WI: National Union 1944

What if FDR followed Lincoln’s lead and picked a pro-war member of the opposing party for his Vice President in 1944? Say he picks Thomas Dewey, for instance. Is this plausible? If it is plausible, is Thomas Dewey the most likely pick? I say no because he is from NY as is FDR, but no one else comes to mind. Assuming FDR dies as per OTL, what would be the outcome of a Republican being President?
 
Arthur Vandenberg is probably the most plausible if anyone, while I think he was isolationist before Pearl Harbor he became very staunchly pro-war and internationalist afterward. He is also famous for saying that politics ends at the border or words to that effect - that we should all work together in the international community to promote American interests. I don't know if this quote is from the war or postwar,but he was quite internationalist after the war, too.
 
What if FDR followed Lincoln’s lead and picked a pro-war member of the opposing party for his Vice President in 1944? Say he picks Thomas Dewey, for instance. Is this plausible? If it is plausible, is Thomas Dewey the most likely pick? I say no because he is from NY as is FDR, but no one else comes to mind. Assuming FDR dies as per OTL, what would be the outcome of a Republican being President?

IIRC wasn't Dewey only a Republican because he stood against FDR after the nationalization of some Electricity company in the late 30s - before then he and FDR had been friends?

So if that was the case he might not be as 'Republican' as might otherwise have been the case.

Edit: I'm an idiot that was Willkie - carry on
 
Arthur Vandenberg is probably the most plausible if anyone, while I think he was isolationist before Pearl Harbor he became very staunchly pro-war and internationalist afterward. He is also famous for saying that politics ends at the border or words to that effect - that we should all work together in the international community to promote American interests. I don't know if this quote is from the war or postwar,but he was quite internationalist after the war, too.

I believe he also had some conservative credentials/baggage on the New Deal, depending on who you ask.
 
He is also an interesting figure because he went from being internationalist in the early 30s to one of the leading isolationists in the late 30s to being a committed internationalist post-Pearl Harbor
 
In any case, the conservative coalition in Congress would move to repeal the New Deal and move back to laissez-faire governance as soon as WW2 ended. IIRC Truman only saved the New Deal IOTL by saying to the conservatives 'okay, if you don't like the New Deal, I'm going to institute single-payer healthcare, repealing Taft-Hartley, all that stuff, and if you disagree I am going to take it to the American people and see how they like it'. While he didn't get any of that through Congress, it did ensure that they wouldn't repeal the New Deal from that point onwards.

Now, Vandenberg wouldn't do anything like that (mainly because he was a conservative) but Dewey might have. IIRC Dewey and Truman weren't too ideologically opposed from one another, but Truman was probably the better politician of the two of them, hence why he won in 1948. With that said, if Dewey were able to politic his way into keeping the New Deal without any concessions, he'd likely win in 1948 and give way to Eisenhower in 1952. If Vandenberg repealed the New Deal, or Dewey ended up conceding the New Deal to the conservatives, Truman would likely run full-force on a social democratic platform and win 1948 in a landslide.
 
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In any case, the conservative coalition in Congress would move to repeal the New Deal and move back to laissez-faire governance as soon as WW2 ended. IIRC Truman only saved the New Deal IOTL by saying to the conservatives 'okay, if you don't like the New Deal, I'm going to institute single-payer healthcare, repealing Taft-Hartley, all that stuff, and if you disagree I am going to take it to the American people and see how they like it'. While he didn't get any of that through Congress, it did ensure that they wouldn't repeal the New Deal from that point onwards.

Now, Vandenberg wouldn't do anything like that (mainly because he was a conservative) but Dewey might have. IIRC Dewey and Truman weren't too ideologically opposed from one another, but Truman was probably the better politician of the two of them, hence why he won in 1948. With that said, if Dewey were able to politic his way into keeping the New Deal without any concessions, he'd likely win in 1948 and give way to Eisenhower in 1952. If Vandenberg repealed the New Deal, or Dewey ended up conceding the New Deal to the conservatives, Truman would likely run full-force on a social democratic platform and win 1948 in a landslide.

Vandenberg may not repeal much of the New Deal, just its “worst excesses” imo
 
In any case, the conservative coalition in Congress would move to repeal the New Deal and move back to laissez-faire governance as soon as WW2 ended. IIRC Truman only saved the New Deal IOTL by saying to the conservatives 'okay, if you don't like the New Deal, I'm going to institute single-payer healthcare, repealing Taft-Hartley, all that stuff, and if you disagree I am going to take it to the American people and see how they like it'. While he didn't get any of that through Congress, it did ensure that they wouldn't repeal the New Deal from that point onwards.

Now, Vandenberg wouldn't do anything like that (mainly because he was a conservative) but Dewey might have. IIRC Dewey and Truman weren't too ideologically opposed from one another, but Truman was probably the better politician of the two of them, hence why he won in 1948. With that said, if Dewey were able to politic his way into keeping the New Deal without any concessions, he'd likely win in 1948 and give way to Eisenhower in 1952. If Vandenberg repealed the New Deal, or Dewey ended up conceding the New Deal to the conservatives, Truman would likely run full-force on a social democratic platform and win 1948 in a landslide.

I agree with some of this but Truman isn't likely to be the nominee in 1948 - in 1944 he wasn't nationally known, and he was only nominated for VP as a compromise. And if the Democrats did win in 1948 it wouldn't be in a landslide - FDR's successor would be an incumbent President with a strong economy. Historically those candidates have been difficult to beat, as Truman's example shows. IMO it's more likely that a Democrat narrowly wins in 1948. And unless he handles the Korean War, McCarthyism, and the economy differently a Republican wins in 1952.
 
A national unity ticket with Roosevelt-Vandenberg sounds actually pretty plausible and would make for a great TL I imagine.
 
A national unity ticket with Roosevelt-Vandenberg sounds actually pretty plausible and would make for a great TL I imagine.

I disagree. Vandenberg was a powerful Republican Senator who would never give up that power to be the No. 2 man to his greatest political enemy. Even if Vandenberg thought it might eventually make him President, I doubt that Vandenberg's pride or sense of allegiance to the GOP would allow him to join FDR's ticket.
 
I disagree. Vandenberg was a powerful Republican Senator who would never give up that power to be the No. 2 man to his greatest political enemy. Even if Vandenberg thought it might eventually make him President, I doubt that Vandenberg's pride or sense of allegiance to the GOP would allow him to join FDR's ticket.

I bet he could be persuaded to do it, for the good of the country. Especially if other Republicans such as Dewey and Stassen heavily encourage him to.
 
A national unity ticket with Roosevelt-Vandenberg sounds actually pretty plausible and would make for a great TL I imagine.

The only question would be how would you get there? Would the war have to go significantly worse for both parties to decide they need to unify around a notion of defeating the Nazis and Imperial Japan? I think Vandenberg is a solid pick if only because of his staunch belief that “politics ends at the water’s edge”
 
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