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"The polls aren't so good."


"Don't sweeten it for me, Seymore. Tell me the numbers."


"We're behind fourteen percent on the overall vote in the State, and almost twenty-seven among the Negroes."


To the unfamiliar observer, the Governor seemed to remain impassible. The men in the salon knew him too well to think he really was, however. He downed his glass of ice-cold soda and lit another cigar.


"God-damned traitors."


"Now, George. Let's try to stay calm."


"No, Russ. Now ain't the time to stay calm. That son-of-a-bitch can't fucking out-negro me. Your father would roll in his grave if he knew this party is getting out-negroed by the Democrats, God bless his soul."


The Senator stayed silent while the Governor paced the room and kept ranting.


"People don't give a damn about good schools and good roads and good wages no more. It's all about the God-damned 'Fair Society' now."


The Governor took a puff from his cigar, and chuckled darkly.

"Fair Society. Can you believe it? Because I sure can't believe the fucking Democrats will ever give a fair society to anyone but themselves. White folks know it, Goddamn it, and the Negroes too. We've built them schools to teach them that."

The phone rang, and a young black aide was quick to answer.

"It's Senator Thurmond, Governor."

"I ain't speaking with that son-of-a-bitch. You can tell him that word for word, Huey. I don't give a damn."

"This is it, gentlemen. This election is as good as over, and with our base happily forging the new chains aristocrats will use to bind them, it may even be the end of the party."

With that, the Governor slouched back on his armchair, which the Senator took as a cue to stand up and take the floor.

"We're still two months away from the election. We cannot give up now. We'll drop more hints of their intrigues, leak some of their shadiest deals, and appeal to the Radicals who haven't jumped ship in Florida and the Carolinas. This isn't over yet, George. The party has faced the robber-planters at their full strength, and came out victorious. And so shall we."

Confederate States Presidential election, 1975

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Lyndon B. Johnson (Radical-Democrat, TX)/ Albert Gore, Sr. (Radical-Democrat, TN): 92 Electoral Votes [1]

George C. Wallace, Jr. (Populist, AL)/ Russell Long (Radical-Populist, LA): 31 Electoral Votes

Strom Thurmond (Constitutional Democrat, SC)/ Herman Talmadge (Constitutional Democrat, GA): 7 Electoral Votes
The election of 1975 was a much closer run than it appears at a first glance. The Radical-Democrats won Arkansas and Florida with a margin of less than five thousand and twenty thousand votes respectively. While never contesting the results, Governor Wallace also made thinly veiled accusations that vote counting in Texas had been manipulated by Johnson's political machine during an interview with Facts in 1982.

Had Wallace nuanced his Separate but Equal platform by adopting a more pro-States' Right stance like some analysts expected him to, he could have secured an alliance with the Constitutional Democrats, thus taking Mississippi, and possibly South Carolina, bringing him up to fifteen additional electoral votes.

However, these analysis tend to ignore that the Wallace-Long ticket was a drastic measure taken to win back the black and middle-class vote after President Arnall's moderate, almost indecisive line lead the Radicals to split from the party. In addition, Gore's ascendant over the urban Radicals far surpassed whatever influence Long still had on those outside of Louisiana, the Populists being incumbent for two consecutive terms leading to voter fatigue, along with an economy that had still not fully recovered from the Shock of 63' are often cited as reasons for the Radical-Democrat landslide.

Wherever lies the true cause for this catastrophic defeat, the election marked the further splintering of the Populist Party and beginning of the Confederacy's Third Party system, with the Radical-Democrats firmly entrenched in all branches of government until the 90's.


[1] I used the EVs the States had in OTL, for which I hope you'll forgive me.
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