New Deal Coalition Retained III: A New World

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Unless they change it to be higher scoring, less flopping and make it more suitable to TV(more commercial breaks and such) then soccer is always going to be the 5th sport of the US at best. Baseball is America's pastime yet it's slipped to 3rd place in the big 4 of US sports is suffering massive attendance declines in most stadiums. It's got a fair amount of problems related to actual entertainment value as soccer does and it shows.

Honestly the sports update are so far the only thing I'm wary about because they seem so unlikely and not in tune with how things would actually go. The aftermath of WW3 would have been the absolute worst time for the brain damage problems to pop up. The American public honestly wouldn't care due to the fact they're helping to assist in the global recovery and along with just about everything else. It's not gonna be a big scandal and parents aren't going to care about games being to rough when odds are they've had the older siblings fighting in the damn war.

Thanks for the constructive criticism. As far as the brain injury scandal, there will be a couple reasons its bigger.

1st. Socialized Medicine makes all medical issues political. In the background of the debate is the question of whether taxpayer dollars want to go to support sports. With all of the injurieis post-war already runnign up budgets, the question of prevention becoems bigger. Also, as discussed earlier, mental health is a focus of AmCare.

2. edited out as it needs to be re-thought.

3. Political expediency: with the rise of progressives, both established aprties are looking for wedge issues to drive up base support.

4. This is not a uniform scandal, and there is no universal agreement on its importance, its just that a certain few are activated by it. In a sociaty increasingly divided three ways, narrow but intense support matters more than broad-base support.

----Spoiler Alert-------



































5. I'll let out a secret, football won't be banned, just like video games ITL, the momentum, especially psot-war isn't there. But that doesn't mean it can;t become an issue.
 
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You know soccers generally trying to do the same thing OTL in its marketing strategy.(If the city has a big 4 team but it sucks they'll stick a team in it) and it's while not failing not working that well either. Plus this should be in right in the middle of a major rescission and Vince want to start up a major sports leauge and he's getting contract money for it!? Also thinks for reminding me about the relegation system which is another major turn off for the sport here in the US.

Having had family in the cable TV industry for the last twenty years, I've learned the indsutry secret that recession are actually good for TV. Instead of going out to eat or to the movies people sty inside for TV. Especially overseas, but also in the US post-2008 was some of the best years for cable.


I'd have added that to the update, but I wanted a US domestic update first.

Remember, ASA is a made-for-TV product. It'll also have some stumbles, after getting outside the gate well . It does have waaay more talent than OTL MLS along the lines of a European league.

Also, with no Hockey, soccer fills the same niche. And southern dominance in the NFL (compared to OTL parity) makes those in the northeast look for new teams to root for.

Not gonna lie, I should probably have added some pre-war background, I think I will edit it soon for this. That way, there is a better likelyhood of ITL happening. Thanks for the criticism for that.

Question, What;s the issue people have with relegation, everyone I've talked with likes the idea? Not trying to argue with you, Ive just never heard this view.
 
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1: Ok this is a fair point

2: See this I don't understand. Why would the US be soul searching when it won the fucking war and it's quite obvious that the coup in Russia is the main cause of the war. Remember until that happened relations were thawing slowly but they were thawing and the light was just barely becoming visible. Then the coup happened and the tunnel was demolished with everyone it it.

3: Bigger issues to use given the current state of the world. It'd be a very low tier one but I will grant that it would eventually be used.

4: So the scandal has less supporters and such then OTL?
 
Question, What;s the issue people have with relegation, everyone I've talked with likes the idea? Not trying to argue with you, Ive just never heard this view.
Its one of those things that given how US sports systems evolved don't really mesh. Think of it this way to help imagine the reasoning. Let's say the Yankees won an MLB record amount of games and swept the postseason and won the world series. Next year they get hit bug time by the injury bug and have really bad luck in general. They finish worst in The Leauge and get relegated at seasons end. However the team wasn't blow up the GM and owner held firm knowing it was just a bad season. Next year they return to form yet can't compete for the world series and your telling me the US sports public. The sports public that is as rabid as Star Wars fandom on steriods would be ok with that?
 
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1: Ok this is a fair point

2: See this I don't understand. Why would the US be soul searching when it won the fucking war and it's quite obvious that the coup in Russia is the main cause of the war. Remember until that happened relations were thawing slowly but they were thawing and the light was just barely becoming visible. Then the coup happened and the tunnel was demolished with everyone it it.

3: Bigger issues to use given the current state of the world. It'd be a very low tier one but I will grant that it would eventually be used.

4: So the scandal has less supporters and such then OTL?


3. Throughout history there have been numerous stupid political fights that are more symbolic than anything. his is probably my cynical view of politics ( I've been reading a George Wallace Biography which doesn't help) but as much as establishing a new Bretton Woods or UN Reform is important, culture wars and issues drive voters to the polls. Especially with the rise of Cable TV news and talk radio which needs good combative content.


In addition, one of the themes expressed in part 3 is the very slow, but steady, break up of the New Deal Socially Conservative Fiscally Liberal consensus. Fake drummed-up issues that artificially divide like this have their place in that.

And the idea that these culture wars are useless is definitely going to be expressed ITL.

4. It has less general support but more well-funded, well-heeled, motivated, and organized support. In addition, there are interests that stand to benefit from the movement that have/will more cynically support and push it forward.

Most importantly, the movement crosses one key partisan line in a time where lines are being drawn. Certain figures see this issue not only as a wedge to draw voters away but as a way to start to uniting politicians unto the same team again so as to gain power...

I'll have a better answer to 2. tomorrow after getting some sleep.
 
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PS I should be sleeping but before that, if anyone starts calling me a soccer apologist you'd be happy to know I'm actually a much bigger fan of American Football, especially college, even though my school team sucks. I'm far from a soccerholic.

This isnt gonna be another "soccer take over the US" TL or "US Football is not popular" but just like parts I and II, there will subversion of popular tropes (think President Rumsfeld)

I tried to take in input from other members of the writing team, who shall go unamed, and this portion was more their idea. I hope I didn't botch it.

If you want some historical context for this element see the video game/TV violence culture wars of the 1990s and/or Monicagate which in retrospect sucked u =p valuable time and effort time compared to more important long-term political issues of the time, like how to ensure the Russians don't return to being cold war adversaries, trade (especially post-NAFTA), the rise of China, the national debt, etc.
 

Redcoat

Banned
What do you mean football needs special equipment? You never play backyard football with friends before? Also the main reason the European style system never picked up is because of the fact the US went with the amateur system basically ensuring that colleges would hold a monopoly on anyone looking to go pro in their chosen sport. Also by most definitions the NCAA is the NFL minor Leauge
Professionally I mean. Also soccer takes less space. Good point about college football
 
Professionally I mean. Also soccer takes less space. Good point about college football
Fair point to the first. Actually regulation size soccer fields are bigger then Football fields. 110-120 yards long compared to a flat 100 while they average 20 or so yards wider.
 
Professionally I mean. Also soccer takes less space. Good point about college football

Football also requires a lot more equipment (edit: and space) at the High School and Middle School level, which in my humble view are the keys to the success of the sport and where it gets engrained in the American consciousness.
 
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Senate Map
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102nd United States Senate
 
Football also requires a lot more equipment (edit: and space) at the High School and Middle School level, which in my humble view are the keys to the success of the sport and where it gets engrained in the American consciousness.
In regards to space I would again like to point out a Regulation soccer field is anywhere from 10-20 yards longer and average around 20 feet wider then a football field. You're right about equipment though I can give you that.
 
I was referring to the space for storage, weight training, film room, needed for football even at a lower level. I'm not a soccer player nor a football player, but even at lower levels it seems football occupies. This may simply be due to schools putting priority on the sport, however.

Field Size/Stadium Size (assuming same popularity) does favor US football.
 
1993 Rwandan standoff
The 1993 Burundi Standoff


The Burundi Province of Zaire had been devastated by the Marburg Rwanda virus. In the chaos, all semblance of law and order had disappeared as the central government . The main government had fallen apart. The old tribes of Hutu and Tutsi were now the only sources of security, food, water, and shelter as society began to organize itself around ethnic lines. Competition for the basic necessities of life was fierce, and resulted in the emergence of two main factions organized along the old ethnic lines made by the occupying Belgians: Tutsi and Hutu.


While open conflict had not yet broken out, thanks in part to the devastation, the situation had definitely worsened once tribes in Burundi began to organize along the same lines, and the central government went into panic mode. While they were happy to gain this during World War III it now proved to be too much of a burden. When Hutu tribesman beat back the first rescue mission of government forces on the 10th of February, the Zairian Dictator Seko asked President Ioccocoa to use US troops and diplomacy to solve the crisis.


While the President had campaigned on focusing on domestic issues as opposed to the Republicans supposed “foolhardy foreign adventures in suspicious social sciences”, he was still a Communoationalist at heart. After meeting with his cabinet and talking on the phone with the Zairian Ambassador, it was agreed that a roundtable would be held in Kinshasa, where American, Zairian, Hutu, and Tutsi representatives, including the President, would negotiate a peaceful settlement. Accompanying the president would be the 1st Air Cav, who would be ready to pounce on Burundi Province, if necessary. After initial bluster from the mysterious Hutu leadership, which died off with the arrival of the 1st Air Cav, all parties agreed to the talks on the 1st of March. In addition, representatives of the Vatican agreed to administer the talks and act as guides to ensure smooth negotiations.


While Ioccocoa had achieved domestic victories, he knew that to be re-elected he would have to be seen as “the man who won the peace”. Ethnic strife in Burundi, so soon after the Marburg Virus, would be a serious stain on the resume of “The Great Dealmaker”. Aiding him was ex-academic and Democratic foreign policy thinker Andrew Bennett, a dark-horse pick that now found himself as the Secretary of State, who had engineered the 1984 Frank Church campaign and the 1988 Celeste campaign foreign policy plans.


-Recording from Air Force One on the way to Kampala from the Lee Iaccoca Presidential Library in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Iaccoca's childhood home-

Iacocca: “You say it's about 30% Tutsi and 70% Hutu?”


Secretary of State Andrew Bennett: “Yeah, it used to be 15-85, but the virus killed more Hutu than Tutsi because the Tutsi, being wealthier, had more access to medical supplies"


Iacocca: “And you say this divide ain’t that geographical, meaning that there’s no ancestral lines to point towards like in Europe.”


Bennett: “Yep, that’s the puzzle.”


Iacocca: “Why don’t we just make these lines-*The president points at the map of the current frontlines*-areas on the ground where the two factions have made contiguous, if geographically illogical, areas of control-the borders of two new countries!”


Bennett: “Well, two things. First, Seko ain’t gonna like losing his hardwon territory, and second, the Tutsi need more land if their gonna defend themselves.”


Iacocca: “Seko can’t do anything I don’t like, and besides, he doesn't need a civil war.”


Bennett: “That still leaves the issue of the Tutsis’ minority status.”


Iacocca: “Hmmm…”


Iacocca: “Wait I got it!”


Bennett: “What?”


Iacocca: “The Hutu need better schools, right?”


Bennett: “Absolutely.”


Iacocca: “Why don’t we, the American government, as part of the deal, propose for about 5000 or so Hutu kids to study in the U.S., and then come back home? That way they can use what they learned in their studies to help fix their economy, have an educated bureaucratic class, etc.”


Bennett: “That won’t be enough, we’ll need a permanent military presence to ensure that nothing spontaneous erupts, and if we use American troops they’ll be hell to be at home there.”


Iacocca: “We’ll use a UN task force as cover with one division of American troops as the spearhead. God this reminds me, we really need to reform the IMF, I’d loan them money too, but that would open another can of worms.”


Bennett: “Sounds good, I’ll draw up a plan….”


-End Recording-

lee.jpg


Lee Iaccoca on Air Force One


Iacocca arrived at the talks with a show of force aboard a brand new Air Force One flanked by fighter jets, helicopter, and Peace Corps employees that put on a show for the locals as the President landed. Many at home thought it was too flamboyant, but this show of force, when paired with Iacocca’s genuine personal kindness for all parties involved, somehow worked. Iacocca seemed like a reasonable man who should be feared if he was dealt with unreasonably. While his bold statements in favor of partition, aid to the Hutus, and a permanent UN presence shocked the conference, (which had quite frankly thought little would be achieved), they were bold enough to catch the imagination of the most important element in this equation: the mysterious Hutu leadership, that as of the time of negotiations had continued to conceal itself, only sending envoys. The promise of American education for the Hutus bothered the Tutsi at first, who were worried that if the Hutu grew too much as a power through education they would “finish” the Tutsis forever. As such, 400 Tutsi scholarships were added to the now 8000 Hutu scholarships. In addition, a few families had to be moved to ensure contiguous, if absolutely garish (some newspaper’s nicknamed the result “border-gore”) lines of partition. These families were compensated with more land than before and first-pick in scholarships. Knowing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing would kill the deal, UN monitors were present throughout. After all parties signed the agreement on the 14th of February, the treaty was sent to the US Senate., Iacocca earned himself a major diplomatic victory and his reputation as “The Great Dealmaker”. While some in the congressional Caucus complained that Iacocca was too focused on foreign affairs and not on rebuilding America, the few independent voters remaining swung heavily towards the Democrats in the opinion polls.While the treaty passed unanimously in the Senate there were points of contention….


Firstly, some voters, across the three parties, were angered by the fact that foreigners would get free education with U.S. tax dollars. The foreign student population at state universities, and private ones, had been steadily increasing, angering some votes who felt that the relationship between the taxpayer and the public universities had been broken. Rejection of the treaty in the Senate was politically impossible because if war or genocide did break out the party(ies) who did vote against the treaty would be branded as having “blood on their hands”, “warmongers”, and possibly even “anti-American”. However, Governor Ted Bundy found a loophole of sorts to go around this and capture some future political momentum. On June 15th 1993, Bundy signed the “State University and Student Relations Act” which mandated that the student population of all Washington State public Universities to always be within the limits as follows:


  1. 80%-90% from Washington State

  2. 8-15% from “Associated States” (States with which the Governor had signed a contract pledging mutual in-state tuition).

  3. 3-10% foreign born/ residents of U.S. states without an agreement with the state of Washington.

Washington State’s two premier universities had become world-class thanks to Bundy’s efforts to clean up the state, which brought numerous businesses which felt comfortable that crime (and the hippie movement) had been curtailed. Boeing had experienced a revival during the war, and it supported vast improvements in the engineering, science, and business departments at UW, WSU, and the various smaller technical schools to create an educated workforce. Meanwhile, the UC System, Stanford and many other schools had all been but destroyed during the infamous Second Blitz. As such, there was a post-war boom in the out of state and foreign population at Washington State Schools which angered many Washington residents who felt that their kids were no longer getting the spots they “deserved”. Now, however, the Governor had “protected our students”. This new treaty (or more derogatorily termed "foreign giveaway"), was the "Cherry on Top".


In reality, the student body populations did not change by more than 5% in any one university, but it was a great act of political theater on the part of Ted Bundy. Bundy had endeared himself to traditionally communonationalist voters, without alienating the “Rockefeller/Business Republican Types” (a 1994 state sales tax cut down to 7% from 10% helped in this department). His star was only growing brighter.

This bill would be copied by a few Republican and Democratic governors in other states. The Progressives formally announced their opposition to such a policy. The worst imitation of Bundy's bill was Jim Traficant’s “Buckeye Education Bill” which mandated that 96.32% of Ohio State Students be from Ohio, which lead to a steep drop in the reputation of what had been a rising research institution before the mid-90’s.


Back in Zaire, the Republic of the Tutsi People and Hutuland became independent in July 5th 1993. While Seko was worried about the upswing in democracy (thus empowering opposition to his rule) and disliked losing territory, preventing civil war and ethnic unrest gave him more power and stability than before. Moreover, he had earned the goodwill of Iaccoca for relinquishing control of the now partitioned Burundi which resulted in numerous important infrastructure investments. Both of these new states were officially recognized by the U.N. in December. While relations between both nations were tense initially, and the Hutu leadership remained unknown for some time, by the Mid-1990’s both groups realized that to rebuild from the war and the Marburg virus they would have to work together. While both oddly-shaped small states would remain independent, common infrastructure projects and relatively well-educated populations would help make both states some of the wealthiest on the continent. In addition, they would sign a mutual defense treaty, undergirded by the United States, in 1994, that would make their defense against their larger neighbors mutual, and war against each other much more difficult. While US involvement had "kickstarted" the peace process, it was really the leadership of the Hutu and Tutsi peoples themselves who had assured their own prosperity.


Many hoped that these two states would be an example of how Africa could move forward from the violence of the past into a peaceful and prosperous future. In addition, the 1993 treaty would become illustrative on how to make multi party negotiations succeed in academic circles whilst being a great defense of Communonationalsit foreign policy in political circles.


[A/N:

This post was edited to reflect a previous psot that retconned the Rwandan genocide, this post butterflies away the Burundi civil war (read more about that OTL here: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~gallo22e/classweb/Website-World Politics/Burundi.html

Also,
Current UCLA Undergrad Population s are 92.9% Californian (ITL UW is around UCLA in its reputation)

OTL UCLA and UVA- best reputation of any US State schools worldwide

For UVA, Virginia State Law mandates that a certain percentage of undergraduates in all state schools be from Virginia. The law isn't particularly partisan.

In addition, OTL Washington State has an agreement with Oregon and Hawaii that allows Washington State Students to attend their universities while paying in-state tuition.

What's important here is
1.how Bundy sells his bill as a major achievement

2. the fact that unlike in other states Washington Schools continue to maintain such a high reputation/success after such a bill (see Ohio and Traficant), thus balancing the demands of the lower middle class which wants its chance at an education and big business which wants a talented workforce.]
 
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I'm honestly surprised that Iacocca managed to pull that off. Very impressive.

Meanwhile, I'm also both impressed and disgusted by Bundy's handling of the foreign students question. And kinda worried about that line about him gaining future political momentum. I'd hate to see a President Bundy, after all...
 

Redcoat

Banned
I'm honestly surprised that Iacocca managed to pull that off. Very impressive.

Meanwhile, I'm also both impressed and disgusted by Bundy's handling of the foreign students question. And kinda worried about that line about him gaining future political momentum. I'd hate to see a President Bundy, after all...
Yeah we all would....

Then again the POD was when he was 7, he could change possibly. Who knows.
 
FYI For Context if you want to understand a bit more.

Current UCLA Undergrad Population s are 92.9% Californian (ITL UW is around UCLA in its reputation, perhaps better, also foreign student population in state schools is higher than OTL).

UCLA arguably has the best reputation of any US State school worldwide, though Cal, Georgia Tech, and UVA are close.

If we look again at the University of Virginia, we find that Virginia State Law does mandate that a certain percentage of undergraduates in all state schools (UVA, William and Mary, Virginia Tech, etc.) be from Virginia. Such a law is not unheard of OTL in red/blue/swing states. Virginia is the only one I know off the top of my head.

In addition, OTL Washington has an agreement with Oregon and Hawaii that allows Washington State Students to attend their universities while paying in-state tuition. Learned this from a family friend.

What's important here is
1.how Bundy sells his bill as a major achievement

2. the fact that unlike in other states Washington Schools continue to maintain such a high reputation/success after such a bill (see Ohio and Traficant), thus balancing the demands of the lower middle class which wants its chance at an education and big business which wants a talented workforce.
 
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