Makemakean
Mr Makemean
- Pronouns
- Logical, unlike those in German
1944-1953: James F. Byrnes (Democratic)
I briefly did discuss a Byrnes Presidency in the 1940s many a moons ago with @Roberto El Rey on account of what we both perceived to be the list of Presidents in Daughters of Elysium about the United States growing into a one-party-state under Dixiecrat-dominated Democrats. In fairness to the author of that work, it is my understanding that they have themselves admitted that they were fairly young when they wrote it, since the United States were not going to be the focus of the story, they didn't devote too much time to that particular part of the world-building, and that were they to rewrite it today, they would probably do a lot of things differently.
And I get it, and I have no problems with the author and don't intend this as some sort of trashtalking of that work.
That said, the decision to have Jim Eastland succeed FDR as President did not seem like a particularly plausible trajectory. In 1944, Jim Eastland had less than two years of continuous service in the Senate, he was in his late 30s, and had no accomplishments to really show. The notion that FDR would put him on the ticket would have been absurd.
However, Byrnes was seriously considered for the VP slot. In the end, of course, the decision was between Harry Truman and William Douglas, as the Democratic national leadership was worried about alienating labour unions by picking a Southerner. Nevertheless, Byrnes had for many years been a close friend and confidante of Franklin Roosevelt, and had had his hands on both the administration's economic policy as well as it's foreign policy. He was a respected man, in the eyes of many, even in the North, a statesman.
I would say that if there is any Southerner who conceivably can become President in the 1940s with a PoD not too early, then it's Byrnes, and he is likely to get there by way of the VP slot.
My idea was that the Dixicratification of the Democrats is not straightforward from thereon, but rather, what happens is that Byrnes is not the Democratic presidential nominee in 1948, rather they pick someone else. Since whoever else this is try to make inroads on civil rights, there is a Dixiecrat campaign regardless, led by, say Strom Thurmond. Byrnes refuses to publicly endorse either, but like Grover Cleveland in 1896, it is clear to everyone where Byrnes' true feelings lie.
Because of a more split electorate, Thomas Dewey ends up winning a decisive victory (though not an Eisenhower landslide), and of course, becomes the one to get the United States involved in Korea. Soon, Dewey finds himself very unpopular, while Byrnes is quietly cultivating his image home in South Carolina as a statesman who was unjustly robbed of his nomination by vindictive northerners. He has no interest in actually trying to run again, but he is interested in making sure that the Democrats become more and more a party attuned to Southern interests. And what with Sam Rayburn and Richard Russell being the two most powerful Democrats on the national stage, that turns out not to be as difficult as one might have thought.
The Democrats get back again in in 1952 with Estes Kefauver, and from thereon, things start going more and more southern.