WI: Lyndon Johnson dies of a heart attack in 1955

JBJ survived a near-fatal heart attack while Senate Majority Leader in 1955. For better or worse Johnson was probably the prime player in American politics from 1958 until his forced abdication in 1968. Even before becoming vice-president he dominated the Senate and was a prime advocate of space exploration. What would be some of the effects on American political history if he had died from his 1955 heart attack?
 
Well, Kennedy might decide to pick either Symington or Jackson as his running mate in 1960. Not sure weither this will help him or not if he does goes on in the General election.
 
If that happened then Earle Clements, the whip, would become Majority Leader instead of Mansfield. Clements was more Pelosi, Mansfield more Reid if you get my drift. In 1960 JFK picks Symington or Jackson and loses to Nixon because he doesn't carry the Southern states needed to win. So Nixon in 1960 with all the attendant consequences.
 
JFK neede support of traditional Southern Democrats*. to get the presidential candidate.
and Southern Democrats demand that Johnson became Vice Presidential running mate.

even with Johnson death in 1955 it will change not much
the Southern Democrats will demand that one of there Senator become Vice Presidential running mate.
the prospective candidates are Stuart Symington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Symington
or Hubert "HHH" Humphrey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Humphrey

*
Southern Democrats are group of powerful positions inside the U.S. Democratic Party.
formt by Senators, congressmen from Southern federal states of U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Democrats
 
HHH was part of the "Stop Kennedy" coalition
let by LBJ and Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington and other Southern Democrats as members
HHH was the one who spoke out at the 1948 convention in favor of civil rights and caused the Dixiecrats to walk out, dude. A Kennedy/HHH ticket is ASB since they'll lose the South. HHH was part of the "Stop Kennedy" coalition because he wanted to be the nominee in '60.
 

bguy

Donor
JBJ survived a near-fatal heart attack while Senate Majority Leader in 1955. For better or worse Johnson was probably the prime player in American politics from 1958 until his forced abdication in 1968. Even before becoming vice-president he dominated the Senate and was a prime advocate of space exploration. What would be some of the effects on American political history if he had died from his 1955 heart attack?

In 1957 Johnson as Majority Leader was instrumental in blocking an attempt by Richard Nixon and the Senate's liberals to repeal the fillibuster. Assuming that the added power of being Majority Leader is enough to get Clements reelected in 1956, what will he do on the fillibuster issue? Clements seems to have been at least somewhat sympathetic to civil rights but did he care enough to be willing to go to war with Richard Russell?

Assuming fillibuster repeal/reform doesn't happen and history pretty much runs as it did until 1960, is there really no other Southener that Kennedy could put on the ticket? What about George Smathers or Al Gore Sr?
 
is there really no other Southener that Kennedy could put on the ticket? What about George Smathers or Al Gore Sr?


Smathers is definitely possible. He and JFK were good friends and his stance on Civil Rights might appeal to southern bigotries.
 
Kennedy loses, another Democrat wins in 1964, and the is neither a Vietnam War with U.S. boots on the ground nor a Soviet attempt to arm Cuba with nuclear weapons.
 
Smathers would be far too segregationist and conservative for the Northerners, centrists and liberals alike, to say nothing of blacks. Al Gore Sr. is a possibility but was seen as a traitor for being a liberal generally and more specifically for refusing to sign the Southern Manifesto in '56. Remember IOTL that the New Dealer LBJ caused Big Labor and liberals to go batshit insane on RFK.
 

bguy

Donor
Smathers would be far too segregationist and conservative for the Northerners, centrists and liberals alike, to say nothing of blacks. Al Gore Sr. is a possibility but was seen as a traitor for being a liberal generally and more specifically for refusing to sign the Southern Manifesto in '56. Remember IOTL that the New Dealer LBJ caused Big Labor and liberals to go batshit insane on RFK.

The liberal Democrats put up with John Sparkman on the ticket in 1952. Is Smathers really that much less acceptable than Sparkman? Smathers did ultimately vote for the 1957 Civil Right Act after all. And the Northerners, centrists and liberals know that with a northern Catholic leading their ticket they are going to have to do something to mollify the South. Would they really rather lose with Symington than win with Smathers?

Likewise with Gore, the Democrats ran Kefauver for Veep just 4 years earlier, and AFAIK he was much more reviled in the South than Gore ever was. The Deep South states still voted Democrat in that election, so if the southern Democrats were able to choke down Kefauver they should be able to stomach Gore.
 
I doubt whether JFK would push for Smathers, but rather Gore seems more likely. Smathers wasn't known as a policy heavyweight in the Senate IIRC.
 
Yeah, one can't ignore the differences in public opinion on civil rights between '52 and '60 that easily... Sparkman may have been tolerated in '52, but those eight years made a difference outside of the Deep South - definitely unacceptable by '60 standards. The fifties began the age of TV, and that played a big role in the early civil rights movement. Specifically the Till murder, which was a difficult thing for anybody to stomach, racial preconceptions notwithstanding. People could see when something isn't right, and despite political tensions in South surrounding desegregation, Southern Democrats seeking to rise in the ranks as a national figure needed to play a more rational line.

As bguy stated, even the moderate by southern standards Kefauver didn't turn off most of the Solid South. A '60 version of Sparkman might excite the Southern Manifesto crowd, but would be less warmly received among the middle class in Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania...

Agreed that Gore Sr. could be a possibility.
 
RB might be able to add more, but there are by my count, all of four Southern Democrats with enough stature to be a prominent VP candidate in 1960 who did not sign the Southern Manifesto.

Al Gore Sr.
LBJ - TTL heart attack in '55
Kefauver - lost with Stevenson in '56
Rayburn - 78 and dying of cancer

Pretty much just Tennessee and Texas. Other than Gore it is just easier to move away from the tradition of anointing a Southerner and go with Symington or Jackson.
 
And lose the South, therefore the election. Texas was less than 3% IOTL, which was mostly due to LBJ's presence on the ticket. With one of them, and Nixon picking Dirksen instead of the dead weight Lodge, carrying TX, HI, MO, NJ gets you 307-226-8. The only election since WWII, probably of the 20th century, where the VP made the difference between a win and a loss.
 
Well Symington, if he is the running mate, probably keeps Missouri in line. IL is gone though with Dirksen. That and TX, surely flipped and yeah, game over...

Even if one runs with the most extreme belief of vote fraud in Chicago, it wouldn't save the state for Kennedy. As Hugh Hewitt says: if it's not close, they can't cheat.

NJ and HI were close enough to go either way at the slightest butterfly wingflap.
 
Another possibility for VP might have been Frank Clement, TN governor from '55-'59.

OTOH, governors really didn't get picked as running mates very often in those days. (Still don't, really.)
 
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