WI: President James G. Blaine in 1884?

Seemingly quite a number of people here are quite negative towards him, some even say he would potentially become one of the worst presidents, but why? If he won the election, how would his presidency go? I have no specific knowledge on this man, and while I, like everybody here, have read Turtledove's TL191, it should not be regarded as historical knowledge. But why? What the heck is with all the hatred towards Blaine?
 
He is considered to be immensely corrupt (although I don't know the specifics), IIRC pushed discriminatory anti-Catholic policies and was tarred by having appeared at am event with a radical Protestant pastor; this last point actually swung the election to Cleveland, as even then Irish Catholics were an important enough voting bloc to make or break a candidate in the major northeastern cities.
 
Obligatory TL-191 comment: No chance, ASB. He's doomed to go down in flames.

RL Comment: Hmm... That would be interesting, but voter fatigue was starting to hit the American people. Remember 1876 was technically a Dem win if you go by PV, and 1880 was very close in PV too... Blaine's fighting against odds.
 

Abhakhazia

Banned
Having done some reasearch, I think he could win in 1876 if the corruption scandal didn't come out and he clenched the nomination, but it's unlikely he could win against Cleveland in '84.
 
Having done some reasearch, I think he could win in 1876 if the corruption scandal didn't come out and he clenched the nomination, but it's unlikely he could win against Cleveland in '84.
Have John St John either drop out in favor of Blaine, or have the Republicans not actively attack him, and Blaine might carry New York and thus the election.

I mean, it was a matter of less than 1,100 votes, and St John carried around 25,000. I would hardly call a Blaine victory unlikely, though he certainly did his utmost to sabotage his chances.
 
Have John St John either drop out in favor of Blaine, or have the Republicans not actively attack him, and Blaine might carry New York and thus the election.

I mean, it was a matter of less than 1,100 votes, and St John carried around 25,000. I would hardly call a Blaine victory unlikely, though he certainly did his utmost to sabotage his chances.

But how would his presidency go then?
 
But how would his presidency go then?

He would have a very international policy, doing what he could to increase American influence throughout the America's and Asia based on economic reasoning (in addition to mitigating British influence, largely in the former), and to a smaller extent Africa (of which Madagascar he was particularly interested in, for reasoning I don't readily have access to). Blaine also was a strong proponent for a form of Pan-Americanism, which I imagine would be similar to the OAS as it exists today.

Going by what he sought to do as the Secretary of State from '89-'92, he would push for earlier dominance of the Hawaiian Islands for fear of them falling to the British, if not annexed than as a protectorate of Washington. Blaine was also genuinely interested in the acquisition of Samoa, and may have managed to take it in his entirety, provided he acted with proper haste, though it would harm relations with the British and Germans who also had interests in the area.

Expanding on Blaine's Pan-Americanism, when the International Conference of American States was held in 1890 (the original cancelled in 1881), Blaine was hoping to establish a Custom's Union between the various American States, to construct a Pan-American Railway, and to establish an Organization or process to peacefully deal with issues between the various American States. There were also interests of territorial annexation, but these were not expressed publicly, and were largely limited to Hawaii given Blaine realized that his other two major acquisitions, Puerto Rico and Cuba, were not to be acquired without major diplomatic exertion.

Blaine did still cling on to his Protectionist past however, in ways that benefited the United States; while he was fully supportive of Free Trade with the Americas and other parts of the World, he was wholly against Free Trade with Europe, for fear that it would adversely effect the American economy. I don't have enough knowledge here to dispute that notion, but I suppose it could be true, to an extent.

As for his Domestic Agenda in detail, the closest I could gauge would be what occurred, or what was to occur, in James Garfield's Presidency, given he and Blaine for the most part walked in step together while the two worked in the White House, Blaine essentially serving as his Vizier.


Edit:
As an aside, he was also a strong proponent for a Canal through Central America. I believe he favored the Panama option however, contrary to popular political opinion at the time that sought to build a Canal through Nicaragua.


Edit2: And of course, how could I forget; he would pass a number of discriminatory measures against Roman Catholics if he could. Effectively he was a Know-Nothing in that regard, though all his vitrol was almost exclusively directed towards Papists rather than Immigrants.
 
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