What if HP Lovecraft became President of the United States?

He would obviously be a fairly bad president and it would take some substantial divergences for it to occur. Would he have allied with Hitler, how would World War 2 have gone with an isolationist U.S with a president that might go insane under the pressure and think Elder Abominations are after him.
 
How on Earth would somebody so introverted and withdrawn from public life end up as President? I can't imagine him shaking hands and kissing babies on the campaign trail.
 
How on Earth would somebody so introverted and withdrawn from public life end up as President? I can't imagine him shaking hands and kissing babies on the campaign trail.

Didn't he spend his last years living with a bunch of female relatives? No shame(I did that at the same age, in fact), but I could really see it getting in the way of projecting the reuqisite manly image.
 
Here's an idea...

Instead of the Presidency itself, Lovecraft becomes the Steve Bannon of his day. As I understand it, his views on race and culture were pretty close to what is now called alt-right.

But who would be his Donald?
 
It would be pretty hard to do considering his background and personality. You'd have to have a PoD before 1908, when he suffered a nervous breakdown that stopped him from graduating high school. He was apparently a highly intelligent child, so he could become a lawyer or businessman (the latter is more likely as it would not involve interacting with people in courtrooms and his grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, was a businessman). From there, it would be relatively easy for him to go into politics. I can see him becoming a Joe Kennedy-style Northern conservative Democrat, probably starting out in state legislature and before moving on to governor/representative/senator. As far as I know, "shaking hands and kissing babies" wasn't as big a part of politics back then, but he was still a severe introvert who suffered from panic attacks, so you'd have to have some major change in his personality for him to be suited for office.

At some point, the Democrats somehow get it into their heads that he would be a good nominee. I guess, as a Rhode Island reactionary, he could appease both Northerners and Southerners in a contested convention. To win, he would have to face a situation like 1932 (i.e. against an extremely unpopular Republican). There is no way that America would ally with the Nazis or a similar regime, but Lovecraft would certainly advocate for neutrality. He would not handle the stress of the presidency well at all, and I can see him dying early in his term.
 
Here's an idea...

Instead of the Presidency itself, Lovecraft becomes the Steve Bannon of his day. As I understand it, his views on race and culture were pretty close to what is now called alt-right.

But who would be his Donald?

Robert E. Howard (who geographically balances the ticket)
 
One would basically have to start with a POD from Lovecraft's birth.

He's sickly and didn't exactly have the most stable of childhoods between his father's breakdown, the financial issues after his grandfather's death, his own breakdown in 1908...
 
Is there any reason to assume he would have even tried to ally with Hitler (let alone succeeded - the USA wasn't exactly a dictatorship subject to the whims of one man)?
And there's definitely no reason to assume he'd go crazy and start thinking Nyarlathotep is real or something.
 
Is there any reason to assume he would have even tried to ally with Hitler (let alone succeeded - the USA wasn't exactly a dictatorship subject to the whims of one man)?
And there's definitely no reason to assume he'd go crazy and start thinking Nyarlathotep is real or something.

Given his health, and the probable period he would have been elected, he's more likely to be bungling the Depression than fighting in World War II.
 
Is there any reason to assume he would have even tried to ally with Hitler (let alone succeeded - the USA wasn't exactly a dictatorship subject to the whims of one man)?
In at least one private letter, he referred to Hitler as a "profoundly sincere & patriotic" chap, so he might be sympathetic to him if WWII happened like IOTL. Of course, an American-Nazi alliance would be ASB unless circumstances were significantly changed.
 
In at least one private letter, he referred to Hitler as a "profoundly sincere & patriotic" chap, so he might be sympathetic to him if WWII happened like IOTL. Of course, an American-Nazi alliance would be ASB unless circumstances were significantly changed.

OTOH, he also criticized Hitler and denounced his ideology in various different ways. And, while he held some anti-Semitic beliefs, he was also married to a Russian Jewish woman.
 
In at least one private letter, he referred to Hitler as a "profoundly sincere & patriotic" chap, so he might be sympathetic to him if WWII happened like IOTL. Of course, an American-Nazi alliance would be ASB unless circumstances were significantly changed.

OTOH, he also criticized Hitler and denounced his ideology in various different ways. And, while he held some anti-Semitic beliefs, he was also married to a Russian Jewish woman.

Lovecraft seems to be fairly inconsistent over how his opinion of Hitler, and his wife always reminded him that he was sleeping with a Jewish Woman.

There's least one private letter where he expressed distaste for German immigrants, and he seemed to have a thing against German Militarism as well.

President Lovecraft is liable to have at least some of these issues, but at the same time his life would have to be so radically different from OTL's Lovecraft it's hard to figure how bad.

The only two issues I can still he him have is his distaste for blacks and his stance on immigration.
 
I feel like that if he didn't have all the issues at childhood, his whole life and personality would be completely different. He'd be unrecognisable...
 
The tragic suicide of Vice President Howard during Lovecraft's second (or third) term is what led naval officer Hubbard to become the new veep.
 
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