- Location
- Op een dag, Nederland.
- Pronouns
- she/her & ne/nem
The second chapter of Spoil the Broth where I establish a Republic, make Neville Chamberlain the closest to a George Washington we ever had, and fracture politics terribly thanks to the pro-National Government parties and all, is being worked on but the delay is due to my mental mood. It'll hopefully be up at the end of the week, I've saved what I've typed up so far
But for now, this is a short one to mark the death of President George H. W. Bush...
A Thousand Points of Light
George Bush (Republican) 1981-1989
1980: def. Robert Redford (Democratic) and Jimmy Carter (Populist)
1984: def. Reubin Askew (Populist) and Lane Kirkland (Democratic)
"The Establishment Retakes Control"
The 1980 election was a bitter defeat for the Democrats. Their hopes of finally getting into the White House was dashed. Robert Redford was seen as "the man who lost our golden opportunity" and the party decided to withdraw firmly from "celebrity" candidates once and for all. Also part of this shift was the shift away from the growing environmentalist movement. The Democrats would become more and more "the party of unions"
President Bush represented a continuation of Nixonism. Not a change. Steady as it goes was his motto. AHPA would stay, but there were to be financial policies implemented to ensure the budget remained solvent yet boost the economy up. Many criticised this as a "millionaire government" or "the government of the elite", especially the Democrats who were starting to shed their more 'liberal' elements to become a more blue-collar socialist party
In 1984, the Democrats had a split that led to the "New Left" walking out and deciding to sit the election out while the Democrats nominated labor unionist and fervent anti-Communist Lane Kirkland who left the Populist Party in 1972 in disgust at how it betrayed the "legacy of Huey Long and Lyndon Johnson". This would prove a mistake as many Democrats in the North looked at the aloof and arrogant South Carolinian and questioned if he was even a Democrat [well, National Unionist, but whatever]. Meanwhile, the Populists nominated Florida Governor Reubin Askew, known as a very moral man and one who stood very much in the "Carter" legacy of soft social conservatism and economic centrism
In November, the American people re-elected George Bush to the Presidency. The Dems were wiped out in many of their 1970s gains as American politics increasingly turned back to being Pops vs. Reps with Dems as a third party. In his second term, George Bush oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union and took credit for it on a domestic level as "the man who defeated communism". Pondering a third term, he ended up deciding otherwise
Slade Gorton (Republican) 1989-1993
1988: def. Jim Blanchard (Populist), Douglas Applegate (Democratic) and Stephen Gaskin (Globalist)
"From Washington to Washington"
The Democrats were always going to face a hard time of it. Locking themselves firmly in trade unionism, they lost the "New Left". And then in the primaries, a random Ohio upstart surged to win the nomination. Who knows who Douglas Applegate was? That was the problem. And then the hippies decided to not sit it out this time around and instead nominated the Dems' running mate in 1976. That hurt as Governor Stephen Gaskin was one of the most prominent and most respected "hippie politicians" in America. But the Globalists can't win, all they can do is... hurt the Dems. Fuck
Meanwhile the Populists went North for their candidate and chose Senator Jim Blanchard of Michigan, a clear shift to the left from Askew and a gesture designed to squeeze the Dems and hopefully cement Thomas Watson's dream of a "two-party system". And while the three "left" parties were fighting, the Republicans under Senator Slade Gorton walked to victory
The man who was now President, Slade Gorton, was very much a "Bush Republican", aligning himself firmly with the WASP moderate faction and championed the Equal Rights Amendment floated around, as well as more protection of the environment. What ultimately brought him down was his support of cutting military spending to reduce the deficit which got conservatives angered and a primary challenge against him
Bruce Babbitt (Populist) 1993-2001
1992: def. Slade Gorton (Republican), Ralph Nader (Globalist) and Jim Traficant (Democratic)
1996: def. Marshall Coleman (Republican) and Rick Santorum (Democratic)
"The real Green Party"
With the Republicans infighting, the Populists nominated their most potent nominee yet, Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. Babbitt ran on a "Make the American Dream Anew" platform, promising environmental protection, financial balancing, protecting welfare from further cuts [especially after Gorton said "He will cut your welfare. I will cut too. The difference is that I said it, he didn't" which doomed him to defeat] and general "we need a change" sentiment. With the Democrats nominating bombastic and alienating Ohio Senator Jim Traficant and the Globalists nominating Connecticut Representative Ralph Nader [who was not as respected as Gaskin], Babbitt managed to form a coalition to defeat Gorton
President Babbitt continued the good economy, even if there was a dip in 1994 that meant a loss in the midterms. Nevertheless, Babbitt continued and in 1996 with a strong economy, an international environmental treaty signed and record levels of environmental protection along with protection of welfare policies and some more unorthodox policies that taxed party unity such as ending the income tax for small businesses, he stood strong and with a new coalition of middle-class "liberals" backing him, and with the New Left Globalists begrudgingly endorsing him, he remade the party in his image. The others had to reply to this sea-change
The Republicans did so in 1996 by trying to compete with Babbitt on the middle-class, nominating Governor Marshall Coleman of Virginia. Meanwhile, the Dems shifted rightwards on social policy and tried to appeal to ancestral Populists alienated by the party's change by nominating young Representative Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. More than ever, the party was the party of the working-class
In the end, Coleman's efforts failed while Santorum couldn't quite chip away enough ancestral Populists to deny Babbitt his second term. In that second term, the economy stagnated before falling into recession, dooming the Populists' hope of a third term
Jim Jeffords (Republican) 2001-2009
2000: def. Al Gore (Populist) and Dennis Kucinich (Democratic)
2004: def. Howard Dean (Populist) and Dick Gephardt (Independent-Democratic)
"Trouble on the Horizon"
When Jeffords was elected, it represented the continuation of firm environmental policies in both of the Big Two and the dominance of more "affluent" moderate factions, pushing away the more rockscrabble working-class. Jeffords authorised the ban on underground nuclear testing and more expanded rights for lesbians and gays up to floating a same-sex marriage law late in his second term
His first term would be dominated by humanitarian interventions in several African countries, which led to somewhat of a body count, which would have doomed him re-election if it wasn't for the Pops splitting as Howard Dean won the nomination and Dick Gephardt announced that he would walk out and run as an Independent. The Democratic candidate, Senator Richard Trumka of Pennsylvania, agreed to be Gephardt's running mate and the Democratic Party ticket ended up getting 23.7% of the vote, a major boost as more "traditional" Populists finally broke
In his second term, an environmental disaster led to reports of corruption in the Jeffords Administration. Unfounded in the end, but after that people just couldn't trust the President anymore and chose to vote in a new face
Bill Richardson (Populist) 2009-2017
2008: def. Angus King (Republican) and Debbie Stabenow (Democratic)
2012: def. George Pataki (Republican) and Stephen Lynch (Democratic)
"Trouble Brewing"
The 2008 election would make history as America elected its first Hispanic president in Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, defeating Senators Angus King of Maine and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Promising to fix up the economy, he passed several bills to make the economy better and while the statistics said it did, a lot of people never really felt that
In 2012, the Republicans narrowly nominated moderate former Governor of New York George Pataki, and conservatives were disgruntled enough to stay at home, while some decided to vote for relative social conservative Governor Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, who had a vague "family first" narrative of putting "traditional working-class values" first and that appealed to some social conservatives
In Richardson's second term, the economy imploded and the people turned the blame on the Populists and Republicans, which grouped together to vote for a bank bailout which angered many Americans in the process
Richard Ojeda (Democratic) 2017-
2016: def. Mitt Romney (Republican) and Ken Salazar (Populist)
"Trouble"
In the 2016 election, one figure dominated the conversation. That figure was Richard Ojeda. High-ranking veteran, Governor of West Virginia, and a man full of anger against the system. In 2016, he was the voice of many who were angry against the "elite" in the Reps and Pops. Angry against their social liberalism, angry against their environmental policies that took many jobs away, angry against the way things were. And as the 2016 election map turned red, many turned anxious at this wave of social conservative populism engulfing America
What happened to the consensus on more rights to LGBT people? What happened to the consensus that the environment needed protection? What happened to the America of Bruce Babbitt and Jim Jeffords? Well, all of it went up in flames as the Democrats seized a majority of the House and won almost all Senate seats up that year. A new, angrier, America was in birth
But for now, this is a short one to mark the death of President George H. W. Bush...
A Thousand Points of Light
George Bush (Republican) 1981-1989
1980: def. Robert Redford (Democratic) and Jimmy Carter (Populist)
1984: def. Reubin Askew (Populist) and Lane Kirkland (Democratic)
"The Establishment Retakes Control"
The 1980 election was a bitter defeat for the Democrats. Their hopes of finally getting into the White House was dashed. Robert Redford was seen as "the man who lost our golden opportunity" and the party decided to withdraw firmly from "celebrity" candidates once and for all. Also part of this shift was the shift away from the growing environmentalist movement. The Democrats would become more and more "the party of unions"
President Bush represented a continuation of Nixonism. Not a change. Steady as it goes was his motto. AHPA would stay, but there were to be financial policies implemented to ensure the budget remained solvent yet boost the economy up. Many criticised this as a "millionaire government" or "the government of the elite", especially the Democrats who were starting to shed their more 'liberal' elements to become a more blue-collar socialist party
In 1984, the Democrats had a split that led to the "New Left" walking out and deciding to sit the election out while the Democrats nominated labor unionist and fervent anti-Communist Lane Kirkland who left the Populist Party in 1972 in disgust at how it betrayed the "legacy of Huey Long and Lyndon Johnson". This would prove a mistake as many Democrats in the North looked at the aloof and arrogant South Carolinian and questioned if he was even a Democrat [well, National Unionist, but whatever]. Meanwhile, the Populists nominated Florida Governor Reubin Askew, known as a very moral man and one who stood very much in the "Carter" legacy of soft social conservatism and economic centrism
In November, the American people re-elected George Bush to the Presidency. The Dems were wiped out in many of their 1970s gains as American politics increasingly turned back to being Pops vs. Reps with Dems as a third party. In his second term, George Bush oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union and took credit for it on a domestic level as "the man who defeated communism". Pondering a third term, he ended up deciding otherwise
Slade Gorton (Republican) 1989-1993
1988: def. Jim Blanchard (Populist), Douglas Applegate (Democratic) and Stephen Gaskin (Globalist)
"From Washington to Washington"
The Democrats were always going to face a hard time of it. Locking themselves firmly in trade unionism, they lost the "New Left". And then in the primaries, a random Ohio upstart surged to win the nomination. Who knows who Douglas Applegate was? That was the problem. And then the hippies decided to not sit it out this time around and instead nominated the Dems' running mate in 1976. That hurt as Governor Stephen Gaskin was one of the most prominent and most respected "hippie politicians" in America. But the Globalists can't win, all they can do is... hurt the Dems. Fuck
Meanwhile the Populists went North for their candidate and chose Senator Jim Blanchard of Michigan, a clear shift to the left from Askew and a gesture designed to squeeze the Dems and hopefully cement Thomas Watson's dream of a "two-party system". And while the three "left" parties were fighting, the Republicans under Senator Slade Gorton walked to victory
The man who was now President, Slade Gorton, was very much a "Bush Republican", aligning himself firmly with the WASP moderate faction and championed the Equal Rights Amendment floated around, as well as more protection of the environment. What ultimately brought him down was his support of cutting military spending to reduce the deficit which got conservatives angered and a primary challenge against him
Bruce Babbitt (Populist) 1993-2001
1992: def. Slade Gorton (Republican), Ralph Nader (Globalist) and Jim Traficant (Democratic)
1996: def. Marshall Coleman (Republican) and Rick Santorum (Democratic)
"The real Green Party"
With the Republicans infighting, the Populists nominated their most potent nominee yet, Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. Babbitt ran on a "Make the American Dream Anew" platform, promising environmental protection, financial balancing, protecting welfare from further cuts [especially after Gorton said "He will cut your welfare. I will cut too. The difference is that I said it, he didn't" which doomed him to defeat] and general "we need a change" sentiment. With the Democrats nominating bombastic and alienating Ohio Senator Jim Traficant and the Globalists nominating Connecticut Representative Ralph Nader [who was not as respected as Gaskin], Babbitt managed to form a coalition to defeat Gorton
President Babbitt continued the good economy, even if there was a dip in 1994 that meant a loss in the midterms. Nevertheless, Babbitt continued and in 1996 with a strong economy, an international environmental treaty signed and record levels of environmental protection along with protection of welfare policies and some more unorthodox policies that taxed party unity such as ending the income tax for small businesses, he stood strong and with a new coalition of middle-class "liberals" backing him, and with the New Left Globalists begrudgingly endorsing him, he remade the party in his image. The others had to reply to this sea-change
The Republicans did so in 1996 by trying to compete with Babbitt on the middle-class, nominating Governor Marshall Coleman of Virginia. Meanwhile, the Dems shifted rightwards on social policy and tried to appeal to ancestral Populists alienated by the party's change by nominating young Representative Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. More than ever, the party was the party of the working-class
In the end, Coleman's efforts failed while Santorum couldn't quite chip away enough ancestral Populists to deny Babbitt his second term. In that second term, the economy stagnated before falling into recession, dooming the Populists' hope of a third term
Jim Jeffords (Republican) 2001-2009
2000: def. Al Gore (Populist) and Dennis Kucinich (Democratic)
2004: def. Howard Dean (Populist) and Dick Gephardt (Independent-Democratic)
"Trouble on the Horizon"
When Jeffords was elected, it represented the continuation of firm environmental policies in both of the Big Two and the dominance of more "affluent" moderate factions, pushing away the more rockscrabble working-class. Jeffords authorised the ban on underground nuclear testing and more expanded rights for lesbians and gays up to floating a same-sex marriage law late in his second term
His first term would be dominated by humanitarian interventions in several African countries, which led to somewhat of a body count, which would have doomed him re-election if it wasn't for the Pops splitting as Howard Dean won the nomination and Dick Gephardt announced that he would walk out and run as an Independent. The Democratic candidate, Senator Richard Trumka of Pennsylvania, agreed to be Gephardt's running mate and the Democratic Party ticket ended up getting 23.7% of the vote, a major boost as more "traditional" Populists finally broke
In his second term, an environmental disaster led to reports of corruption in the Jeffords Administration. Unfounded in the end, but after that people just couldn't trust the President anymore and chose to vote in a new face
Bill Richardson (Populist) 2009-2017
2008: def. Angus King (Republican) and Debbie Stabenow (Democratic)
2012: def. George Pataki (Republican) and Stephen Lynch (Democratic)
"Trouble Brewing"
The 2008 election would make history as America elected its first Hispanic president in Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, defeating Senators Angus King of Maine and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Promising to fix up the economy, he passed several bills to make the economy better and while the statistics said it did, a lot of people never really felt that
In 2012, the Republicans narrowly nominated moderate former Governor of New York George Pataki, and conservatives were disgruntled enough to stay at home, while some decided to vote for relative social conservative Governor Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, who had a vague "family first" narrative of putting "traditional working-class values" first and that appealed to some social conservatives
In Richardson's second term, the economy imploded and the people turned the blame on the Populists and Republicans, which grouped together to vote for a bank bailout which angered many Americans in the process
Richard Ojeda (Democratic) 2017-
2016: def. Mitt Romney (Republican) and Ken Salazar (Populist)
"Trouble"
In the 2016 election, one figure dominated the conversation. That figure was Richard Ojeda. High-ranking veteran, Governor of West Virginia, and a man full of anger against the system. In 2016, he was the voice of many who were angry against the "elite" in the Reps and Pops. Angry against their social liberalism, angry against their environmental policies that took many jobs away, angry against the way things were. And as the 2016 election map turned red, many turned anxious at this wave of social conservative populism engulfing America
What happened to the consensus on more rights to LGBT people? What happened to the consensus that the environment needed protection? What happened to the America of Bruce Babbitt and Jim Jeffords? Well, all of it went up in flames as the Democrats seized a majority of the House and won almost all Senate seats up that year. A new, angrier, America was in birth