What if Joe Kennedy Jr had survived WWII, and went on to enter politics after the war instead of JFK?
 
Hard to say for sure. I think we can say, though, that JFK himself may never have gone into politics. It's my understanding that Joe Sr. always intended for Jr. to be the one with a political career, so John might've gone on to do something else. Possibly a businessman, writer, and/or an actor. With that said, assuming Jr. is the "primary" (or at least first) of the Kennedy sons to enter politics, he'd be at least a bit different from his brothers. I believe I've read that he was a bit more racist than the rest of them, so while I doubt a Massachusetts Democrat would be virulently anti-Civil Rights, he might be more of a "law and order", conservative Democrat in that way. I once did an AHC thread where the goal was to have a Kennedy/Wallace (or vice versa) ticket, and one of the suggestions was to have Jr. as the Kennedy for precisely that reason.
 
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Jack goes out to Hollywood to run the Kennedy businesses out there, RKO comes to mind. Gets in volved in the Hollywood/Beverly Hill scene and without his dad right there maybe becomes a little bit more of a playboy than IRL. Also with Joe Jr. living, and Jack does everything he did in WW2, JFK might just get the CMH.
 
Hard to say for sure. I think we can say, though, that JFK himself may never have gone into politics. It's my understanding that Joe Sr. always intended for Jr. to be the one with a political career, so John might've gone on to do something else. Possibly a businessman, writer, and/or an actor. With that said, assuming Jr. is the "primary" (or at least first) of the Kennedy sons to enter politics, he'd be at least a bit different from his brothers. I believe I've read that he was a bit more racist than the rest of them, so while I doubt a Massachusetts Democrat would be virulently anti-Civil Rights, he might be more of a "law and order" , conservative Democrat in that way. I once did an AHC thread where the goal was to have a Kennedy/Wallace (or vice versa) ticket, and one of the suggestions was to have Jr. as the Kennedy for precisely that reason.

Before politics JFK wanted to be a journalist. And yes, Joe Jr had an ugly side - he was an anti-semite like his dad.

In the long term, Joe Jr most likely follows JFK's path and is elected to the House in 1946 before running for the Senate in 1952. But whether or not he'd win is difficult to determine. JFK's victory over Lodge was a narrow upset enabled by Lodge's complacency and Jack's vigorous campaign throughout the state. By election day JFK had visited every city and town in Massachusetts and he used Kennedy "Tea Parties" to mobilize female voters. It's unknowable if Joe Jr would have done the same. FWIW, in "A Thousand Days" Arthur Schlesinger - Joe Jr's Harvard classmate - states that he doesn't think Joe Jr would have been elected President.
 
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