth and patrician air, the President hailing from one of the nation’s wealthiest families. Consistent fusillades by Democratic surrogates were leveled at Rockefeller, dubbing him a Manhattan elitist out of touch with the ordinary citizen laboring in the farms, factories, or mines. In contrast, the charming and handsome Kennedy played up his Irish roots, visiting working class communities in rolled back shirtsleeves with local union heads flanking him. He especially campaigned hard in black communities, not conceding anything to Rockefeller, especially the demographic that had gone 90% to Nixon four years earlier.

Knowing the charges were hurting – the polling gap closing from an eight point lead to a modest four points – Rockefeller pushed back aggressively. The President’s handlers harped on the multi-millionaire’s numerous charitable contributions, demonizing Kennedy for deeming success as a negative thing. Bringing his notorious ferocity to the campaign trail Kuchel raised the question as how could a Senator whose career had been financed by his family’s corruption and illegal activities, could hope to manage the federal government better than the former Governor and current President. Kuchel’s charges were followed up hard, ads hitting Kennedy on his family’s shady activities. The Senator merely laughed it off, saying to CBS radio that the Rockefeller campaign must be getting desperate.

The entire campaign was shadowed by the Dixiecrat bid of Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas likely to sweep the entire south. Deeming the Deep South a lock thanks to the local Democratic machines that had controlled the heart of the Confederacy since the end of Reconstruction, Faubus and Barnett focused their energy on the border areas. Hoping to throw the election to the House, the two southern governors campaigned hard in states such as Florida, Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia, combining a populist flair with strong denunciations of federal intervention into what was supposed to be a state matter – Rockefeller was attacked as a threat to the Constitution while Kennedy was deemed a Yankee interloper. Polling fluctuated, some showing the Dixiecrats getting upwards of ten points.

A single debate was held in early October between the three candidates. Each did reasonably well with no major blows, Rockefeller appearing competent and presidential while Faubus’ more hard-edged nature surly helped him among his target voters. However, the winner was clearly Kennedy, who in one evening dispelled the notion that he was out of his league managing the federal government with calm, charismatic, and precise answers to all the questions and attacks brought his way. Gallup found the race a dead heat: Rockefeller 46%, Kennedy 43%, Faubus 9%.

On October 10th, the Washington Post published an expose that would net three of their reporters the Pulitzer Prize and completely flip the election on its head. The story documented a six year affair between the President and a married woman named Margaretta "Happy" Murphy, a woman eighteen years his junior and whom he had met as a volunteer for his 1958 gubernatorial run. The President issued a heated denial at first, but after more information came out of the woodwork his campaign was forced to issue a confirming statement. The sensational affair was compounded when First Lady Mary Rockefeller announced she was seeking a divorce, issuing a long and blistering statement to the media.

Immediately the Kennedy campaign pounced on the issue. Every effort was made to portray the Senator as a family man, a smiling JFK bringing his wife and two young children on the campaign trail with him, he and the beautiful Jackie conducting joint television interviews on all stations. Democrats across the nation contrasted the “Adulterous, out of touch” Rockefeller with the “Faithful, common man” Kennedy, a perception that was highlighted further with the charming, young family on one end while the other featured the President and First Lady’s lawyers arguing in court over the President’s large fortune. A blistering ad, “Daisy” was aired, showing a mother and children – faces not on screen – waiting patiently around a dinner table before cutting to a man enter the apartment of another woman named Daisyl. It closed with the line “Support Honesty and Integrity. Vote John F. Kennedy on November 3rd”

Republicans made one last ditch attempt to save the crumbling campaign with a televised, twenty minute speech with a surprising surrogate. Having switched parties to support Richard Nixon in 1960, actor and Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan had barnstormed across the nation in 1962 and 1964 for Conservative Republican candidates. After a speech backing Senator Barry Goldwater, who was in a tight reelection race in Arizona, Rockefeller handlers persuaded him to do a national television broadcast in support of the President with the same speech. Rockefeller overruling some liberal members of the campaign (including Kuchel, who’s animosity with Reagan was well known), what became known as the “Great Choice” speech was given, catapulting Ronald Reagan into the political limelight.

Despite the speech’s rave reviews, a gloom had settled over the White House.

​

John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been elected the 37th President of the United States.

Strong home state performances, the loyalty of African-Americans to the Republican party, and the moderate nature of the GOP ticket managed to prevent the election from being a complete wipeout, but there was no doubt the Republicans had taken a shellacking. Virginia was narrowly won due to Faubus splitting the D vote and leading to a 41% Rockefeller plurality win, but overall the map ended up a worse version of (now Associate Justice) Thomas Dewey’s failed 1948 run.

Kennedy swept most of the nation, cleaning up in the Mountain West, the industrial Midwest, and the Upper Midwest. His charm and charisma brought many voters to the Democratic fold, and his stance on Civil Rights would net him 37% of the black vote, a massive improvement over Johnson four years previously.

Faubus had failed to throw the election to the House, but overall performed better than the 1948 Dixiecrats. Anger at the tide turning against segregation had led to Kennedy third place showings in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, while reliably Democratic Georgia and swing Tennessee were won by the Dixiecrats in an impressive 51% and 38% respectively. The Southern caucus had flexed its muscle, there was no doubt about it. Celebratory Democrats, cheering the recapture of the White House, cast worried glances toward this fact.

 

[Lost Freeway]

Good to see this still going.

 

[Israel]

1964 Presidential Election​

Ironically, as both conventions gave way to the general election campaign, the nominees to both major parties had very similar stances on most issues. Both Rockefeller and Kennedy were vocal anti-Communists. Both Rockefeller and Kennedy supported smaller marginal tax rates (though the President was more in line with the majority of his party on the issue than the Senator). Both Rockefeller and Kennedy were vocally in support of civil rights – Kennedy and Symington reversing the anti-civil rights changes Sam Ervin made to the platform four years previously. And both Rockefeller and Kennedy were supportive of government efforts to form as a sort of scaffold for society, both supporting of New Deal efforts.

Thusly, when it came to the ratcheting up of the campaign against the other, policy contrasts took the backburner for the most part. Certain issues of contention were brought up, Kennedy denouncing Rockefeller’s immigration changes – the base of white ethnics in the northeast and Midwest a vital demographic for the Democrats – and Rockefeller declaring that the Democratic nominee’s New Horizons initiative was bloated and inefficient, a means to calm right-wing fears that had persisted since his establishment of the Department of Public Works and his choice of Senator Kuchel to be his running mate. However, for the most part when policy was discussed, it was the candidates bringing up their records.

Attacks and contrasts placed on style, relatability, and personality dominated the back and forth between the two. Kennedy and Symington focused their charges on Rockefeller’s wealth and patrician air, the President hailing from one of the nation’s wealthiest families. Consistent fusillades by Democratic surrogates were leveled at Rockefeller, dubbing him a Manhattan elitist out of touch with the ordinary citizen laboring in the farms, factories, or mines. In contrast, the charming and handsome Kennedy played up his Irish roots, visiting working class communities in rolled back shirtsleeves with local union heads flanking him. He especially campaigned hard in black communities, not conceding anything to Rockefeller, especially the demographic that had gone 90% to Nixon four years earlier.

Knowing the charges were hurting – the polling gap closing from an eight point lead to a modest four points – Rockefeller pushed back aggressively. The President’s handlers harped on the multi-millionaire’s numerous charitable contributions, demonizing Kennedy for deeming success as a negative thing. Bringing his notorious ferocity to the campaign trail Kuchel raised the question as how could a Senator whose career had been financed by his family’s corruption and illegal activities, could hope to manage the federal government better than the former Governor and current President. Kuchel’s charges were followed up hard, ads hitting Kennedy on his family’s shady activities. The Senator merely laughed it off, saying to CBS radio that the Rockefeller campaign must be getting desperate.

The entire campaign was shadowed by the Dixiecrat bid of Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas likely to sweep the entire south. Deeming the Deep South a lock thanks to the local Democratic machines that had controlled the heart of the Confederacy since the end of Reconstruction, Faubus and Barnett focused their energy on the border areas. Hoping to throw the election to the House, the two southern governors campaigned hard in states such as Florida, Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia, combining a populist flair with strong denunciations of federal intervention into what was supposed to be a state matter – Rockefeller was attacked as a threat to the Constitution while Kennedy was deemed a Yankee interloper. Polling fluctuated, some showing the Dixiecrats getting upwards of ten points.

A single debate was held in early October between the three candidates. Each did reasonably well with no major blows, Rockefeller appearing competent and presidential while Faubus’ more hard-edged nature surly helped him among his target voters. However, the winner was clearly Kennedy, who in one evening dispelled the notion that he was out of his league managing the federal government with calm, charismatic, and precise answers to all the questions and attacks brought his way. Gallup found the race a dead heat: Rockefeller 46%, Kennedy 43%, Faubus 9%.

On October 10th, the Washington Post published an expose that would net three of their reporters the Pulitzer Prize and completely flip the election on its head. The story documented a six year affair between the President and a married woman named Margaretta "Happy" Murphy, a woman eighteen years his junior and whom he had met as a volunteer for his 1958 gubernatorial run. The President issued a heated denial at first, but after more information came out of the woodwork his campaign was forced to issue a confirming statement. The sensational affair was compounded when First Lady Mary Rockefeller announced she was seeking a divorce, issuing a long and blistering statement to the media.

Immediately the Kennedy campaign pounced on the issue. Every effort was made to portray the Senator as a family man, a smiling JFK bringing his wife and two young children on the campaign trail with him, he and the beautiful Jackie conducting joint television interviews on all stations. Democrats across the nation contrasted the “Adulterous, out of touch” Rockefeller with the “Faithful, common man” Kennedy, a perception that was highlighted further with the charming, young family on one end while the other featured the President and First Lady’s lawyers arguing in court over the President’s large fortune. A blistering ad, “Daisy” was aired, showing a mother and children – faces not on screen – waiting patiently around a dinner table before cutting to a man enter the apartment of another woman named Daisyl. It closed with the line “Support Honesty and Integrity. Vote John F. Kennedy on November 3rd”

Republicans made one last ditch attempt to save the crumbling campaign with a televised, twenty minute speech with a surprising surrogate. Having switched parties to support Richard Nixon in 1960, actor and Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan had barnstormed across the nation in 1962 and 1964 for Conservative Republican candidates. After a speech backing Senator Barry Goldwater, who was in a tight reelection race in Arizona, Rockefeller handlers persuaded him to do a national television broadcast in support of the President with the same speech. Rockefeller overruling some liberal members of the campaign (including Kuchel, who’s animosity with Reagan was well known), what became known as the “Great Choice” speech was given, catapulting Ronald Reagan into the political limelight.

Despite the speech’s rave reviews, a gloom had settled over the White House.

View attachment 281252
​

John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been elected the 37th President of the United States.

Strong home state performances, the loyalty of African-Americans to the Republican party, and the moderate nature of the GOP ticket managed to prevent the election from being a complete wipeout, but there was no doubt the Republicans had taken a shellacking. Virginia was narrowly won due to Faubus splitting the D vote and leading to a 41% Rockefeller plurality win, but overall the map ended up a worse version of (now Associate Justice) Thomas Dewey’s failed 1948 run.

Kennedy swept most of the nation, cleaning up in the Mountain West, the industrial Midwest, and the Upper Midwest. His charm and charisma brought many voters to the Democratic fold, and his stance on Civil Rights would net him 37% of the black vote, a massive improvement over Johnson four years previously.

Faubus had failed to throw the election to the House, but overall performed better than the 1948 Dixiecrats. Anger at the tide turning against segregation had led to Kennedy third place showings in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, while reliably Democratic Georgia and swing Tennessee were won by the Dixiecrats in an impressive 51% and 38% respectively. The Southern caucus had flexed its muscle, there was no doubt about it. Celebratory Democrats, cheering the recapture of the White House, cast worried glances toward this fact.

So Kennedy is Pres. Interesting

 

[Indicus]

Kennedy denouncing Rockefeller’s immigration changes

I don't like this Kennedy. First you made LBJ a racist, then you made Kennedy a racist? Hopefully Hubert Humphrey won't see the same fate as his liberal brethren.

It is plausible though.

I can see Kennedy have a more effective foreign policy than LBJ, but at the same time, I can't see his alt-Great Society see anywhere near the success that LBJ's had. JFK won't be as productive as LBJ either.

Maybe Kennedy could avoid Vietnam? He could, if anything, have a smarter intervention than LBJ had. That would neatly avoid the inflation issues that led to the death of liberalism (at least till 2008). It would also keep the optimism of the 60s alive.

At the same time, with a smaller Great Society, the domestic issues it resolved, like the poverty crisis would remain major issues for the US. And I can't see Kennedy take the charge in favour of affirmative action to the extent of LBJ and Nixon, especially not this Kennedy, so that would worsen life for minorities as well.