In OTL the US presidency went directly from the GI Generation (GHW Bush) to the Boomers (Bill Clinton, GW Bush, Obama, Trump) with no Silent Generation presidents (at least so far--but two of the front-runners for the Democratic nomination would qualify!).
I here propose a timeline where all the US presidents from 1974 onward were from the "Silent Generation" (we'll use 1928 to 1945 as the birth dates). I have decided to make the party identities of the presidents the same as in OTL--otherwise I could go back to 1968 and have nothing but Silent Generation presidents starting with Ted Kennedy getting elected that year!
(1) 1974-77: Donald Rumsfeld. A surprise choice by Nixon for vice-president on Agnew's resignation; becomes POTUS on Nixon's resignation. He narrowly prevails in 1976 GOP primaries over Ronald Reagan's challenge, which weakens Rumsfeld in November.
(2) 1977-81: Birch Bayh. As I noted last year, "his only hope then was to have the party's liberal wing (which I'll define as "everyone to the left of Carter") coalesce behind him. This did not happen; in the New Hampshire primary, he finished third, behind Carter and Udall, while fourth-place Fred Harris also undoubtedly took some votes that might otherwise have gone to Bayh. When he finished a disastrous seventh in the Massachusetts primary, his campaign was over. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_1976 If Udall hadn't run, would Bayh have had a chance--perhaps as a Midwesterner he can win the Wisconsin primary which Udall narrowly lost to Carter?..."
(3) 1981-89: Phil Crane. After Reagan's surprise decision not to run (a near-assassination of Bayh in 1979 makes Nancy persuade him not to), Crane becomes the great hope of the GOP right and wins the nomination against split opposition from moderates and moderate-conservatives (Rumsfeld, Howard Baker, GHW Bush, John Anderson, etc.) Crane defeats the unpopular Bayh in November 1980 and is re-elected in 1984, after the Federal Reserve Board, confident that the recession has squeezed inflation out of the economy, eases up.
(4) 1989-93 Jack Kemp. Crane's VP, elected POTUS in 1988. He represents a kinder and gentler version of Crane's policies (he is a bit more open to Gorbachev and helps end the Cold War). He loses popularity after the recession of the early 1990's.
(5) 1993-2001: Mario Cuomo. In this ATL he decides to run, and as a representative of old-fashioned labor-liberalism defeats a split primary opposition of "new" Democrats of one sort or another (Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown, Paul Tsongas…). He defeats Kemp in November; pundits disagree on what role if any Ross Perot's third party candidacy played in the outcome. He is re-elected in 1996, largely thanks to a good economy.
(6) 2001-2009: John McCain. (Remember that the Bush family is far less influential in this ATL.) Narrowly defeats Cuomo's VP Al Gore in November 2000, re-elected in 2004.
(7) 2009-2017: Joe Biden. (In this ATL Carol Mosely Braun has decided to run for her old Senate seat in 2004, so Barack Obama does not run. The Clintons are of course hardly known outside Arkansas.) Wins in November 2008 largely because of economic collapse; subsequent recovery is just enough to allow him to be re-elected in 2012.
(8) 2017-present: Rudy Giuliani (in this ATL he finally "evolves" on abortion sufficiently to win religious conservatives over. Some big terrorist attack that was narrowly foiled in OTL makes terrorism the big issue again.)
And the current Democratic frontrunners are Paul Wellstone (who didn't die in a plane crash in 2002 in this TL) and John Kerry!
(I realize that from (7) on we may be dealing with current politics, but I don't think most of this post can be so classified.)
I here propose a timeline where all the US presidents from 1974 onward were from the "Silent Generation" (we'll use 1928 to 1945 as the birth dates). I have decided to make the party identities of the presidents the same as in OTL--otherwise I could go back to 1968 and have nothing but Silent Generation presidents starting with Ted Kennedy getting elected that year!
(1) 1974-77: Donald Rumsfeld. A surprise choice by Nixon for vice-president on Agnew's resignation; becomes POTUS on Nixon's resignation. He narrowly prevails in 1976 GOP primaries over Ronald Reagan's challenge, which weakens Rumsfeld in November.
(2) 1977-81: Birch Bayh. As I noted last year, "his only hope then was to have the party's liberal wing (which I'll define as "everyone to the left of Carter") coalesce behind him. This did not happen; in the New Hampshire primary, he finished third, behind Carter and Udall, while fourth-place Fred Harris also undoubtedly took some votes that might otherwise have gone to Bayh. When he finished a disastrous seventh in the Massachusetts primary, his campaign was over. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_1976 If Udall hadn't run, would Bayh have had a chance--perhaps as a Midwesterner he can win the Wisconsin primary which Udall narrowly lost to Carter?..."
(3) 1981-89: Phil Crane. After Reagan's surprise decision not to run (a near-assassination of Bayh in 1979 makes Nancy persuade him not to), Crane becomes the great hope of the GOP right and wins the nomination against split opposition from moderates and moderate-conservatives (Rumsfeld, Howard Baker, GHW Bush, John Anderson, etc.) Crane defeats the unpopular Bayh in November 1980 and is re-elected in 1984, after the Federal Reserve Board, confident that the recession has squeezed inflation out of the economy, eases up.
(4) 1989-93 Jack Kemp. Crane's VP, elected POTUS in 1988. He represents a kinder and gentler version of Crane's policies (he is a bit more open to Gorbachev and helps end the Cold War). He loses popularity after the recession of the early 1990's.
(5) 1993-2001: Mario Cuomo. In this ATL he decides to run, and as a representative of old-fashioned labor-liberalism defeats a split primary opposition of "new" Democrats of one sort or another (Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown, Paul Tsongas…). He defeats Kemp in November; pundits disagree on what role if any Ross Perot's third party candidacy played in the outcome. He is re-elected in 1996, largely thanks to a good economy.
(6) 2001-2009: John McCain. (Remember that the Bush family is far less influential in this ATL.) Narrowly defeats Cuomo's VP Al Gore in November 2000, re-elected in 2004.
(7) 2009-2017: Joe Biden. (In this ATL Carol Mosely Braun has decided to run for her old Senate seat in 2004, so Barack Obama does not run. The Clintons are of course hardly known outside Arkansas.) Wins in November 2008 largely because of economic collapse; subsequent recovery is just enough to allow him to be re-elected in 2012.
(8) 2017-present: Rudy Giuliani (in this ATL he finally "evolves" on abortion sufficiently to win religious conservatives over. Some big terrorist attack that was narrowly foiled in OTL makes terrorism the big issue again.)
And the current Democratic frontrunners are Paul Wellstone (who didn't die in a plane crash in 2002 in this TL) and John Kerry!
(I realize that from (7) on we may be dealing with current politics, but I don't think most of this post can be so classified.)
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