What If the South Had Won the Civil War

[hcallega]

Number 1: The South was not fighting to unite the nation under slavery. They simply wanted to be independent from the Federal Government, which they believed (due to the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was opposed to the expansion of slavery) would threaten their rights to hold slaves. If the south had won, the north would have remained completely independent, and likely would have still expanded out west and remained a strong nation.

Number 2: Many in the southern government were not rasicst, and there were few radical anti-unionists in it. Most believed that the federal government would be too powerful under Lincoln, in particular in regards to slavery. Judah Benjamin was on the same page in regards to any number of issues, but he happened to be Jewish.

So before you start this TL it is important to read up a little on the history around this time, as any TL that dosen't have adequate detail usually gets flamed.

[hcallega]

If the south had won, it's interesting to analyze the politics of what would have been the separate CSA and USA.

The CSA's first major political battles would have been between Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stevens (his Vice-President). Stevens had become an opponent of Davis's war policies on the domestic front, and viewed him as power hungry and somewhat of a demagogue. Therefore, I believe that Stevens would have run as an anti-Davis candidate in the next election (when he wouldn't run against Davis anyway). Let's say that Stevens founds his own party, and calls in the Constitution Party (in the sense that Stevens believed in a stricter interpretation of the CSA's constitution). If those two parties survive until modern day, then you would have the libertarian Constitution Party, and the populist Democratic Party.

In the current day, Constitution members would be the likes of Lamar Alexander and Ron Paul, while the Democrats would be lead by the likes of Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry. The Democrats would probably be the majority party until the post-world war two era, when the new industries would begin to change the economy. So right now, it's likely that the Constitution party would draw support from the upper south, while the deep south would be Democratic territory. You'd probably also see differences between modern Democrats and Republicans. For instance, it's likely Mike Easley would be a Constructionist, while John Breaux would be a Democrat.

Examples of prominent party members or Presidents from both parties follow:

Constitution
Alexander Stevens, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Woodrow Wilson, Cordell Hull, Richard Russell, Terry Sanford, Bill Clinton, Bill Nelson, Lamar Alexander, Ron Paul, Mike Easley

Democrat
Jefferson Davis, Sam Rayburn, Lyndon Johnson, Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Bilbo, John Connally, Al Gore, John Breaux, Trent Lott, Jim Webb, Rick Perry, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes