Collaborative Presidential Elections - New

[Rooney]

I want to comment that this is a wonderful thread. It is a real gold mine of creativity. Kudos to all involved!

[Rooney]

1956

Fmr. Rep. William Faulkner (P-MS)/State Attorney General Tom Clark (P-TX): 68 Electroal Votes, 57.5% of the popular vote
Fmr. Governor Coke Stevens (S-TX)/coach George Barclay (S-NC): 46 Electoral Votes; 41.2% of the popular vote
Other (Socialist, Communist, Prohibition)-1.3%% of the popular vote.

The Russell Administration proved to be an unpopular deal for the Sunny South. The loss of Virginia was destructive to the Southern exporting economy as the crucial base at Norfolk was lost. This caused thousands of shipping related jobs to simply leave the CSA. The loss of the multimillion dollar Richmond Iron Works was crucially felt in the steel producing states of Tennessee and Arkansas. The loss of Kentucky further robbed the Confederacy of the coal needed to power the growing urban environments on the Atlantic Coast.

President Russel handled the refugee crisis in a sloppy manner. Placing General Patton in control of the refugee camps at New Albany and Grand Gulf, Mississippi, the president trusted that the "Hero of the Bermuda Hundred" would provide for the food, clothing and shelter of over 650,000 misplaced southrons. General Patton was handed a terrible situation and his nation did not have the funds to support the refugee camps. "New Albany" and "Grand Gulf" became synonymous with "filth" and "starvation." Secretary of War Theophilius Holmes III ignored complaints from Patton leading newspaper to attack "Holmesism." By 1955 President Russell was forced to shut down both camps and trust local governments to care for the Virginia and Kentucky refugees.

Moving the capital of the Confederacy to Montgomery, Alabama, was also an issue due to the fact that placing a capital city is an affair ripe with corruption. President Russell allowed for several unscrupulous construction firms to pocket millions while doing little in terms of building infrastructure in the tired Alabama town. When the government finally moved to Montgomery in January 1954 the Congress of the Confederacy was meeting in the Evander Law Hotel and President Russell was the guest of Confederate industrialist Wallace C. Whitney. The CSA was humiliated yet again in the eyes of the world.  

By 1956 the Southern economy was stagnant and the people were angry. The city of Atlanta was paralyzed by a three month railway strike that left the Southeast Railway in ruins and the Deep South states in an economic limbo. Under the shade of the strike the Sovereignty Party met in Savannah, Georgia, to nominate a candidate for president. The convention started two weeks late due to the lack of railway use. On the first ballot former Texas Governor Coke R. Stevens was nominated for president with former Tarheels head football coach George T. Barclay as his running-mate. Barclay led the Tarheels to victory in five straight Dixie Bowls from 1950-1955 and also served as a captain of artillery on the Helena line during the U.S.-C.S.A War.

The Populist Party, seeming both victory and a chance for real social reform, met in Memphis to nominate former Mississippi Congressman and writer William Faulkner for president and Texas State Attorney General Tom C. Clark for vice-president. The Populist Party Platform promised to "continue the spirit of Presidents Wilson and Long", clean up the stench of Holmesism and rebuild the Confederate economy though reinvestment in education and job training skills with a focus on Appalachian residents and African-Americans.

The call for reform and peace set out by the great writer Faulkner was far better received than the stiff "hold the line" slogans of Governor Stevenson. "Let us reason together" was Faulkner's slogan and he acted on it by touring not just the Confederate states in his campaign but also speaking in the occupied states of Kentucky and Virginia. Faulkner won a comfortable victory over Stevenson, who campaigned in a forceful way and effectively used television ads for the first time in Confederate political history.

Promising a progressive reconstruction of the south President Faulkner was sworn in on the Bible of Stonewall Jackson.  

[Rooney]

1990

Fmr. Vice-President John Warner (I-VA)/businessman H. Ross Perot (I-TX): 79 EV; 32.5% of the popular vote
Secretary Marian "Pat" Robertson (S-VA)/film producer Fred Thompson (S-TN): 47 EV; 28.3% of the popular vote
Fmr. Governor Bob Graham (P-FL)/Senator Andrew Young (P-GA): 12 EV; 22.4% of the popular vote
Fmr. Governor George L. Rockwell (NA-VA)/fmr. green beret Bo Gritz (NA-FL): 0 EV; 10.2% of the popular vote
Fmr. Senator Martin L. King, Jr. (Jus-GA)/Congressman Medger Evers (Jus-MS): 0 EV; 6.5% of the popular vote
Others (Reform, National Unity, Industrial Government, etc): 0 EV; 0.1% of the popular vote

"Strike them with terror, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men!" President Jesse Helms stated in his inaugural address. This quote from Psalms 9:20, pointed to be biblical scholars as one of the "psalms of vengeance", set the tone for the Helms Administration. While Presidents Faulkner, Long. Johnson and Wallace had aimed to improve foreign affairs with the United States through trade reciprocity and open currency exchange these peace overtures were not supported by President Helms.

The Helms Administration focused strongly on foreign policies. Secretary of State Marian Robertson, a former Confederate Marine Corp colonel and Christian missionary, declared in his "Provocative Weakness" address that the CSA would increase military spending and "no longer allow our neighbor to the North to dictate foreign policy in the Confederate sphere of influence." CSA military forces intervened in Panama in support of Colonel Manuel Noriega, whose anti-U.S. foreign policy allowed for Confederate filibusterers to attack U.S. and British ships, make quick money in the raids and hide in Panama. This Panama policy was given tacit approval since the 1860s but President Helms took the support to an entirely new level when he sent Colonel Oliver North and 300 CSA marines to defend Noriega against U.S. intervention. When President Gary Hart of the United States met with President Helms in Mexico City during the 12th Council of the Americas he warned Helms that if he did not remove marines from Panama he would advise the League of American Republics to establish sanctions on CSA oil exports. Helms responded to this threat by quoting Psalms 101:5: "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer."

The Panama War Scare of 1987 became the major foreign policy blunder of the Helms Administration. Marines under General Maxwell Thurman opened fire on U.S. "peace keeping" troops led by Lt. Colonel Ray Odierno. The minor conflict led both nations to call for war. However, money decided against guns due to the fact that Federal Reserves Chair Paul Volker had made the CSA the number one purchaser of U.S. bonds. "A war with the CSA would sink our dollar," Volker tells President Hart and a peaceful resolution comes of the war scare. Colonel Noriega is allowed to resign his position as leader of Panama and seek political asylum in Florida. A pro-CSA leader is installed in Panama City who also has the support of the government in Washington, D.C.

By 1988 the Confederate States of America was growing economically due to expanding oil futures and the growing tourism industry. However, the lack of civil rights for African-Confederates and the issue of increased illegal immigration lead to major riots in Richmond, Atlanta and Dallas. President Helms declares a state of martial law in the CSA in the summer of 1989 to respond to riots throughout the Deep South. While members of the nearly dead Progressive Party claim that a strong civil rights law would end the crisis President Helms ignores this idea. He instead okays a national "crack down" on left-wing groups, arrests former presidential candidate Martin Luther King, Junior, spies on Progressive Party leader in Congress Julian Bond of Georgia and quotes Psalm 89:14: "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face."

The 1990 Confederate presidential election was one of the most colorful and controversial campaigns in the nation's history. President Helms contemplated postponing the election due to the "national crisis" but was told by Senate Majority Leader Strom Thurmond that if he tried to do this he would be removed from office. Vice-President John Warner, who resigned from office in 1989 in opposition to the martial law declaration, announced an independent campaign for president in 1990 with Texas businessman H. Ross Perot as his running-mate. The Warner/Perot campaign slogan was, "Common sense is not so common." This was a thinly veiled attack on President Helms's frequent usage of the statement, "It's just common sense."

The Sovereignty Party divided over the Helms legacy. Secretary of State Robertson ran for the party's presidential nod as a true believer in Helms and the psalms. Governor Carol Campbell of South Carolina opposed Robertson as the anti-Helms choice. Secretary Robertson won the nomination of the Sovereignty Party on the first ballot and was paired with Havana Films CEO Fred Dalton Thompson of Tennessee as his running-mate. Thompson, a career actor and producer, had recently won fame with the smash hit film "Glory" which told the story of Patrick Cleburne, the Confederate officer who introduced the idea of enlisting African-American soldiers in the Confederate Army and led these soldiers to glory at the Battle of Franklin.

The Progressive Party was still reeling from their total loss in 1984 and in the midterm elections in 1987. Their convention in Birmingham, Alabama, attracted less than 3,000 spectators. Former Governor Bob Graham of Florida accepted the presidential nomination and was pared with Georgia Senator Andrew Young. Former Senator Martin Luther King, Junior, sough the party's nomination from his jail cell also in Birmingham. His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" to the convention was applauded by the most left-wing of the party members due to it's call for racial and social justice in the CSA. Progressive delegates enraged by the nomination of Bob Graham left the convention and formed a new left-winged party: the Justice Party. Running under the slogan "The arc of history bends towards justice" they established a social democratic platform that called for racial equality and nominated Senator King for president with Mississippi Congressman Medger Evers as his running-mate.

As if there were not enough candidates in the race already the far-right wing National Alliance Party convened in Chancellorsville, Virginia, and called former Virgina Governor George Lincoln Rockwell out of the wilderness to serve as their party's presidential nominee. Governor Rockwell served as the governor of Virginia from 1966 to 1970 and made a name for himself by praising the fascist governments of Franco in Spain and Peron in Argentina. He had tried to make several political comebacks but his flirtations with fascism had ruined his dreams of further office. The National Alliance Party nominated the colorful former vaudeville performer in hopes of garnering attention. By paring him with former Confederate green beret and conspiracy theorist Bo Gritz the party hoped that it could make a name for itself by, to quote Rockwell, "Tweaking the noses of the Yankee liberal establishment."

The campaign trail of 1990 was filled with negative attacks and over the top oratory. Governor Rockwell trailed Governor Graham to speaking engagements and heckled the governor as he tried to speak. The campaign broke down to Vice-President Warner and Secretary Robertson as no other candidate had the money or organization to win the race. Warner attacked Robertson as the "candidate of martial law, maniacal warmongering and psalms." The former veep promised the people of the Confederacy that if elected he would end martial law, restore order to the cities and pass a comprehensive civil rights law that would be fair to all. Robertson attacked Warner as a "traitor to the confederacy" for resigning from the vice-presidency anc campaigner against the president he was elected on a ticket with.

In the end the voters decided against psalm quoting and voted in the independent team of John Warner and Ross Perot by a narrow margin. John Warner promised that he would "reset" U.S.-C.S. relations and restore "sanity" to the highest post in the Confederacy. True to form, President Helms quoted Psalm 82:3 in his farewell address:"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him."