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.
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....