Unfortunate Son

[Oldiesfreak1854]

You realize that Agnew was very pro-civil rights, don't you?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

When Agnew ran for governor of Maryland in 1966, he defeated segregationist Democrat George Mahoney, whose slogan was "Your home is your castle: protect it."  This was intended to express opposition to fair housing laws.  Agnew won largely because of crossover support from pro-civil rights Democrats.  As governor, Agnew signed Maryland's first open housing law and repealed the ban on interracial marriage.  He was pro-law and order and po-civil rights at the same time.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm sorry, where in mythread does it state something regarding Agnew and Civil Rights? I can best address complaints when I know what they're about.

Somebody mentioned something about Agnew and law and order.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm sorry, where in mythread does it state something regarding Agnew and Civil Rights? I can best address complaints when I know what they're about.

Somebody mentioned something about Agnew and law and order.

Yes - that Agnew criticized some civil rights protestors for "rabble rousing." (I'm paraphrashing here, but if need be I can drive over to the library and check the Nixon book out again for some citation.)

Being for "law and order," an outright segregationist does not make, even during the 60's when the phrase had certain connotations. And as you yourself stated,

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So, what's the problem?

Nothing.  Thank you for a much-needed breath of fresh air Dallasfan!

[Oldiesfreak1854]

So Mr. Oldies, what are your thoughts on the state of America, and the attitudes of our friend Christian Mattingly, at this point in history?

I think they could use some work.  As for Mattingly, I think he's a decent politician, although a little too rough around the edges for my liking.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Who's Beauregard Disraeli?  Is he from another version of Americana?  And did you create the map of Jefferson Dent's Senate election in 1968?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Great updates!  But it's spelled "Esch," not "Esche."

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Great update.  I love his Christmas Eve conversation.

BTW, how did Brewer become president?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

July 4th, 2004
Mattingly was glad he'd chosen to spend the holiday in the country. Better than his office at least. Damn the assholes he'd have to face when he got back. "These are dark days for the Republic, my friend." he muttered as he grasped the bottle of Jack Daniels in his right hand. Here he was, feet on desk in a darkened office as he watched the countryside explode with light. "A million bullet holes in the sky... and out of them rains fiery blood..." he thought in a rare moment of poetry not authored by his speech writers. He'd seen the sky fill with light, Armageddon make the stars bleed and men scream. "The Tet Offensive..." he whispered. Just to hear the sound of it. Nights of gore and death. It was there he'd rediscovered religion. It wouldn't be the last time it had taken trauma to turn him back to God. It figured that it was on nights he'd seen the sky fill with fire that he'd seen the face of God. "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done." Apocalypse had unfolded across the borders of his eyes. He'd seen creation burst asunder. All that was left was the work of the Lord. Mattingly, looking back on his nearly 56 years of existence, and the over 36 years since that first night of "Tet". Assuredly, he had done the Lord's will. God-- not history, as biased as that was--would judge him for that. It mattered not what the heathens and murderes and limp-wristed Washington sycophants said. As he leaned back and watched his panoramic view of the land behind his property--"Legally purchased off of profits of a morally administered business"--he felt content. He remembered the famous words of that one Southern band... "Kennedy does not bother me, but does your conscience bother you?"

October 9th, 1978
President Robert F. Kennedy sat down in the Oval Office, camera facing him from across the massive desk, he gulped. This was his last time doing this. "Ready Mr. President?" one of the camera crew asked him. After nearly six years of this, Kennedy had understandably grown accustomed to the majesty of the office. The massive Washington residence, the secret service escort, Hell, even the frustrations he would miss. What other man could have the frustration of having to finagle his way to passing an agenda for an entire nation? Were you to ask him one comment he had about the presidency at the moment, he would undoubtedly say "I f#cked up." He heard them count down. He gulped, sighed, and stared--ready for battle. The light came on.

"My fellow Americans. It is much to my regret that I am addressing you on this day of all days. Columbus Day has a special significance to all those of us in the Western Hemisphere. Were it not for the actions of those seeking a brave new world, we would not have been so blessed as to call this fruited plain ours, to lay claim to purple mountain majesties, and celebrate under sacred skies. It was in Plymouth Bay of the state I call home, Massachusetts, that brave Pilgrims made their new home. To our South, in Virginia, others came to make the Jamestown settlement. As our colonial roots were formed, we developed a greater sense of independence until the final drama of our revolution played out.

"From New England to Georgia, this was a national revolution, and from the battlefield to Continental Congress, ours was not born only of blood and fire. It was a revolution of ideals and principles. A commitment to good government, the rule of law, the proper limits o government, and the consent of the governed. Since those days, we have endured national strife and division, secession, depression, and two world wars. It is with the full weight of history bearing down on me that I address you today. We have faced congressional grid-lock in the past. However, only once have articles of impeachment been brought against the President of the United States. In the 1860's, following the death of Abraham Lincoln, the nation was left with a much lesser man at the helm. While Andrew Johnson doubtlessly attempted to bring the country together, his troubles only deepened as his term continued. Historians today look on the Tennessean as a failure as president.

"I have never been a quitter. Americans of all stripes are not known for their retreats. Nevertheless, for the good of the nation, I feel I must resign of the office of President of the United States of America. It would not serve the American people well to insist on serving out the remainder of my term. With articles of impeachment currently being pushed for, the agenda the public voted in favor of two years ago stalled, and international progress at a standstill, it is clear that we must take a bold and unprecedented approach in order to allow this country to move forward. Any legal troubles that members of my administration or myself will happen outside the confines of any public or political office. Vice President Albert Brewer, a dedicated public servant with a commitment to equality, opportunity, and civil rights, is well equipped to serve as Commander-in-Chief.

"Having occupied this office for nearly six years, I confess, I am uneasy in parting with it. Nevertheless, it is an action that must be undertaken for the sake of our beloved Republic. And so, my fellow Americans, this is the last time I am addressing you as President. America has seen better days, and will so under President Brewer. Thank you."

The light from the camera faded. He sat back. It was over. It seemed fitting that Ecclesiastes came to him at this moment. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have remained faithful." Had he remained faithful? In the light of what he had done, at what cost, and for what, he couldn't say with utter moral certitude that, in the end, he would be on the side of the angels. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and morosely faced the walk to Marine One.

The actions that had forced Robert F. Kennedy would face countless examinations over the course of the next few decades. The single sloppy break-in to Hubert H. Humphrey's Washington office, the secret network of extra-legal operatives working out of the White House basement, the wire-tapping of political opponents--real and perceived, and Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker's poignant question of "What did the President know, and when did he know it?", would all be subject to the judgement of history for years following.

Don't you mean 2 Timothy?  And New York was the state RFK represented in the Senate.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Nice work Cath!

BTW: Have you been reading my MacKenzie timeline?  (Shameless plug)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Nice work Cath!

BTW: Have you been reading my MacKenzie timeline?  (Shameless plug)

Thank you! And yes. However, it seems you stopped work.

Also, I'm planning on using MacKenzie as a nemesis to Mattingly. That good with you?

Sure, whatever you want.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

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I thought you said before that Mattingly voted for Milliken in 1978.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

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I thought you said before that Mattingly voted for Milliken in 1978.  And why is Griffin's name in bold?  He lost in 1978.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

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I thought you said before that Mattingly voted for Milliken in 1978.  And why is Griffin's name in bold?  He lost in 1978.

Check the '78 Senate map, bro. And I'll have to go and correct that if Mattingly voted Milliken. When I read Fitz's ourcampaigns.com page, I was like "Seems Mattingly'd vote for him."

OK.  I kind of thought the same thing.  You know I wouldn't have voted for him, of course, even if he was more conservative than Milliken.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

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I thought you said before that Mattingly voted for Milliken in 1978.  And why is Griffin's name in bold?  He lost in 1978.

Check the '78 Senate map, bro. And I'll have to go and correct that if Mattingly voted Milliken. When I read Fitz's ourcampaigns.com page, I was like "Seems Mattingly'd vote for him."

OK.  I kind of thought the same thing.  You know I wouldn't have voted for him, of course, even if he was more conservative than Milliken.

Naturally. And Mattingly had a track record of voting against Milliken to uphold.

Are you going to check to see if you need to correct anything?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Great job!  I can't wait to see how Hudson gets involved with Mattingly later.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm thinking like, maybe I should update this at some point? I dunno. With my schedule, my day's pretty clear unless some unexpected socializing comes up which is quite likely. Especially with November apparently being "write a novel" month, I should probably warm up my writing chops.

I know what you mean.  I need to get back to my timeline at some point, too.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Dole's middle initial is actually J (for Joseph.)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

The 1980 Democratic Primaries, Part II

The first contest of March would be Massachusetts on the 4th. While both Jackson and McGovern were looking at a good chance to capitalize on recent victories, for Brewer that battle was that of merely staying alive. Both McGovern and Jackson had good bases of support to work from. For Jackson, it would be Catholics and blue collar workers, while McGovern had college students, anti-war liberals, and intellectuals. Jackson and McGovern waged a hard fought campaign in the Bay State. However, with a last minute push by Brewer for middle class and working class voters, McGovern was able to win a narrow plurality. While Ted Kennedy was vocally non-committed, he was nonetheless satisfied to see Brewer, a man who in his view had disgraced his brother's legacy as commander-in-chief, take a distant third.

Nevertheless, the race now moved South and the incumbent was at last able to score several easy victories, taking Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma by good margins. McGovern, fresh off his double victory in New England (having taken Vermont the same day as Massachusetts), won nothing that day. It would be the hawk, ironically, that walked away with three Pacific victories. Jackson's home state of Washington went for him by well over 70%, and his record of support for Alaskan and Hawaiian statehood was able to overcome even the liberal leanings of Democrats in those states. Hawaii, of note, went only barely for Jackson as Vice President Daniel Inouye was able to get Brewer heavy turnout from Native and Asian voters. Political observers, when looking at obscure exit polls, would note that Jackson had nonetheless been competitive among Asians due to his hawkishness.

Illinois would be the first state that Brewer took outside the South. Managing to build up solid margins down state and taking a good chunk of the suburban Democratic vote (what of it there was), the President's victory was nonetheless under 40% of the vote. However, Jackson regained the advantage when he took both Connecticut and New York on March 25th. Both states had significant Catholic populations that Jackson, despite his Protestantism, had been working hard to win over. As well, Jews would vote heavily for the Israel-supporting "Senator from Boeing".

April would bode better for Brewer, however. While McGovern continued to build up support in small, rural states in the West and Mid-West and Jackson was able to use organized labor and industry to his advantage, Brewer worked hard to win the party's "solid center" and combine it with heavy favor from the South. He found himself campaigning both to his right and left to strengthen his coalition. This would help deliver him a plurality in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, where Jackson had been expecting victory. By the end of the month, the President had a delegate lead and was looking with hope towards May, where he would hopefully finish off his opponents with crucial wins in rural and Southern states, in which several primaries would be held.

Blue - Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington
Green - Former Secretary of State George McGovern of South Dakota
Red - President Albert P. Brewer of Alabama.

The 1980 Democratic Primaries, Part II

While Brewer had spent the last two months attempting to get onto equal footing with his primary opponents, the Republicans were seeming to be coming a lot closer to selecting a nominee. Dole had come out on top with a solid coalition of Mid-West voters that had delivered him states ranging from his home state of Kansas by an over 90% margin, to the much more liberal Illinois where he had triumphed despite not getting Charles Percy's endorsement and Congressman John Anderson campaigning heavily in favor of Weicker. Other victories, equally as narrow as that in Illinois, had occurred in New York and Florida, proving Dole's cross-regional success. In contrast, it seemed that Disraeli had virtually disappeared, that Weicker was isolated to the North-East and Pacific Coast, and that Grover was trapped in the South. Dole had even won Arizona, a state where Grover had been hoping dearly for victory. While Dole ended the month sourly, conceding Pennsylvania to Weicker thanks to the strength of liberal Republicans in the state, he nonetheless had a clear advantage over his opponents after his several victories. "This primary race has gone on too long," his campaign manager told him the night of his Pennsylvania loss. "If May doesn't end this, we may have to face a floor fight, and we are sure as Hell not doing that."

Blue - Senator Robert J. Dole of Kansas
Green - Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut
Red - Governor Henry "Hank" Grover of Texas
Yellow - Senator Beauregard Disraeli of Wyoming

You labeled both primaries as the Democratic primary.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Let's go Dole!

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Great job so far, Cathcon.  I need to get back to work on mine.  

And BTW, Malcolm Wilson was pro-life?  I could've sworn that he would be pro-choice, being a Republican from New York in the 70s.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Great job so far, Cathcon.  I need to get back to work on mine.  

And BTW, Malcolm Wilson was pro-life?  I could've sworn that he would be pro-choice, being a Republican from New York in the 70s.

Thanks.

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Sounds a lot like me, or how I suspect I would've been at that time.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Election Results
Running on a platform of a renewed and revitalized arms race with the Soviet Union in the name of defending America's national interests, reduced tax rates, social conservatism, and a balanced budget, Robert Joseph Dole was elected to be the 40th President of the United States of America. The landslide Republican victory would sweep all parts of the nation, though Dole's highest totals would come from the "farm belt", where not only was he its favorite son, but it would profit the most from Dole's proposal to re-establish grain sales to the U.S.S.R. The ticket nevertheless, would suffer at certain points. While Republicans made significant inroads into the Democratic-leaning "rust belt", the national popular vote totals would be reflected at dis-proportionally low levels in New England, the South, and the West. New England was an area that Republicans had been losing ground in since the days of FDR. In this case, while Vermont and New Hampshire both gave Dole majorities, the other states he would either lose or gain only by plurarlity. This was seen largely as a result of socially moderate-to-liberal and more affluent voters favoring the Clark/Westman ticket despite the efforts of Dole surrogates in the region. The same could be said for the opposite end of the country, where Westerners of all stripes had given a significant amount of support to the Libertarian ticket relative to its national totals. Political scientists would credit this with the fact that "movement conservatives" and Disraeli supporters were disaffected by Dole's much more "middle America" oriented brand of conservatism, that moderates in states such as California had gone for the "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" ticket, and anti-war activists and former McGovern supporters had preferred Clark immensely over the other two. Dole's lackluster performance in the South relative to Connally's was largely the fact that Dole's campaign had worked mainly to build a coalition of the industrial North and had abandoned some more Nixonian race-baiting tactics, and, obviously the region was where from the incumbent Brewer hailed. Nevertheless, Dole had won not only an electoral majority, but a popular mandate to govern, and with the Senate remaining in Republican hands, it seemed there was little stopping him.

Senator Robert J. Dole (Republican-Kansas)/Former Governor A. Linwood Holton, Jr. (Republican-Virginia) 475 electoral votes, 53.6% of the popular vote
President Albert Brewer (Democrat-Alabama)/Vice President Daniel Inouye (Democrat-Hawaii) 40.3% of the popular vote
Attorney Edward E. Clark (Libertarian-California)/Senator Scott Westman (Libertarian-Montana) 0 electoral votes, 5.7% of the popular vote
Former Congressman John Rarick (American Independent-Louisiana)/Ms. Eileen Knowland Shearer (American Independent-California) 0 electoral votes, .3% of the popular vote
Others: 0 electoral votes, .1% of the popular vote

Alternate history indeed.   Nixon never used "race-baiting" in real life; he campaigned as a centrist opposed to the racism of George Wallace and the cultural liberalism of Hubert Humphrey.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Election Results
Running on a platform of a renewed and revitalized arms race with the Soviet Union in the name of defending America's national interests, reduced tax rates, social conservatism, and a balanced budget, Robert Joseph Dole was elected to be the 40th President of the United States of America. The landslide Republican victory would sweep all parts of the nation, though Dole's highest totals would come from the "farm belt", where not only was he its favorite son, but it would profit the most from Dole's proposal to re-establish grain sales to the U.S.S.R. The ticket nevertheless, would suffer at certain points. While Republicans made significant inroads into the Democratic-leaning "rust belt", the national popular vote totals would be reflected at dis-proportionally low levels in New England, the South, and the West. New England was an area that Republicans had been losing ground in since the days of FDR. In this case, while Vermont and New Hampshire both gave Dole majorities, the other states he would either lose or gain only by plurarlity. This was seen largely as a result of socially moderate-to-liberal and more affluent voters favoring the Clark/Westman ticket despite the efforts of Dole surrogates in the region. The same could be said for the opposite end of the country, where Westerners of all stripes had given a significant amount of support to the Libertarian ticket relative to its national totals. Political scientists would credit this with the fact that "movement conservatives" and Disraeli supporters were disaffected by Dole's much more "middle America" oriented brand of conservatism, that moderates in states such as California had gone for the "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" ticket, and anti-war activists and former McGovern supporters had preferred Clark immensely over the other two. Dole's lackluster performance in the South relative to Connally's was largely the fact that Dole's campaign had worked mainly to build a coalition of the industrial North and had abandoned some more Nixonian race-baiting tactics, and, obviously the region was where from the incumbent Brewer hailed. Nevertheless, Dole had won not only an electoral majority, but a popular mandate to govern, and with the Senate remaining in Republican hands, it seemed there was little stopping him.

Senator Robert J. Dole (Republican-Kansas)/Former Governor A. Linwood Holton, Jr. (Republican-Virginia) 475 electoral votes, 53.6% of the popular vote
President Albert Brewer (Democrat-Alabama)/Vice President Daniel Inouye (Democrat-Hawaii) 40.3% of the popular vote
Attorney Edward E. Clark (Libertarian-California)/Senator Scott Westman (Libertarian-Montana) 0 electoral votes, 5.7% of the popular vote
Former Congressman John Rarick (American Independent-Louisiana)/Ms. Eileen Knowland Shearer (American Independent-California) 0 electoral votes, .3% of the popular vote
Others: 0 electoral votes, .1% of the popular vote

Alternate history indeed.   Nixon never used "race-baiting" in real life; he campaigned as a centrist opposed to the racism of George Wallace and the cultural liberalism of Hubert Humphrey.

This is patently false.

And good TL, Cath.

No it's patently true.  Nixon voiced such strong support for civil rights as president that i would have made no sense to pander to bigots.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Not to mention that George Wallace's candidacy made it pointless for Nixon to run a racist campaign.