New Deal Coalition Retained III: A New World

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Prince Daemon Targaryen

LOVE LOVE LOVE!
The Chinese situation proceeded as expected. Military junta seems inevitable, and with Yukio Mishima getting old the eventual squabble over his successor will be epic.

Great choices over the leaders of the UK parties, and I can't wait to see how Liberal Tony Blair plays out. Churchill will be more successful than Major I suspect, and the old Bulldog in heaven should feel good that a Churchill finally won a post war election.

Hoooly Jesus! That primary kept me on the edge of my seat! I originally planned Julia Roberts as Bundy's wife, but Jen Anniston works so much better! James Meredith's face must have been hilarious. May I suggest Thaddeus Coleman III as his replacement.

What are Mitt Romney and Mariska Hargitay up to?
 
Zharques

Zharques

1996 Primaries Part II​

“My money is on Marvin Richardson.”
-Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show-​

Democrats​
  1. Lynn Yeakel​
  2. James Traficant​
  3. Jesse Helms​
  4. Mario Cuomo​
  5. Richard Bryan​

After President Iacocca announced his decision not to run in late 1995, a decision made due to a a frighteningly close encounter with death in the form of a heart attack, a swarm of candidates began to come to take his place. VP Lynn Yeakel announced immediately after she would run for president. Her campaign plan was to make use of her position as Vice President to use Iacocca's and Proxmire’s base of support among the Democratic Party to coast to victory. With a combination of Proxmireites and more moderate Kennedy Liberals she would build a insurmountable lead in the early Primaries. This would hopefully end any credible threat against her, leading her to coast the rest of the primaries to the convention. Party infighting had become a growing issue to hopes of party unity, so she hoped to get this over with quickly...


However, hopes of what would be all but a coronation were squashed as New Hampshire’s primary hit and Cuomo won a surprise landslide over the Vice President. Appealing to working class workers in the North with his promise for more pro-worker policies than Iacocca had, ironic seeing Iacocca's position prior to being elected, but true nonetheless. He also appealed to many members of the “whole-life liberal” wing of the party, usually Catholics, white suburban women, and many blue collar workers, who believed in anti-abortion, looser sentencing for possible criminals, or “softness on crime” in the words of their opponents, and the abolition of the death penalty. They were also on the whole interventionist, which lost them some support among many who agreed with Bundy’s isolationist message. He was quickly endorsed by Bob Casey Sr., who would’ve ran himself if not for his recent cancer diagnosis, and his health was already beginning to worsen. Her worries didn’t end there, as her next major competitor came in the form of Ohio’s Jim Traficant with his win in Virginia. Traficant, popular in the South, appealed to Southern populists, channeling Wallaceite policies to attract the southern communationalist-die-hards into his campaign. It’s said that Wallace himself contemplated endorsing him, but held back from endorsing anyone until one contender won in hopes of preserving party unity for the election. To a large crowd in California City, Traficant called VP Yeakel a “half-in, half-out communationalist, in it to gain political points”, and said that the only thing that can bring America back to the ideal days of Wallace’s two-term presidency again is a strong president who will promote traditional Democrat policies, “protecting the common man and his family”. His presidency would not be one of failure, and not one of corruption and dysfunctional politics. He was also sympathetic to the growing Freyist movement, which was gaining strength among many Democrats in the deep South. He even held a crowd in virginia with George Lincoln Rockwell himself. The elderly Freyist, now 78, still had vigor in his step when stumping for the democrat, along with party surrogate Colin Ferguson in the Northeast, one of the few black Democrats on the House. Traficant ran on a policy of a clean, corruption-free government, and despite being from Ohio, appealed mainly to Southern voters. Acting as a spoiler against Traficant however, was one of the most Democratic senators in the country, Jesse Helms. The senator out communonationalist’d Traficant, so to speak, winning Democratic primaries in the Deep South and his home state of North Carolina, while Traficant swept the Plains states, and the Upper South, though both barely lost Texas to Yeakel. Traficant was definitely ahead when it came to the Southern vote, but Jesse Helms’ spoiler prevented either one from reaching the top. Cuomo cleaned up the Northeast and the rest of the Midwest. Yeakel found herself in the position in which she, nor any of her competitors, could get a majority of delegates for the convention.

​
It wasn’t all gloom and doom, and in contrast with the Republican primaries, she quickly reached a deal with Mario Cuomo, who would receive a key position in her administration if she became president. The Democrats would not be headed towards a contested convention, but the Democratic party did not see the last of Traficant-like candidates, or of whole-lifers like Mario Cuomo. At the convention, she announced Richard Bryan as her Vice President, a moderate who pleased both of the other wings of the party well enough. His selection was also a geographic strategical decision, as his home state of Nevada placated many Westerners. With both nominees decided, the Democratic Party now looked ahead to the general election...

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Eventual nominee Lynn Yeakel, on a radio interview in Chicago during the campaign.​

The grueling Republican party primaries ended with Bundy winning a contested convention with a compromise ticket, and with a united party behind him, Bundy was proving to be a true enemy to the Democrats, especially to Spanish-American voters, fearful of his apparently Hispanophobic policies. He blamed what he saw as the nation’s growing drug crisis as the fault of “those damned Incas poisoning this country”. Though they only made up 5.2% of the nation’s population according to the 1990 census, Spanish-Americans made an important demographic in the Democratic Party, giving them Stalinist majorities in the areas where they were a majority. And many of Bundy’s supporters were seemingly calling them drug smugglers. Bundy was also already beginning to win Democratic voters who were upset with Iacocca's lukewarm domestic policies, and looking towards something better. His strategy of campaigning like it was the general election was already beginning to bleed out votes. He would prove a true opponent to Yeakel.



Progressives​
  1. Fred Tuttle​
  2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg​
  3. Gary Johnson​
  4. David Dinkins​

The Progressives also found themselves with a tough primary fight, between all four major contenders, of the two wings of the party. The main frontrunner for the urban progressive wing was expected to be David Dinkins, the Progressive leader of the New York State Liberal party affiliate. Hopes were that as he was black, he could win over votes from minaprogressive leaning black voters during the general election, and was an early favorite of the urban elite. He, however, found himself upstaged by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, however, representing the radical urban wing of the party that feared the libertarian-centrist wing of the party, led by Rep. Gary Johnson of New Mexico. While Dinkins had turned out a bland candidate, Ginsburg energized her base with her populist platform, appealing to many young voters. She called for a political revolution, and wholesale reform of the Progressive Party, to be oriented along the lines of social reform. She controversially supported gun control, though, which likely prevented her from being endorsed by another radical, Bernard Sanders, which would’ve helped her energize Northeastern voters. Despite being 63, she still had plenty of energy compared to the staid 69 year old Dinkins, something which young voters admired. Dinkins was still in the race, however, sweeping the early primaries in the Northeast, while Ginsburg often nipped at his heels, winning much of the Midwest, and surprising many with her wins in Michigan and New Hampshire. The first was thought to be a guaranteed victory for Dinkins, and shocked many in the political world.

While the urban Progs were fighting amongst themselves, a separate contest was happening between the New Mexican House Representative Gary Johnson, and long-shot candidate Fred Tuttle. The latter was the leader of Vermont’s Speaker of the House. But unlike the urban progressives, the race was not as deadlocked. Early favorite Gary Johnson, while he found support from the Progressive elite, was seen as more of a “some dude” candidate, and despite being one of the main Progressive leaders in the House of Representatives, he did not manage to hold the level of name appeal at first to carry a campaign. Tuttle had it even worse, but the fact of the matter still was that Johnson wasn’t noteworthy. Tuttle, like Ginsburg, had created a grassroots movement, with many supporters going door to door to stump for their candidate. He had a low budget, but he pulled off multiple surprise victories in many key primaries in the West. This was just as much thanks to Johnson’s low energy campaigning as to Tuttle’s grassroots campaign however. Perot’s political machine saw in Tuttle a pliable candidate which would follow their platform better than Johnson possibly might. A useful puppet for his purposes. Johnson saw it was just not his year, leading him to drop out of the race. And with the libertarian wing of the party united, Tuttle, with a good sized war chest behind him, began barreling through the primaries. With Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Dinkins splitting the vote, Tuttle often won Northeastern primaries by plurality. Neither one would throw in the towel, and toxic campaigning on the trail left both sides finding it hard to imagine stomaching the idea of voting for the other. Dinkins and Ginsburg realized that they’d never reach the point where one could finally swing ahead of the other to eventually win the nomination much too late, and Tuttle pulled off the impossible and won the late New York Primary, home soil for Dinkins, and close to it for Ginsburg. Both dropped shortly after. Fred Tuttle, a candidate who did not hold federal office, and a virtual nobody even to fellow Vermonters, pulled off the impossible and became the Progressive nominee for the president. The primary fight had bloodied the Progs though, and hurt even more than the other two major parties, unfortunately.

fred-tuttle-96409e0e-1959-44cb-99af-4884171aa89-resize-750.jpeg

Tuttle appeared on Late Night Shows for interviews in farm clothes to show how close to the party's grassroots he was.
His selection of Gary Johnson as an (at first) more well known and establishment foil to his lesser-known folksy charm was seen as a competent move.​

Natural Law Party​


By far one of the most unexpected twists of the race had been that of the Natural Law Party. Founded by Randy Weaver, better known by the American public as the American Sniper, was one of the many war heroes created by the Third World War. With 172 confirmed kills, he was the most prolific snipers in American history. His book, titled American Sniper, became a bestseller for two months straight, though many complained of inaccuracies of embellishments. A movie was even made about his life. And he like many, caught the political bug. He felt that none of the major parties fit him, as he said in a press conference, so he started his own. He made a party apparatus for his 1994 run for the Illinois Senate election, though he only ended up getting 3% of the vote off of his fame. He remained a popular celebrity in Idaho, and an advocate for the pro-gun lobby in the Western United States, gaining much progressive support. Over time his movement gained steam, pledging to keep true to the constitution. Leaning libertarian in his outlook, his party has been compared to the rural wing of the Progressive Party taken to the extreme, though that didn’t completely fit his ideology. Truthfully the Natural Law Party had elements of both the Democratic and Progressive parties, his anti-federal government advocacy appealed to Prog farmers, while his extreme social Conservatism appealed to many southern communonationalist Democratic voters. The Natural Law Party’s platform appealed to most rural voters except some black liberty conservative Republicans, who felt that his policies did not appeal to their politics. He didn’t seem to mind either way though, seeing that Idaho had a miniscule black population, but it did hurt the party’s chances in other states. He focused on other demographics, and especially in winning his home state of Idaho. Weaver decided he’d follow the example of the other parties, and even hold primaries, though he wouldn’t be able to do them in all 50 states. Either way it was expected to obviously become a shoo-in for himself, just a rubber stamp of sorts as he didn’t expect any actual challengers. But a challenger he found.


And that man was one Marvin Richardson. Richardson was famous in the Pacific Northwest for his role in thwarting the assassination of Lee Iacocca, albeit a minor one at that. Though no one could disagree with the fact he was at this the nation’s most popular strawberry farmer. Instead of deciding to make a run for any of the major parties, he decided to use the Natural Law Party as the platform for his candidacy. Advocating for looser controls on the second amendment, and whole life policies reminiscent of Bob Casey, Richardson found a lot of support among voters in the panhandle, and the progressive strongholds of the state. He even went along door-to-door campaigning, bringing in turnout to many who didn’t even know about the Natural Law Party. Weaver, who didn’t bother campaigning in the party’s two primaries in Idaho and Oregon, saw himself losing Idaho and Montana by a slim margin, though he ended up winning the only other primary of Oregon. Randy Weaver lost the nomination of a party he created, in one of the more strange twists in political history. Though there were many things he could’ve done to prevent this, this being his party after all, he humbly accepted Richardson’s fair victory, making do with the VP spot. It’s not as if Richardson had very different views, and their winning ticket combo made them a viable contender to at least fight for third place in Idaho. Weaver knew they wouldn’t have any chance of pulling a victory in the main race, but they hoped that their run would make the concerns of Idahoans like himself known….

​
 
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SuperFrog

Damn. It's gonna be Bundy, unless there's an October Suprise

Good to see women and african americans in major party tickets

James Traficant running an anti-corruption campaign? I love the irony.

Who's Tuttle's VP?

Of course there's a fourth party to split the Prog vote. If there's no Prog President by the end of this timeline, I'll be mad :p
 

Prince Daemon Targaryen

Randy Weaver putting his crack shot to good use, lol.
Tuttle as a reasonably successful politician is just too good. The guy is a hilarious footnote in Vermont politics, and I couldn't not bring him to prominence
 

Unknown

Hey, at least Randy's doing better than OTL (and that's all I'll say about that...)...

With regards to Bundy, I suggested to @The Congressman adding a quote from Bianchi to Bundy before his execution: "Congratulations, Mr. Bundy, for managing to convict me of murders I didn't do." (He's not referring to the OTL Bellingham murders he actually did commit here...)
 

NotA_Potato

The Congressman said:
Beautiful, though the borders in much of South America is only nominal. A lot of the non-Chilean, non-European colonial areas are run by warlords and competing insurgencies
Click to expand...
Obviously you aren’t in charge of NDCR anymore, but I think I’d be interesting if you gave a run down of what happened to South America after everything went to hell and back in the continent.
 

Prince Daemon Targaryen

NotA_Potato said:
Obviously you aren’t in charge of NDCR anymore, but I think I’d be interesting if you gave a run down of what happened to South America after everything went to hell and back in the continent.
Click to expand...
They did an update on Chile. Pinochet died and it became less authoritarian, but Chile is still basically a right-wing republic. Uruguay is in anarchy. Argentina is under a North Korea-like Military Junta with Galtieri in charge. Brazil is basically like 1920s China. You have the Main government with Ernesto Geisel in charge (who is getting huge aid from France and Imperial Portugal), the communist insurgents, Amazonian separatists, leftist rebels in the northeast cities, and plenty of warlords. Peru like 1990 Afghanistan. Colombia and Venezuela are economic basket cases but with generally stable governments. Bolivia, Paraguay, and Suriname are controlled by tinpot strongmen. Some states are rebuilding, some are rearming (especially Argentina), while most are being torn apart through internal jockeying for power.

In Peru, the central government is still dealing with leftist rebels, but the neo-Incans are gaining strength and popularity.

I hope this jives with everyone :D
 
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