Wimble Toot
Banned
^^ Looks like you'll have to write the TLs @Augenis, because I'm sure no-one else will!
Underused Political PODs
- Thread starter Hubert Humphrey Fan 1968
- Start date
Wimble Toot
Banned
Seems to be USA/UK/Nazi Germany threads that take up most of the bandwidth in Post 1900, alas...
Thomas1195
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Can we somehow make a TL that involves a Dewey Presidency with Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren would make sure that the Civil Right Movement gey the same progress as IOTL while Dewey would go after the mobs.
You know, I know this is in after 1900, but an interesitng one I would like to see is a John C Calhoun gets invested with the Presidency in 1825 because the house can't decided between Clay,Jackson and Adams.
Anchises
Banned
Well an interesting POD would be a 1949 German Federal Election with an SPD win. Kurt Schumacher as Chancellor would have probably accepted the Stalin Note.
3 different and very interesting ways this could go:
Stalin really infiltrates the united Germany and we have a much stronger WP.
In the next election the CDU wins and the (now united) Germany goes down the path of Westbindung. Leaving the Soviets bitter possibly escalating the CW much more.
A neutral Germany actually works out and is an effective buffer. The main Battlefield of the CW is Asia and not Europe.
3 different and very interesting ways this could go:
Stalin really infiltrates the united Germany and we have a much stronger WP.
In the next election the CDU wins and the (now united) Germany goes down the path of Westbindung. Leaving the Soviets bitter possibly escalating the CW much more.
A neutral Germany actually works out and is an effective buffer. The main Battlefield of the CW is Asia and not Europe.
I think the third option would be the most likely. I don't see how the Soviets would be able to effectively infiltrate and subvert without having their troops all over it whilst a reunified Germany is one where the CDU is at a demographic disadvantage (the regions that became the DDR were left-wing strongholds during the Weimar Republic and are mostly Protestants both of which are a problem for the Catholic dominated CDU). Add to that the fact that the SPD would likely get the credit for peacefully unifying Germany and keeping them out of a potential nuclear war the SPD would most likely become Germany's natural party of government.
This may just lead to LBJ picking Eugene McCarthy as his running mate, which is interesting to say the least.
- Impeachment of Roh Moo Hyun confirmed by supreme court.
- Yun Seok-Yang never leaks The illegal inspections of civilians at the Defense Security Command.
- 2011 Free Lunch Referendum is turnout higher than 33.3%, and gradual free lunch is voted in as the result of Referendum. Oh Se-Hun, the mayor of Seoul doesn't resign.
Bulldoggus
Banned
I actually disagree there. He said himself that he lost in 1958 because he was "out [N Word]ed", and that he would never be "out [N Word]ed again." Should he win as a moderate, he would almost certainly not become famous as the demonic face of anti-integration, and I could even see him trying to jump straight to the national level as a Southern Liberal (given he loved him some big gub'mint, besides when it was integrating his schools).
Bulldoggus
Banned
I don't care for the "have a bus hit him" method, but "Ike chooses a different VP" is criminally underused (as is Ike booting Nixon over Checkers).
Great point on the latter. Nixon bombs the speech or Ike never gives him the chance. Ike chooses someone else, probably Stassen from my understanding. Of course, big ramifications for Nixon's career, Stassen's, and American history.
Bulldoggus
Banned
Stassen may have been too liberal, and he doesn't bring that big and rapidly growing California vote. Now Thomas Kuchel, on the other hand...
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Also good. I was going for a world in which Nixon never becomes a political figure -- no Hiss case, no Helen Douglas campaign, just nothing. Killing him off was a shorthand device for that, nothing more.
Or an alternative career: "After graduating from Duke, Nixon initially hoped to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He received no response to his letter of application and learned years later that he had been hired, but his appointment had been canceled at the last minute due to budget cuts." - what if he becomes an FBI agent? KIA or becomes Hoover's understudy, replacement
Bulldoggus
Banned
@Emperor Julian has been working on a multi-part TL called "Ruins of the American Party System", and Special Agent Nixon is a big character there. It's a good TL, definitely check it out.
Knowland. Really make Taft pound sand, put yet another serious Cold Warrior in the on-deck circle after Ike, and if you have him choose a running mate from a border state in 1960 he could give the Dems fits and have some very interesting butterflies.
Also as above, HHH gets over his Potomac Fever and says no to Johnson. Titanic butterflies. If allowed to speak his mind on the war he's the obvious liberal candidate in '68 or if LBJ runs for reelection in '72. Big ripples for the New Left and for the politics of labor because then Humphrey is anti-war but has a *lot* more pull with the unions than a farm-state idealist like McGovern.
On a related note, William Loeb doesn't buy the Manchester Union-Leader in 1943/44 and (1) make it a beacon of right wing editorializing and (2) the endorsement of record as the New Hampshire primary becomes ever more important (and, among other ripples, the primary infection vector for the Canuck Letter in 1972 and the rescuer of Reagan's temporarily foundering campaign in 1980.)
Bulldoggus
Banned
Also then McCarthey would be Humphrey without a constituency. It would be really fascinating if LBJ chose McGovern, although you're the guy to speculate as to how such would ultimately play out.