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Jerry Brown/Paul Warnke (Democratic) January 20, 1977-July 23, 1979
def. Gerald Ford/William E. Simon (Republican), Meldrim Thompson/William Dyke (United Conservative)


Jerry Brown took a very strange route to the presidency. The son of one of California's most powerful politicians, Brown had originally planned to become a Catholic priest before deciding against that path and going to Berkley and Yale to become a lawyer, and then followed his father into politics by being elected Secretary of State and then Governor of California. As Governor he became known as an environmentalist and supporter of racial and economic justice. Despite this he was also a major supporter of cutting taxes, famously claiming that the Democratic Party no longer needed to be the party of big government on the campaign trail multiple times, while still saying that the American government had a responsibility to help all citizens. Brown's strange politics and position as governor of one of the biggest and most important states in the US led to him having plenty of recognition when he jumped into the 1976 Democratic Primary. While Brown had originally planned to stay out of the race, he made a last-minute entrance as a candidate running in opposition to Jimmy Carter, the Southern Democrat and governor of Georgia who had famously attempted to get Henry "Scoop" Jackson nominated in 1972 over George McGovern, and who, in Brown's eyes, represented the worst of the Democratic Party, a big-government statist who wanted a say in everyone's lives, both on economics and social issues. Brown hit the campaign trail hard, winning Maryland, California, and Oregon (where he ran as a write-in candidate), and proving to be the strongest member of the "Anybody But Carter" coalition. As Carter opponents such as Mo Udall, Frank Church, and even the wheelchaired George Wallace began taking delegates away from Carter, the ABC group gained steam, and the 1976 Democratic convention opened as the first since 1952 to not have a clear presidential nominee. From there, Brown won over supporters, such as Edwin Edwards of Louisiana, who directed Louisiana's delegation towards Brown, and made many think that Brown was the one true candidate to unite the party. As attempts to nominate Hubert Humphrey, Sargent Shriver, and Ted Kennedy failed, Brown simply gained more and more delegates, and by the sixth ballot, every member of the Anybody But Carter coalition except for George Wallace was willing to endorse Brown, and he won the nomination by a narrow majority over Carter, who was quietly promised a cabinet position in a Brown administration and Brown stated that Carter could pick a running mate for Brown.

It was in this chaotic situation that Brown found himself the nominee of the Democratic Party in a nomination scarily similar to the 1972 Convention, where a similar liberal nominee was chosen by the convention after a long drawn out primary. Democratic National Committee Chairman Bob Strauss had been terrified of such an occurrence happening, and forced television networks to have Brown's acceptance speech be pushed to prime time, and had him hold the hands of Democratic elder statesmen Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace at the end of it. Not only that, but Brown's running mate, Paul Warnke, had largely been chosen as an ally of Carter's who was thought to bolster the foreign policy credentials of the ticket, arguably hurt it, as he was a political unknown, and his past in the Johnson and Nixon administrations angered many "peacenik" voters who had been major supporters of Brown throughout the primary. It was with this that convention voters tried to nominate either liberal Idaho senator Frank Church or more conservative southern governor Dolph Briscoe over Warnke. Still, Warnke escaped on the first ballot, but his nomination showed how split the Democratic Party truly was. It also didn't help that many southern Democrats, furious at the "hippification" of the Democratic party, either walked out of the convention or decided to endorse Gerald Ford. Still, the Democrats, battered and bruised as always, entered the 1976 Election with their heads held high, believing that Americans would care more about Watergate and the ongoing Republican scandals than the divides in the Democratic Party.

Well, if you thought that the Democratic Party was divided, rest assured, the Republicans were providing fantastic competition. Brown's predecessor as California Governor, Ronald Reagan, had run for the Republican nomination on a conservative platform opposing incumbent president Gerald Ford, and had done surprisingly well for a primary challenger, taking Ford all the way to the Republican convention before losing narrowly. Many attribute Reagan's loss to his attempted nomination of liberal Republican Ed Brooke as his running mate. Brooke's "nomination" caused conservative Republicans, particularly southern conservatives to freak out, with many of them voting against Reagan and either replacing him with conservatives James Buckley of New York or Jesse Helms of North Carolina. The conservative wing of the Republican Party stood heavily divided, and as a result the 1976 Republican platform was quite moderate when compared to what the base as a whole felt. Even the Vice Presidential nominee, William E. Simon, who was chosen with the support of Ronald Reagan himself, couldn't hold down the more angry elements of the Republican base. As a result, many conservatives, angry that the Democrats couldn't nominate Carter/Wallace, and that the Republicans couldn't nominate Reagan (or a more conservative candidate), began looking for a secondary option. This option came forward in the form of Meldrim Thompson, who had once been a major supporter of Ronald Reagan's, before he chose Edward Brooke as his running mate, when Thompson announced his support for Jesse Helms. Thompson was offered the American Independent nomination by Richard Viguerie, a former conservative Democrat who attempted to get the American Independent Party on the map by finding them a major candidate to run for president. Thompson gained the nomination on the condition that the party would change its name to the "United Conservative Party", in order to reject the AIP's history of segregationism, and forge a better image for the party. Viguerie agreed, and Thompson (and his running mate, former Madison Mayor William Dyke) began their effort to push the United Conservatives towards a stronger future, uniting the American and American Independent candidates once more, getting on the ballot in all 50 states, and getting Viguerie to build a strong downballot option, leading to all sorts of doctors, activists, John Birch society members, and casual folks to run for office in their state or district. While many of these candidates got on the ballot too late, the United Conservatives had a surprisingly strong performance downballot, which many Republicans blamed the large Democratic congressional gains on. Despite this, the only candidates to do particularly well were John Rarick, who nabbed 20% of the vote and second place in his former congressional district, and 34 year old former CIA agent Jerry Daniels, who managed to upset incumbent liberal Pete McCloskey in a close race running as one of the more "moderate" members of the UC.

Still, most members of the United Conservative Party were dismissed as kooks, and the Thompson/Dyke ticket was generally ignored by both major party candidates, who famously held three debates without Thompson participating. While the primaries for both parties had been hard-fought, the general election was relatively calm. Brown, despite being attacked as a hippie by conservatives and a tax-cutter by liberals, was generally seen as a solid option, and ran a campaign that saw him disregard the "traditional" Democratic label, which helped when many people associated the Democratic Party of the late 1960s as one of big government and intervention in people's lives. Brown's more esoteric beliefs, including a passing mention to "Buddhist Economics" were hopped on by conservatives, but Brown overshadowed them with his much more popular policy positions, and especially his history of attacking oil companies, which helped him maintain a steady lead, especially as the economy kept on hurting. As for Ford, he attempted to boost his popularity with celebrations of the American bicentennial and a so-called "Rose Garden campaign". However, Ford's attempts to show strength and power generally fell flat, due in part to the fact that he had failed to unite the Republican Party, and the fact that he had struggled through his short time as president. One of the bigger blows to his campaign was the complete collapse of Ford's support in New York. New York originally seemed like a competitive state for the Ford campaign, largely due to Brown's lukewarm support from many of the New York Democratic Party's biggest constituencies, such as Italian-Americans who saw Brown in a similar way to their Southern counterparts, as hippie comparable to George McGovern. Not only that but the state had a competitive senate race between incumbent Republican-Conservative Senator James Buckley and liberal Democrat Bella Abzug. As such Ford's campaign spent a lot of time in New York, but his failure to bail out New York City in 1975 kept him slightly behind Brown. However, the death blow to Ford's performance in New York was his failure to win the New York Conservative Party's nomination, which he lost to political noname Anthony DiPerna, who would ironically outperform the United Conservative Party in New York. DiPerra would later join the House of Representatives as a member of the Conservative Party of New York in 1978. DiPerra's victory would only be seen as a representation of Ford's weakness, and was promptly used by all Democrats in an attempt to showcase Ford's failures. While Ford tried to keep his head above water, Brown spent all of October comparing his outsider status to Ford and Simon's longtime experience in the corrupt Nixon administration, which, along with the third party split and a weakened economy, was another punch the Republicans couldn't handle.

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1972 Presidential Election Results:
Jerry Brown/Paul Warnke (Democratic) 362 Electoral Votes, 43,120,058 Popular Votes
Gerald Ford/William E. Simon (Republican) 174 Electoral Votes, 35,833,115 Popular Votes
Jimmy Carter/Paul Warnke (Democratic-Faithless Elector-GA) 1 Electoral Vote, 0 Popular Votes
Jesse Helms/John Bell Williams (Republican-Faithless Elector-MS) 1 Electoral Vote, 0 Popular Votes
Meldrim Thompson/William Dyke (United Conservative) 0 Electoral Votes, 4,253,540 Popular Votes

When Jerry Brown was sworn in on January 20, 1977, he did so with a 66 seat Democratic Senate majority, a massive electoral mandate, and many in the media comparing yet another Irish-Catholic member of a strong political family to John F. Kennedy. However, Brown was hit with almost automatic controversy. Brown attempted to get his sister, Kathleen, appointed head of the Democratic National Committee, which was met with massive resistance from members of the Democratic Party who forced him to choose a more experienced and less nepotistic option. Brown's second choice of former Committee head Fred Harris, who had spent the 1976 Democratic Primaries driving around in a van and talking about "Economic Justice" was no less controversial, and Harris was repeatedly attacked as "another one of Jerry Brown's many travelling hippies". Harris would later come in direct conflict with the president as he supported a Balanced Budget Amendment and Harris's wife, LaDonna, attempted to form a third party to oppose the Democratic and Republican duopoly. Meanwhile, Brown and Warnke's collective legislative inexperience was attempted to be met by Brown's appointment of many current and former Senators and Representatives to his cabinet, which while considered smart by some, also forced the Democrats to defend many seats in special elections or straight up lose them to Republican governors' appointments. Brown also grew unpopular among some members of the Democratic establishment, particularly Senate Majority Leader Byrd, who Brown had attempted to replace with Hubert Humphrey despite Byrd's immense popularity among the Democratic caucus. Byrd and Brown feuded throughout much of the early months of Brown's administration, with Byrd later attacking Brown as a "deranged power obsessed man" in his memoirs, while Brown constantly referred to Byrd as "The Klansman" in private and even occasionally to Byrd's face. As such, the Brown administration failed to get much done, despite a highly popular move by Attorney General Ramsey Clark to attack oil companies, and his biggest plans, a Balanced Budget Amendment, large tax cuts, the death of many "pork barrel projects", and much much more, were all pretty much killed by congress. Ted Kennedy, who had been hankering for Universal Healthcare for 10 years attempted to sell the President on the idea, but he shot it down, almost singlehandedly destroying much of the goodwill he had amongst liberals. Most of the things that Brown supported that were passed by congress were either strongly bipartisan, such as his support for the space program, or things like cutting down on the Department of Defense or investing in solar panels and regulating oil heavily. The only real victory of the Brown administration was passing the Equal Rights Amendment, which caused massive conservative backlash and arguably hurt Brown in the midterms

By the time the 1978 midterms rolled around, Jerry Brown was despised by much of the population of the United States of America. Conservatives hated him for the ERA, his heavy environmental regulations, and cozying up to people like Tom Hayden. Liberals hated him for "squandering" large majorities on pet projects and failing to ever truly work out a plan for the party. People in general hated him because the economy, despite Brown's constant tinkering, had failed to get started under him. Foreign policy was a massive mess in the administration, with hawks and peaceniks thrown together to enforce "party unity". At the time Jerry Brown considered leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent or even forming his own party, but he was pushed out of it by many leaders in the party. Still, Brown began what was described as an "insane" midterm strategy, which was to, in Brown's own words, "Look past party affiliation and endorse people who believe in the good of the country". This strategy resulted in Brown endorsing many primary challengers to powerful Democratic incumbents, some Republicans, and the occasional left wing independent or even Libertarian. These candidates were called "Brownites", and many of them lost hard, but it also led to an incredibly strange congress, one that had members of five different parties serving in the house (Jerry Daniels was re-elected, Anthony DiPerra won a seat in Long Island as a member of the New York Conservative Party, and Libertarian Dick Randolph, who somehow won over President Brown's support and was elected with an insane coalition). The Democrats were swamped, particularly in the south where they lost pretty much every senate race possible, minus Louisiana and John Tower's seat in Texas, which resulted in Conservative Democrats Woody Jenkins and Phil Gramm defeating the incumbent. Brown entered 1979 with a somehow even more divided congress, and things did not look good from there.

1979 was a year of pure insanity in the United States of America. In late March, the reactor at Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, went into meltdown after workers at the plant failed to cool down the reactor with water. The incident killed hundreds and severely damaged the area, which caused both another drop in popularity for President Brown, but also helped him continue his crusade for green energy, as both nuclear power and oil were increasingly unpopular in the United States. Unfortunately for Brown, he would not be able to continue this crusade, as on June 12, 1979, the president was shot by a drifter in Ohio, Raymond Lee Harvey, and, while he would survive, was paralyzed from the waist down, and became increasingly erratic following his assassination attempt. As a result, Brown would face opposition from within his own party for the last time, as Vice President Warnke, along with the entire cabinet, Speaker of the House, and Senate President Pro Tempore, all agreed that Brown was no longer fit to serve as president, and removed him from office via the 25th Amendment. While many members of the cabinet would later regret their vote, particularly Secretary of Defense Jimmy Carter, it was seen as the right thing to do at the time, both by members of both parties who simply wanted Brown out of office, and by citizens, who felt that a recently-shot president who was going on television calling himself a "Moonbeam" was too unfit for the presidency. As a result, the presidency of Jerry Brown ended, and the presidency of Paul Warnke began.
 
gentleman biaggi said:
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You really are one of the most talented and gifted person on this site
 
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Paul Warnke/Vacant (Democratic) July 23, 1979-September 17, 1979
Paul Warnke/Lawton Chiles (Democratic) September 17, 1979-January 20, 1981

Paul Warnke's legacy is certainly a confusing one. To some, like former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, he was the man who saved the Democratic Party from the Jerry Brown-era divide it went through, and to others, like former Secretary of Defense Jimmy Carter, he was a massive mistake that many would like to forget. Here's what we know for sure. Paul Warnke was a surprise pick by Carter as a recommendation to Brown. He had held minor foreign policy positions both throughout the 1970s and on the Jimmy Carter campaign, and his selection was a shock to many. Carter would later state he suggested Warnke both in an attempt to strengthen the ticket, and an attempt to unite a "warring" Democratic foreign policy, as Warnke had connections to both anti-war groups, and more hawkish people like Zbigniew Brzezinski. While some disliked Warnke, Brown praised him in private during the campaign, calling him a "blank slate" that could appeal to any voter or be a source of "experience" for the ticket as Gerald Ford attempted to attack the ticket throughout the 1976 Campaign. Of course, Brown and Warnke won the 1976 Election, and promptly looked like they would screw the pooch and fail to hold on to a congressional majority or any kind of power after looking ascendant in 1976. While Brown was out making a fool of himself, Warnke was largely seen as a calm. moderating force, and most senators actually quite liked him as President of the Senate. Warnke was also much more stable on foreign issues, as him and Secretary of State George Ball became known for a much less aggressive foreign policy approach than the Nixon or Johnson administrations. Of course this perceived stability and legislative popularity would be a major factor in Warnke being able to take over after Brown's assassination attempt, as Warnke was trusted by much of the population while Jerry Brown appeared to be suffering heavily.

The day after Warnke was inaugurated, he met with Democratic leaders Tip O'Neill, Robert Byrd, Sargent Shriver, Russell Long, Alan Cranston, Ted Kennedy, and Jim Wright in an attempt to build a plan forward for the Democratic Party after Jerry Brown had caused them so many problems. Democrats had lost 5 seats in the senate and 42 seats in the house in 1978, but due to their strong position after 1974, they were largely able to hold on to a strong Democratic congress. With this, Warnke had some breathing room, deciding to build a much stronger Democratic legislative strategy in the remainder of 1979. He replaced Sargent Shriver as DNC chairman with Alaska lawyer and former Democratic nominee for Alaska governor Chauncy Croft (who narrowly lost to Walter Hickel in 1978), and called for a new era of Democratic unity. Warnke went from Brown's more left-libertarian views to mainstream liberal positions, largely due to the influence of Chief of Staff Stephen E. Smith, who replaced John Bryson and was a large liberal influence on Warnke due to his connections with the Kennedy family. It was this that led Warnke to push for Universal Healthcare, the longtime dream of the Democratic Party's liberal wing ever since the days of Harry Truman. The agreed upon plan would be very similar to Kennedy's 1970 proposal, and Warnke got popular liberals Ted Kennedy and Jerry Springer to campaign across the country and help popularize the idea, while he got the much more moderate Democratic senate leadership to whip the coalition into a much stronger machine for single-payer healthcare. Despite attacks from insurance companies and opposition from conservative Democrats like John Stennis and Phil Gramm, the plan passed the senate narrowly in late 1980 with a 61-37 vote (thanks to support from liberal Republicans Mark Hatfield, Jacob Javits, Lowell Weicker, and Chuck Percy) to avoid a filibuster. While Warnke's healthcare plan was the biggest success of his term, he would also be praised by green activists for his increased government support for the construction of solar panels and dams, which were able to unite the progressive and machine wings of the party, as dams construction plans provided pork for senators and representatives facing tough re-election campaigns, jobs for people out of work due to continued stagflation, a popular plan to replace services provided by oil and nuclear power (unpopular due to Three Mile Island and the Oil Crisis of 1979, caused in part by the Saudi Civil War that was brewing), and pushed by environmentalists like Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. He also pushed for a reform to the primary system, claiming that the dysfunction of the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Democratic nominations needed to be badly reformed. A commission was chaired by reformist former governor of Pennsylvania Milton Shapp with the goal of ending dysfunction. Shapp pushed for a system that would hold all the Democratic primaries on one day, which would break down the controversy that had hung over the 1972 and 1976 primaries. Along with this system, "Superdelegates", or more powerful members of the Democratic Party would get a small amount of votes that could swing a nomination if the primary got too unstable. While this system was criticized, particularly by Democratic leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire, it passed the Democratic National Committee with strong levels of support. However, Warnke would also attempt to make amends with conservative members of the Democratic Party, continuing some of the budget cuts made by Jerry Brown and remaining quiet on most social issues like drug decriminalization or abortion legalization that had been incredibly controversial under Brown's administration.

As 1980 rolled around, Warnke, the Democratic Party, and his administration had managed to regain much of the popularity Jerry Brown had squandered, the liberal wing of the party was lining up to support the president, and even most moderates and some conservatives could agree that Warnke was a solid president. As the 1980 presidential nomination approached, Warnke originally planned to not run for re-election, wanting to fight for Ted Kennedy or his Vice President Lawton Chiles (who was chosen to replace Warnke at VP as a moderate who was popular in the south), but when polls showed that Warnke was the most popular Democrat who was considering running (and third in general, behind Ted Kennedy and Ramsey Clark, who had both turned down runs in 1980), Warnke decided to enter the race, and faced minor opposition for renomination, even after his former boss Jerry Brown openly contemplated running against him. His biggest opponent was noted political crank Lyndon LaRouche, who surprisingly nabbed 20% of the vote in three primaries, but failed to truly challenge Warnke in any meaningful way. As such, the 1980 Democratic Convention avoided much of the controversy of previous years, and Warnke and Chiles were nominated with cheers from the Convention. While this was expected to help Warnke, his 1980 campaign started off poorly as Saudi Arabia officially fell into civil war, and the United States, fearful of the loss of an American ally and the consequences it may have, decided to intervene with small amounts of troops in order defend Saudi Arabia. This move sparked controversy, particularly in Warnke's own party, especially when Secretary of Defense Jimmy Carter quit, citing longtime disagreements with and was replaced by the much more hawkish Henry H. Jackson, who advocated full support for the Saudis. While the American troop presence was quite small in Saudi Arabia, it enraged more left wing members of the Democratic Party, who saw intervention in Saudi Arabia as the beginning of a "new Vietnam". Some hawks praised Warnke for the move, but after Warnke had spent much of his term cutting the Department of Defense, the move was seen as too little too late for many of their lot.

As Democrats continued their consistent trope of being divided, the Republican Party was going through an identity crisis. Ronald Reagan's attempted nomination of Ed Brooke and a colon cancer diagnosis caused him to sit out the 1980 election, James Buckley had lost re-election in 1976 and was running for senate in Connecticut (a race he would later win), Jesse Helms sat out as well, fearing he was too conservative for the United States, and as such, many social conservatives felt worried that they would not have a notable candidate in 1980. As such, former NATO Commander Al Haig declared a presidential campaign, co-opting many conservative positions and expecting to be the conservative candidate for president. Unfortunately for Haig, his controversial campaign style and support for a more moderate foreign policy caused him to fall out among conservatives, and Haig was soon "replaced" by Illinois representative Phil Crane, who attempted to scoop up the angry conservative base and use it to secure the Republican nomination. Another Illinois representative, John B. Anderson, ran a popular liberal-to-moderate Republican campaign, who's style and personality appealed to many in the press, and who was aided by many Democrats cross-over voting for him due to the lack of competition of their primary. However, most candidates were swept away by the entrance of 1976 Vice Presidential Nominee William E. Simon. Many moderates were clamoring for Gerald Ford to enter the race in 1980, as he was generally quite popular and was seen by many as who they should've voted for in 1976. Ford didn't want the job though, and as a result his running mate entered the race. Simon's platform was largely pushed by former senator John Tower of Texas and incumbent senator Bob Dole of Kansas (who didn't run due to fears that he'd face yet another close race at home), who wanted a candidate who could unite the party on economic issues instead of controversial social ones that they feared would split the party and hurt them against Warnke. Simon's strong support for laissez-faire economics and political "experience" were promoted throughout the campaign, and Simon received favorable attention from the press, many of whom jokingly labeled the former Secretary of the Treasury "the Republican Warnke". Simon defeated Crane narrowly in Iowa and absolutely destroyed his competition in New Hampshire, before upsetting Anderson in Massachusetts. After the first 5 primaries, Simon hadn't lost yet, and while he lost South Carolina and Vermont to Crane and Anderson, the rest of the campaign was rather smooth for Simon, who portrayed himself as the unifier of the Republican Party and even secured an endorsement from Reagan after Crane disparaged his choice of Ed Brooke in 1976 in order to win over "bus seating chart" voters in South Carolina. After Simon swept Illinois and even "took" Florida from Crane, it was generally felt that Crane and Anderson had little to no chance left, and Simon spent the rest of the campaign season consolidating the Republican nomination and deciding on his running mate. Simon wanted to pick a much more conservative running mate in the hopes of avoiding a situation like Ford's in 1980, and he wanted a candidate with solid legislative experience and who could excite the campaign trail, things that Simon lacked in. After much deliberation, he chose Guy Vander Jagt, who was a longtime conservative representative from a swing state known for his abilities as a speaker. Simon walked into the 1980 election with a solid lead over Warnke and a united party ready to take back the presidency.

Of course, there simply had to be a third option, and that third option was the Citizens Party, who nominated consumer advocate Ralph Nader and the wife of former DNC chairman Fred Harris, LaDonna Harris, for president. The ticket stood opposed to nuclear power, many of the budget cuts of the Brown/Warnke years, any intervention in the middle east, and the two party system in general. Nader had been known nationwide in the 1970s as a consumer advocate and his candidacy managed to gain national attention, but very similarly to Thompson's campaign in 1976, it failed to ever poll above 10% and get into the debates. Speaking of Thompson, the United Conservatives entered 1980 expecting Palo Alto representative Jerry Daniels to run for and win the nomination. However, Daniels planned on fighting for re-election, and instead the United Conservatives had a battle between former segregationist Lester Maddox, "former" Klansman and Louisiana State Representative David Duke, and former athlete Bob Richards. Richards won the nomination with a hard right platform, and lost many of the endorsements that had helped Meldrim Thompson gain 5% of the vote in 1976, and soon fell out with the party's old base.

With all this underway, the 1980 Election was much more "exciting" than the one before, despite the relative expected boredom of both major nominees. War in Saudi Arabia hurt the oil market, and the lack of money in people's pockets became a major sticking point for the Simon campaign. Simon claimed that "the American people are suffering from big government", and ran a campaign hoping to build a large coalition around voters who all opposed the longtime "growth" of the government that had occured since Lyndon B. Johnson's victory in 1964. While this proved popular in principle, many voters questioned what this "smaller government" actually meant, leading to Simon being brutally honest with many general election voters, who felt that the deregulation of nuclear power, the cutting of government jobs or programs that helped them and their families was not particularly productive. Even the "neoconservative" foreign policy leadership who had originally been opposed to Warnke feared even more defense cuts and began to stand against Simon, especially as Secretary of Defense Henry M. Jackson was running things. While Warnke jumped on Simon's politics, it also became clear that Simon had ideas that were broadly popular with Americans, who were growing tired of the sluggish economy of the 1970s and wanted something to "shock" it into shape. It didn't help that Warnke had to constantly fight off Nader or accusations that he was too tied to Jerry Brown, still an unpopular figure in the eyes of many. While the presidential contest was interesting, 1980 saw the first race that really focused on the men who were running alongside them, Lawton Chiles and Guy Vander Jagt. Both men were considered more "electrifying" than their presidential nominees, and as such, both men agreed to hold a Vice Presidential debate to show the nation who would take power if America's worst fears were yet again realized. This became an issue for the Warnke campaign, as Jagt "destroyed" Chiles in their debate, and Chiles attempted to defend his liberal stance on the death penalty during a crime ridden era as Jagt constantly fired shots at him. The presidential debates, ironically, were much less controversial, with both men simply battling on a platform basis and largely avoiding the theatrics of the past. However, as the election neared it became clear that Warnke wasn't going to get it done. The coalition that had built Brown's victory in 1976 was falling apart, with many new Democratic voters voting for either Nader or Simon. While most voters liked Warnke more than Simon, after all, he didn't want to cut their healthcare and he said the right things, but they also saw him as a placeholder. When compared to the Simon/Jagt ticket he seemed like stale cardboard, and with a much much more angry base coming out for the Republicans, it just felt like Warnke had no chance.

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William Simon/Guy Vander Jagt (Republican) 297 Electoral Votes, 49,145,588 Popular Votes
Paul Warnke/Lawton Chiles (Democratic) 241 Electoral Votes, 41,198,473 Popular Votes
Ralph Nader/LaDonna Harris (Citizens) 0 Electoral Votes, 6,800,515
Others: 0 Electoral Votes, 1,701,129 Popular Votes
 
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William E. Simon/Guy Vander Jagt (Republican) 1981-1989
1980 Def. Paul Warnke/Lawton Chiles (Democratic), Ralph Nader/LaDonna Harris (Citizens)
1984 Def. Ronnie Flippo/Ramsey Clark (Democratic)

In 2009, Libertarian and gay rights activist Justin Raimondo would describe the years William E. Simon was president as "the high tide of Libertarianism". While some would later criticize Raimondo's assumptions, considering some of Simon's more conservative decisions on social issues and "quiet" interventions in foreign nations, it wasn't necessarily far from the truth. When Simon took office in 1981, he inherited the first Republican senate majority since 1955, largely due to an absolutely massive gain in 1980, when Republicans gained 16 seats, largely due to the complete collapse of the Democratic Party in the South and the "vote-splitting" effect of the Citizens Party in many closer states. Not only that, but traditionally liberal Republicans like Jacob K. Javits or Charles Mathias had been primaried out by much more conservative challengers, pushing the senate caucus's "Overton Window" far to the right. While Democrats held onto the House of Representatives, it was by a bare-bones margin, and many southern conservatives and western libertarian "Brownites" held the real balance of power. Simon and his so-called "brain trust" lead by people like Ray Chambers, David Stockman, and Milton Friedman began working extremely hard at rebuilding the economic consensuses of the United States that had held since the 1930s. That being said, Simon still faced heavy amounts of controversy in his first term. His first choice for Secretary of the Treasury, Colorado oil billionaire John M. King was blocked by a friendly senate due to his controversial connections to Richard Nixon, questions of a conflict of interest, and many bringing up King's "shady" business practices in the past. It didn't help when Simon's choice of Republican Party Chairman Ron Paul had some particularly controversial views on race, and Simon also made attempts to "cut down and destroy" popular government programs like the National Healthcare Administration and Social Security, which caused heavy anger among some voters, who generally liked having living grandparents, and who also supported the Democratic minority's heavy filibuster of Republicans' healthcare "reform". Of course the key controversy was Fed Chairman Preston Martin raising interest rates and beginning tight money policies in order to stop inflation. This became incredibly unpopular, especially when unemployment hit hard, and unions and small business owners heavily protested and even burned effigies of the unpopular Martin. Hilariously enough, this lead to an increase in IWW membership, as many radical unionists became furious at Martin's actions. Left wingers like Noam Chomsky led "remove Martin" protests, and strikes began to emerge. This would famously be resisted by the Simon administration when the American Postal Workers went on strike in 1981, leading to a mass and unprecedented firing of workers, which caused even more anger pointed towards the Simon administration.

While Simon's first few years can only be described as "unsuccessful", his biggest push is what would become the 28th Amendment, or the Balanced Budget Amendment. Strom Thurmond, longtime reactionary and straight-up evil human being, was excited when William E. Simon was elected president, hoping for a life of fucking over poor and black people as his mind entered Everywhere At The End of Time - Stage 6. However Thurmond, the former race scientist himself, also knew something about the political realities of the United States, and expected the political pendulum to flip back to the Democrats in 1984 or 1988. It was with this that he brought forward the so-called Balanced Budget Amendment. Thurmond's clout and the Simon administration's solid ties with congress (largely helped by Chief of Staff John Tower), along with a 55-seat Republican senate lead by powerful majority leader Bob Dole. The bill was also surprisingly supported by many a Democratic senator, particularly William Proxmire, who had campaigned against "government waste" his entire career, and would later by primaried away by Bronson LaFollette in 1982 for his actions. In a bigger shock, it broke through the Democratic Party's barebones majority in the House of Representatives, largely due to the influence of Southern and "Brownite" Democrats, particularly after former President Brown endorsed it himself. The amendment's surprising passage in early 1982 injected energy into Simon and the Republican Party's base, and soon began an all-out campaign to put Republican legislators in state legislative houses, keep Republican senators in office, and generally promote the amendment spread across the country. Guy Vander Jagt, the so-called "voice of the administration" began a "speaking tour" across the nation that was well received, and when the amendment hit the states in September of 1982, many state legislators began voting yes on a potential passage, either out of fear of being attacked from the right and losing re-election, or of their seat being taken over by a "risky spender" who would make it invalid. Strom Thurmond, one of the biggest supporters of the plan, pushed for urgency, saying that "national debt is a real threat to this country's financial systems", and who used it to get Republican governor of South Carolina William Westmoreland re-elected. The amendment also gained support from left wingers, who believed that the amendment would cause more cuts to defense, and less to social programs, which was a complete joke and of course did not happen. In the end, the 28th Amendment would be ratified on October 18, 1983, after the Louisiana state legislature, which had been heavily split on the issue, passed it narrowly, and put it into the Constitution, causing a new era of budget cuts and destruction to social programs many liked. Of course, the 28th Amendment was one of many proposed in the Simon administration, as Republican and conservative congressmen felt that now was the time to get shit done, attempts to repeal Roe v. Wade, the 27th Amendment, every Supreme Court case about school prayer ever, had some amounts of support within congress and were brought to it. But the Simon-Dole-Tower axis largely avoided amendments about "controversial" social issues, fearing that yet again, it would tear Republicans to shreds and kill them in the 1984 elections when they were already unpopular. However, the Balanced Budget Amendment remains one of the bigger accomplishments of the Simon era, even as many liberals try to tear it down to this day.

However, it became starkly clear that the Simon administration was growing unpopular in the United States. Many Americans liked the lower taxes and even reigning in some unpopular programs, but in the end they also really liked Social Security, clean environmental programs, and solid healthcare plans for their families. They felt that Simon's promises of a growing economy had been hollow, as the economy failed to pick up and still struggled with inflation, even after massive cuts towards inflation that hurt Americans. They also still had a deep hatred for oil after the 1970s, and when oil companies were deregulated and the economy didn't improve (largely due to the ongoing Saudi Civil War), Americans grew furious, and soon congressional Republicans were used as "punching bags". Democrats picked up 10 seats in the Senate, returning to a bare 52 seat majority (with help from Independent Mike Gravel, who officially brought the total up to 53), and dozens of seats in the House of Representatives. It was this revelation that caused Simon and his administration to swing more towards the center, fearing a general election loss in 1984, and another 4 years out of power, this time with a much more competent Democratic Party in charge. Simon fired multiple "radical" members of his cabinet, like Secretary of the Treasury R.T McNamar, Secretary of Energy James G. Watt, and a few others on February 11, 1983, which would later be nicknamed "Bloody Friday" by former members of the administration. Bloody Friday represented the lowest point of popularity for William Simon, who had not only failed to keep the country running economically, but had now been seen as uncompromising, unstable, and esoteric as Jerry Brown, who's memory rang through the minds of many Americans. It was expected that Simon would be demolished in 1984 by literally any Democrat (particularly Ted Kennedy, who was putting up Johnson vs. Goldwater numbers against Simon), and would be remembered as a failure of a president, much like how most presidents since Kennedy had been remembered.

It was at this moment that things picked up for the Simon administration. First of all, many political scientists state that Simon's dip in popularity was always going to be recovered. It happened at a time of instability while Guy Vander Jagt had put his popular speaking tour on pause, and many Americans felt complete hopelessness in the future of the government. But sometimes God rewards people, and this reward came in multiple pieces of good news for the Simon administration. The first was a widely-celebrated peace in the Arab peninsula. After four years of intensive conflict between the Saudi royal family, radical Shiite Islamists, and Shia "freedom fighters", the United States worked out a very unstable peace deal between all three sides, providing a strong border between the three and the beginning of Mecca and Medina being recognized as "International Cities", despite protests from the Shiite rebels and Saudi government, and even the Israelis, who disliked the newly formed "Islamic Republic of Southern Arabia" being so close to them. Still, the peace deal was a massive success for Secretary of State George H.W. Bush and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James B. Edwards, who returned home and were promptly nominated for Nobel Peace Prizes by overjoyed conservatives. The deal and the promptly-signed oil contracts signed by all three governments began what would be called "the Early 1980s Oil Glut", in which the United States, who had been investing in domestic oil production, and oil production from non-Middle Eastern petrostates, saw a massive decline in oil prices as many conflicts inside the Middle East appeared to be settled, and oil became plentiful across the world. This drop in prices allowed a much stronger economy (which ironically would be hurt during the end of the Simon administration, when yet another conflict broke out between the Israelis and Arabs.), which was also helped by the cutting of tariffs by the Simon administration, which maximized trade with foreign countries and helped to boost the economy even more. Not only that, but the anti-inflation policies of Martin's Fed leadership, which had actually been scaled back after a midterm beating, began to reverse the trends of inflation, and the economy which had so long been in the gutter began to pick up rabidly. When Republicans secured a victory with the Balanced Budget Amendment, Simon was able to pass off many budget cuts to the EPA, NHA, Social Security, HUD, and Education, as simply necessary to "balance the budget", which is actually pretty hard to do when you refuse to raise taxes or cut much military spending. Simon was able to leave the unpopularity of his first two years, and walked into 1984 much stronger than anyone expected.

1984 was really the first "traditional" election since 1972. Simon faced little primary opposition, minus opposition from both sides of his party, with Christian conservatives putting up representative Phyllis Schlafly and liberal Republicans putting up Paul Findley, who definitely doesn't hate Jews. Both candidates were dispatched of quickly and Simon clinched the nomination. As for the Democrats, three candidates had constantly been polling far, far, ahead of Simon. Former President Paul Warnke, who was seen very similarly to Ford in 1980, as the choice Americans should've made, decided to sit out the 1984 election, saying he wanted nothing else to do with the presidency after having spent less than two years as leader of the free world. Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General under Jerry Brown and Paul Warnke was seen as the candidate who could truly unite the voters who abandoned Warnke in 1980. "Brownites" loved him for his fierce civil libertarian views, unions loved him for his opposition and fight against "right to work" states, and the general public remembered him as the man who fought oil companies as they were the most unpopular. However, Clark had lost two senate elections in New York by that point, and decided to simply sit out a potential nomination. Of course there was also Ted Kennedy, who refused the nomination as he always had, due to a variety of reasons but probably because his brothers were both gunned down on national television. Two other candidates, Jimmy Carter and Lawton Chiles, who had heavy ties to the Brown/Warnke administrations also turned down the nomination, with Carter having no base after his resignation in 1980, and Chiles focusing on his newly-gained job as Governor of Florida. With a so-called "power vacuum" in the Democratic Party, and a new primary system meant to build up regional candidates, a record number of Democratic candidates entered the race. Twenty-four men and women entered, all expecting something out of it, and many only polling at 1%. Most of them are unimportant, some are funny, but the race really came down to six candidates after a early primary season where the candidates spent the months between November and June waiting for the ultimate primary before deciding who would be the nominee. The expected front-runner was Teno Roncalio, who had surprisingly been elected House Majority Whip in 1978, and who had become famous both as one of Simon's biggest opponents, but also the man who had pushed for Simon's domestic oil policies, leading to him both being able to claim that he was a liberal hero and someone who had helped boost the economy in a bipartisan way. While this originally played well with voters, Roncalio's age, anti-abortion beliefs, and establishment presence hurt him with young progressive voters, his liberal beliefs hurt him amongst Southern conservadems, unions moved on to more attractive candidates, and environmentalists began turning out to oppose him. Roncalio still ran a solid campaign, but his early lead began to evaporate heavily. Union voters began to move towards Ike Shelton, senator from Missouri, and famed social conservative with strong pro-labor beliefs. Shelton looked attractive for a moment, with appeal to labor unions who planned to turn out big for Democrats, and social conservatives who disliked Simon's more moderate opinions on hot-button issues. However, Shelton became known for his increasingly uncouth language on the campaign trail, even telling fellow Democrat Mario Cuomo to "stick it up your ass" when Cuomo tried to fight Skelton on the issue of gun control. While this played well with the base, it led to mockery in the press, and Shelton was never able to take a convincing lead. Then there was Cuomo himself, the Mayor of New York City. Cuomo was known as a solid mayor from a state with a primary advantage who had done much to unite the divided Democrats in his city. Cuomo was supported by many urban liberals, but could never break through in the midwest and even faced opposition from labor leadership. Harry Braun, an environmentalist, representative, and Democrat from Arizona attempted to be the "Brownite" of the race, but was mostly laughed off the stage, even after many saw him as the opposition to Roncalio in the West. Robert Wood, a former Johnson cabinet member and Governor of Massachusetts attempted to run a campaign based in the Northeast, but due to the Democratic Party's changed primary, this remained difficult to win off of.

Then there was Alabama Governor Ronnie Flippo. Flippo, a moderate Democrat was able to beat back conservative Democrat Fob James in Alabama in 1978, and stopped George Wallace from returning to the governors mansion (until 1986 of course), and had become a large national figure, especially as he resisted some of Simon's more conservative policies as Governor. When the 1984 election rolled around, Flippo had become the governor of choice for the Southern wing of the party, who saw Flippo as a solid moderate who could unite the party. While minor representatives and former governors attempted to take Flippo's death grip on the south, he largely held it down, and as a result was able to campaign much more freely than the other candidates, who struggled to spread their base of support for this exact reason. When election day had rolled around, Flippo was able to visit every state multiple times, and had put up a strong candidacy that took over the polls as Southern leaders cheered behind him. On "primary day", he not only swept the entire South (unless you count Delaware or Oklahoma part of the South), but spread into the North, winning places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and California, both due to intensive vote-splitting on the part of his "opposition", but also due to a well spread out campaign that allowed him to sweep through the nomination. Flippo got support from most superdelegates and his opposing candidates, except for Harry Braun, who held out until days before election day to fully endorse Flippo. Flippo's choice for running mate was obvious. While Ramsey Clark had made it clear he didn't think he could fully run a general election campaign, he had also made it clear that he didn't mind being carried to the finish line as someone's VP. With high levels of popularity and connections to liberal leaders, Flippo decided to take the no-brainer, and chose Clark in order to make amends with the liberals who didn't necessarily trust the Governor of Alabama.

The Simon Vs Flippo race was a race between two completely different people. Simon was a longtime political and economic insider, who had gotten where he was largely due to his financial impact and some dealings with famously clean Richard Nixon. His style of campaigning was very similar to Gerald Ford's in 1976, where he ran a "Rose Garden Strategy" based around using the office as president to run his campaign, while Guy Vander Jagt ran around the nation presenting the Republican platform while Simon largely stayed at home, only coming out to massive events or conventions. However, Flippo, the young reformist himself, saw Simon's slow moving candidacy and decided to run wild across the nation, holding one of the most energetic campaigns in American history, helped by the fact that many of Flippo's quiet supporters were ironically veterans of George Wallace's campaigns, which was nothing if not energetic. All across the nation, Flippo went to gyms, universities, and factories in an attempt to excite and heavily turnout voters. Almost immediately, many recognized the growing problem with the Flippo campaign. In comparison to Jerry Brown and Paul Warnke, Flippo had a massive advantage among "ethnic" white voters, particularly Italian-Americans, who heavily supported and turned out for a fellow Italian. However, Simon's campaign hurt in appealing to black voters, who generally didn't trust a Southern Democrat, particularly one who was surrounded with more than a few George Wallace staffers and who had supported Strom Thurmond's religious right "school choice" plan. Flippo attempted to recover from this by campaigning in heavily black areas, but Flippo made multiple gaffes across the campaign that severely hurt him, including a quiet off-the-cuff praise of former segregationist senator John Sparkman while campaigning in Chicago. Not only did this hurt his image among black voters, but it also led to Simon being able to disregard Flippo's "reformist" past. The Democratic ticket was also increasingly unstable, with Clark contradicting Flippo's positions on many issues, or even just harming him with certain voters. Clark went out and at various times made statements supporting busing, drug decriminalization, and legalized abortion, which allowed Simon to run ads attacking him as a "radical liberal", particularly in the same ethnic white neighborhoods that Flippo supposedly did so well in. By contrast, the Simon/Jagt ticket was a strong and consistent ticket, and when Simon was finally able to match Flippo's energy in the end of the campaign, he did so to growing success, rising in the polls and spreading an ad blitz across the nation. By the end of the campaign, the race was neck-and-neck, and many were expecting it to not be called for days after election day.

genusmap (45).png
William E. Simon/Guy Vander Jagt (Republican) 276 Electoral Votes, 45,177,716 Popular Votes
Ronnie Flippo/Ramsey Clark (Democratic) 262 Electoral Votes, 44,399,429 Popular Votes

In the end, the predictions of a close election were absolutely correct, with the election being decided by less than 1% of the popular vote and incredibly narrow margins in Michigan, Oregon, Vermont, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, and Tennessee that all could've flipped the election one way or the other. Many state that Flippo would've won if not for the spoiler third party campaign of Gar Alperovitz, who won 1.9% of the vote nationwide, but 10% in Vermont and 5% in Oregon. Still, after multiple recounts, particularly in Mississippi, which was only won by around 2,000 votes, or 0.2% of the vote, and if won by Flippo would've sent the election to the heavily Democratic House of Representatives, William E. Simon would be inaugurated president on January 20, 1985. Many political scientists have since wondered what exactly caused Flippo's lost, and they point to a variety of factors, particularly Ramsey Clark's more socially progressive views being incredibly unpopular in South Carolina and Mississippi, two Southern states Flippo lost by ~8,000 votes. Others point to hurting black turnout costing several Southern states and Missouri. Still others point out that Flippo's growing hardcore opposition to illegal immigration, something that tied together voters of all stripes, like union leaders Lane Kirkland and Brownites like Dick Lamm, caused many Latino voters to swing towards Simon, possibly costing Simon Colorado or California. However, many Democrats saw Flippo's coalition as a massive improvement from 1980, particularly among Southern and ethnic white voters, who many feared had abandoned the party after 1976. A notable swing came from Polish-Americans, who felt that Simon and Bush's "new detente" policies towards the USSR and Poland were oppressing many, and as such they swung from narrowly voting for Simon in 1980 to voting nearly 3-to-1 for Flippo, who, along with Polish labor leader Lane Kirkland, called for a strong anti-Communist foreign policy (despite protests from Flippo's running mate). Democratic leadership hoped that, with a much less bumbling running mate and a better outreach towards black voters, the "Flippo coalition" could be a real winner as 1988 came along.

However, while Simon had secured his re-election, it ultimately meant very little. Democrats, taking advantage of a "good map", managed to grow their majority in the Senate, and maintained solid footing in the house. Other than incredibly bipartisan options, the Simon administration was pretty much stuck in the mud. This became increasingly clear almost as soon as Simon was inaugurated and attempted to pass a budget. The budget was, as you'd expect, filled with more tax cuts and cuts to NHA and Social Security spending. Almost automatically, the Democratic caucus, now under the control of liberal John Tunney (Robert Byrd had retired after facing much resentment from liberals due to his frequent siding with Republicans on social issues), stood opposed to this budget, either due to pork reasons or basic human decency. Independent Mike Gravel attempted to form a compromise, where the Simon budget would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and cut spending on the Defense Department and the CIA, which would allow for a higher middle class tax cut and continued funding for popular social programs. This was rejected by both sides for various reasons, and as such, a government shutdown would occur. A government shutdown had first been defined in 1979, when President Warnke and congress disagreed on a bill that would adjust funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program, a minor program funded by the Department of Energy. While the debate was minor and ended with a compromise between Warnke and the Democratic leadership, Attorney General Ramsey Clark defining what a government shutdown was after an over anxious representative threatened to "shut down the government" over increased funding. Many Americans and even politicians had forgotten about the incident, but the Democratic establishment didn't, and fearing even more spending cuts, they decided to fully reject any extension of the budget that brought so many of Simon's laissez-faire ideals into motion. Almost automatically, a strategy for the Democratic Party was put in place by political strategist Raymond Strother and ex-promoter (and future DNC Chair) Harry Glickman. The goal was to make the government shutdown as much of a political battle as possible, as many Democrats feared that the shutdown, which could cost many their jobs and salaries in the government, would be unpopular among Americans. Both men proposed that they simply made it a campaign, use the media attention the shutdown would get as a way to promote liberal ideals and bring Americans on their side over the shutdown. With this, a high profile media campaign funded by people like the "Malibu Mafia" or Clinton Manges filled the airways, making it very clear that Republicans had caused the shutdown because they wanted to cut every program that helped you and your family to the bone. Republicans attempted to fire back, but the reformist wing of the party attacked Democrats for shutting down "Pork-Barrell Projects". The problem was, most people didn't mind pork, they liked the government jobs that came with it, and most people saw the government as greedy anyway, so why not be greedy in a way that helped the people? It became clear that the shutdown was hurting Republicans as the weeks passed, and with the economy hurting as well, Simon decided to compromise with the Democrats, pretty much agreeing to mitigate the cuts to social products and provide a middle-class tax cut, something that Democrats took home to voters proudly.

The government shutdown of 1985 would be a representation of the last years of the Simon administration. As Democrats held the balance of power, and had by that point refused to work with the President, largely due to his love of trying to cut the pork that they loved so damn much. As such, the last four years of Simon's administration were built around foreign policy issues and bipartisan pushes in congress. Far and away the biggest foreign policy issue and story of the Simon administration, even bigger than the Saudi Peace Deal, was the 1987 Arab-Israeli War. While Israel and various Arab governments had feuded in the past, they had largely done so with American support. However, after the Saudi Peace Deal, which Israel attacked, largely due to the recognition of the IRSA, which stood starkly opposed to Israel's existence as a state. Not only that, but as Americans cozied up to other Islamist states, either to continue the Oil Glut or to support other Islamist rebels in Afghanistan. Of course many Americans had criticisms of Israel as well, particularly over the increasing representation of the radical and terrorist connected Kach party, which had held representation in the Knesset since 1977, and even helped prop up a Likud government after 1984. Many politicians began to openly criticize Israel, either for human rights reasons (like Ted Kennedy or Ramsey Clark) or for TOTALLY NOT ANTI SEMITIC REASONS (like former RNC Chair Ron Paul). Of course, in the Arab world things had gotten much more radical as well, with both the IRSA being much more hawkish than the Saudis ever were, or in Syria, where Hafez al-Assad had been replaced by his more radical brother Rifaat (who straight up ran a narcostate) after a heart attack, or in Egypt, where radical military leader Mahmoud Shaker took power. All three nations had grown increasingly angry with the Israelis, and a plan was made to invade the nation. However, the Israelis found out about the plan, and, without American permission, issued a preemptive strike, beginning an all out conflict. Strangely, neither major world power would attempt to influence the conflict in any major way. Despite the best efforts of House Foriegn Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Koch, the United States would not aide the Israelis, largely due to their preemptive strike, poor human rights record, reported usage of the Jewish Defense League in some areas of conflict, and just generally trying to stay on good terms with Islamists who were going out of their way to accept money from the Americans so they could blow up Communists. The Soviet Union, exhausted with conflicts at home and abroad with a leadership that was almost entirely in a coma (and being led by the increasingly unstable hand of Sergey Sokolov), stayed out of the conflict, especially after the IRSA government pretty much declared "we hate the Soviets too". The only real "power" to take a side was the People's Republic of China and their leader Wang Hongwen, who called for the "liberation of the Arab people from imperialist and Zionist forces". While the Israeli's attempted to make PRC support of their enemies an issue, it largely fizzled out, and they were left without major backing. As such, the Israeli government decided to take the so-called "Samson Option", or a plan to use nuclear weapons (which had been created by the increasingly radical Likud governments) on the states' opponents. Only five nuclear weapons were used on June 13, 1987, on the cities of Damascus, Abha, Aleppo, Cario, and Alexandria, killing over 7 million people in one of the most horrific acts in world history. Apparently Meir Kahane attempted to get the "international cities" of Mecca nuked, which would be a major reason for his political downfall.

The fallout was immediate, with multiple calls made to leaders of foreign countries in order to stop an all out nuclear conflict. The Israeli government was universally condemned for its actions, the governments that remained of the countries hit signed peace deals largely to avoid any more chaos, and terrorist organizations began plans to respond. In the coming months and even years, the effects would be felt internationally. In Syria, a Kurdish state was declared and a rump Ba'athist state was declared in Southern Syria as chaos, terrorism, and general conflict what was left of the state. In the ISRA, which had been hit the least, the government fell into complete instability, with multiple coup attempts, civil conflicts, and attacks occurring within the nation. However, Egypt, which had suffered the most, became almost unrecognizable in the years following. Complete economic devastation and the deaths of millions caused a period of pure collapse, with minor sects, organizations, and parties claiming to hold territory as an official military dictatorship attempted to hold on to power. The years following for the Arab world would see a rise in terror and radical groups gaining power. Economic and environmental collapse, along with an even more burning hatred of Israel and many radicals returning after the Soviet-Afghanistan war ended in 1991 caused universal instability. It took decades for many Arab states to recover in any real way, and border conflicts were a frequent sighting. Israel became an international pariah, but due to its nuclear arsenal and strong military, there was little many nations could do about it except try to devastate it economically. As for the rest of the world, the first use of nuclear weapons in a war after WW2 struck fear into many across the world. Soon many treaties were signed to restrict nuclear weapons creation and usage, pushed by men like George H.W. Bush or Ernest Armstrong, and the threat of nuclear war became severely lowered. Of course there were massive economic implications as well. The Oil Glut had pretty much officially ended, and the economic shock of a nation being nuked would hurt the economy for longer than many expected. As the Arab World collapsed into complete chaos, the worldwide economy hurt, but the biggest effect would come with the temperature drop caused by the "mini" nuclear winter that happens to occur when you release nuclear fire on 5 cities. Farming across the world began to hurt, and as such rates of hunger increased across the world.

As Simon spent his last few years in office, the response to the Arab-Israeli conflict would be what he was most known for. The United States sent volunteers and minor groups to Middle Eastern countries and began sending aid to countries that had been effected, often against the will of many of Simon's political allies. While Simon would do a few other notable things, most notably a Soviet-American treaty to cut both nations nuclear arsenals, or an attempted coup in Portugal after the election of a Communist government, he exited his presidency as unpopular as he was in 1981, with a hurting economy, a mess of a federal budget, and a foreign policy crisis ahead of his Democratic successor....
 
like bro why you care so much about a 16yo’s work? seems sus asf but it’s cool i guess just keep writing
 
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