Scoop Jackson 1976

What if https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_M._Jackson was elected president of the United States in 1976? What PoD would be needed to achieve this? What would be the effects? Would the Reagan presidency and conservatism of the 80s and 90s still happen, or be radically altered? Could any important legislation be passed, such as healthcare reform? Would Jackson definitely win in 1976, and how wuld electoral politics be altered? What if?
 
Scoop Jackson

This is an interesting POD. Jackson was big labor's man, but he was also both a Reagan type anti-communist and what is now called a neo-con in foreign policy. I honestly don't think he would be elected because the nation was not ready yet for a hawk for president or even one who talked it (Reagan) but did not want to be it. If Scoop did become the Democratic Candidate and won the general election I do think a Jackson administration could negate the need many thought existed that brought Reagan in. Then again, I don't see a Jackson economy doing much better than Carter's.
In short, Jackson as President may have changed things enough for Reagan not to seem necessary in 1980.
 
Last edited:
I think Jackson could've won given how weak Ford was and would provably have done better in places not in the South. If Jackson responds well to the hostage crisis and Iran he could be re-elected. Also he might be more Keynesian than Carter and pass healthcare reform too. Liberal on domestic policy,hawkish on foreign policy I'd say.
 
Last edited:
I think Jackson could've won guven how wrak Ford was and would provably have done better in places not in the South. If Jackson responds well to the hostage crisis and Iran he could be re-elected. Also he might be more Keynesian than Carter and pass healthcare reform too. Liberal on domestic polucy,hawkish on foreign policy I'd say.

I had to read the Wikipedia myself just now, but allow be to give an opinion.

Considering Scoop was a hawk, the Hostage Crisis is probably butterflied away, there's probably no Iranian Revolution. The American advisers to Iran probably encourage and green-light a crackdown before things get out of hand.

But I agree, his presidency does sound like it could be interesting.

Also, to Wikipedia provides the POD. During the 1976 primary, have Humphrey have announced his retirement, maybe endorsing Scoop, then have him get into the New Hampshire and Iowa caucuses early and take them seriously, and that paves the way to a Scoop nomination.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
I think Scoop would have trouble actually governing, but he could win merely because of the stigma to the GOP name in '76.

Scoop was an old school liberal, big on the New Deal and its expansion as well as the Cold War. The New Left despised people like him, and they wouldn't have gotten behind him, especially in Congress, where things like the Church hearings and attempts to prosecute Nixon officials were still the talk of the day. Congress in the mid to late 70s was a depressing atmosphere much like the rest of the country, and quite a few of them started openly advocating anti-American sentiment as part of their platforms.

Scoop would NOT give up the Panama Canal, nor would he cave on the hostage crisis. He might have cleaned up the army and gotten rid of drugs a lot sooner than OTL based on his fixation on defense issues. I think he would try to expand the war on poverty as well and pass more union friendly legislation. He might have been able to avert the Iranian revolution, might not have, but he would not have appeared as weak as Carter. I think he gets involved with the Contras earlier as well, and maybe helps Somoza stay in power.

But the atmosphere of the period was a truly awful one, and he'd have serious issues with the economy and keeping blue collar jobs from collapsing as OTL. I don't think he survives 1980, not unless he is somehow able to bring the Moral Majority onto his side by going socially conservative, which I don't think he or his party would do.
 
He has opposition from his own party when he tries to keep defense spending high. I don't see how he avoids the hostage crisis. He lets the Shah in.
 
Last edited:
Scoop's one of my favourite alternate POTUS candidates.

I have a rough TL written where the POD is the bullets that paralyzed George Wallace in OTL's 1972, kill him in TTL. This doesn't give Jackson the Democratic nomination in 1972, but it does re-orient him significantly.

Jackson spent much of the period between 1972 and 1976 in OTL preparing to run for President and generally considering himself to be the realistic candidate to beat. Given his impressive fundraising efforts, a number of prominent people also shared this opinion. However, Jackson's primary flaw was his increasing isolation from the Democrat party. He essentially looked at the 1976 primary season as a contest between George Wallace and the rest of the party. Jackson thought that by doing little else than being the best of the "Anyone but Wallace" candidates he'd win.

Now in My TL, with Wallace dead, Jackson's forced to face the reality that he's on the right end of the Democratic spectrum and that the New Left are the ones to beat, not Wallace. This results in him taking some opportunities that he neglected. Jackson was notoriously un-telegenic, a politician better suited to an earlier time, and in OTL rejected attempts to remake his image and take speaking and acting lessons. In TTL he pulls out all the stops and enters the 1976 campaign with a totally revamped image that manages to mitigate some of his hawkishness and Washington insider vibe. He also aims to beat the New Left by trying to corral conservative votes in the primaries and gain momentum so unlike OTL he competes hard in Iowa/NH.

If Jackson pulls out a win he does it narrowly in both the Democratic primaries and the General Election.
 
I always had the impression that Scoop Jackson was ahead of his time in terms of his neocon beliefs. In a Scoop Jackson 1976 administration, who could have been in his cabinet? How about Jackson's then-administrative aide, Richard Perle, for Defense?
 
I always had the impression that Scoop Jackson was ahead of his time in terms of his neocon beliefs. In a Scoop Jackson 1976 administration, who could have been in his cabinet? How about Jackson's then-administrative aide, Richard Perle, for Defense?

Jackson`s attempt to revitalize the right wing of the Democratic Party is going to result in a number of people who left the Democratic Party and became Republicans in OTL staying put and potentially taking cabinet positions along with whatever centrist Democrats agree to work with Jackson.
 
I think Jackson could've won guven how wrak Ford was and would provably have done better in places not in the South. If Jackson responds well to the hostage crisis and Iran he could be re-elected. Also he might be more Keynesian than Carter and pass healthcare reform too. Liberal on domestic polucy,hawkish on foreign policy I'd say.

One problem with a Jackson candidacy: Eugene McCarthy's independent candidacy could do much better than in OTL. Even in OTL his vote was greater than Ford's margin of victory in four states (Iowa, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon) and his 58,258 votes in Ohio almost cost Carter the state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1976
 
I think that Jackson would win, narrowly but still a victory, winning most of the close Ford states, but there will be big butterflies in economic policy. This is because Jackson might not appoint Volcker and there won't be monetarist policy at the Fed, so inflation won't be fully defeated and the economy recovered in time for the 1984 election (and a 1984 that looks better for democrats could have major butterflies in the race), and he'd pass a Keynesian package, which could solve the crisis or more likely worsen it by increasing inflation.
 
Top