Well lets get the ATLF's out of the way.
And start it with the one that started it all.
A Theoretical Look forward for Jeff Greenfield's 43*. Spoilers. Also This was planned attempting to use the political blinders Greenfield was writing with.
2001-2002: Albert A. Gore, Jr. / Joseph I. Lieberman (Democratic)[1]
2000: George W. Bush / Richard B. Cheney (Republican)
2002-2005: Albert A. Gore, Jr. / William W. Bradley (Democratic)
2005-2007: Joseph I. Lieberman / Johnny R. Edwards (Democratic)[2]
2004: Rudolph W. L. Giuliani / Richard J. Santorum (Republican)[3]
2007-2013: Joseph I. Lieberman / William B. Richardson (Democratic)[4]
2008: Michael D. Huckabee / Tommy G. Thompson (Republican)
2013-2017: Hillary R. Clinton / Gary F. Locke (Democratic)[5]
2012: Lincoln D. Chaffee / J. Richard Perry (Republican)[6]
2017-2021: Condoleezza Rice/ Gary E. Johnson (Republican)[7]
2016: Hillary R. Clinton / Gary F. Locke (Democratic)
[1] In April, 2002 Vice President Lieberman resigned over President Gore's refusal to invade Iraq, this and Hillary Clinton's refusal to even hear Gore's plea to take the No. 2 Spot began a general party revolt against Gore. Bill Bradley was the only figure willing to take the job and thus eventually got it. Of course he used it from the start to undermine the President seeking to make himself more viable in 2004.
[2] Hillary Clinton sat out the 2004 challenge, but Bradley, Clark, Lieberman, Dean and numerous others did jump in. The former Vice President was the champion in the end. John Edwards was selected for regional, and ideological balance. McCain was mused as a Cross-Party pick, but in the end he decided to go for the GOP nomination.
[3] McCain's cross-party stance in 2002 and the first half of 2003 though cost him dearly. Rudy Guilanni's brush with cancer in turn cost him National faith, and his ideology damaged support in what otherwise might have been a GOP sweep.
[4] John Edward's resignation was not at all similar to Lieberman's Five Years Earlier. Lieberman's administration was centered on Big Events, his work on saving and rebuilding New Orleans, Medicare Part D, and The Patriot Act. Abroad there was no invasion of Iraq (Hard to do that when the whole world knows that its coming since you campaigned to do it) But a renewed, high tempo of Cruise Missile and Air Strikes as well as the insertion of US Special Forces on Raids and to help the Kurds in the north. In 2007 the real crisis of the Lieberman Administration arrived, after two years of US Cross border raids in Pakistan, the Government collapsed. Leading to a major operation to secure Pakistan's nuclear arsenal after which Lieberman's popularity reached unprecedented highs.
[5] Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination with ease, edging out opponents, Senator Harold Ford of Tennessee, and Al Gore's pathetic attempt to be a Peace Candidate in the face of the growing troubles in Pakistan, where the country had fallen into Chaos, dragging in conflicting interests of Iran, the US and its Coalition Allies, the Chinese and of course, India and in Iraq where Civil War broke out in 2011 Against Hussein, Lieberman of course had no problem openly supporting the Shia Rebellion against the strongman, which led to a very very precarious, Post-Saddam Government.
[6] The Last Republican President had been elected in 1988. Bush, Dole, Bush, Giuliani, and Huckabee have failed. 2012 is judgement day for the GOP. Oddly enough the crazy ticket of "Accomidationists" who seek to accept the reforms of the past 3 administrations, tied to the Arch-Rejectionist flopped terribly.
[7] President Clinton was ousted by forces not really in her area of Control, Israel, Party Fatigue and the moves of the new Iraqi democratic government to move into the Iranian Camp and the chaos in the Former Pakistani Republics. And thus ended 24 years of uninterrupted years Democratic rule.
---------------
Theoretical Look Forward for "A World of Laughter, A World of Tears"
Spoilers.
Statichaos' "A World of Laughter, A World of Tears" is probably one of the most well known timelines on the site in recent years. The Link for which can be found,
Here. Basic premise is of course that Walt Disney is president in the 1950's. Things do not go great. TBH in the years since it was finished I've found it has not aged well, but plenty of people still view it as the absolute greatest work of AH so if you haven't read it you should give it a shot. Anyway, Here's my take on what happens after the show ends.
1953-1961: Walter E. Disney / Everett M. Dirksen (Republican)[1]
1952: Adlai E. Stevenson II / John J. Sparkman (Democratic)
1956: Lyndon B. Johnson / John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1961-1965: John C. Stennis / John F. Kennedy (Democratic)[2]
1960: Nelson A. Rockefeller / Richard M. Nixon (Republican)
1965-1973: Barry M. Goldwater / Prescott S. Bush (Republican)[3]
1964: John C. Stennis / John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1968: John F. Kennedy / George C. Wallace, Jr. (Democratic), Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. / Edward M. Kennedy (“Yankeecrat”)[4]
1973-1977: Richard M. Nixon / Samuel W. Yorty (Republican / Democratic)[5]
1972: George W. Romney (Republican), Henry M. Jackson (Democratic), George L. Rockwell / Spiro T. Agnew (American Nationalist)[6]
1977-1981: Edmund G. Brown, Jr. / John V. Lindsay (Democratic)[7]
1976: Richard M. Nixon / James L. Buckley (Republican), George L. Rockwell / Lester G. Maddox (Patriotic American)[8]
1981-1989: Daniel P. Moynihan / Howard H. Baker, Jr. (Republican)[9]
1980: Edmund G. Brown, Jr. / John V. Lindsay (Democratic), Edward M. Kennedy / John B. Anderson (Independent)[10]
1984: Samuel A. Nunn, Jr. / Henry W. Beatty (Democratic)[11]
[1] Walt Disney's two terms in office were defined by Social Change and Resistance. With the achivements of the Space Program and Science Development, redevelopment of America's roads and railways and the EPCOT Program there was also the horrors of youth, poltical and racial riots, the development of Ghettos for Blacks, the Rise of Terrorism, War in Cuba, the rise of Anti-Semitism in the US and other terrible disasters. Walt drank and grew ill as the Nation Burned, the US turned to the Arab States, lost its leadership role in the West, and in the end in 1960 saw US Governors ordering the National Guard to bombard their own citizens with artillery.
[2] Jack Kennedy's sell-out to the Dixiecrats and George Lincoln Rockwell's Ex-Republican Machine helped bring the Democrats victory from Moderate Nelson Rockefeller, but many probably wished they hadn't. A pathetic program of Black Deportation led to US Military involvement in Liberia and the Newly Independent Congo. Cuba Bogged down, Malcolm X continued to hide somewhere in North America and taunted the US with his "Jihad tapes". In the Summer of 1964 College Students, Activists, and Union Workers launched a passive revolt across the nation which for a few weeks seemed to have really forced the Governments hand, until Stennis ordered the Army into the cities and campuses the bloodbath that followed, assured his defeat in November, and with Criminal Charges impending following the November defeat, Stennis pre-emptively pardoned himself and Kennedy (Who's presence in the planning secession is debated to this day) of any wrongdoing in June 1968.
[3] While Stennis had brought Disneyism to new heights with exclusion zones, suspended civil liberties and the reentrenchment of segregation via barbed wire and bayonet. Law and Order Barry Goldwater took a two part approach. On one hand, over his two terms there was violence, the fight against Domestic Terror continued, on the other, he saw the disbanding of the Department of Racial Affairs and cut Federal Funding to aid the continuation of Ghettos, though he did little to help end them. In 1968 his October Surprise was announcing the death of Malcolm X, found by Special Forces in Mexicali at the same time announcing the final withdrawal of US troops from the Congo. Reelection came easy, but 8 years of "benign neglect" in an era of mass violence in the US wasn't all that great itself. Internationally there was an attempt to develop relations with Israel, which were negated when Syria, Iraq and Jordan attacked in 1970, triggering the final Soviet-Israeli alliance.
[4] In 1968 came one of the most interesting turns of events in US Political History, the Kennedy Dynasty broke along with the Rest of the Democratic Party. JFK, now loved by the Southern Democrats and running on a Law and Order and Cold War Victory platform saw the Northern wing of the Party revolt against him, and while Bobby Stood by his side no matter how many young black men were killed, Teddy chose to join the Liberal Rebels whom would be remembered as counterparts to the 1948 reactionary splitters.
[5] In 1972 Richard Nixon, Goldwater's Secretary of State and Michigan governor George Romney ran on Goldwater's record of returning prosperity and safety, and won with a decent margin, the problem coming when the USSC ruled that Romney was not in fact, eligible, and voided all the Electoral votes he received, and Democrat Sam Yorty was elected instead. Nixon and Yorty worked well together none the less, pushing more hardliner tactics against the Black, Marxist and "Youth" terror groups which still were operating, while simultaneously working to end movement restrictions, and ending the executive order which hand negated Anti-Segregation court rulings. Nixon hoped that in helping secure black's opportunities, he could cut down on the violence which stemmed from radical members of the ghettos. The results were decent but continual arrests and internment of protesters meant to the Radical Left he was no different then any 'Fascist' President since Disney
[6] Rockwell had finally given up trying to win nominations in 1972 and ran his own ticket with a one-time Republican VP nominee, he won 4 states in the process. Pushing for a full deportation of Blacks from the US.
[7] Then came "Liberation". Jerry Brown won the Democratic Nomination being the least qualified candidate since Horace Greeley, but in an America tired of Civil Violence and Wars abroad he was able to squeak in by the slimest margins, there was then the massive push, Universal Healthcare, Affirmative Action, Federal Trial after Federal Trial, Investigation after Investigation, the massive downsizing and reorganization of the Entire US Military into the small Uniservice "American Forces", Unilateral Nuclear Missile Disarmament, Guaranteed Minimum Incomes and Guaranteed Coligate Education. Within 2 years almost all of it had been passed and then defunded by Congress after midterms. Brown was a radical and, very quickly a failure as he pushed too hard and showed himself to be far too radical for the American people to handle. None the less UHC, the reintegration of Minorities into the United States (Including Repatriation from Africa) and the Civil Rights Act of 1978 are Achievements which were long-lasting
[8] In 1976 Rockwell's Southern Strategy worked well, gaining him almost all of the Old Confederacy, it cost Nixon the election though which was not the real plan, and shortly there after his political career came to an end when he was assassinated by a supporter of his 1972 campaign.
[9] In 1981 Daniel Patrick Moynihan was sworn in as President, promising a balanced approach to America's problems, in contrast to the fanaticism of the Radical Democrats and the Segregationists. It was he who enforced busing, the Voting Rights Act of 1981, and saw the passage and enforcement of the Equal Rights Amendments, and Educational and Vocational Reparations to the victims of 1953-1977 US Policies. It was Moynihan who went to Israel and helped create the Israeli-Egyptian Peace of 1984, and who helped see Free Elections in the US' leading Arab World client in 1986. It was Moynihan whom saw the departure of the last US forces from Cuba and free elections there. And it was Moynihan whom saw the restarting of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance system.
[10] Ted Kennedy ran for President in 1980 completely to offer an alternative to the "Insanity" of Brown"
[11] Sam Nunn on the other hand ran in 1984 representing a "New South" and a "New Democratic Party" which tried to run against "The Party of Disney". But it didn't work, not even the Popular, Radical Congressmen from California being able to help.
---------------
A Theoretical Look Forward: Maverick's "The High and the Mighty"
Timeline can be found
here.
It is only by chance that one of Maverick's better timeline's survived his whole "Going Mad with Power" thing that many of you view him as evil and crazy over. (
) Luckily for us the timeline where-in Ronald Reagan breaks his leg in 1964 and cannot speak at the Republican national convention, only to be replaced by John Wayne is still with us, and presents a fascinating transformation of the world and of United States politics, even in the brief period that Maverick wrote it, before leaving it so very close to not being incomplete. Anyway here goes.
In 1964, John Wayne's speech at the Republican National Convention propelled him into political activism, in 1966 he was elected Governor of California, in 1968 he was drafted to serve as Richard Nixon's Vice-President, in 1972 when Nixon ran into Arthur Bremer, it was Wayne who ascended to the top office. In some ways better, in some ways worse, in other ways just different from Ford, Carter and Reagan it would be John Wayne who then steered the United States though the 1970's and the Republican Party towards a new destiny for itself...
1969-1972: Richard M. Nixon / John M. Wayne (Republican)[1]
1968: Hubert H. Humphrey II / Edmund S. Muskie (Democratic), George C. Wallace / Edwin A. Walker (American Independent)[2]
1972-1977: John M. Wayne / Gerald R. Ford (Republican)[3]
1972: George C. Wallace / Samuel W. Yorty (Democratic), Eugene J. McCarthy / Shirley A. Chisholm (Freedom)[4]
1977-1979: John M. Wayne / John S. McCain II (Republican)[5]
1976: Jesse M. Unruh / Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. (Democratic), Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. / John B. Anderson (Independent Republican)[6]
1979-1980: John S. McCain II / Richard S. Schweiker (Republican)[7]
1980-1981: Richard S. Schweiker / vacant (Republican)[8]
1981-1985: John B. Connally, Jr. / C. Malcolm Wilson (Republican)[9]
1980: Edward M. Kennedy / James E. Carter (Democratic), Donald H. Rumsfeld / John G. Schmitz (Independent)[10]
1985-1993: John H. Glenn, Jr. / Dale L. Bumpers (Democratic)[11]
1984: John B. Connally, Jr. / C. Malcolm Wilson (Republican)
1988: H. Ross Perot / John S. McCain III (Republican)[12]
1993-1996: Patrick J. Buchanan / Ronald E. Paul (Republican)[13]
1992: Paul L. Newman / Mario M. Cuomo (Democratic)[14]
1996-2001: Patrick J. Buchanan / John S. McCain III (Republican)[15]
1996: Ralph Nader / Zell B. Miller (Democratic), Edmund G. Brown, Jr. / Albert A. Gore, Jr. (Reform)[16]
2001-2009: Charles E. Roemer III / B. Evans Bayh III (Democratic)
2000: John S. McCain III / Robert C. Smith (Republican)
2004: Robert C. Smith / Tommy G. Thompson (Republican)
2009-2013: B. Evans Bayh III / Johnny R. Edwards (Democratic)
2008: Jon Huntsman, Jr. / Peter T. King (Republican)
Notes:
[1] - Wayne legally changed his name in the lead up to his 1966 run for the Governor's Office. the M stands for his original name Marion. Wayne was able to run with Nixon because of his brief success as Governor of California (Serving as long as Agnew in Maryland) and because Nixon was legally a resident of New York in 1968.
[2] - Wayne in the race damaged George Wallace out of the gate, as he was forced to turn to disgraced former General Edwin Walker to be his VP rather than the still someone respected and respectable (As far as Race went) LeMay.
[3] - President Nixon was assassinated by Arthur Bremer in 1972 while visiting Canada. Nixon in the face of this quickly selected House Minority leader Gerald Ford to serve as his Vice President. In his first term Wayne would discontinue at once the old Nixonian policy of Dirty Tricks calling for clean government, at the same time a Cabal of Old Hands would decide that that was all fine and good for the President but they would take care of things themselves. And they would, while Nixon played tough in Vietnam it was the Old Hands who secured the long-term independence of a Finlandized, Non-Communist Cochinchina, It was they who oversaw Wayne's "War on Crime", it was they who sent Paul Volcker to Treasury to fight Stagflation, it was they who didn't assassinate the right people in Chile leading to Civil War there and it was they who sent the US navy down there to end that war when it got out of hand. And it was they would would outmaneuver many of their old Nixon-era rivals to dominate the Wayne administration and secure its victories. And of course it was they who set the stages for Wayne's victories in 1972 and 1976.
[4] - George Wallace, Open Racist was just about the only potential candidate who could have neutralized all of the embarrassing comments that Wayne's handlers always struggled to silence. And of course it would cause the splintering of the Democratic Party as Eugene McCarthy moved to offer the only non-awful option for the American Liberal establishment. McCarthy would win DC and Massachusetts, Wallace won votes in the Deep South and Wayne would walk away with the other 45 states.
[5] - By 1976 Gerald Ford had had enough of being shut out of the Ultra-Conservative Nixon administration, has announced departure in turn would open Wayne up to a Primary challenge from the Left but the Duke would hold, appointing his Chilean intervention commander and then Secretary of the Navy to serve as his VP. Theirs was an administration of staring down and talking cooly to the Soviets, of tumult at home and in the Middle East, and of timid Economic prosperity as Volcker kept on going at Treasury.
[6] - Ford's departure from the ticket triggered a Primary challenge by Richard Schweiker, which while eventually defeated left Wayne open and vulnerable, the Third Way Democratic Governor of California and the Liberal Republican from Connecticut who would challenge him in the Presidential race saw him as an easy target. And then the Old Hands, seeing their President in danger turned to one of their own FBI Director Mark Felt and one Waco-like event with Jim Jones' People's Temple later, Unruh was crippled and lost his one-point-behind Wayne status for collapse and the Duke held on for another term.
[7] - Or most of another term, in 1978 the President began treatment for Lung Cancer, in mid 1979 Wayne skipped out on being a Lame Duck to resign, dying a few weeks later. President McCain on taking office, brought in the old Left Challenger from 1976 to serve as his VP for the sake of Unity. McCain's administration would be focused on securing a Nuclear Missile treaty with the Soviets, and the Recession of 1980 kicking things off. A modest administration, McCain earned a level of respect, before announcing that he would not seek the Party nomination in 1980.
[8] - In late November of 1980 President McCain would die of a heart attack, Schweiker wouldn't be able to do much in his brief period besides send the US Navy into the Persian Gulf to secure US oil convoys.
[9] - John Connolly beat out then-current Texas Governor Bush and Congressmen Reagan for the 1980 nomination and with a Dead Cowboy behind him won over the Republican base. Not that he would have liked it. Shortly after getting rid of Volcker and refusing to nominate him to the Federal Reserve as Ted Kennedy had promised, the nation's recession began to grow out of hand, with Connolly's administration being completely focused on trying to save an economy that was nosediving.
[10] - Of course not all Republicans were happy that an Ex-Democrat was their nominee. And not many Democrats cared for Connolly either, no matter who he got shot sitting next to.
[11] - In 1984 with no economic recovery in site Connolly and the Republicans were thrown quickly on to their asses. When one loses to a Movie Hero who does one eventually turn to? A Real God Damned Hero. Glenn governed firmly to the left, By 1986 the Economy was once more on the upswing and Glenn got all the victories that came with the rise of the tech industry and all that kind of growth, modernization in American Industry did wonders for production too.
And then in 1990 the greatest series of Victories from the Cold War began when the USSR agreed to plebiscites in the Eastern European SSRs and for the departure of Soviet puppets from the Warsaw pact. By the end of the year Europe expanded to the Baltic States and Western Ukraine, though Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania remained Marxist dictatorships. In 1991 the People's Republic of China fell, leading by 1993 to the "State of China" (Negotiations would secure a One Nation, Two Governments like system by 1994 with Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai Tibet, and Uyghurstan eventually all operating as SARs) In 1992 The Germanies reunified, as Glenn's second term moved towards a victorious end. As a lame duck in 1993 he would see the rump Soviet Union (Russia, Belorussia, East Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) formally request observer status in the European Confederation.
[12] - Wayneism showed major changes early in the legacy period when Ross Perot won Texas' Senate Seat in 1984, and ran for President four years later on a mostly Perot-like platform.
[13] - Wayne's Last Chief of Staff took the White house in 1992 being all Buchanan-like (Though the Evangelical community continues to stay out of politics, Buchanan's moralist language is firmly Catholic), pushing Protectionism, Small Government, and like Wayne, a tough stance on Crime. Ron Paul his VP proved very popular leading a Federal Audit of the Federal Reserve. The US Government faced major downsizing on all fronts during this period and it was in 1995 that the two men would oversee the departure of the United States from NATO (While still remaining a signatory of the Atlantic alliance, like France.) Racial Tensions oddly found themselves on the rise during the Buchanan era of the War on Crime.
[14] - Paul Newman having been elected a Senator from California in 1976 ran on the McCarthy Left in 1992. It didn't work.
[15] - Vice President Paul would depart the ticket after questions were raised about his judge of character due to numerous staff appointments in Congress and the Executive Branch. The son of President McCain on the other hand had a reputation as a clean cut, straight shooter. In 1997 the major crisis that would face President Buchanan throughout his administration was taking the US War on Crime overseas, as he moved to quarantine the Narco-Republic of Cochinchina. When Socialist Vietnam fell Cochinchina moved back to the 17th Parallel securing Off shore oil territories and new facilities to secure its dominance as the Heroin capital of the world. Naval blockade and military force would follow, and by the end of 1998 America's second Vietnam war would come to an end with Cochinchina pushed back to its Pre-war borders and the State of Vietnam in control of its own oil production once more.
[16] - Ralph Nader a student of former Governor Unruh proved unable to win from the Center, thanks to the efforts of the Reform Party which aiming to split the vote, targeted swing states and through them to Buchanan, even though Nader would win the popular vote. A struggle that would define political passions for the next several elections.
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A Theoretical Look forward for Mike Stone's "Mr. Hughes Goes to War"
The link for which can be found
here. Its a nice, simple and excellent read. Probably one of my favorite AH pieces and of course, I highly recommend it.
Also worth noting, this has spoilers. Obviously.
Presidents of the United States
1913-1916: T. Woodrow Wilson / Thomas R. Marshall (Democratic)
1912: Theodore Roosevelt / Hiram Johnson (Progressive), William H. Taft / James S. Sherman, Nicholas M. Butler (Republican), Eugene V. Debs / Emil Seidel (Socialist)
1916-1917: Charles E. Hughes / vacant (Republican) [Acting][1]
1917-1918: Charles E. Hughes / Charles W. Fairbanks (Republican) [2]
1916: T. Woodrow Wilson / Thomas R. Marshall (Democratic), Alan L. Benson / George R. Kirkpatrick (Socialist)
1918-1921: Charles E. Hughes / vacant (Republican) [3]
1921-1928: Herbert C. Hoover / Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) [4]
1920: [T. Woodrow Wilson], Albert E. Smith (Democratic)[5], Charles E. Hughes / Frank O. Lowden (Republican), Robert M. LaFollette / Thomas E. Watson (Progressive)[6], Eugene V. Debs / Seymour Stedman (Socialist)
1924: Frank O. Lowden / Joseph M. Dixon (Republican), Henrik Shipstead / Dudley F. Malone (Farmer-Labor)
1928-1929: Franklin D. Roosevelt / vacant (Democratic)[7]
1929-1937: Franklin D. Roosevelt / James A. Reed (Democratic)
1928: J. Calvin Coolidge, Jr. / Charles G. Dawes (Republican)
1932: Charles E. Hughes, Jr. / Hiram Johnson (Republican)[8]
1937-1943: Charles L. McNary / Leverett A. Saltonstall (Republican)[9]
1936: James A. Reed / Cordell Hull (Democratic), Burton K. Wheeler / William F. Lemke (Populist), Norman M. Thomas / James H. Maurer (Socialist)
1940: Henry S. Breckinridge / John N. Garner (Democratic), Norman M. Thomas / Charles Solomon (Socialist)
1943-1945: Leverett A. Saltonstall / vacant (Republican)[10]
1945-1957: Leverett A. Saltonstall / Henry A. Wallace (Republican)[11]
1944: W. Francis Murphy / Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (Democratic), Norman M. Thomas / Darlington Hoopes (Socialist)
1948: Glen H. Taylor / Herman Talmadge (Democratic)
1952: Claude D. Pepper / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
German Emperors
1888-1918: Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern (Prussia) [12]
1918-1929: Karl I von Hapsburg (Austria) [13]
1929-1955: Rupprecht I von Wittelsbach (Bavaria) [14]
1955-1967: Wilhelm III von Hohenzollern (Prussia)
Notes
[1]- President Wilson upon his defeat turned down the opportunity to be a lame duck due to the nature of the dangerous international situation. Thus he had Secretary of State Robert Lansing resign. He then appointed Hughes Secretary of State, at which point both he and Vice President Marshall resigned themselves, elevating Hughes to the Presidency less then a week after winning election.
[2]- Hughes' victory had been due to the "helpful" sinking of the SS Algonquin just before the election. Using his Lame duck term to ready the nation for war, shortly after being sworn in in his own Right, Hughes was forced to declare war on Germany. A major US deployment was ready to go sooner, and with better logistics and supply. The result was that the build up of US forces was quicker, and Germany threw in the towel even earlier. As events in Central Europe accelerated, Hughes worked to develop a peace treaty, using support from the past four secretaries of state and a coalition of other Republicans and Democrats.
[3]- The death of Vice President Fairbanks did little to stop the treaty goings on, in the end Fairbanks brought America into the League of Nations (a less powerful body then IOTL) and helped finalize peace between the Western Allies and the New German Emperor. Lenin still came to power in Russia, much of Europe teetered between reactionary and revolutionary dictatorship none the less, Prince Sixte became King of Poland, and the moderate Conservitives of all sides worked to establish a peaceful new world. Hughes faced domestic opposition on stuff.
[4]- Via the crisis that will be explained in note 5, Herbert Hoover, Democrat became President in 1921. He was like Hughes a moderate internationalist, and was noted domestically for overseeing the expansion of wealth and prosperity of the 1920's, and for working with Republicans and northern democrats in a failed attempt at an Anti-Lynching Bill. It was a simple and decent administration. He was also noted for nominating Former President Hughes back to the Supreme Court in 1922 in the name of bipartisan reputation in the nations Top Court. His legalist stance during the red scare, like Hughes prevented continued troubles, and defended the rights of Socialists to not get murdered.
[5]- Hoover though had originally been merely the VP nominee in 1920, the top job going to Woodrow Wilson in a rematch. The national crisis that followed being the result of Wilson's death after the national vote but before the electoral college met. The DNC chose to elevate Hoover and nominate his campaign manager, Franklin Roosevelt to the VP post, while breakaways nominated Al Smith to be President, demanding a Real Democrat rather then Hoover. The situation had been primed that Hughes could have taken back the White House but in a highly respected move, Hughes openly spoke against it, and vowed to do for Hoover, what Wilson had done for him in 1916 if his views were not the result.
[6]- Probably one of the larger errors in the story, was the nomination of Tom Watson, an Ex-Populist whom like most of them was practically a foaming at the mouth Klansmen, turned Hyperreactionary, as LaFollette's VP. I would have suggested, well, anyone else. They won quite a few states none the less.
[7]- Hoover having been elected in 1920, died in a 1928 plane crash while on a trip to a League of Nations Conference of American Statesmen in Havana Cuba. Curse of Tippecanoe!
[8]- Roosevelt's administration passed Old Age Pensions and fought hard for Farm Relief, as he was walking it was a much more paternalistic thing. He didn't pass, and major expansion of Welfare. In 1932, none the less he easily bested NY Senator Charles E. Hughes, Jr. And then the bottom came out of the tub and in 1934 the Economy finally crashed.
[9]- In the face of Roosevelt's seeming failure to stem the tide of Depression, Deficit spending and the rise of new Populist movements and a return to Socialism for many, Charles McNary was elected President, and began a campaign to create work, via work programs, trade treaties, and government investment. It mostly worked, or at least, the American people felt it worked and thats what mattered.
[10]-Tippicannoe again. Leverett A. Saltonstall was sworn in after his bosses death At the time, Europe was in crisis, Civil War in France, Italy and Spain seemed to bring the threat of Communist victory closer, Communist-allied KMT forces were on the march in Manchuria, *Fascists marched in London, Frankfurt, and took power in Hungary, Turkey, and Japan.
[11]- In 1946 Open war came to Europe as Bukharin invaded Poland. Starting World War II. US entry was forced in 1949 Saltonstall became the first President elected to more then two terms in 1952 as US forces pushed from Siberia and as part of the broad European alliance in the West. His domestic programs, friendly nature and war work would make him be remembered as one of the Greatest Presidents of all time.
[12]- Willy was ousted in 1918 by the German Peace Government, fleeing into the Netherlands to avoid any responsibility for anything ever. He was removed as King of Prussia and never returned to Germany, his son and heir Wilhelm III remaining but being forced to abdicate the Prussian Throne. He was the last unelected Emperor.
[13]- Charles of Austria was invited by Chancellor Prince Max von Baden to take the German throne in 1918, which he did. For a time he was still King of Hungary but would lose that when the German people weren't interested for fighting for it in the 1920's. Survived a Coup in 1919 perpetrated by the Freikrops and another in 1927 by disenchanted elements of the Army that were interested in creating a *Fascist state. An arch-conservitive, he was forced to deal with an ever liberalizing Germany and strong limits on his power. None the less, he built a niche for himself as the Warlord.
[14]- 1929 was a bad year for Germany, in a matter of months the three greats of the Reformed German Empire all died, Emperor Karl, Max of Baden the regent of Prussia and major leader of German Liberals, and Chancellor Gustav Stressman, the elected leader of Germany's Liberals. In this time of crisis, it was Rupprecht of Bavaria who was elected by the German people to be their next Emperor, remembering his service in the war, the 1920 coup, and in his fair rule of Bavaria since taking the throne. It was he too, who would be remembered well as the Kaiser who fought the Soviet War, saving the nation from ruin.
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I could have dealt with the 1942 Election Bullshit better.
A Theoretical Look Forward for Philip Roth's "Plot Against America"
Spoilers.
This is a look at Philip Roth’s Bush era work that won the Sidewise Award and totally wasn’t just a morality tale about how Bush Sucked. It was pretty straightforward, Lindbergh sweeps into the GOP Nomination, cuts off all help to the British, Signs Treaties with Hitler in Iceland, and makes life suck for American Minorities until in 1942 he vanishes and America launches national Pogroms and almost goes to war with the British. This is all excused in that Lindbergh was being blackmailed by the Nazis (Who had kidnapped his son years before) and that all of his efforts were really to try and prevent things from getting worse for the Jews while preventing Himmler from murdering his son. Yeah I know. In 1942 Mrs. Lindbergh escapes from a Mental Institution and triggers an emergency election. Yeah I know. I don’t know why the book was a big deal much either.
1941-1942: Charles A. Lindbergh / Burton K. Wheeler (Republican)[1]
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt / Henry A. Wallace (Democratic)
1942-1942: Burton K. Wheeler / vacant (American First Republican)[2]
1942-1942: Gerald P. Nye / vacant (Republican)[3]
1943-1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt / John H. Bankhead II (Democratic)[4]
1942: Wendell L. Wilkie / W. Franklin Knox (Republican), Gerald L. K. Smith / Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (America First)
1944: Douglas MacArthur / John W. Brickner (Republican)[5]
1945-1946: John H. Bankhead II / vacant (Democratic)[6]
1946-1949: W. Averell Harriman / vacant (Democratic)[7]
1949-1957: W. Averell Harriman / J. William Fulbright (Democratic)[8]
1948: Thomas E. Dewey / Herbert E. Hitchcock (Republican)
1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower / H. Styles Bridges (Republican)[9]
1957-1963: Richard M. Nixon / C. Estes Kefauver (Democratic)[10]
1956: Thomas E. Dewey / Herbert Brownell, Jr. (Republican)
1960: Earl Warren / Henry C. Lodge, Jr. (Republican)
1963-1965: Richard M. Nixon / vacant (Democratic)
1965-1969: W. Stuart Symington / Eugene G. Brown, Sr. (Democratic)[11]
1964: Nelson A. Rockefeller / Thruston B. Morton (Republican)
1969-1973: George W. Romney / Thurgood Marshall (Republican)[12]
1968: W. Stuart Symington / Eugene G. Brown, Sr. (Democratic)
Notes
1- Lindbergh’s Anti-War platform and his Democratic VP sweep in against the Aggressor Roosevelt inspite of all the Anti-Semitic talk in 1940 and get to work. Over the next two years America backs away from the British, signs a Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler, and Builds up Continental Defense and a Nuclear Weapons Program. Domestically the New Deal is slowly wrapped up in large portions, the Office of American Assimilation promotes programs like “Just Folks” and “Homestead 2” to force Jews and other minorities to be like Everyone else. And then in October of 1942 Lindbergh flies in the Spirit of St. Louis to Kentucky for a Speech, turns around and is never seen from again.
2- In the vanishing of his boss Wheeler blames the British Empire and puts the US on high alert. Pogroms against Jews, Asians and Blacks break out in the US leading to hundreds of lynchings in the course of just a few weeks. Hitler blames the Jews for the American Presidents Disappearance, Wheeler blames Roosevelt, In Actuality, Lindbergh ditches out at Sea and meets a U-Boat which takes him to Germany where he becomes a Luftwaffe Officer.
3- With the National Decision to listen to Mrs. Lindbergh and let legal precedent be damned, Wheeler is removed from Office, and Secretary of State Gerald P. Nye, still an isolationist overseas an emergency election election. Following the November victory of the Democrats, it is he who takes America into WWII when the Japanese attack on December 8th, 1942. (I know) Following the German Declaration of War on the US, the first broadcasts from “Chuck Slim” an American broadcasting for the Nazis was released, calling for Servicemen to stand down and that the Nye and Roosevelt governments were illegal. These were never decisively proven to be Lindbergh though and are generally scoffed at by non-Conspiracy Theorists. (It was him.)
4- Roosevelt, elected over a Pro-War “Clean” Republican Ticket and the Anti-War America First Party, with his Southern VP led America through the next several years of war, Mass Aid to the British, Air War over Germany, a rough fight though North Africa (Helping clear out Egypt too) before going into the Soft Underbelly of Europe in Italy and the Balkans and up in Norway. In the Pacific the war was focused on fighting to secure the tedious supply lines to the Australians first by taking Guadalcanal back, before ignoring the rest of the South Pacific to push across the Central Islands like Wake, Tarawa, and the Marshalls. Aid to the Russians was focused mainly on helping retake Moscow in 1943.
5- One of the side effects was that MacArthur was retired for good under Lindbergh who had no use for him, he was not brought back in, though he was briefly appointed to fill a Senate Vacancy. The Boys in Luzon didn’t miss him.
6- Roosevelt’s death in 1945 did not trigger a Special Election, it did though, trigger the atomic bombing of Berlin in 1945, followed by Hiroshima, Yokahama, Nagasaki, and Kyoto. The War came to an end shortly after. Allied Forces which had only recently landed in the South of France were glad they would not have to fight all the way to Paris. Nor did the men fighting on Okinawa or Formosa mind much either. Bankhead though would not live long to secure Post-War Prosperity. One issue of note was that with the destruction of Berlin all records related to, and the man himself that was known as “Chuck Slim” were obliterated. Thus leaving that mystery forever open ended except for the testimony of a few technicians and SS troopers who lived through the war.
7- Harriman, Roosevelt and Bankheads Secretary of State thus assumed the Presidency, working out post war treaties with Atlee and General Secretary Zhukov as to the fate of Europe and Asia. He earned few friends with the other powers as he sought an end to Colonialism and won much respect at home for his work on securing America’s post-war economic growth.
8- Harriman and Fulbright would be elected twice, based on the Post-War economic Growth, and security abroad as the Nationalists won in China (Being America's economic if not political friends), Europe saw the start of a Common Economic Cooperative, and the Soviets sought their own Liberalizations in exchange for *Marshall Aid. Harriman’s supportive stance on minority rights caused some trouble down south but there were equal parts “The Courts ruled and he is doing his job” and “Remember October 1942” feelings that grudgingly kept violence down and let the work of desegregation begin.
9- No Eisenhower being Eisenhower does not allow for Instant Victory, at the end of the Day, even SHAEF can’t walk away from what Lindbergh did.
10- Nixon could see what that legacy meant though and made sure it wouldn’t stick to him. The Young California Senator was elected in 1956 promising for the American People a New Society and he worked to deliver with Tax and Welfare Reforms, a strong push for Civil Rights and work to help secure education opportunities for all Americans. Abroad he played hardball with the Now Nuclear Russians, calling for more reforms on their part before he would agree to a Free Trade Agreement, which partly worked to help lead to the *mostly* Free Elections of 1959.
11- Symington’s two main achievements in his term was the triumph of the American Space Program (Rocketry being a major component of Lindberghs defense scheme btw means NASA was no Old Nazi’s Club), and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
12- None the less, all good things come to an end, and as the Economy moved into a recession in 1967 after years of uninterrupted growth the deal was sealed, Senator George Romney of Michigan and Governor Marshall of Maryland were the First Republicans to hold the White House since 1942.
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A Theoretical Look Forward for Michael F. Flynn's "Southern Strategy"
Do I have to say with that title that their will be spoilers?
Flynn's short story, found in the Alternate Generals II Anthology, or
here tells the story of Senator Adlai Stevenson's treck to Alabama in 1952 in an attempt to sound out the South for the upcoming Presidential Election.
In this America Woodrow Wilson was able, as a neutral to secure peace between the Central and Entente Powers in 1917 and create his dream of the League of Nations. Over the following decades as Wilson rehabilitated the south and assured decades of Southern dominance of the Democratic Party, Germany rebounded in power, and used the league as a tool as it defeated the USSR and Japan in the 1930's and 1940's. With a string of "Lily-White" Republicans and Dixiecrat Democrats in office, Blacks were kept in the south via Passbook and violence, and Civil Rights was for too long a non starter. Then at the dawn of the 1950's the shit hit the fan, John Calvin King and his Southern Colored Liberation Corps launched a rebellion against the Southern system and called for League Help. It did, but as German bombers hit US targets, British forces landed at Mobile and Triple Monarchy Paratroopers appeared around New Orleans things exploded and in the end 20,000 Blacks would be found by the League in Mass Graves across the South.
In 1952 Stevenson, a pawn of the Dailey Machine headed south to talk to John Sparkman the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace his Attorney General and leader of the state's "Nightrider" resistance, as well as John Calvin King himself. Unplanned were the meetings with Erwin Rommel, commander of the LoN peacekeepers, or "Tricky Dick" the leader of the Plumbers a Pro-Republican resistance group with plans inside of plans. By the end of the trip the body count jumped horrifically, Stevenson betrayed Wallace and King to the Germans in a move to create Democratic martyrs, King died fighting the Prussian Stromtroopers, Wallace was paralyzed and propped up to a board for his retribution execution, Rommel was killed by a bomb under his car, set off by Dick but of course Rommel had only been going because of Stevenson's letter to him. And Adlai was left behind by Dick as bait, killed by the Germans becoming both a Martyr and the catalyst of the Democrats destruction when Dick's people sent the tapes and other evidence of Stevenson's dealings to the hit
Morning in America News broadcast. And of course, the German brutal response to the death of Rommel lead to the death of thousands of hostages, an act of revenge that would lead to the collapse of the European Concert of Britain and France with Germany and Austria which had dominated the world since the 1920's...
1949-1952: Hugo L. Black / James M. Curley (Democratic) [1]
1948: Robert A. Taft / William W. Barbour (Republican)
1952-1953: Hugo L. Black / vacant (Democratic)
1953-1961: Earl Warren / Hanford MacNider (Republican)[2]
1952: Richard B. Russell, Jr. / George B. Timmerman, Jr. (Southern Democratic), Robert F. Wagner II / Edward P. Carville (Northern Democratic) [3]
1956: George A. Smathers / Coke R. Stevenson (Forward American), Harry S. Truman / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic) [4]
1961-1965: Earl Warren / Charles H. Percy (Republican)[5]
1960: Harry F. Byrd / Huey P. Long (Forward American), Hubert H. Humphrey II / Robert B. Meyner (New Democratic Action), Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. / Eugene J. McCarthy (Democratic) [6]
1965-1971: James N. Ryan / Thomas E. Dewey (Republican) [7]
1964: Tallulah B. Bankhead / William P. Lane, Jr. (Forward American) Hubert H. Humphrey II / Frank S. Hogan (New Democratic Action) [8]
1968: Abraham A. Ribicoff / Harold E. Hughes (New Democratic Action) John G. Crommelin / Daniel K. Moore (Co-Operative)[9]
1971-1973: James N. Ryan / vacant (Republican)
1973-1981: Elvis A. Presley / Elliot L. Richardson (Republican) [10]
1972: Hubert H. Humphrey II / Thomas F. Eagleton (New Democratic Action), John J. McKeithen / C. Calvin Sale, Jr. (United Citizens) [11]
1976: Birch E. Bayh, Jr. / Benjamin A. Smith II (New Democratic Action) [12]
1981-1985: Elliot L. Richardson / John B. Anderson (Republican) [13]
1980: Alan J. Dixon / Frank F. Church III (New Democratic Action)
1985-1989: John H. Glenn, Jr. / Walter F. Mondale (New Democratic Action) [14]
1984: Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. / Frank F. Borman II (Republican)
[1] Hugo Black's victory was a sweet one for his party at first, bringing the Democrats back to the Executive Branch for the first time in 16 years, the first since Frank Roosevelt's disastrous term. But his failure to respond to the League Invasion --- within 12 hours he had ordered all US forces to standdown and attempted to claim the Peacekeepers were invited --- and his failure to prevent the "Clearances" and mass murder in Dixie destroyed him. Vice President Curley's varied scandals did nothing to help, and Curley's eventual salvation by placing himself in the Northern Revolt against the Democratic leadership in 1952 left Black completely alone. A failed president, he did not run for a second term, or return to his native south upon retirement.
[2] Stevenson had feared Warren would win in 1952 because simply, Warren would do well. The fear was completely accurate. Taking office, Warren led America though the start of the Second Entente War, as Anglo-French and German forces begain shooting at each other even in the American South. Neutral America's time as a battleground was short lived but shocked the nation. The Army was rapidly expanded, and a National Police Service was created and sent down to Dixie. The Passbook law was voided by Executive Order and thousands of Blacks left the South for the West Coast and Northern Cities. Under Warren for the first time since Wilson the United States appeared on the upswing as a power, while around the world the Empires of Europe tore themselves to peaces.
[3] In early 1952 Stevenson had been part of a Democratic faction that had hoped to run Harry Truman for President, a border stater to solve the regional divide issue. But as the Stevenson tapes entered the Congressional Record the party collapsed on itself. Southern and Northern wings went their separate ways, and while the Solid South was able to survive one more election thanks to a lack of peacekeepers securing the polling places, the Northern Wing of the party won enough states to survive if not flourish. The divide was one that would never be healed.
[4] By 1956 the Split in the Party was permanent, at Midterms Southern Democrats had formed their own organization, the Forward America Party who talked a hard line on joining the Second Entente War, still ongoing to gain vengeance over Germany as well as all sorts of talk about American Traditionalism and a need for Law and Order. Harry Truman did get the Democratic nomination this time which gave another decent if unsuccessful showing, the fight in the Democrats shifting from the old machines against the reformers who had been shut out by the now departed Dixiecrats.
[5] In 1959, the war in Europe still ongoing, Warren did bring the US into the fight, due to the issue of German submarine warfare. US forces spend the next two years fighing in East Asia and Africa as well as in the North Atlantic. The land and air components of the war are minimal though, with the majority of US action and casualties being in the Naval War. The War does trigger a third term for Warren, upon winning it, Warren shocks the world by desegregating the US military in wartime. The 1962 Peace Treaty that eventually comes out of the war replaces the too proactive League of Nations with the Discussion forum that is the World Congress. It also saw, thanks to the US the start of the end for the World's Empires as German colonies were made Independent, and France and Britain nearly bankrupted their empires to win the war.
[6] 1960 finalized the death of the Democratic Party as Northern, Reform Democrats formed the New Democratic Action leaving the old party to Big and Little Joe who won only one state, a graceless end for the old party.
[7] James Ryan (James Gavin IOTL) was a major Hero of the Second Entente War, having led US Forces in liberating Manila from German-Puppet forces. As President, Ryan saw the continual build up of US Forces, and Politcal prestige. In 1968 it is Ryan who announces that the US has detonated an Atom Bomb, changing the world political system forever. Domestically, Ryan continues to work on developing a real peace in the South, with US National Police and Judicial power being used to break what is left of the Solid South. Ryan is the first President to appoint a Black man to the Cabinet, as Malcolm Little, a Senator from New York becomes the Secretary of State.
[8] The Female Governor of Alabama was the last Forward America candidate, and the last to outpace the NDA. None the less, the Forward America Party was starting to unravel, especially as Ryan would target its ties with the "Night Riders" and work to finally secure open voting rights in the South. Hubert Humphrey's result in this election, secured permanantly the NDAs position.
[9] The collapse of the Forward America Party saw the rise of the new Co-Operative Party, which in turn also failed, as it found it hard to keep going when the party is openly that of the Nightriders, rather then Democrats who at least tried to keep their ties to such groups quiet.
[10] Presley, a former member of Tricky Dick's Plumbers had served in the Entente War as a Ranger Officer in the US Army in the Congo, winning himself the Congressional Medal of Honor. Becoming after the war the Republican Senator from Tennessee, he earned a reputation as a real supporter of Civil Rights. As president this continued Nationally, and oversaw the Space Race and a major reform of the American Education system to secure post-secondary education for all Americans.
[11] Hube Humphrey's three runs climaxed with the election of 1972 where with just two close states swinging towards him, he could have been elected President, showing once and for all that the American people know the NDA does not serve as a beard for the Old Democrats. At the same time, Dixiecrats would try one more time, this time re-branding themselves as a Law and Order Party, which failed dismally, as they only won Louisiana and West Virginia.
[12] Bayhs run was less close then Humphreys but did represent another major Victory for the NDA, as for the first time, they were THE only opposition party to win electoral votes for the first time.
[13] President Richardson saw a quiet administration, America lost the Moon Race to the Chinese, but did land their own men on it, Civil Rights fights settled down, as reparations were paid to survivors of the 1950's ethnic cleansing and the fight became one of Legal Responsibility on the small scale (There were plenty of executions still none the less). This time was referred to by Time Magazine called it the victory of Civil Rights which was at least half-true. Richardson was the first Republican who's share of the Black vote dropped in comparison to his opponent though, marking a quiet if dramatic change.
[14] And in 1984 the big change came, bringing an end to 42 years of Republican Dominance as John Glenn, hero of the Entente Air War and a major promoter of Civil Rights himself was elected President, the first the NDA ever had. Glenn continued US Civil Rights policy while seeking to develop a new Welfare system, basing his administration on a War on Poverty with great successes. His administration would mark the watershed moment beginning the Sixth Party Era in US Politics and marking a real return to multi-party politics.
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A Theoretical Look Forward at: Newt Gingrich & William R. Forstchen's "Gettysburg"
Spoilers. Obviously.
The former Speaker of the House and Author William Forstchen's team up is a military-dominated history filled with heroes (Nobel Southerners, White and Black Soldiers, and Pro-Lincoln Republicans) and Villains (Traitorous Southerners, the Self-Interested Unionists, Democrats, and in a single orphaned scene, the French) whom following Lee's Brilliant, Un-Lee like actions in Southern Pennsylvania must face a final cataclysmic series of campaigns which will settle the Civil War in late 1863.
Lee fails to take Washington, though takes Baltimore and leads Maryland into the Confederacy, while Lincoln holds onto Washington, a city under Siege. Ulysses S. Grant takes his army to the north bank of the Susquehanna River. Dan Sickles, commanding the Army of the Potomac and determined to be the first Tammany President wrecks his own force at Monocacy and in the end it all comes down to Grant. Who in a 10 Day battle at Frederick, Maryland secures Lee's Surrender, and paroles the entire Army of Northern Virginia, whom then with the Confederate Congress in Richmond sideline Davis and dissolve themselves, rejoining the Union with the promise that they'd support the 13th Amendment thus ending the whole show before January 1st 1864.
While a fun read, I hope that everyone's response to that is "What a load of Revisionist Crap!" Because it is, even though there's a nice coating of USCT being great on top of it. Of course this is what makes things fun as hell when injecting the political sphere with 50 CC's of Reality.
1861-1865: Abraham Lincoln / Hannibal Hamlin (Republican)[1]
1860: John C. Breckinridge / Joseph Lane (Constitutional Democratic), John Bell / Edward Everett (Constitutional Unionist), Stephen A. Douglas / Herschel V. Johnson (Democratic)
1865-1869: Samuel S. Cox / Winfield S. Hancock (Democratic / National Conservative) [2]
1864: Salmon P. Chase / Jacob Collamer (Republican), Robert M. T. Hunter / Thomas E. Bramlette (Conventionist)[3], Abraham Lincoln / Lovell H. Rousseau (National Unionist)[4]
1869-1873: Samuel S. Cox / H. Emerson Etheridge (National Conservative)[5]
1868: Charles Sumner / Schuyler Colfax, Jr. (Republican)
1873-1877: Montgomery Blair / Alfred H. Colquitt (Conservative)[6]
1872: Roscoe Conkling / Elihu B. Washburne (Republican)
1877-1881: Zebulon B. Vance / David Davis (Conservative) [7]
1876: James B. Weaver / Joseph R. Hawley (Republican)[8]
Notes
[1] - And so it was that in October of 1863, following the Defeat and Public Resignation of Robert E. Lee that the Confederate dissolved itself and rejoined the Union. The Radicals Republicans tried to take action against this, and install a system of Reconstruction on the returned rebels, but the nation was disinterred following the flight of many of them from Washington when the city was under siege. In December of 1863 when Congress came into secession All of the Southern State delegations were seated, the membership of which was generally evenly split between Unionists and returned Confederates. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was not one of the new Senators having fled to Cuba, his Vice President, Alexander Stephens was. Following the deal they had made in their peace agreement the returned Southern States did support the 13th Amendment, with nearly all ratifying it by the end of 1864.
The result of all of this though was the Doom of Lincoln's political career. Emancipation on paper was one thing, any other deals made with the Republicans though were off the table and the former Slave Power reasserted itself in the South. Southern Unionists found common cause with their former Confederate Rivals, and both found Conservative Republicans to be firmly on side with them. The Freedmen's Bureau was shot down in committee. USCT veterans were denied a Federal Right to Vote, Peonage laws were repealed and a new system of dominating the former Slaves was introduced into the deep South while mob violence helped restore Confederate Dominance in those parts of the South that were already under reconstruction. In 1864 a new Opposition Force rose up in Congress as Confederate and Unionist Southerners joined Conservative Democrats and Republicans to take over Congress, appointing Congressmen "Sunset" Cox Speaker, and spending the next year continually rejecting any work with the Lincoln Administration, while rapidly cutting military spending to secure their position. It could thus be said, and was by many that by the election of 1864, the South had won the peace, even with the Union restored.
[2] - And it was thus that in 1864 that the Speaker of the House and one of the great heros of the War were elected as Democrats to the chief posts of the executive Branch. President Cox would oversee the Transformation of the Democratic Party and its alliance into a new Party, the National Conservatives which secured for the nation "The Union-as-it-was" as much as possible. Under President Cox, Peonage became entrenched in the Post-War South and the South was left to its own devices. In 1866 the Western Preservation Act was passed banning Black settlement in the Territories, and in 1867 the Voluntary Resettlement Act moved to deport Freedmen who were not held in Peonage to Liberia. In 1866 the Conservative Controlled Congress would move to deny many of the remaining Northern Radicals their seats, and 20 were denied their credentials including none less than Thaddeus Stevens. Opposition to these actions were limited in the North where Political Machines and other members of the Conservatives declared that the goals of the Civil War had been met in full. Republican attempts to force a reaction against this failed to gain momentum, and defections were common.
[3] - In 1864 a Southern Dominated Third Party, the National Convention Party, won votes in South Carolina, Texas and Delaware hoping to call for a series of amendments to the Constitution to reorganize the country on a "Regional Basis". The Former Confederate Secretary of States' defeat was far more successful than the parties attempts at House and Senate seats, and the movement faded, its supporters Co-opted by the New Conservative Party.
[4] - The Republican Party dropped President Lincoln for Chase following his Peace-time slide, Chase's defeat though was more then inevitable before Lincoln ran on his own reconciliatory-with-requirements platform. Lincoln's "New Republic" platform would eventually take over the GOP after his defeat but at the time served to wreck Republican attempts to hold ground in the House.
[5] - In 1869 President Cox ran for a second term, dropping General Hancock for the Former Tennessee Unionist Congressmen, Congressional Clerk and Hardline Conservative. It had only taken 8 years for a Southerner to return to the Vice Presidency, and the large margin of Victory of the Conservatives showed that Republican pressure against letting Southerners in was not a viable campaign strategy with the South back in the Fold. Cox's policies would continue and the Patronage system served to further cement the Conservative Party together. For Republicans it was a time of reorganization too, in 1870 former President Lincoln died, and in 1871 in the face of Nativist pressures in the Conservative Party, the Tammany Hall Machine in New York broke away, while continuing to Dominate New York politics first as "Independent Democrats" and eventually, as Republicans.
[6] - In 1872 the Conservatives selected former Lincoln Cabinet officer, Conservative Republican and heir to the Blair machine, Montgomery Blair as President, with a former Confederate Army officer as his VP. The margin of victory was less than Cox's but the victory was still at least, a clear one. It was President Blair who oversaw the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and a series of corruption scandals as the Spoils System began to face attack by cross-party reformers. Internationally it was Blair who deployed US troops to Liberia to secure the Republic for Freedmen resettlement. In 1874 the Republicans regained the house for the first time in a decade, passing over President Blair's veto the re-outlawing of Peonage, which in the South simply reorganized itself to sharecropping and convict labor.
[7] - Blair's growing unpopularity and declining health meant that in 1876 the Conservatives nominated the former Governor and current Senator of North Carolina, Anti-Jeff Davis Confederate Zebulon Vance, with Lincoln's former ally and Supreme Court Justice David Davis. And that was that in less than 20 years a Confederate politician was sitting in the White House. Anti-Peonage enforcement came to an end, and the Conservatives regained the House. To work to restore national Unity President Vance began a process of turning American attention outward, capping this campaign off with the 1879 Spanish-American War where over 8 months the US fought to Free Cuba from the Spanish and united the nation behind the Army, filled with Ex-Unionists and Confederates. The Conservative Party narrative would trumpet the short victorious war as a New Departure for the nation from the bloody conflict and shadow of 1861-63. And the Conservative Party secured for itself in the victory a new mandate, securing for itself the dominant party position in America for years to follow.
[8] - By 1876 the Republican's straits had declined to the point that a one term Governor of Iowa was able to secure the party nomination, Weaver ran on an economically radical agenda which found itself at odds with the Eastern Liberal (IE: old Radical) Republican wing of the party. Winning major gains in the West and nothing in the East or South completely eroded long fought for Republican gains which were hoped would secure Congress for the party in 1878 and see a return to the White House in 1880. Instead the Weaver run would be noted for ringing in the death knell for the Republican Party. In 1880, there would be no GOP candidate run after four years of the party destroying itself.