• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

A Kinder, Gentler Nation: An American Politics TL

Reader mode
Title Card
  • Index
    • C

    CanadianTory

    Progressive Conservative
    Location
    The Loyalist Province
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    A-Kinder-Gentler-Nation.png
     
  • Index
    • Bush Presidency (1981-1989)
  • Index
    • 41st-George-Bush.png
    ​

    The election of Ronald Wilson Reagan to the presidency was a story unheard of in American politics. The heir to Barry Goldwater had overcome the odds to defeat Jimmy Carter in his bid for a second term, despite the Democrats clamour that Reagan was an ideological extremist. Yet Reagan’s folksy charm turned out to be the silver bullet for Republicans, convincing the American people to give the former California governor a chance and ushering in what pundits had begun labeling as a radical realignment of American politics in a way not seen since the days of FDR. That is until March 30, 1981. Returning to his limousine following a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton, President Reagan would be gunned down by John Hinckley Jr. in an apparent attempt to gain the attention of Taxi Driver actress Jodie Foster. After only 69 days, the so-called Reagan Revolution was over, and millions of Americans, many of whom still with memories of the assassination of John F. Kennedy almost two decades prior, were left to mourn. Perhaps one of the most experienced men ever to assume the presidency, Vice President George Bush wasn’t viewed as Reagan’s natural heir and successor. Having battled Reagan for the nomination only months earlier, Bush had called his opponents economic policy “Voodoo Economics”, drawing the ire of conservative Republicans. Unless Bush implemented enough of Ronald Reagan’s agenda, he would find himself facing an organized conservative uprising come 1984 and would likely lose the nomination to a more right-wing challenger. But despite being shackled to Reagan's legacy, Bush wouldn’t miss a beat. Selecting New York Representative Jack Kemp as his vice president, as an olive branch to the Reaganites, Bush would implement a somewhat scaled-down, more bipartisan version of Reagan’s planned tax cuts, offset with reduced government spending. In terms of foreign policy, President Bush’s first term would see a balance between holding Reagan’s hard line publicly against the Soviets, while at the same time work behind the scenes to draw the Russians into a negotiated deal with respect to nuclear disarmament. But with the onset of a recession shortly after having been sworn in, some painful losses in the 1982 midterms (Although not as large as OTL), and growing dissatisfaction with his leadership, it appeared as though despite President Bush’s foreign policy successes, he was headed towards defeat come 1984.

    However a funny thing happened on the way to 1984. Going into 1983 the economy had not only begun to recover its losses, but grow exponentially. GDP growth was up, unemployment had dropped from a high of around ten percent, and inflation had begun to decrease significantly. It turned out the President Bush had surrounded himself with people who actually understood how the economy worked, like Treasury Secretary James Baker. With a recovering economy in his sails, President Bush was no longer seen as a wimp, but as the adult in the room, keeping the ship sailing steady and avoiding the partisan nonsense that seemed to grip Washington, D.C. The Democrats meanwhile had devolved into open warfare with one another, with former Vice President Walter Mondale on the one side, and the fresh-faced Senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, on the other. Charismatic and offering Democrats their own taste of Reaganesque energy, Hart was an appealing candidate on the campaign trail. But Mondale, through a carefully planned takedown of the Senator’s vague policy platform, would eventually dispatch Hart and secure the nomination. Still, the new kid on the block had done enough damage to the former vice president that a outside the box choice for VP was needed to restart the campaign’s momentum. In selecting San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, it was hoped that a Liberal woman of a Jewish background would energize the base of a party to come out and support its more establishment, and frankly bland, nominee. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Feinstein’s selection often appeared to overshadow Mondale, while at the same time polls showed Feinstein alienating working class men from supporting the Democratic ticket. With the economy in its best shape in decades and Bush making inroads with the Soviets, there was little that the Democrats could campaign against, leaving the Republican victory all but certain.

    Bush1984.png

    ​
    Freed from the shackles of Ronald Reagan’s shadow, President Bush proceeded to use his own term to implement both his own policy agenda and cement his hold over the Republican Party. An advocate for Free-Trade, President Bush would negotiate and sign separate agreements with both Mexico and Canada as part of his strategy of further opening North American markets to American goods. As for the Soviets, they would sign an Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the United States in early 1986, further reducing tensions between America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whose iron grip on Eastern Europe had finally begun to wane. Making matters worse for the USSR, their escapades in Afghanistan resulted in their eventual withdrawal in 1987, further burning a hole through Soviet military might and patriotism in the Hammer and Sickle. Having developed a close working relationship with President Bush, Premier Gorbachev had begun to implement a series of reform measures back home to stave off Soviet decline and preserve its status as a world superpower, but American diplomats observed that its disintegration had become only a matter of when, not if. Another close relationship that benefited President Bush was that between himself and the de facto leader of the Democrats, Speaker Tip O’Neill. Despite holding a majority in the senate for most of his time in office, President Bush would routinely be forced to compromise with the Democrats in the House, signing multiple bipartisan tax increases to pay off the scaled down Reagan tax cuts passed in 1981. While this would anger congressional conservatives, the strength of the economy and the slow death of the Soviet Union, coupled with U.S. military victories in Libya and Lebanon, not to mention the President leading pressure to wind down apartheid in South Africa, the American people were, by and large, happy with the Bush Administration. In fact, more and more Republicans had taken the chance to declare themselves as “Bush Republicans”, echoing the economic and foreign policy consensus that had emerged around President George Bush.

    But with his presidency winding down, the nation’s attention began to turn to who would succeed Bush as the next occupant of the Oval Office. Bush’s personal and private preference was for his loyal right-hand, Vice President Jack Kemp. An early advocate of supply-side economics, Kemp’s removal from the House had robbed congressional conservatives of their most effective player, plunging them into disunity, and they were disappointed to see their man transform himself into a Bush Republican. “Bush’s bag man” they called him. Eager to reclaim the mantle of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, conservatives like Paul Laxalt, Bob Dole and Donald Rumsfeld had begun testing the waters over potential bids of their own. But with polls showing the 41st President about to leave office with the highest approvals since Eisenhower, and most Americans uninterested in embracing candidates running on ideological purity, it appeared as though Vice President Kemp would ride the “Bush Bump” all the way to the nomination. The only trouble was that after eight years in the wilderness, the Democrats appeared as though they had learned their lesson, and were prepared to compromise if it meant reclaiming the White House. On July 14, 1987, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president, quickly emerging as the frontrunner for the nomination, and setting himself on a collision course with the New World Order established by President Bush and Vice President Kemp.
     
  • Index
    • Kemp Presidency (1989-1997)
  • Index
    • 42nd-Jack-Kemp.png

    The plan was always for Jack Kemp to run for President in 1988. Reagan would finish his two terms as President, and then Kemp would campaign as the heir to the revolution, and send Vice President Bush back to Kennebunkport, Maine. But what a difference eight years would make. Reagan was gone, felled by an assassin’s bullet, and the American people, saddened by the tragic death of their charismatic Commander-in-Chief, had moved on. The Reagan Revolution had been replaced by the Bush Consensus, and the man whom many Reaganites had dismissed as a wimp had emerged as one of the most consequential Presidents of the 20th Century. Now, after having planned on running against him, Kemp found himself indebted to the man.

    Being selected as Bush’s vice president was never a sure thing, of course. Many of the new President’s staff, including hangovers from Reagan’s office, had pushed hard for Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt or Donald Rumsfeld. As Governor, Laxalt had long been Reagan’s closest ally and friend in politics and had been dubbed by the media as the “First Friend”. It made sense, and with the added bonus of calming the fears of the Reganites fearful of Bush veering too close to the center or even, god forbid, center-left. But Bush was concerned with appearing too locked into the economic policies of his predecessor, which he still vehemently opposed behind the scenes. Picking the First Friend might make it appear that Laxalt, not Bush, was the real heir to Reagan, and Bush was simply warming the chair. Rumsfeld, Jerry Ford’s Defence Secretary, was also out. Too abrasive, too ambitious, and the Bush Clan hated the man who had reportedly played a role in axing his chance at becoming Vice President under Nixon, Ford, and very nearly Regan. Rummy would be kept on a short leash. Bush also contemplated selecting his good friend, the newly minted Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. Although politically simpatico, it was ultimately decided that Baker was more valuable where he was; in the Senate, helping guide the President’s agenda through congress and keep the crazies in check. Bush considered former White House Chief of Staff Dick Cheney, Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh, former President Gerald Ford, Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson and even Kansas Senator Bob Dole. But the name that Bush kept coming back to was Jack Kemp. An acolyte of Reagan, Bush and Kemp actually agreed a lot on social policy, especially regarding combating poverty and respecting a woman’s right to have an abortion. Selecting Kemp would not only appease most Reganites but rob supply-side Republicans of their loudest cheerleader. Better to shackle a likely critic to him than have him out and about causing trouble. Bush called Kemp at his home in Buffalo, New York, arranged a face-to-face, and they discussed Bush’s idea for a relationship with his potential number two. Kemp wouldn’t be simply fly around the world attending funerals and fulfill ceremonial duties, he would play an honest to god advisory role and help Bush keep the Republican Party united.

    Flash forward to 1987 and the two men found themselves, somewhat surprisingly, close friends. The Batman and Robin of the Republican Party. Kemp played the role of Reaganite whisperer, and would double as the President’s hatchet man when the need arose. Case in point, during the 1984 presidential election, in which Kemp fought off attempts by Dianne Feinstein to portray the Bush-Kemp ticket as out-of-touch and an enemy to American women. Kemp turned the tables, charging that Feinstein would make Mondale beholden to the environmental and feminist extremists that called San Francisco their home. Although harsh, the Republican landslide of ’84 suggested it had worked, or at least no damaged their odds. Bush in turn allowed Kemp to become his point-man on the administration’s domestic agenda, specifically with respect to their battle against poverty and housing, working closely with HUD Secretary Bill Bennett, a former Democratic-turned Republican in the years after Bush’s ascension. With Bush entering his final few years in office, attention began to turn to Kemp’s campaign for president, led by Republican operative and Bush Family friend Lee Atwater. But the road to the 1988 Republican nomination was not without competition. Those past over by Bush for the vice presidency, Laxalt, Dole, and Rumsfeld, had all either planned to declare or were actively testing the waters, visiting Iowa and New Hampshire. Then there were the no hopes and the relics, namely Pat Robertson, Pete du Pont, Alexander Haig, and Phil Crane. Although each man had their strengths and weaknesses, it was Laxalt and Dole who posed the biggest dangers. Thanks to the dark magic of Atwater and his campaign team, Kemp would eventually dispatch his opponents and claim the nomination after sweeping victories in the Super Tuesday contests. Selecting fresh faced Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, a moderate southerner, the Republican ticket was set.

    As for the Democrats the primary the headlines were dominated by those not running than by those who were. New York Governor Mario Cuomo opted to stay home, betting that the Republicans had at least another victory in them. Bill Bradley, Teddy Kennedy, and Lloyd Bentsen all joined him. Gary Hart opted to run again, but reports of marriage infidelities had burned his once pristine image. Joe Biden hoped to become the champion of the blue collar working class, but plagiarized one too many speeches from Great Britain’s Neil Kinnock and dropped out. That left a fight between Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. The nice guy of Democratic politics, Dukakis had initially been seen by the media as the frontrunner for the nomination. However, the vicious campaign machine developed by Clinton proved formidable, and before long it was Governor Clinton’s new, center-right message that was catching on, not Dukakis’s tried-and-recently-failed center-left strategy. It appeared that Democratic voters were hungry for something different this time around. Selecting recently elected Senator and former Governor Bob Graham of Florida as his running mate, Clinton appeared poised to run on a southern strategy of appealing to white evangelical and working-class voters who felt left out of the political process. Polls showed the Arkansas Governor competitive against the Vice President, and it appeared as though the Democrats, for the first time in eight years, had a real shot at reclaiming the White House. Enter Lee Atwater and his bag of dirty tricks. Digging up and leaking a few of Bill Clinton’s infidelities to the press, Atwater’s machinations proved too effective. A floodgate of unearthed infidelities came pouring out thanks to reporters eager to find the next big story. Rather than allow Clinton to continue as the nominee, party officials forced him out, handing the nomination to Graham, who in turn selected New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley as his number two.

    Maintaining Clinton’s southern strategy, Graham would prove a far more capable opponent than Clinton, who even prior to his infidelities was perceived as too green by the electorate, and would help the ticket rebound in the aftermath of Clinton’s exit. Still, with the economy still strong and the incumbent president still popular, meaning it was Kemp’s election to lose. He didn’t.

    Kemp88-Copy.png

    ​
    Without missing a beat, Kemp hit the ground running, seeking to maintain and strengthen the political consensus built by President Bush and himself. On the domestic front the agenda was simple; cut taxes and continue economic growth. Entering the early 1990s the economy had begun to slow from its high under Bush and entered into a small recession, meaning Kemp’s promised tax cuts were shelved. That also meant layoffs, which in turn further eroded the President’s approval ratings and political capital. At the mercy of congressional Democrats, Kemp was forced to approve a bipartisan budget that included limited tax increases and cuts to military spending, much to the chagrin of conservatives and Reganites, but largely supported by Bush Republicans and House Minority Leader Bob Michel. President Kemp would also get the chance to successfully nominate two Supreme Court Justices, including First Circuit Appeals Judge David Souter and Fifth Circuit Appeals Judge Emilio Garza, the latter being a compromise choice between Republican and Democratic leadership after the rejection of Judge Clarence Thomas.

    On Foreign policy the President followed much the same path of his predecessor. Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military, energized by the death of Chairman Ghaddafi in 1986, had finally been sent packing after their attempt to conquer Kuwait. Engaging with the Soviets diplomatically, Kemp oversaw the American response to the fall of the Berlin Wall, claiming it as a great victory for democracy and freedom, as well as the formal collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev, thought of first as a great reformer, quickly became unpopular with much of the Soviet public, and with the growing influence of populist Boris Yeltsin and the movement for democracy, it appeared as though dissolution had finally arrived. The only hiccup came during the August 1991 coup d’état and the assassination of Gorbachev by communist hardliners intent on stopping his reforms. While successful in eliminating Gorbachev, the coup’s eventual failure only hastened Yeltsin’s rise to power. The Cold War was over, and President Kemp has seen American through it.

    In the lead up to 1992, the Democratic field was packed. Al Gore. Dick Gephardt. Paul Tsongas. Jerry Brown. Bruce Babbitt. Bob Kerrey. George McGovern. Chuck Robb. Democrats were eager to finally capture the White House and had a wide range of options from which to pick from. Gore was a bore, so he didn’t last long. Robb promised to be Clinton without the infidelities, but like any good politician broke his promise. George McGovern was only in the race to campaign on ideas. Gephardt, Tsongas, and Kerrey couldn’t capture the American imagination. Brown was electrifying, but so far to the left that it would all but guarantee Kemp a second term. Elected to the Senate in 1986, former Governor Bruce Babbitt emerged as the consensus following a white knuckled brawl with Governor Jerry Brown. But rather than go quietly into that good night, Brown launched an independent populist campaign for the presidency, citing the public’s growing fatigue with both parties and the need for a political earthquake. Voters, robbed of the vision put forth by Ronald Reagan, were instantly drawn to Brown’s quixotic campaign. Despite having been in office for twelves years already, falling approval ratings, and voters desire for change, President Kemp would narrowly win re-election, thanks in part to Brown. Prevailing in the popular vote, Babbitt was encouraged by some congressional Democrats in Washington to challenge the results, and was famously called “America’s legitimate president” in a floor speech by New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. But not wanting to damage the institution of the presidency nor divide the public further, Senator Babbitt conceded the race, and called on Americans to rally around President Kemp. While applauded for his decency, the move also damaged Babbitt’s chances to seek the nomination again in 1996.

    Kemp92.png

    ​
    Although his approval ratings would fall to historic lows just after his re-election, with Americans upset that the winner of the popular vote wasn’t the one being sworn-in on January 20th, Kemp would rebound significantly with the subsequent economic recover. Thanks in part to low oil prices, further deregulation, the dot com bubble, free trade with Canada and Mexico, the high rate of employment of baby boomers and arrival of the millennial demographic had resulted in the start of the largest period of uninterrupted economic growth since World War II. Russia had begun the process of transitioning towards a democracy, albeit a flawed one, and for the first time in decades America was not embroiled in any war. Only further cementing the Bush-Kemp consensus in the minds of the American people, this also meant that a number of Republicans believed the part had a shot at extending their hold on the White House with a record fifth consecutive win, unseen in modern politics. The odds-on favourite for the Republican nomination? Vice President Mitch McConnell, who many expected would follow in the steps of his two immediate predecessors in the office and use it to springboard into a promotion. Although lacking in charisma, the vice president had made a name for himself as a follower of Lee Atwater’s shrewdness and love for the political dark arts.

    As for the Democrats, left reeling and dejected, many hoped that after sixteen long years of consecutive Republican governance, voters might finally be willing to lend them a chance, lest they devolve into only a congressional political entity, leaving the White House in perpetual control by the party of Lincoln and Bush. After a decade of playing coy, it seemed as though New York Governor Mario Cuomo was finally prepared to give the presidency a shot. Trouble was, a couple other Governors and Senators were keen to throw their hat into the ring as well, promising a crowded Democratic field as the party launched an all out effort to remain relevant.
     
  • Index
    • I do always find Jerry Brown doing his own ‘Populist Independent Ticket’ fun because it feels like what he would have done in 92’ instead of whimpering.

    Additionally Bush followed by Kemp is a good combo.
     
    Feinstein Presidency (1997-2005)
  • Index
    • 43rd-Dianne-Feinstein.png

    ​
    Sixteen years of uninterrupted Republican rule and the Democrats were feeling dejected. The last truly successful Democratic President, if you forgot about the mess that was the Vietnam War, was Lyndon B. Johnson, and that was almost thirty years ago. Nixon, Ford, Bush, and Kemp had defined almost two and a half decades of American politics. Voters, for all their frustration with scandals like Watergate, kept electing Republicans to the White House. How much do they hate us if they keep electing the likes of them became a common question asked by leading Democratic operatives within the DNC. In fact, many Democrats had begun to accept the fact that their party, which had delivered such transformative figures like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy, would be relegated to a congressional-only political party, meant to keep the GOP executive in check through the House and Senate. Many had taken Bruce Babbitt’s defeat in 1992 hard and were desperate for any big-name candidate to give the party at least some semblance of hope come ‘96. Everyone wanted Mario Cuomo to run in 1992. Since his inspirational speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention his name had been floated about as a possible president. Opting to stay out of 1992, which many Democrats believed in retrospect could have been theirs had the New York Governor run, had left many feeling miffed, any many donors and operatives weren’t exactly keen on supporting Cuomo once he started kicking the tires in 1994. It had been over a decade since that infamous speech of his. Plus, Cuomo’s fourth term in office had further damaged his lustre, and Democratic voters were simply interested in looking for a fresher face. Al Gore was a tempting figure for many, but his previous performances on the national stage typecast him as a supporting actor, not the leading man. Joe Biden and Dick Gephardt appealed to union-friendly blue-collar voters, but again failed to capture the confidence of primary voters. Bob Kerrey, John Kerry, and Joe Lieberman were all fine men, but just weren’t interesting enough to really capture voter’s imagination. Ann Richards was nothing if not interesting but was perhaps a tad bit too flamboyant and too conservative to take the chance on. So, in a shocking turn of events, the Democrats eventually, if somewhat reluctantly, turned to the person who Walter Mondale had selected as his running mate twelve years prior.

    Dianne Feinstein wasn’t the obvious pick to be the next Democratic nominee for President, at least not at first. After an impressive but flawed campaign for the vice presidency, Feinstein had returned to San Francisco and turned her sights on the governorship. The Liberal firebrand, at first viewed as a longshot against Senator Pete Wilson, had benefited from the growing unpopularity of President Kemp and the onset of the recession, winning in an upset. Sheading her liberalism for pragmatism, Governor Feinstein instead adopted more centrist positions when it came to crime and border security. But Feinstein had also managed to ban military assault style weapons in a state racked with gun crime and gun related fatalities. Re-elected in 1994, Feinstein had quickly emerged as a leading Democratic voice who had delivered for her state, increasingly at contrast with figures like Ann Richards and Mario Cuomo, who faced combative legislatures and slow turning political machinery at home. Almost lock step with the Bush-Kemp consensus when it came to foreign policy and free-trade, her progressive stances on gun control, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and of course gun control made her an ideal candidate to unite the warring factions of the Democratic Party. Would she be able to defeat Vice President McConnell? That was the question, up until the vice president announced his intention to sit out the 1996 Republican primary in order to spend more time with his family back home in Kentucky. Almost immediately the media began speculating McConnell’s real reasoning. Was it an extramarital affair? Was he sick? Or did he just think the Republicans were destined to lose that year and it was better to bide his time and wait? Whatever the reason being, it had left the GOP, who had grown so accustomed to the expected, spiralling. After an expensive and bitter primary, the party of power settled on congress’s architect of balanced budgets, Ohio Congressman John Kasich. A follower of President Kemp, it was hoped that with the economy doing so well, a bland, fiscally conservative candidate like Kasich would have little problem keeping the White House in Republican hands. But his uninspiring campaign, his awkward mannerisms, coupled with voter fatigue and Feinstein’s well oiled, Rahm Emanuel-led machine, proved to be enough to finally dislodge the Republicans from their perch. Governor Dianne Feinstein was elected the 43rd President of the United States, the first ever woman to hold the office (as long as you didn’t count Edith Wilson), the first person of Jewish faith, and the first Californian since Ronald Reagan.

    Feinstein96.png

    ​
    The big question facing the new president and her administration was which big issues to tackle first? Feinstein would likely get only the chance to address one, maybe two, major issues of concern, and it would likely determine whether or not she would be re-elected come 2000. Eventually it was whittled down to either Healthcare Reform or Gun Control, with the President, buoyed by her success on the issue in her home state, opting with the latter. The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act proposed a permanent ban on military-style assault weapons, which had become increasingly prevalent in drug related crimes across California and the rest of the United States, and background checks for anyone seeking to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed seller. The “Feinstein Gun Bill” as it later became known, was a hit amongst progressives and liberals, who had advocated for such measures for years in response to the 1993 Waco incident and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Spearheaded by Attorney General Jack Brooks and Speaker of the House Tom Foley, the bill received immediate backlash amongst gun rights advocates, southerners, and conservative members of congress. The trouble for Republicans was that their leadership was divided on the issue. President Bush had famously torn up his NRA membership in 1995 in response to the NRA’s criticism of federal law enforcement as “jack booted thugs” and comparisons with Nazi Germany. President Kemp, who like Bush had been a lifelong member of the NRA and a strong advocate for the second amendment, had pushed similar legislation to ban assault weapons in the early 1990s, to no avail. Still, the NRA controlled a large number of motivated voters, and fighting them was no small task. Their financial contributions were all over congress, and countless members owed their re-elections to the money dolled out by organization president Wayne LaPierre. Although Feinstein would eventually be forced to make some concessions on the bill with respect to which weapons were to be included in the ban, the cover provided by former Presidents Bush and Kemp would be enough to convince enough Republicans to support the measure, giving it the 60 votes needed. For the first time since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson, American had enacted real and long last gun control legislation. It was a monumental win for the President and proved to be a notable historical moment of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. President Feinstein attempted to use the momentum garnered by her victory to secure meaningful healthcare from, but opposition from Republicans, who decried further big government intervention in the lives of the American people, meant such legislation was dead on arrival. A leaked early copy of The Feinstein Healthcare plan, obtained by the Washington Post, provided Republicans with enough ammunition to blunt Democratic efforts to reclaim the Senate in the 1998 midterms, and further stall the President’s agenda.

    When it came to foreign policy, again Feinstein exhibited her adherence to the Bush-Kemp consensus. Helping navigate the continued democratic shift in China following the downfall of Premier Li Peng, President Feinstein helped provide international legitimacy and support to the reformist government of President Li Ruihuan. Largely successful at maintaining ties with China and continued peace in the East Asia region, it would further open up Chinese markets to North America throughout Feinstein’s tenure as President. The real headache for the Feinstein Administration would come from Europe in the form of the fallout from the Bosnian Genocide and the continued disintegration of Boris Yeltsin’s government in the Russian Federation. A strict interventionalist, and again with the public support from her two immediate predecessors in the Oval Office, President Feinstein would also greenlight a series of joint bombings alongside the United Kingdom as part of the Kosovo War, with limited success.

    As everyone expected, the only real option for the Republican nomination in 2000 was former Vice President Mitch McConnell. Although there were separate draft attempts to convince Michigan Senator Mitt Romney and New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson into the primary, the president’s poll numbers proved enough to deter most of the other big name Republican candidates from throwing their hats into the ring. The closest that the Anti-McConnell’s came was convincing former Joint-Chiefs Chairman Wesley Clark to launch an exploratory committee, which ended up leading nowhere. Fresh off a four-year retirement from politics, McConnell had crisscrossed the country, selling his memoir and his vision for America, which was admittedly vague to most voters. Calling for a scaled back and reduced federal government, McConnell pledged to pass a balanced budget amendment in his first hundred days as president, as well as the creation of a new, fully financed federal school voucher program. It was apparent that McConnell’s campaign team believed that President Feinstein was an aberration, a onetime fluke that would be course corrected come the election. Selecting former Secretary Liddy Dole as his running mate, it was hoped that the more charismatic Dole would lend credibility to McConnell with female voters, as well as add a touch a human warmth that the former vice president was accused of lacking. But as it turned out, voters were still happy with the incumbent, and the results largely mirrored those of four years earlier. The first Democratic President re-elected to a second term since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was a fairly healthy endorsement by the American people of the path that Feinstein had set America on.

    Feinstein00.png

    ​
    Much of Feinstein’s second term would be dominated by the 7/11 terrorist attacks on American soil. Orchestrated by the Libyan Al Haraka terrorist group, formed in the power vacuum of Muammar Gaddafi’s death in the late 1980s, the attack included multiple bombings across New York City, included significant damage towards the World Trade Center, the United Nations Headquarters, and the destruction of the Statue of Liberty. Countless innocent civilians were killed in the attack, including newly sworn-in Secretary of State Clifton Wharton Jr., who was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on that very day. With a majority of support from the American public and bipartisan congressional approval, President Feinstein organized an American-led coalition of nations in launching a military invasion of Libya, which had long since collapsed into warring factions and warlords since the death of Gaddafi. Initially billed as a short-term military conflict which would be quickly concluded by coalition forces, the endgame of the engagement was described as the total and complete elimination of hostile forces in Libya and the establishment of a stable, democratically elected government to govern the country. In actuality the war with Al Haraka, supported by various other terrorist and militia groups within the region, as well as financed by Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government, proved a far tricker foe to dislodge from the Middle East. American intelligence, which officials would later concede was unprepared for a war in Libya, failed to comprehend the religious zealotry that would motivate their enemy. Unafraid of death and willing to use any means to eliminate American and coalition forces, what was hoped would be a mild, Gulf War style war, transformed into something which would consume President Feinstein’s remaining time in office and political capital. Increasingly polarizing with voters for having started the increasingly unpopular conflict, Feinstein would be face almost daily attacks from Republicans, who criticized everything from the President’s handling of the conflict to her decision not to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein.

    Damaging the political prospects of Vice President Gephardt, the frontrunner for the nomination come 2004, the Democrats remained confident that in such a time of war, the American people would play it safe and avoid changing horses in the middle of the conflict. While polls showed the American people trusted the Democrats more when it came to matters of domestic policy, it confirmed that voters still placed their confidence in the party of Bush and Kemp when it came to foreign and military affairs. As for the Republicans, their polling suggested that any one of their potential big-name candidates, including Florida Senator Jeb Bush, Michigan Senator Mitt Romney, retired Admiral Wesley Clark, and Indiana Governor Dan Quayle, stood a strong chance of defeating Gephardt and returning the White House back to Republican hands. The only question facing the GOP was whether to continue pushing a pro-war stance, or co-op the growing anti-war movement that appeared to be gaining steam with segments of the American people.
     
  • Index
    • Johnson Presidency (2005-2009)
  • Index
    • 44th-Gary-Johnson.png

    ​
    Vice President Dick Gephardt had been running for president since he decided on his first bid back in 1986. He looked and sounded like a president, had the added benefit of having served two decades as a member of the House of Representatives, including a stint in congressional leadership. Now, after eight years as President Feinstein’s loyal number two, it appeared as though Gephardt’s patience had finally paid off. Besides, two of the last three vice presidents had been elected to succeed their bosses, so the odds were in the former Missourian congressman’s favour. Even with the War in Libya burning away President Feinstein’s remaining political capital and time in office, the conflict only further cemented Gephardt’s status as the heir apparent, scaring off other potential candidates looking for their chance to usurp him. Waltzing past the candidacies of Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, and Paul Wellstone, Vice President Gephardt would quickly wrap up the Democratic nomination for president, going on to select former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate. Shaheen not only brought geographical balance to the ticket, but it was hoped that by continuing the trend of having a woman on the ticket, Gephardt would be able to solidify the winning Democratic coalition established by President Feinstein.

    The race for the Republican nomination meanwhile proved to be a far more open affair. Multiple candidates, including Florida Senator Jeb Bush, Michigan Senator Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Indiana Governor Dan Quayle, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, declared their interest in the presidency. The undisputed frontrunner for much of the pre-campaign season was Bush, son of the iconic former President who had governed during the 1980s. Initially it appeared as though Bush’s main competition would come from Senator Romney, himself a fellow scion of an influential Republican statesman. The surprise dark horse of the campaign turned out to be Johnson, the self-styled maverick of the Republican primary. Having successfully governed as a small government conservative in an increasingly Latino and competitive state, Johnson’s free-spirited nature began to strike a chord with Republican voters. In the mold of Ronald Reagan, Bob Graham, and Jerry Brown, the populist Gary Johnson appeared to enjoy himself on the campaign trail. The former governor would take photo-ops riding his bike or mountain climbing, exhibiting his preference for physical exercise. It was a sense of joyful authenticity that many voters felt was lacking in modern politics, at least since the death of Ronald Reagan, the happy warrior of the right. This was in increasing contrast with both Bush and Romney. Bush, billed as the political successor of his father, appeared overly rehearsed and prepared on the campaign trail. It was as if Bush was playing a part and wanted to avoid veering off the script given to him by his aids and establishment allies. He, like everyone else, Republican and to some degree most Democrats, supported lower taxes, smaller government, the continuation of the war. The only major difference between himself and Dick Gephardt was that Bush was willing to escalate the war if it meant resolving it sooner. Romney, whom nobody could label as charismatic, equally appeared robotic, and willing to say and do the right things if it meant attaining the office he sought. The split in the pro-war, establishment vote, between Bush and Romney and the handful of other interchangeable Republicans, proved to be just enough to allow Gary Johnson to sneak up the middle and narrowly claim the Republican nomination. An anti-war, largely libertarian Republican, it was a rare repudiation of the Bush-Kemp consensus that had governed American politics, if not at least the modern GOP, since the 1980s, if not since the days of Dwight Eisenhower. Desperate to avoid Gary Johnson transforming his campaign into a one-man carnival show, Republican insiders convinced the former New Mexico governor, for what they called the good of party unity, to select Wisconsin Senator Mark Neumann, one of the Senate’s poster boys for traditional Bush-Kemp Republicanism.

    One of the more unpredictable campaigns in modern American politics, the Democrats were overjoyed by the selecting of Gary Johnson. Vice President Dick Gephardt was polished, statesmanlike, credible on the issues of foreign and domestic affairs. He was a household name and polls routinely showed him as the odds-on-favorite to win come November. In the midst of an ongoing war, it appeared obvious that voters would stick with the candidate they knew over the flamboyant, unpolished unknown. But the Democrats fell victim to the same strategy as Bush and Romney did during the primary campaign. Labeling Gephardt as a warmonger, Johnson campaigned on focusing on fixing the problems at home, including investments in rural healthcare, end bailouts for corporations, and avoid continuing the war if it continues to rack up America’s debt. American had to stand up for American interests abroad, that much was for sure, but unless the United States had a clear plan in ending the War in Libya, the money could be better spent at home. After all, if people had to pay taxes, which Johnson opposed, they should at least enjoy the benefits of their tax dollars being spent. It was a delicate balance to be sure, but more and more voters seemed spellbound by the happy crusade of Johnson’s campaign. Having avoided a bitter and competitive primary, Gephardt appeared unprepared for the harsh attacks of his opponent, and instead could only offer up recycled sound bites about growing the economic pie for everyone, the importance of the middle class, defending the principals of freedom at home and abroad, and establishing a global, union friendly minimum-wage. The more the Vice President talked, the more he sounded like Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, or the increasingly unpopular Dianne Feinstein. Borrowing a line from Reagan’s 1980 campaign, Johnson questioned whether Americans were truly better off than they were four or eight years earlier, with more time, energy, and money from the once fast-growing economy getting spent on a war thousands of miles away. As for congressional Republicans, who found themselves more in lockstep with the Democratic nominee than their own party’s, appeared confident in the fact that Johnson was unlikely to win the presidency, and even if he did would probably be easy enough to manage from congress. Although neither man would win an outright majority in the popular vote, by a margin of just over a million votes and the Vice President’s own home state of Missouri, Gary Johnson was elected the 44th President of the United States of America, the first ever president to hail from the Land of Enchantment. Further aided by low Democratic turnout, with many having expected Gephardt to succeed without their vote, congressional Republicans gained majorities in both the Senate and the House, much to the joy of Speaker Cheney and Senate Majority Leader Thad Cochran.

    Johnson04.png

    ​
    Once in office, however, the Johnson Administration would go off the rails. President Johnson routinely appeared disinterested in the long, policy heavy meetings that were often a hallmark of the White House, preferring shorter, informal gatherings where he could chat people up and trade workout tips. The details of domestic policy, which saw an economy increasingly reliant on technology and automation as opposed to human workers, was largely out of the office of Vice President Neumann. With a President hellbent on freezing the growth of the federal government and debt in a time of war, it was a virtually impossible task to balance, and routinely set Neumann in conflict with the President and his libertarian-leaning inner circle, many of whom lacked any experience in the federal government or were friends from Johnson’s time as New Mexico Governor. On Foreign policy, including America’s response to the conflict in Libya against Al Haraka and various other terrorist cells, responsibility fell to Secretary of State Wesley Clark and Defence Secretary Bill Cohen. In another example of disinterest when it came to running the federal government, President Johnson relented to the demands of congressional Republicans and appointed Clark and Cohen, firm adherents to the policies of President’s Bush and Kemp. The agreement was that Johnson would get to push his small government without any significant pushback from Republicans in the House or Senate, just so long as he didn’t meddle too much with Secretary of State Clark’s foreign policy agenda. In effect this created a presidential triumvirate, with Johnson, Neumann, and Clark each seemingly assuming an aspect of presidential responsibility. But with the President becoming more comfortable in the office as time went on, his interests began expanding to actually running the show full time, and on his own. After all, the American people had elected him, not Clark.

    The ensuing confusion, resignations, firings, and threats of vetoes and investigations brought President Johnson’s approval ratings crashing down to earth. In the expectation of a fresh vision and renewed focus on American fundamentals, voters had traded experience and effective leadership for what had become a gong show. By the 2006 midterms, where Republicans would lose control of both chambers, polls showed that if given the chance of a redo of the 2004 presidential election, former Vice President Gephardt would win the largest electoral vote landslide since George Bush in 1984. It soon became apparent to party insiders that if the GOP was to have any hope of holding on to the White House in the future, let alone 2008, Johnson could not be at the top of the ticket. Faced with the reality of a hostile congress, a conflict in the Middle East going nowhere, a primary challenge backed by both the majority of the Republican establishment and primary voters, and a lame duck presidency with little to no hope of recovery, President Johnson conceded the inevitable. Echoing the announcement of the previous President Johnson in 1968, President Gary Johnson announced his decision not to seek a second term in the White House, and instead turn his focus to strengthening the economy and the war against terrorism. The libertarian experiment had failed, and voters were desperate for a return to normalcy. Now the only question was who the Republicans would rally behind as their new nominee. Senator Jeb Bush’s performance in the last primary had tainted his appeal, but he still carried with him the hopes and dreams of many Republicans desperate for a return to the confidence and stability of his father’s presidency. Vice President Neumann had shouldered the unenvious responsibility of trying to babysit a chaotic Commander-in-Chief, but was perhaps too closely associated with Johnson’s failures.

    three years after his retirement from office, former President Johnson left the Republican Party, instead becoming a registered member of the Libertarian Party. Despite enjoying one of the most high-profile supporters on the planet, Johnson’s endorsement of the Libertarian ticket has done little to improve their showing in recent presidential elections. Reports also indicate that Johnson, without much support from members of his former party, struggled to find the funding to build his presidential library and museum, ultimately choosing to abandon the endeavor come 2017.
     
  • Index
    • GOP Clark is an interesting touch. I don't think we've seen the last of him.

    Wild guess: Jerry Brown will return (or already has returned) to the Democratic Party and will run again for the presidency, or he'll enter the Democratic primary in a Sanders-esque populist campaign.
     
    If it comes to a Populist Candidate, then someone like Jim Hightower or John Kitzhaber would work but I doubt the Democrats go Populist.

    I could see Tom Daschle or maybe even Howard Dean running on a strong, stable and competent governing platform and probably play themselves a Progressive’s who can reach a Centrist ground.
     
    Uhhhhh, President Primakov decides to retire, only for his successor to find himself the scapegoat for economic malaise and voter fraud, and defeated in 2012 by some vaguely liberal candidate.

    Two Democratic candidates run for President to stop the hypothetical unopposed renomination of Gephardt; one of them is a young and/or minority candidate who expects to broaden the Democrats' appeal (Harold Ford Jr., Mickey Leland, Cleo Fields), while the other plays more towards economic populism and wants to double down on the Midwest (John Kitzhaber, Bob Casey Jr., I guess also Howard Dean?).

    I wonder where Robert Reich's career goes ITTL?
     
    Last edited:
    Reader mode
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top