New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline
Sad to see a President Kennedy as ineffective. And I bet that nothing good emerges with George Wallace involved 
Kennedy still has a lot of influence, but he was elected President both when the optimism of the early sixties fell into the abyss of the late sixties and in the middle of the Democratic Party Civil WarSad to see a President Kennedy as ineffective. And I bet that nothing good emerges with George Wallace involved
Love this update I hope Kennedy is able to become more effective with getting stuff done in the future.
I hope Kennedy is able to become more effective with getting stuff done in the future.
Maybe we would have won if you had had more substantial things to say than Grass is Green?
And maybe we would have done better if you weren't a dumb, blond Swede! (pretty much an exact quote of Dewey's opinion of Warren after the election
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Brilliantly written as ever.
Actually (as I only found out not that long ago) the GOP nearly won a Senate seat there in 1962 - so it's not that unbelievable; though against Wallace... I dunno.
Actually (as I only found out not that long ago) the GOP nearly won a Senate seat there in 1962 - so it's not that unbelievable; though against Wallace... I dunno.
True, but here the white backlash is against the Republicans
I dunno - but I think JFK would prefer TTL immensely compared to OTL.
Also a bit of a nitpick - but wouldn't Bobby and the
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Teddy is the youngest, Bobby is the middle brother, and Jack is the oldest.I dunno - but I think JFK would prefer TTL immensely compared to OTL.
Also a mi or nitpick - but wouldn't Bobby and thesonofabitch bastardother brother Refer to JFK as Jack?
Good catch.
1966 Midterms
Despite a successful first term and a solid reelection win in 1962, Pat Brown’s second term as Governor of California was widely considered one disaster after another. The Democratic infighting between the liberal and populist wings were front and center in the Golden State, clashes over civil rights and the priorities of the welfare state affecting Governor Brown like the plague. After the poor state response to the Watts Riots and an increase in student demonstrations that began to plague the UC system alienated both the populists and African-Americans, both whose support earned Brown a second term four years earlier. The Governor would barely survive the primary, winning only forty-four percent to LA Mayor Sam Yorty’s forty and African-American Congressman Augustus Hawkins’ sixteen (the latter would subsequently endorse the Republican candidate).
In contrast, the Republican Party united very early around its candidate, actor and former Screen Actor’s Guild President Ronald Reagan. Easily batting aside his liberal and John Birch Society opponents despite being disliked by Thomas Kuchel and Joe Shell (the leaders of the respective wings), Reagan immediately vaulted to an overwhelming lead over the incumbent Governor.
No one can claim Brown didn’t try, and try he did to bring down the affable actor. Reagan was attacked by many Democratic surrogates as a right wing extremist, delightful airhead, and unqualified for the job in the same breath. Organized labor never wavered in its support of Brown, funding his coffers and deploying its massive ground game to defend him. Despite earlier opposition, Mayor Yorty tepidly endorsed the Governor and campaigned with him in southern California.
However, it was clear that the same attacks that worked on George Christopher wouldn’t on Ronald Reagan. Ever charismatic and sunny, he shrugged off the attacks and hammered home his own agenda. Mixing limited government and Liberty Conservatism in the mold of William F. Buckley, the candidate railed against the bloated state budget and welfare system in addition to the mess of racial injustice that clouded the state law enforcement agencies. Reagan’s message resonated well among Californians of all backgrounds angry at the racial strife, budget problems, and the apparent indecisiveness in the Brown Administration to corral the student demonstrations shutting down the schools. A durable polling lead was maintained throughout the campaign, leaving no doubt how the race would end.
Sharing jubilance with the Republicans – Reagan’s coattails netting the GOP both houses of the state legislature – was Sam Yorty. He had good reason to be. With the demise of Brown, the populist wing of the party was now firmly in control.
Governing as a Kennedy-esque liberal, Governor Endicott Peabody had a good-sized record of achievement following his first two years as Governor. The working class base in Boston and the mill towns was not neglected either, Peabody modeling a public assistance system after the successful Wallace framework in AL (only with firm anti-discrimination provisions attached). Earning plaudits from African-American leaders for his executive order instituting minority quotas for state contractors, he seemed to be the modest favorite for reelection over former Governor John Volpe.
The immolation for that narrative was perpetrated by one Albert DeSalvo. Dubbed the Boston Strangler by the press, DeSalvo had engaged in a killing spree from 1962-1965, raping and strangling twenty-three women before he was caught by the police. Pleading insanity, the jury didn’t buy the – considered masterful by legal experts – defense by attorney F. Lee Bailey and sentenced DeSalvo to death on October 5th, 1966.
All of Massachusetts was stunned when news broke the next day that Governor Peabody had commuted DeSalvo’s sentence to life imprisonment. “What society are we if we send those whose minds are obviously afflicted by a cruel twist of nature to the death chamber? It is inhumane.”
“With respect to the Governor, what is inhumane is how that bastard raped and murdered twenty-three girls in the prime of their life,” Volpe shot back in a press conference. It soon became clear that Massachusetts voters agreed with him.
Peabody’s disasterous campaign affected Republican fortunes up and down the ticket. One of the few states where the protracted infighting was absent between the different wings of the party, it was almost tragic to see the party on the rise fall so dramatically. Initially hoping to poach the senate seat of retiring Everett Saltonsall, Boston Mayor John Collins was defeated in a landslide by Congressman Edward Brooke (becoming the first African-American elected Senator in the nation).
Ed Brooke wasn’t alone. Across the South, Republican nominations for state and congressional offices were held by African-Americans. Representative of them was the Mississippi Senate race, where civil rights leader Medgar Evers challenged longtime Democratic Senator John Stennis. Knowing that he wouldn’t win, Evers nevertheless crisscrossed the state to find whatever votes he could. Accompanied by three bodyguards (two whites and a black) and with a concealed handgun in his jeans pocket, Evers escaped at least a dozen attempted attacks as he campaigned. His dogged determination and message of making government accountable to all people, not just the elite, earning reluctant respect from many downtrodden whites and suburban professionals feeling left out by the ruling power structure.
Taking office after Nelson Rockefeller was elected Vice President in 1960, Malcom Wilson was seen as a rather benign Governor – the Rockefeller views without the Rockefeller personality. Public works were funded, housing discrimination was prohibited, prison terms in drug rehabilitation centers were made mandatory for non-violent drug offenders, and abortion access was expanded to include fetal abnormality, rape, and danger to the mother’s health. Largely preferring to push incremental gains and shirk away from touching the status quo, the invisible nature of the Governor’s influence was the butt of many jokes in Albany.
New York Republicans had dominated the state in the 50s and 60s owing to Democrat sluggishness, Tammany Hall more concerned with maintaining its power base than electing statewide Democrats. This all changed in 1966 when star candidate and the younger brother of the President Robert F. Kennedy threw his hat in the ring. Holding a broom on the steps of the State Capitol, he called for the status quo in Albany to be wiped out, promising to take on corruption and create efficient government – bolstered by his selection of Tammany Hall opponent Franklin Roosevelt Jr. as his running mate.
While Wilson’s campaign trumpeted his incremental achievements and tried to tar Bobby Kennedy to the troubles of his older brother, RFK seemed to float above the fray. He deployed his charm to the hilt, remaining sunny and optimistic (comparisons were drawn to Ronald Reagan in CA) while seeming more disappointed than angry when reciting the litany of promises Wilson broke from the 1958 and 1962 elections.
The middle Kennedy would not disappoint on his campaign. Even to the present day, the period between 1967 and 1969 remains the busiest period of legislative activity in New York’s history.
Exhausted didn’t begin to describe Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson. In the aftermath of his unsuccessful run for the Presidency in 1960, the former Majority Leader found much of the power he had built up squelched on Capitol Hill. Many allies deserted him in the moment of weakness, while many enemies saw his loss as the opportunity to take him down a peg. Majority Leader Mansfield graciously gave him the Judiciary Committee to chair, but ironically the person he got along best with was President Nixon – the victor of 1960 routinely consulting him for legislative action.
Seriously contemplating retirement to his Texas ranch to live out the rest of his life in relative peace, only pleas from his longtime ally Hubert Humphrey (the senate majority whip) convinced him to make a go at a fifth term for the senate seat. A veritable state institution, no one expected the steadily growing Texas Republican Party to seriously have a chance, let alone a carpet bagging businessman and failed 1964 Senate candidate. However, as the son of the former Secretary of the Treasury, George H. W. Bush could deploy a hefty war chest – this and residual name recognition from nearly knocking off liberal Senator Ralph Yarborough in 1964 gave him a leg up that his resume ignored.
The chance of an upset grew larger as the campaign wore on. Growing dissatisfaction with the ruling Democratic Party among liberals and suburban moderates transplanted from the north due to the booming Texas economy boosted Bush’s numbers, as did outrage from the African-American community regarding Johnson’s vote against Thurgood Marshall earlier in the year.
Still, no one seriously expected “Landslide Lyndon” to lose.
1966 would be remembered as the birth of the Texas GOP, in which Bush, Gubernatorial nominee John Tower (running for the open seat of John Connelly), and four house seats would switch that year.
The midterms were a strong victory for both the GOP and the populist wing of the Democratic Party. Kennedy allies such as NH’s Thomas McIntyre, RI’s Claiborne Pell, and IL’s Paul Douglas were defeated by Republicans Harrison Thyng, John Chafee, and Charles Percy respectively, while Estes Kefauver was replaced by Howard Baker. The only narrow win for the Dems was Oregon, where conservative Democrat Robert Straub defeated Republican governor Mark Hatfield.
In the south, divisions within the Democratic Party were apparent. Where populists defeated more moderate Democrats, Republican nominees found defections to them common. In Arkansas, former Governor and Dixiecrat presidential candidate Orval Faubus defeated Senator John McClellan in the primary, forcing a divide that elected Winthrop Rockefeller – the brother of the former President – to the simultaneous governor’s race that year. Republicans gained ten governors races that year, while the Democrats picked off Rhode Island (John Chafee being elected to the Senate) and New York.
Ballot fusion between the main parties and the lesser ones ensured there were only two candidates running. Democrats chose attorney and Democratic activist Ed Koch over allies of Tammany Hall and former Mayor DeSapio. While the Republican primary was expected to be tight, the nominee ended up running unopposed. Attorney, McCarthy lawyer, and former Buckley Campaign Manager Roy M. Cohn.
The race was nasty, Cohn’s operatives tarring Koch with both Tammany Hall and the racial strife instigated by George Wallace and black radicals. “A vote for a Democrat is a vote for racists!” read Cohn posters put up all over Harlem. The Democrats were equally as vicious, branding Cohn a McCarthyite and a closeted homosexual, charges Cohn denied in a heated press conference a week before the election. “It’s obvious why they’re smearing me,” Cohn stated. “They know they’re losing.”
Governor RFK
Sad for the defeat of LBJ, but at least it was for Bush
In any case, these results look very good for the Republicans, bet that in 1968 will take control of the House.
Sad for the defeat of LBJ, but at least it was for Bush
In any case, these results look very good for the Republicans, bet that in 1968 will take control of the House.
I wonder where George Wallace will take the Democratic party. However popular he is in the south, i can't imagine that he would get enough support in a national election.
Into the shitter.
He's basically affiliated with Segregation, so he needs to make it appealing outside of his area.