So I just wanted to step in here and say something:
How have I been sleeping on this gem for ::checks watch:: FIVE GODDAM YEARS!?!?!
This shit is great! I'm only up to October 30th, but this is exceptional so far. I'm serious. I'm somewhat in awe of your research skills.
You've really raised the bar with this one. Now everyone will have to work harder.
Damn you for that, by the way.
First of all, thank you. I greatly appreciate the generous compliments.
Secondly, yes, I research quite a bit. I have an entire bookcase that is purely history books. Another two shelves on a different one are all memoirs and biographies. For a very long time, I have been utterly fascinated by the 1968-1984 time period. Just unbelievable upheaval in the world. And when I write, I want to tell a realistic, plausible, story where the details fit, the personality traits and the technological achievements and the politics. We only got the world we know today because of the 1970s. The style of politics, the focus on image, the relentless negative campaigning, the overrepresented power of evangelicals in American religion and politics, the distrust of government institutions, the strong belief in conspiracies, hyperactive capitalism....all of it started in this decade. What I wanted to flesh out here was not a world in which Carter gets a second term (although
@Vidal does an outstanding job with his, a very realistic tale), but in which the Reagan Revolution gets...subordinated. Cut off before it can take flight. John Connally has a combination of many features that Republicans could unite behind: he's got rugged good looks, a ranch, charisma, business-friendly, strong personality, intelligent but knows the folksy talk, a converted Democrat like Reagan (and yes, plenty mistrusted him too because of it, but a lot that did changed their minds if they met him in person), anti-Communist, worked on Ike's battle staff in WWII, then won a Bronze Star in the Pacific dealing with the
kamikazes....It's such a wonderful stew to work from, and that's before you bring up his longtime association with LBJ.
I like Gerald Ford. He was authentic. He tried hard. But the problem was that he counted upon some of the worst people to ever infect American politics--Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Alan Greenspan, Bill Simon. He did so in large part because he didn't have enough confidence in himself at times to make these choices. He hadn't planned to be President. Connally, on the other hand, had been thinking about it since after JFK was killed and he survived the bullet. After he was SecTreas, the thoughts grew much louder. So he was waiting for this moment, and he believed in himself from the word GO and brought in the people
he trusted to help him, without overshadowing him. He's also a triangulator in the GOP world, and that's why a liberal like Rocky was brought in to be SecTreas, someone who business liked but wasn't a full-blown ogre like Bill Simon, and who could be creative in financing projects without increasing taxes (the really ironic part about all this is that Rocky's right-hand man for bond financing and other schemes for infrastructure in the 1960s was John Mitchell. Yes,
the John Mitchell). It's why Jack Valenti is SecCommerce, and Clements is SecDef, and Ben Barnes is CoS--they are all familiar with each other, good friends, and trusted to do as Connally wants because they're all of a similar mindset. He doesn't need strong personalities because he
is the strong personality.
One thing that Ford dealt with was a desire to tackle inflation in the most paleoconservative ways possible. He knew economics very well, and his advisers were much the same on this issue. Occasionally he'd come up with a clever plan of sorts, but it was never implemented in a way that could make a big mark. It was all steady on the tiller stuff, except "steady" at this time in Western nations was unsettled in every way. America and Britain were very much in a Cultural Revolution of their own. Connally likes to take big swings. He brought us off the gold standard. So, he's going to think big about inflation. Not just "what can America do," but recognizing it's a global issue and working with partners to tackle it. I'm excited to explore this. I'm excited to explore a world in which we impeached a President and made it something that wasn't impossible. It's great. The next two years are going to be so very much fun to write.