An American Monarchy: A Parliamentary America TL by DKrol
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DKrol
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« Reply #50 on: June 15, 2016, 10:37:49 AM »


The Motion of No Confidence was nearly held before the second copy of the Misconduct Committee’s report came off the printer.

The Report, which was published on October 1, spurred a wave of social upheaval. People were already angry and the report only got them more fired up. MPs offices were flooded with phone calls and letters from constituents calling for the removal of the Thurmond-led AIP government. Polls by ABC, CBS, and NBC all showed a collapse in support for AIP and a surge in voters choosing “Other/Minor Party”. On October 11, Speaker of the Commons Robert H. Michel accepted a Motion of No Confidence from Opposition Leader Robert Taft as valid and scheduled it for a vote on October 13. Prime Minister Strom Thurmond proclaimed that AIP MPs would stand with him and the challenge would be for naught. He was mistaken.

The final vote on the motion was 582 No to 68 Yes, with only the most hardcore of Thurmond loyalists voting to uphold the current government. Although Thurmond could have attempted to scramble and put together a winning government, he felt that the voters still supported him enough to return “an even stronger AIP Government”. He met with King Nelson on October 15, dissolving Parliament and setting the General Election for May 3, 1973. He then had to fight for his own head.

At the AIP Party Conference, held in Birmingham, Alabama, Thurmond faced an uproar against his leadership. John Connally led the uprising, becoming the main challenger to Thurmond at the conference. On the fifth vote, however, Thurmond fought off Connally and secured another term as leader. Connally, always on the outskirts of the AIP, was furious that “someone so crooked, so rude, and so flawed” could be re-elected as leader of a major party in American politics. For the second time in two General Elections, Connally staged a walkout.

Connally and his allies, Curtis LeMay and John Ben Shepperd, lead a delegation out of the convention hall and announced the formation of a new center-right party, the National Party. The National Party only had 23 members at its foundation but the 1973 General Election proved to be a redefining election in American politics.

At their party conference in Boston, Conservative Leader Robert Taft announced that the party would formally merge with the Green Party, after forming an electoral coalition in 1968 and adopted several Green Party points in the manifesto, including support for a special tax on companies that “habitually harm the environment” through pollution and waste dumping. Taft made the case that “broadening the scope of our party message will only bring more voters into our fold”. The merger was voted on by the delegates and passed by a slim margin over the vocal opposition from the right wing of the party. Connally reached out to those disaffected by the Conservative-Green merger and welcomed them into his National Party. Several prominent Conservatives, including Better Together Chairman George Romney, former California Premier Ronald Reagan, and Shadow Defense Minister George Bush, announced that they would stand in 1973 as Nationalists. After the merger, Taft proposed a name change for the Conservative-Green alliance: the Center Party. Taft also refused to stand as leader of the new Center Party, instead attempting to hand the party off to his hand-picked successor, Jerry Ford.

The Center Party leadership vote was a three-way race. Deputy Conservative Party leader Jerry Ford, promising constancy and normalcy, ran against Dorchester MP Edward Brooke, who said he could bring Independent Democrats back into the fold, and Hartford MP Ralph Nader, the only former Green candidate to contest the leadership. Ford won on the second ballot, tapping Nader “as a show of good faith” for Deputy Leader.

For the Labor Party, founder and longtime leader Richard Daley announced he would be stepping down and retiring from the Commons. His chosen successor was fellow Chicago-area MP Harold Washington. At the conference, however, resistance was put up by the small but vocal anti-Daley section of the party. Those MPs, state MPs, and local officials put forward two candidates to challenge Washington. One of those challengers was Labor Party of Michigan chairman Roman Gribbs and the other was long-time Labor activist Elmer Benson of Minnesota. Washington led on the first two ballots, albeit narrowly both times. For the third ballot, Benson withdrew and endorsed Gribbs. This boost put Gribbs over the 50% needed to clinch the leadership.

Julian Bond secured another term as leader of the Independent Democrats, as did Socialist Party leader Tucker Smith. The 1973 General Election featured a mix of new leaders (Connally for the Nationalists, Ford for the Center, Gribbs for Labor) and old (Thurmond for AIP, Bond for Independent Democrats, and Smith for the Socialists) as well as two new parties for the electorate to choose from. Polls taken after the various leadership battles projected a slim Center majority, with Labor in second, the Nationalists in third, AIP in fourth, with the Independent Democrats and Socialists fighting for fifth. Notably, Labor was looking to make a surge in New England, a traditionally Conservative stronghold.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #51 on: June 15, 2016, 12:22:56 PM »

Hopefully we get a Ford-Connally-Bond government.

This is an amazing TL! What is Winthrop Rockefeller up to?
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DKrol
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« Reply #52 on: June 15, 2016, 12:30:50 PM »

Hopefully we get a Ford-Connally-Bond government.

This is an amazing TL! What is Winthrop Rockefeller up to?

Winthrop was given the title "Duke of Conway" by King Nelson. He is very sick and will die in January of 1973.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #53 on: June 15, 2016, 12:40:35 PM »

So, if he never ran for Governor, who have been the Governors of my home state for the last few years?
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DKrol
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« Reply #54 on: June 15, 2016, 12:53:11 PM »

So, if he never ran for Governor, who have been the Governors of my home state for the last few years?

Dale Bumpers has been the Premier of Arkansas since Orval Faubus ran for MP in 1968.
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DKrol
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« Reply #55 on: June 24, 2016, 09:37:59 AM »
« Edited: June 25, 2016, 10:50:23 AM by DKrol »


The 1973 election was a realigning election. Since the founding of the new Constitution, the Conservatives had had an iron grip on New England and the West Coast. AIP held the South and Labor controlled the industrial Midwest. After 1973, those old patterns of control were no more.

Nationalist leader John Connally led a campaign into the West. He himself did not appear in a rally for Nationalist candidates east of his own seat in San Antonino. Connally held massive rallies in Lincoln, Nebraska, Las Vegas, Nevada, Seattle, Washington, and San Diego, California. With popular Los Angeles MP Ronald Reagan now a Nationalist, Connally thought that his party would have a good shot at peeling off the Conservative hold on California. In a strategy memo, Connally laid out a plan to win 20 of the 50 constituencies in California, a mix of Conservative and AIP seats.

John Connally announced, on January of 1973, called for a debate among the party leaders. A spirited debater, Connally hoped to give his new party a boost. Center leader Jerry Ford, however, turned down the unprecedented idea of a leaders debate. Internal Center Party documents show that Ford was scared that his casual Mid-Western mannerisms wouldn’t play well in a live, fast paced debate. AIP leader Strom Thurmond, the sitting Prime Minister, said that it would be unbecoming of his office to take part in a debate. With the leaders of the two major parties turning down the idea, Connally was forced to a small debate, only aired live on PBS, with InDem leader Julian Bond, Socialist leader Tucker Smith, and Labor leader Roman Gribbs in March. Connally was generally seen as the winner, but the debate over all had little impact on the election because so few people watched it.

Election Night 1973 turned out to be an interesting night. NBC was expecting to unveil a color-coded map showing which party won the majority of seats in each state. When John Chancellor went to show off the first calling, however, the map failed to work. He went ahead calling the election as it was traditionally done, using a whiteboard and a calculator. In the middle of an interview with former Interior Minister John Ben Shepperd, two of the light bulbs inlaid behind the states exploded, sending glass and sparks across the studio. Chancellor, ever the professional, simply brushed a few pieces of glass off of his desk and carried on the interview. The night showed the possibility of the first Labor government, as huge wins were racked up in the Northeast and the Midwest for the center-left party. The Nationalists made gains, from the Conservative seats, in the West and the Plains, while AIP help strong in the former Confederate states.

After all the votes were counted, a hung parliament was returned. The Center Party claimed 251 seats, Labor held 211, Nationalists won 108, AIP fell to 41, Independent Democrats ticked upward to 12, Socialists pulled ahead in 11 districts, and the remaining 7 seats were split between 5 for the newly founded Liberal party and 2 for independent candidates.

As the leader of the largest party, it fell on Jerry Ford’s shoulder to assemble a government. He was first approached by Strom Thurmond, whose 41 seats wouldn’t ensure a majority but would be a strong step in that direction. Ford wanted to partner with the Connally’s National Party, since a coalition there would give a 9 seat majority. Connally, however, put up a fight. He demanded major concessions from Ford before agreeing to join the government, including what equated to, essentially, control over the budget and an equal number of cabinet ministers.

While Ford was hemming and hawing over Connally’s terms, Labor leader Roman Gribbs was making moves in the dark. He gained support from the Independent Democrats, Socialists, and the 5 Liberal MPs, giving him, effectively, 239 seats. If he could gain the Nationalists, that would put him at 347, only 3 seats away from a majority. He hoped he could peel off just a few of the former Green Party MPs who were upset about the Conservative-Green merger and build a minority government.

All of Gribbs’ planning and scheming turned out to be for naught because, seven days after the election, Ford announced he had agreed to “almost all” of Connally’s terms for a coalition and handed over extraordinary powers to the Nationalist Party.

First Ford Government, May 1973
Prime Minister:
The Rt. Hon. Gerald R. Ford, Jr. (C)
- Leader of the Center Party
Deputy Prime Minister: The Rt. Hon. John B. Connally, Jr. (Nat.)
- Leader of the National Party

Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Rt. Hon. Charles H. Percy (C)
Minister of Finance: The Rt. Hon. George H. Mahon (Nat.)
Minister of Defense: The Rt. Hon. John G. Tower (Nat.)
Minister of Justice: The Rt. Hon. William B. Saxbe (C)
Minister of Interior Affairs: The Rt. Hon. John Ben Shepperd (Nat.)
Minister of Trade, Industry, and Business: The Rt. Hon. George L. Murphy (Nat.)
Minister of Labor and Employment: The Rt. Hon. Edward W. Brooke, III (C)
Minister of Health and Social Affairs: The Rt. Hon. Margaret Chase Smith (C)
Minister of Education: The Rt. Hon. Elliot L. Richardson (Nat.)
Minister of Agriculture and the Environment: The Rt. Hon. Ralph Nader (C)
Minister of Transportation: The Rt. Hon. William E. Brock, III (C)
Minister of Infrastructure and Housing: The Rt. Hon. John V. Lindsay (C)
Minister of Veterans Affairs: The Rt. Hon. Maxwell D. Taylor (Nat.)
Minister of Native Affairs: The Rt. Hon. Theodore F. Stevens, Sr. (Nat.)
Minister of Sports, Media, and Culture: The Rt. Hon. Ronald W. Reagan (Nat.)
 
Minister without Portfolio: The Rt. Hon. John L. Harmer (Nat.)
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LLR
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« Reply #56 on: June 24, 2016, 09:46:57 AM »

I think we (or at least I) would enjoy seeing at least statewide results maps for the elections, because that makes all the text easier to read and comprehend. Great TL, as always Smiley
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FEMA Camp Administrator
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« Reply #57 on: June 24, 2016, 01:13:28 PM »

I think we (or at least I) would enjoy seeing at least statewide results maps for the elections, because that makes all the text easier to read and comprehend. Great TL, as always Smiley

Seconded on the maps. The way Lief did it (if you look up his American Monarchy tl), which kept state boundaries but shaded the states by--I presume--"percent of seats won" or something along those lines" (maybe it was actually popular vote), it was quite visually pleasing. Smiley
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DKrol
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« Reply #58 on: June 25, 2016, 07:50:50 AM »

Here's a map for the 1973 GE. Shading is the percent of seats won in that state.


Center Party, Led by Jerry Ford - 251
Labor Party, Led by Roman Gribbs - 211
National Party, Led by John Connally - 108
American Independence Party, Led by Strom Thurmond - 41
SEATS HELD BY OTHER PARTIES: 39


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darthebearnc
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« Reply #59 on: June 25, 2016, 09:26:00 AM »

Very nice!
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #60 on: June 25, 2016, 09:46:56 AM »

This is an amazing timeline. Please continue.

Hopefully George Mahon and George Murphy are blamed for any economic mishaps.
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rpryor03
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« Reply #61 on: June 25, 2016, 10:28:49 AM »

Why is Center Deputy Leader Ralph Nader not in cabinet?
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DKrol
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« Reply #62 on: June 25, 2016, 10:49:46 AM »

Why is Center Deputy Leader Ralph Nader not in cabinet?

I'll correct that. Nader should have had the Agriculture and the Environment portfolio.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #63 on: June 25, 2016, 11:29:15 AM »

Are we going to get more specific as to the budget details controlled by the Nationalists in the next update, or do you care to explain it now?
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DKrol
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« Reply #64 on: June 25, 2016, 11:34:08 AM »

Are we going to get more specific as to the budget details controlled by the Nationalists in the next update, or do you care to explain it now?

I'll speak more about the Nationalist budget when the government presents its first budget, should be in about two updates.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #65 on: July 01, 2016, 05:54:19 PM »

Bump for the King!
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DKrol
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« Reply #66 on: July 09, 2016, 07:39:13 AM »


While the Americans were fighting to put together a government, the North Vietnamese were heading to the polls themselves.

As part of the terms of the Geneva agreement, the Americans government helped facilitate free and fair elections across both North and South Vietnam. Those elections were held in June of 1973 over a span of four days. The ballots were then counted by a joint American-Soviet committee, led by Henry Kissinger and Anatoly Dobrynin. Kissinger called Prime Minister Ford and Foreign Minister Charles Percy when it became clear that the Communist Party was going to win the election by a resounding margin and asked what to do about it.

Ford patched Deputy Prime Minister John Connally into the call, and it was Connally who told Kissinger to throw out enough ballots to give the nationalists a narrow win. Ford was appalled by the idea of interfering in the democracy of another nation, but Connally was adamant that a victory for the Communists in Vietnam for be a “major failure for the American agenda”. Ford reluctantly agreed with Connally and gave Kissinger the go ahead to falsify the results.

Shortly after Kissinger got his orders, Dobrynin held a press conference to announce the results of the election. Kissinger was caught off guard as he watched his Soviet counterpart declare Le Duan the next President of Vietnam, with a strong Communist majority in the National Assembly. Furious that Dobrynin would go ahead and announce the results without him, Kissinger jumped on the first transport flight back to Washington and barged into Ford’s office, screaming about the betrayal of the Soviets. Ford, known for being mild mannered, urged Kissinger to calm down, and told him that Dobrynin was only doing his job. Alerted that Kissinger had returned and gone to Ford’s office, Connally arrived shortly after.

After being filled in on what had happened in Vietnam, Connally was just as angry as Kissinger. Connally told Ford to get Alexei Kosygin on the phone and “chew him a new one” for breaking the central terms of the Geneva agreement. Ford brought Percy back into the conversation, as well Defense Minister John Tower. Percy wanted to take the lead, using his long-established connections in the Soviet foreign affairs ministry to get a “strong message of disappointment” to Kosygin. Tower agreed with Connally that a stronger message than disappointment was needed to “express this betrayal of trust” but wasn’t sure that going straight to Kosygin was the best method. After an hour of cyclical discussion, Connally slammed his coffee cup down on Ford’s desk and told him to “make the damn call, or I will”.

Ford sheepishly agreed to speak with Kosygin, but he said he would have to wait for the right time, since it was nearly midnight in Moscow when he made the decision. He dismissed Connally, Percy, and Tower and then left the office for his home. Not able to sleep, Ford spent the evening preparing his remarks to Kosygin, writing out a 45-minute speech on a yellow legal pad. When he was told it would be an appropriate time to call Moscow by an aid, Ford placed the call himself from the desk in his bedroom. Ford launched into his speech, only to be cut off by a secretary and told she would put him through to the Soviet Premier. Ford waited on hold for almost an hour before the secretary came back on the line to tell him his counterpart was not available.

When Ford called Connally, outraged at the indignity of being rejected by a low-level secretary, Connally laughed. “Of course he didn’t answer you,” Connally told Ford “I spoke with him last night.”
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DKrol
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« Reply #67 on: July 11, 2016, 03:04:07 PM »


From the start, the relationship between Prime Minister Jerry Ford and Coalition Partner John Connally was tenuous. When the economy crashed, however, things got worse.

In the spring of 1974, the 15th largest bank in the country, the Franklin National Bank, collapsed. Long known as a money laundering base for the Sicilian mafia, Justice Minister William Saxbe lead charges against the leadership of the bank after the Coalition came into power. As the case went to trial the value of the assets of the bank fell dramatically, crashing the bank’s lending and borrowing power. As people ran to the bank and withdrew their money, the bank sagged even lower. When the failure of Franklin National began to put pressure on other large banks, such as the Bank of New York and Morgan Stanley, the government stepped in in what the media has since called Black April.

Prime Minister Ford was prepared to handle the crisis through traditional means. At an emergency cabinet meeting, Ford laid out a three step plan. First, a six-day bank holiday would begin immediately, to give the banks time to sort out their assets and assure investors of their solvency. Second, an agency modeled after President Roosevelt’s FDIC would be established to prevent future bank runs. Third, the ban on the private ownership of gold would be reversed, to alleviate some concerns of financial instability. Ford also wanted to bring North American Union President, and former Prime Minister, Mike Mansfield into discussions about the strength of the economic union.

Deputy Prime Minister Connally disagreed with his Coalition Partner, as he often did. In the cabinet meeting, Connally attacked Ford’s three-point plan as “the largest example of government intervention” since the Constitution of 1967 came into effect. He also argued that, since the Coalition Agreement had given control over budget matters to the Nationalist Cabinet Ministers, it was up to him and his team to develop a response to the banking crisis and, as Finance Minister George Mahon put it, the response would be minimal and focused on “providing security to the American people” rather than propping up the banks. Faced with an impasse over which party had the responsibility to respond to the crisis, Ford turned to the High Court.

While the High Court was mulling over the decision, Ford ordered a bank holiday until a decision could be reached. Originally intended as a way to pressure the High Court to act quickly, the bank holiday became an attacking point by Opposition Leader Roman Gribbs, who called the holiday “a delay of the responsibility of this Government to respond to the needs of the American people”. The High Court took two weeks to render its decision. With all banks in the nation closed for that period of time uncertainty in the markets rose and the liquidty of capital fell, leading the stock market to fall to its lowest point since the Postal Worker’s Strike, with the Dow Jones closing at 4,361 on April 20, the day the High Court handed down its ruling.

In a 6 to 5 decision, the High Court ruled that it was the responsibility of the government as a whole to respond to the banking crisis. As Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote “While the terms of the Coalition Agreement between Mr. Ford and Mr. Connally do guarantee the Nationalist Party control over the position of Finance Minister, and while the terms of the Coalition Agreement do guarantee the Nationalist Party control over His Majesty’s budget, the Coalition Agreement does not specifically give the power to respond to other type of financial crises to either of the governing parties of His Majesty’s Government”. Although the ruling was a blow to Connally’s standing with his ministers, he agreed to stand by the ruling. Later documents reveal that this decision was made to improve his image for the next general election.

Ford, with Conally’s support, was able to push his three-point plan through the House of Commons in the Financial Asset Relief Act of 1974. The bank holiday continued for only three days after the passing of the bill, instead of the original six. The Securities and Financial Assets Commission was established to review the solvency of all financial institutions and to support the accounts of the people. The decades-long ban on the private ownership of gold was overturned. NAU President Mike Mansfield convened a special session of the North American Union’s Executive Committee to discuss the crisis. And Jerry Ford asserted his control over his rebellious Coalition Partner.

High Court, as of April, 1974
Chief Justice: Thurgood Marshall (Appointed by Mansfield)
First Justice: A. Leon Higgenbotham, Jr. (Appointed by Mansfield)
Second Justice: G. Harold Carswell (Appointed by Thurmond)
Third Justice: Lorna E. Lockwood (Appointed by Mansfield)
Fourth Justice: Clement Haynsworth (Appointed by Thurmond)
Fifth Justice: Warren E. Burger (Appointed by Ford)
Sixth Justice: Shirley A.M. Hufstedler (Appointed by Mansfield)
Seventh Justice: Charles S. Desmond (Appointed by Mansfield)
Eighth Justice: John B. Swainson (Appointed by Mansfield)
Ninth Justice: Potter Stewart (Appointed by Ford)
Tenth Justice: Herschel H. Friday (Appointed by Thurmond)
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« Reply #68 on: July 11, 2016, 09:15:46 PM »

Thoughts, questions, comments, or concerns?
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DKrol
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« Reply #69 on: July 12, 2016, 08:49:53 PM »


With the economy shading Prime Minister Jerry Ford’s government in a negative light, the Center Party began to look for other policy planks to improve their standing, as opinion polls showed Labor overtaking them for the largest party in the next general election.

Environment Minister Ralph Nader, the Deputy Leader of the Center Party, had campaigned to have a manifesto item added to “promise to bring more democracy to the American people”. Although that item was defeated by the manifesto committee, in the summer of 1974 Ford went to Nader to discuss the idea more. What the two came up with, an idea long proposed by former Green Party MPs, was to establish an Australian-style Upper Chamber to Parliament.

In what was introduced as the National Assembly Act, Ford and Nader proposed that state boundaries, left over from the Constitution of 1776, be subjugated to only ceremonial purposes and be replaced by five regions, whose borders were designed based on a mixture of historical and culture connections. They would be called the Northeast (Eastern blue), the South (Red), the Midwest (Green), the Plains (Grey), and the West (Western blue). Each region would elect four Assembly Members (AMs) for a total of 20 AMs, to be elected concurrently with the House of Commons. The National Assembly would be equal to the House of Commons and able to originate legislation, save for appropriations legislation.

When Ford and Nader brought the plan to the Cabinet, many of the Nationalist members were skeptical. For the first time since the Coalition formed Deputy Prime Minister John Connally sat quiet and listened to the debate before making an opinion. Centrist Justice Minister William Saxbe thought the idea “had merits” but was worried about the disparity in population between the regions, since the West and Northeast would have far greater populations than the Plains and the Midwest. Centrist Health Minister Margaret Chase Smith was worried about the effect of removing the state parliaments, asking if “this move is actually an increase of democracy”. Nationalist Defense Minister John Tower supported the idea, although later documents showed he supported it with the intent of making the South and the West Nationalist strongholds. When Ford finally asked Connally for his opinion, the Deputy Prime Minister said “Let’s put it to a vote” and wrote in a provision calling for a national referendum on the issue into the bill.

Opposition Leader Roman Gribbs came out against the bill, attacking the abolition of the state parliaments as “a major assault on the democratic rights of the people” during the first Prime Minister’s Questions after the bill was introduced. AIP Leader George Wallace, who came to power after Strom Thurmond was indicted in the Eavesdropping Folly, endorsed the bill for similar reasons that Tower had endorsed it in the Cabinet. Wallace, working with Gribbs, amended the bill to call for the election of 6 AMs per region, instead of Ford's proposed 4. With the provisions of Wallace and Connally included, the bill passed 413 aye votes and 237 nay on August 12, 1974 and the Electoral Commission set the national referendum for February 11, 1975.

Shortly after the referendum date was set, the major party leaders and their Executive Committees announced their formal positions on the issue. Obviously, Jerry Ford and the Centrists said they would support the “yes” option and Roman Gribbs and Labor said they would support the “no” side. AIP and George Wallace would join with Ford in campaigning for “yes” while Tucker Smith said his Socialists would fight for “no”. Julian Bond said his Independent Democrats would not have an official party position but that he himself supported the “no” campaign. John Connally sided with his Coalition Partner in the “yes” campaign, while allowing Nationalist ministers to “follow their hearts”. Little known Liberal Party leader Michael Dukakis hoped that campaigning for the “yes” campaign would be the boost he needed to propel his party forward for the next general election.
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« Reply #70 on: July 13, 2016, 09:25:19 AM »
« Edited: July 13, 2016, 10:20:22 AM by DKrol »

Here's a list of Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders, up to this point.

Prime Ministers of the United States of America
1. Mike Mansfield (Independent Democrat, leading a Grand Coalition with the Conservatives from 1967 to 1968)
2. Strom Thurmond (American Independence Party, leading an AIP Majority Government from 1968 to 1973)
3. Jerry Ford (Center Party, leading a Center-National Party Coalition Government from 1973 to Present)

Leaders of the Opposition
1. Strom Thurmond (AIP, from 1967 to 1968)
2. Robert Taft (Conservative, from 1968 to 1973)
3. Roman Gribbs (Labor, from 1973 to Present)

Major Parties
National Party, a center-right party that split off from the AIP in 1973 and absorbed many former Conservatives
Center Party, a center party that was a merger of the Green Party and the Conservatives
Labor Party, a center-left party
American Independence Party, a right wing party strongest in the South
Independent Democrats, formerly a center-left party that has since become a radical left wing party
Socialist Party, a radical left wing party
Liberal Party, a left wing party that split off from Labor and the Socialist Party

National Referendums
1966: Referendum on the Constitution of 1966 (55% Yes to 45% No)
1971: Referendum on Joining the North American Union (56% Yes to 44% No)
1975: Referendum on Establishing a National Assembly (51% Yes to 49% No)
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« Reply #71 on: July 13, 2016, 10:10:40 AM »


The first polls commissioned after Prime Minister Jerry Ford announced the referendum painted a poor picture for the Government.

A Wall Street Journal poll released on September 3, 1974 showed No was comfortably ahead at 53% to 47% for Yes. Ford, not wanting to jeopardize his government over the referendum, announced that he would not actively campaigning for Yes in the referendum, instead “focusing on the economy”. That left a power vacuum at the top of the Yes team, and John Connally loved a power vacuum. He became a major face for the Yes campaign, although he had to share the leadership with Liberal Party leader Michael Dukakis. Opposition leader Roman Gribbs was the undisputed leader of the No campaign, often appearing with Socialist leader Tucker Smith and Independent Democrats leader Julian Bond at rallies.

The main argument of the Yes campaign was that the National Assembly would be good for democracy. As Connally told a crowd in Detroit, the Commons is designed for majority governments. Adding an upper house based on mutli-member constituencies would “ensure that the voices of even more citizens are heard” in Washington. Dukakis, campaigning in his home constituency of Cambridge, argued that “since it will be very hard for any party to win a majority in the Assembly, we’ll have to learn to work together. Isn’t that a novel idea?” Polls showed that Connally and Dukakis’ messages were resonating, with a NBC poll from December 1974 showing the race a dead heat at 48% apiece.

The No campaign was plagued by missteps. Roman Gribbs was caught on a hot mic telling an aid “Maybe this Assembly idea wouldn’t be half-bad. We could win in the Northeast, the Midwest, maybe the West, too. Give us a buffer against a Center or National Government in the Commons.” For the public, Gribbs’ comments were construed to mean that he was only opposing the idea for the sake of being in opposition to the Government. Julian Bond, the only other major party leader to campaign for No was more divisive and may have turned many voters off from the No side when he included Independent Democratic platform positions on race in his speeches.

The final vote on the referendum was a narrow Yes victory in a low turnout election. With 48% turnout, Yes captured 51.1% of the vote, compared to 48.9% for No. Albeit a narrow victory, Yes won out and the first National Assembly would be voted on at the next General Election.


Turnout – 48% of registered voters, 95,683,947
Yes to the National Assembly – 51.1%, 48,383,497
No to the National Assembly – 48.9%, 46,300,450
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #72 on: July 13, 2016, 02:15:33 PM »

Victory!

I hope you'll excuse me, but who is probably Bond's successor of the Independent Democrats?
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DKrol
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« Reply #73 on: July 13, 2016, 02:51:14 PM »

Victory!

I hope you'll excuse me, but who is probably Bond's successor of the Independent Democrats?

There's a split in the InDems. The wing that wants to keep the party about civil rights issues is led by Jesse Jackson, a MP from Chicago. The wing that wants to grow the party and make it back into what it was for Mansfield is led by Jimmy Carter, a city councilor in Plains, Georgia. Either one could succeed Bond.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #74 on: July 13, 2016, 02:52:59 PM »

I think a Ford/Carter coalition would be pretty interesting... Hopefully Bond retires at the next GE.
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