TLIACOH: Shuffling the Deck USA Edition (with apologies to Meadow and Roem)
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
Different reputations more than order - Reagan is almost exactly where he is OTL in order and date.
But Statesman gets the prize I think, for realizing Clinton could be a REpublican. I justdon't know how Bush II could be a Democrat but if he is then there's your swap.
Edit: Ninja's. i wonder if Bush comes back a la Cleveland.
Considering Ford's Administration, it doesn't seem that Clinton will end up a Republican, but it could have happened nevertheless.
Thande
Donor
Willy J. Blythe
(Democratic)
1997-2005
The man who rebuilt the Democratic Party did so in the carefully cultivated image of its most popular figure, now the much-adored architect of a vanished golden age. In many ways Blythe presented himself as the second coming of James E. Carter. His state of Arkansas had prospered under his governorship and he had protected it against the worst ravages of ‘Fordism’. The South flocked to a native son, the North to a representative of the old dream of Carter. The national healing that George W. Bush had begun would be continued by Blythe.
However, in many ways he was an anticlimax. Rather stiff and awkward at times (thought to be the legacy of a heart problem) his style of governance was heavily influenced by the years under virtual siege from the ‘Ford Administration’. He was determined that there be no signs of weakness, no cracks in the armour of the Blythe Administration. To that end, his spokesmen were fired at the slightest sign of ‘going off-message’ and he was known for his phrase behind closed doors “I want your mouths to be like zippers—you pull it open to spout whatever piss I tell you to spout and then you close it again!” Indeed, the Blythe Administration has been criticised in retrospect for being overly keen to use some of the same mass communication tactics that had been pioneered by Ford (or rather, by Rumsfeld and Cheney) before it. Stories continue to circulate about the suppression of stories about terrorist attacks by Fordite militias within American borders, supposedly removed in order to prevent further unrest. The media blackout of the Blythe years remains a matter for debate, with modern historians arguing over how much of it was intentional, and how much was simply a matter of the US struggling to catch up with the rest of the world when it came to the implementation of the Intergrid and satellite television.
A lifelong bachelor, seedy rumours continue to circulate to this day about his sexuality and the supposed self-interested nature of some of the social tolerance policies his administration passed—never mind that most of these were simply reversions back to the pre-Ford status quo. It is certainly true that social conservatism is one area in which Blythe did not emulate Carter, however. He has also been criticised from the left for his failure to do much to reverse Ford-era welfare policies (or lack thereof) until his second term, by which point the Republicans had recovered enough to put up at least a token challenge in the form of Jack Kemp. It was this, together with his involving the US in a messy conflict in South Africa, which meant that the Blythe legacy was not entirely considered a positive one when it came to choosing the Democratic nominee for 2004...
A conflict in South Africa? What is this? A much messier end to apartheid? Still, not-so-slick Willy seems competent enough, but his predecessor seems likelier to be the loved president, with probably almost nobody hating him (except for the Fordites).
I wonder whet really happened to Ford?
I wonder whet really happened to Ford?
Wow, I did not see that Ford administration coming. Reagan's presidency seemed a bit 'too' similar to his OTL one, if you'll forgive the gentle criticism - it looks like he's perceived as a gentleman actor who knew how to move a crowd and take bold decisions, and those decisions divided opinion. That's essentially OTL, though his economics have been shifted into 'Fordism'.
Fordism itself is a lovely idea, a sort of American Brezhnev, a Troika in the Oval Office. Inspired.
Kennedy was a clever move - we did something different in our version but just making him an old, crippled man thanks to his Addison's is an entirely logical choice. I like the idea of a second FLOTUS-that-was-really-POTUS.
Carter, liberal icon taken from us too soon? Sounds like a perfect inversion: a man who is well-remembered because the world saw too little of him, rather than a man disliked because he had to deal with far too much.
Not-so-slick-Willy is again, plausible, you use his heart troubles well to create a stiff figure (so to speak...). Bush Jr as a loudmouthed national healer is inspired.
I await Barry with interest, will he have a fate similar to Blair in Shuffling The Deck? No expectations, turns out to be a massive reformer and the public grows to love him?
Fordism itself is a lovely idea, a sort of American Brezhnev, a Troika in the Oval Office. Inspired.
Kennedy was a clever move - we did something different in our version but just making him an old, crippled man thanks to his Addison's is an entirely logical choice. I like the idea of a second FLOTUS-that-was-really-POTUS.
Carter, liberal icon taken from us too soon? Sounds like a perfect inversion: a man who is well-remembered because the world saw too little of him, rather than a man disliked because he had to deal with far too much.
Not-so-slick-Willy is again, plausible, you use his heart troubles well to create a stiff figure (so to speak...). Bush Jr as a loudmouthed national healer is inspired.
I await Barry with interest, will he have a fate similar to Blair in Shuffling The Deck? No expectations, turns out to be a massive reformer and the public grows to love him?
This is amazing. I'm not sure which I like more, National Healer Dubya or Stiff Willy...
Thande
Donor
B. Hussein Obama
(Democratic)
2005-2009
Blythe’s successor would be one of his staunchest critics. A man who as a Congressman had voted against the war in South Africa and had then won a Senate seat in 2002, many imagined that Hussein Obama would be a future Democratic Presidential nominee, but certainly not as early as he was. In the Democratic Party that Blythe had rebuilt with its southern tilt, it is certainly true that there were plenty of people who loudly proclaimed the Carter vision of a racially blind nation—but hemmed and hawed when faced with the reality of a half-black President. (Obama himself was careful to never even bring up the issue and threw it back in the face of his critics by saying that to even talk about race would be disrespectful of that Carter vision). Nonetheless he naturally won strong support from African American voters, including many who had been Republican until the Ford Administration. He was quick to use the new technologies (at least in the USA) of satellite TV and the Intergrid, organising his campaign in a new way and defeating opponents such as John Edwards and Mario Cuomo.
The Republicans vacillated between being unable to believe their luck at this potential split, and angsting over whether it was right to exploit it or not. In the end their nominee, the distinguished veteran of the Iranian War John McCain, refused to bring Obama’s race into the election either. He did, however, accuse him of deliberately going by his middle name to draw a comparison with America’s popular ally and great friend in the wars against the Iranian Communists, Saddam Hussein—particularly considering that his real first name would instead invite comparisons with Ehud Barak and his controversial war with Jordan. Nonetheless, only twelve years after Ford no Republican could beat a Democratic nominee even with the racial issue, and Obama was elected with fifty-five percent of the vote.
He immediately faced controversy for his attempts to make proper reforms to American welfare, which had remained somewhat lukewarm under Blythe. In particular his decision to split up the single national health authority created by Rumsfeld as an arm of the US military (whose idea had been to deny healthcare to those found ‘contrary to the greater good of the nation’) into many small private companies met with fierce opposition from some quarters on both sides of the aisle. His failure to bring peace to South Africa after pledging to also brought him in for some criticism, and in 2006 the Republicans regained control of the House for the first time in twelve years. Nonetheless, with Obama’s potent campaign organisation, even if some of his policies were unpopular it would take a serious effort by the Republicans to defeat him. And, most importantly, the right man...
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