The Reagen Dynasty

The Rise

- The year is 1945. A group of Ronald Reagen's friends from his hometown in Illinois contact about making a bid for congress in Illinois' at large seat. A popular film and radio star, they are convinced Reagen, a solid democrat, is their only hope for defeating William Stratton, an up and coming popular Republican. Reagen allows himself to be talked into declaring his interest in the Democratic nomination and it is no surprise when the Democrats choose him as their candidate over incumbent Emily T. Douglas.

- The next year Reagen triumphs in one of the closest victories in the history of Illinois congressional elections, stunning many who favored Stratton in the contest. In January, at the age of 35, he is inaugurated into the United States house of representatives.

- Shortly after being inaugurated Reagen personally meets President Truman. Reagen and Truman soon formed a close friendship and alliance, meeting frequently. Truman described Reagen to the press as his 'friend in congress.' Originally a solid leftist and new deal supporter Reagen would later credit Truman with starting his gradual slide towards the center which would take over his politics by the early 50's.

- Reagen's first notable shift towards the center however came when he was campaigning for Truman in 1948. This also made Reagen a national political figure for the first time. In his own election, despite little local campaigning, Reagen ran up a landslide that surprised many.

- In late 1949, with the support of President Truman and the momentum from his recent landslide in the state wide congressional seat, as well as the news his seat would not be disbanded in 1950, Reagen announced his intention to seek the senate.

- The Democratic party handed the young and popular Reagen the nomination over 2 term democrat Scott W. Lucas whose on popularity seemed to make defeat in the senate election almost inevitable. Reagen, with the backing of the president and the higher ups of the Democratic Party, as well as his own stardom, popularity, and charisma, solidly wins the election and becomes Illinois' junior senator.

- Over the next ten years Reagen continued to build a name for himself in politics. He voted from the center and had, what one newspaper described as a 'mean independent streak.' This independence from party politics and willingness to think and act outside of 'the box,' along with his aforementioned stardom and charisma, led Reagen to become one of the countries most supported democrats. In fact in 1956 the 'draft Reagen' movement to convince him to run for president gained millions of signatures. However Reagen turned down the movement due to the second major result of his centrist ideology and independence from political parties. Reagen had formed with Eisenhower, like he had with Truman, a close personal and political alliance.

- In 1958 Reagen began meeting with the only other Democratic senator who could rival his popularity, John F. Kennedy. After nearly a year of meetings Kennedy and Reagen came out on the same day announcing their plan to seize the presidency for a party 'United against Nixon' a man who Reagen personally and politically despised. The plan was to make Kennedy the presidential candidate and Reagen his vice-president. There was little primary challenge.

- Election night 1960. The Kennedy-Reagen ticket enter election night be labeled by many reporters as the 'most charismatic duo in US presidential history.' On the other side Nixon, whose appeal to independents had been counteracted by Reagen's, seemed to stand little chance. Indeed the election turned out to be a landslide with the Democratic ticket winning 54% of the vote.
 
November 1963-March 1965

- The Kennedy Administration follows its course essentially the same way as in OTL. On November 22, 1963 Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas Texas. Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president. He announces later that day that in memory of JFK and in recognition of the commitment of the Kennedy family and of RFK himself, Robert Kennedy would be made his vice-president.

- 52 year old President Reagan spends the next year mainly on the campaign trail as many presidents do. He starts very few new initiatives instead running on the memory of JFK, his political ally, and with the support of his continuing vice-president RFK. In the 1964 election the Reagan-Kennedy ticket wins the largest landslide since the FDR era.

- Reagan, in his inaugural address, famously states that today ends the presidency of John Kennedy, who he'd 'filled in for' for the past year and began his own presidency. He promises to govern the home front from the center but his most note-worthy comments come on his foreign policy plans. He promises a strong position in favor of democracy world wide against against communism. Perhaps most notable of all though is his promise of victory in Vietnam within the next four years, a war which he refers to as the 'Great Crusade.'

- Only a few days later, in a press conference President Reagan announces plans for 'the largest and greatest US military operation since the second world war.' Referred to publicly as 'Operation Freedom' Reagan announces a massive expansion of the draft and an immediate expansion of military funding from congress, he gets both.

- In mid-February, with the support of congress, the so-called preparation phase of Operation Freedom begins. However there is a some amount of public displeasure at the expansion of the war as shown most notably by the new self-named 'Freedom League,' a group which claimed it would "stop at nothing to prevent the violation of the freedom of foreign people's and of the individual freedoms of the United States own citizens."

- In what became known historically as 'Bloody March' the Freedom League engages in a series of terrorist assaults on army recruiting centers and government building, including the notable burning of several post offices in major urban areas around the US. However their escapades achieves the exact opposite of what they intended. Instead of further dividing the countries view on Operation Freedom the attacks unite the populous, in the face of adversity, behind the military plan.
 
A little close to OTL, but still pretty good.

I totally agree with Vultan here, I really like the POD but I also think a little bit more research needs to be done to really flesh this timeline out. We also love pictures on this board, and especially with your writing style I think it would give it a nice touch. But If you want to look at some of the ideas that we tossed around about a Democratic Ronnie Reagan, look here at Electic Monk's unfinished Timeline... https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=80333
 
I can see a Democratic Reagan but I don't see him running for office as early as 1946. He still has a movie career at this time. I also have a hard time seeing him get the Senatorial nomination in 1950. Scott Lucas was a well respected Party elder and his defeat by Everett Dirksen was something of a surprise.
However, if Ronnie decides to give up on Hollywood in 1945 and wins election to the House in 1946 he could be elected to the Senate in 1948. The Democrats nominated a little known Chicago Alderman to run for the Senate in 1948 because most people though 1948 would be a GOP year. That sacrificial candidate not only won in a Democratic sweep of Illiniois that year but became the great Senator Paul Douglas.
Finally, JFK was only in Dallas on November 22, 1963 because of an attempt to heal a rift between his VP, Lyndon Johnson and the Governor of Texas, John Connally (the conservative wing of the Texas Democratic Party on the one hand and the very liberal Senator Ralph Yarbough on the other. Without LBJ as a running mate, I don't think JFK would have had a reason to be in Texas a year before the election.
 
Well, the rift was between Yarborough and Connally, and was nothing unusual in TX Democratic politics. That's because the conservative Democrats were really Republicans, but the one-party setup worked too well to change until CR forced Strom's hand. AH is right, JFK would have no reason to be in Dallas (where his TX approval rating was 35% IOTL). There was an attempt in Chicago and another in Miami IIRC. These were all pre-campaign tours for the '64 election.
 
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