Recent content by OHC

We're doing the same in Portland rn (going from four plus the mayor to 12 plus the mayor, amid a bunch of other changes) - I don't think the two efforts are linked, but maybe they will prompt folks in other cities to think about the idea.

Drive a Spear Into the Land 1865-1867: Andrew Johnson (National Union, then Democratic) ‡ 1867-1868: Benjamin Wade (Republican) (acting) 1868-1880: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) 1867 special election (with Schuyler Colfax) def. Horatio Seymour (Democratic) 1871 (with Schuyler Colfax) def. David...

Thanks for the explanation. I'll take a look and see if there's anything egregious enough to warrant removal - probably not.

Hey all - I'm trying to reduce my overall footprint on the internet and I'm interested in deleting or blanking quite a lot of my older posts, particularly stuff in The Pub that has unnecessary personal detail in it. It seems like I can only delete and edit posts in open threads, not in locked...

As an Oregon local history buff I appreciate all of this detailed work! The Hold-Up Session indirectly led to the introduction of the initiative and referendum process to the United States (it was known as the Oregon System for a while before it became more widespread), so there is a lot of...

I think that sounds like #3, which was the option that least appealed to folks. This is all a hypothetical of a hypothetical, of course, but if any of this was to happen it would probably either be #2 (left and libertarian reformists coordinating in a Stop Wallace campaign) or McCall running...

Yes I do think it's likely that even the very unlikely event of the Third Force coalescing and winning office in 1976 the most likely result looks like a better Carter administration. But there is the interesting wrinkle that as Sklar mentions this is all about equity and austerity at the same...

I have an update for this now-ubiquitous-in-Lists idea! I was looking at McCall's papers at the Oregon Historical Society yesterday in search of some stuff tangentially related to my BITR research and found a folder labeled "Third Force." In the summer of 1975, this guy was holding meetings...

This is good genre analysis but I was hoping you'd go into an ATLF scenario here, imagining what the Knights' victory would have led to! Looking at the theoretical implications of this kind of unintentional AH is a whole fun sub-hobby.

This all also could lead to the ironic spectacle of Nixon accusing the governors of operating an independent foreign policy / violating the Logan Act

Yes I think regardless of the specifics the situation probably doesn't last very long before the respective national authorities start talking to each other to sort something out. Modern communications means we don't get an analogue of SLP's Russo-New Zealand War, as interesting as that would...

My Bend in the River research has led me on lots of interesting side quests, and I thought this one was of general interest and AH potential enough to start a thread. In 1966, Soviet fishing fleets began cruising very close to America's Pacific coast, not only within today's EEZ lines but in...

The Presidential eligibility clause of the United States Constitution remains one of its most unusual features to foreign observers, specifying as it does that no native-born citizen of the country may hold the office. In its eighteenth-century context the idea would not have seemed as odd – the...

Does anyone in contemporary Britain believe that Wilson was actually a spy? I ask because I think the last time we discussed Agent Lavender on here I compared it to Hail, Caesar! and mentioned that I think Lavender works better, in part because it is harder to accidentally read it as an...

There is one thing that I think gets memory holed in Clinton 2016 conversations, and that's that the Republicans controlled so many state legislatures that one or two more they'd be able to call an Article V convention. There were plans to do it, too, with the goal of passing a balanced budget...