Don Henley's exit from music leads to environmental activism and an eventual political career. After joining the Democrats, Henley wins a special election for the United States House of Representatives in 1985 over former football star Edd Hargett.
IOTL: Hargett lost the X-1 election to Jim Chapman.
Henley goes to the Ways and Means Committee, and despite his environmental agenda clashing with the Democratic House Majority Leader, Jim Wright (also of Texas), heavily backed by the oil industry, Henley passes two bills, turning Caddo Lake near his Texas hometown into a federally protected wildlife refuge, and a bill co-signed by Specter advocating for worldwide use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. The latter was inspired by “Understanding AIDS,” an eight-page pamphlet mailed to every household in America in 1986 at the direction of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
IOTL: Chapman came under Wright's wing and assigned to the Steering and Policy Committee, more in line with W. Henley was a co-founder of Caddo Lake Institute, who helped in October 1993 to turn Caddo Lake became one of thirteen areas in the United States protected by the Ramsar Convention. “Understanding Aids” was released in 1988.
Henley is re-elected in 1986 by a 36 point margin, again facing Hargett.
IOTL: Chapman run unopposed in 1986.
Ronald Reagan wins all 50 states in the 1984 election.
IOTL: Walter Mondale's only victory was in his home state of Minnesota.
Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila, condemned Surgeon General Koop and President Reagan as “agents of Satan” for what he viewed as the promotion of condoms throughout the U.S. Cardinal Sin was immediately recalled to the Holy See to begin drafting what would become the official Vatican Statement on Condom Use. Returning home to try and aid in the unrest that followed a fraudulent re-election by Ferdinand Marcos, Cardinal Sin is detained and subsequently arrested at Manila International Airport. A violent conflict ensues, lasting for two weeks until the military forces aligned with the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) storm Macalan Palace, killing President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda. Vice-President Tolentino escapes temporarily into hiding; he would eventually be caught, captured, and executed. Defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile declares himself the sovereign government of the Philippines, dissolving the Batasang Pambansa and promising a “new Constitution.” Although Enrile would promise that opposition leader Corazon Aquino would have “a place” in his new government, Aquino would subsequently retire from political life. Cardinal Sin would remain in prison.
IOTL: Sin was a major influence in not turning the Philippine Revolution of 1986 (aka People Power Revolution) into a violent conflict. Corazon Aquino was inaugurated as the 11th president of the Philippines on February 25, and that same day Ferdinand Marcos called the US Military for help - the Marcos family departed at night in a helicopter, and exiled themselves in Hawaii, where Ferdinand died in 1989. The revolutionaries raided the palace afterwards, and found indicators of the kleptocracy such as Imelda's immense collection of shoes. Imelda eventually returned to the Philippines in the 1990s, being elected four times to the House of Representatives, and still lives in 2016. Tolentino then would launch a coup on July 6, 1986 declaring that since Marcos was in exile, he was constitutionally the acting President of the Philippines, but lack of support made it fail. Tolentino eventually became a Senator in 1992, and died in 2004. Enrile became a Senator starting in 1987.
In 1989, New York City elects Bernhard Goetz as its new mayor over the incumbent of three mandates, Ed Koch. A folk hero of the vigilantism movement ever since he shot three people in self-defense in 1984, leading to a lawsuit eventually dropped in 1986, Goetz would be elected advocating for an anti-crime initiative, which depended more on the citizens than the police. First came the relaxation of New York City’s gun control laws, dubbed “Defend Yourself.” Next were the ordinances expanding citizens’ arrest rights and self-defense laws to include the “defense of one’s personal space or others,” often called “Don’t Back Down.” And finally, there were the city-wide efforts to redirect law enforcement to the prosecution of petty street crime, called (after Wilson’s famous monograph) “Fixing Broken Windows.”
IOTL: The tide of public opinion turned against Goetz in 1986, and he was ultimately indicted and charged with attempted murder, assault in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon (a third-degree felony). The mostly-white jury found Goetz not guilty of the first two charges, but convicted him on the weapons charge; he was sentenced to six months in jail, plus psychiatric treatment, community service, and a $5,000 fine. Goetz appealed; the appellate court actually increased his sentence to one year. Goetz would serve eight months before being released for good behavior and other earned credits. In 1996, one of the shot men, who had been left paraplegic and brain damaged as a result of his injuries, obtained a civil judgment of $43 million against Goetz. 1989 had David Dinkins (who won the Democratic primaries over Koch) becoming Mayor of New York, defeating his eventual successor Rudy Giuliani. “Fixing Broken Windows” was part of Giuliani's eight year mandate, which did reduce rates of both petty and serious crime significantly. “Don't Back Down” is an analogue to the Stand-your-ground laws.