Sans McCarthy

For whatever reason, Joseph McCarthy never enters politics and remains a rather unremarkable resident of Wisconsin who is never known for anything particularly noteworthy, and nobody rises to take his place. Does his removal from politics affect anything before the Cold War? Without McCarthyism wracking the United States, how differently does the Cold War go?
 
Richard Nixon may very well take up that baton more forcefully, which could very well limit his political influence in the long run if he's discredited in the same way that McCarthy was. Then again, Nixon seems much more clever than McCarthy, so perhaps he'll do a better job of choosing his battles.
 
Nixon was pissed McCarthy ruined his own plans to attack “communists” in government. So…

(Page 33 hardcover Nixonland)
 
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It might just come up the same way. If you wanna prevent McCarthyism, you have to go further back. Say, having Mao not take over China. No CCP takeover means a shortened Korean War, where the South wins, leaving Truman sitting pretty, The Domino Theory stillborn, and noticeably less apprehension surrounding The Reds.
 
Richard Nixon may very well take up that baton more forcefully, which could very well limit his political influence in the long run if he's discredited in the same way that McCarthy was. Then again, Nixon seems much more clever than McCarthy, so perhaps he'll do a better job of choosing his battles.

Nixon was much more clever and Machiavellian in contrast to the bombastic, ego maniacal McCarthy whose implosion was more or less inevitable once he started barking up the wrong tree. Without McCarthy, I assume that Senator Nixon would be leading the charge against communists in government - although his investigations would probably be more narrow in scope and more carefully planned. There's no reason that he isn't picked as Eisenhower's VP IMO, in fact I'd say it's even more likely given his increased national stature. But if Nixon is still elected President in 1968 (which may or may not happen due to butterflies) then his trip to China would be even more of a shock.
 
A spokesman for anticommunism who isn't a bombastic alcoholic like McCarthy makes it more credible so we see a second dem party purge 1965-72. LBJ leaves the white house in 1973, handing the keys over to HHH. Democrats shore up their northern/union base and lose only say half the white south instead of the vast supermajority so more dem presidents and nearly continual congressional majorities. US remains democratic, but democrats as natural party of governments. Think socially centrist/only willing to do slight moves left at a time but economically populist/laborite -- basically your standard new deal coalition retained dems.

Nixon wins in 1980 as a competent elder statesman after a messy if FAR smoother than otl 1970s. Nixon's 8 years are the only GOP president until 2016 when we get the same guy as OTL in -- Trump would fit in better in a Nixonite GOP than ours imo. This means you get Ike, Nixon and Trump as the only post-FDR reps.
 
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