Silent Running:
1961-1965: John F.Kennedy (Democratic)†
1960 (With Lyndon B. Johnson) def. Richard Nixon (Republican), Harry F. Byrd (‘Dixiecrat’ Faithless Electors)
1965 (With George Smathers) def. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (Republican), George Wallace (State’s Rights)
1965-1969: George Smathers (Democratic)
1969-1977: Robert Taft Jr. (Republican)
1968 (With Winthrop Rockefeller) def. George Smathers (Democratic), Eugene McCarthy (Independent)
1972 (With Winthrop Rockefeller) def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic)
1977-1981: Fred Harris (Democratic)
1976 (With John Glenn) def. Bob Dole (Republican)
1981-1983: Richard M.Nixon (Independent)
1980 (With Daniel Patrick Moynihan) def. Fred Harris (Democratic), Phil Crane (Republican)
1983-: Richard M. Nixon (Unity)
A list for my
Silent Running Vignette about Ind. Nixon, amusingly the list came first. Anyway the gist of this world.
On April 10th of 1963, Edwin Walker is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald leading to Oswald’s arrest and causing the Kennedy Assassination to butterfly away. With Walker’s death by a Communist leading a even more segregationist backlash, Kennedy doubles down and makes Smather’s his running mate. LBJ tries to fight back in the 64’ Primaries but the strain leads to a reemergence of his heart conditions so he’s forced to step aside. Meanwhile Nixon ponders a return as the Republican Presidential Candidate but his former running mate manages to outmanoeuvre him, indeed Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. low expenses grassroots campaign manages to overtake Rockerfellar and Scranton and in the showdown between Goldwater and Cabot Lodge Jr. the latter is able to use connections and a vast gamut of support to narrowly beat Goldwater.
Seeing weakness with Kennedy and segregation, George Wallace pursues a Segregationist Campaign with the State’s Rights party. What initially starts out as a definite Kennedy re-election becomes a slog that causes the President to be experiencing more health issues and popping more pills to cope. Whilst Kennedy manages to win, it’s by a whisker and a few electoral votes with Cabot Lodge running an aggressive campaign against Kennedy. The effect of this means that Kennedy after a couple months of his second term, collapses into a coma and a few weeks later passes away.
Smathers becomes President and isn’t terribly good, not budging on Vietnam, not expanding the New Deal beyond Kennedy’s technocratic Liberalism, not dealing with an inflating economy fast enough and not expanding Civil Rights and trying to appease the Southern Segregationists angers the Left and Liberals within the Democratic Party who are frustrated at the lack of progress the Smathers Presidency entails. During the 1968 primaries these frustrations coalesce behind Eugene McCarthy who does surprisingly well against the incumbent, leading to a chaotic and bloody 1968 Democratic Convention. With McCarthy pursuing an independent run with Mark Lane, supported by a variety of New Left groups and Smathers coming off as tried and old fashioned, alongside a host of revelations coming out about the Kennedy administration that paint him a poor light, attention turns to the Republicans.
Having lost twice under Moderates and sensing blood in the water, the Right of the party tries to find a champion. Initially Ronald Reagan is the initial champion of the Right, but some off colour remarks about Vietnam and announcing Richard Schwieker as his potential running mate offends some of his core audience who look around elsewhere. It would be a cabal centred around the likes of Gerry Ford who proposes Robert Taft Jr. as a suitable Conservative Candidate, Right Wing enough to gain the Goldwater/Buckley support but not so Right Wing that he would cause the Rockerfellar types to be nervous.
Robert Taft Jr. message of Small Government, Anti-Communism and adopting a more Conservative approach to economics allows him to coast through the primaries against Reagan, Romney and Rockerfellar and not long after against Smathers.
Taft Jr. tenure would see Alan Greenspan deal with inflation through austerity tactics which also just so happened to more often than not effect those who were deemed prime targets for policing. Increases penalties for drug dealing and procession leads to a crackdown on numerous movements associated with a free wheeling nature to drugs. Vietnam is still a slog, discussions about invasions of Laos Andy Cambodia are shot down and by 1972 an armistice is arranged which ensures South Vietnam’s existence through American AirPower.
The various Left Wing movements are cracked down upon, shootouts between police and Black Panthers or AIM are fairly consistent through out the Taft Jr. years as well as Weathermen Attacks are as well. This does make Taft Jr. more popular with the general (white) public who see him being tough and see it as leading to a more stable America.
The 1972 election is fairly dull for the most part, Hubert Humphrey having easily pushed George McGovern aside tries to attack Taft Jr. over his crackdowns and authoritarian tendencies as well as his economic doctrine. This almost works, but Taft Jr. is nearly assassinated by Arthur Bremer on the campaign trail and the image of the President campaigning across America with his damaged arm in a sling causes most people to ignore Humphrey.
Taft Jr. wins again and continues his policies, telling New York to drop dead and bombs North Vietnam when they try invading the South in 1975. Indeed Taft Jr. see’s the Republican Party shifting away from the Eisenhower party to something closer to his Dad and Goldwater’s image of Republicanism. This makes a fair few Eisenhower Republicans like Richard Nixon, who as Senate Majority Leader has been shepherding Taft’s bills through, rather disgruntled and feeling increasingly lost.
Meanwhile the Democrats ponder where next, the two establishments picks had failed and for many there was a general consensus that they should try and get someone more Left Wing to be there Presidential Candidate. As the primaries season starts, a former Senator by the name of Fred R.Harris appears in a Winnebago, asks to stay in supporters houses and runs a low budget Left Wing populist campaign against the establishment, fighting on his brand of New Populism. To an alliance of voters who are feeling hurt and poor under the policies of Taft, they agree with this message. Harris would manage to push aside Birch Bayh and Henry Jackson to gain the Presidential nomination.
Initially Harris is seen as an eccentric Leftist who will easily lose to Bob Dole’s Moderate Conservative Campaign, but by now the White Working Class and Middle Class voters that would ferry Taft into office were feeling the pinch of austerity. With Harris campaigning on better schools, more employment and ‘economic democracy’ his Left Wing Populist Campaign cuts through and he would become President.
Harris’s time as President was a tough one, with many of his policies alienating establishment Republicans and Democrats alike, Harris spends more his time trying to get Congress to yield. The economy whilst okay, doesn’t improve much during Harris’s tenure, Harris letting South Vietnam wither away angers Conservatives and Harris’s doing stuff like trying to dismantle the CIA, uprooting Labour Union Corruption and bringing about an improved Civil Rights Act baffles and horrifies some of the voters that got Harris in. Indeed, Harris pardoning arrested Black Panthers and AIM activists and discussing about the issues of the day with them disturbs certain sections of the public who had been told for the last eight years that they were the enemy.
This feeling of resentment and horror bubbles away, uncertainty about the future and a sense that Harris is a secret Communist abounds, especially after his nationalises several oil companies leads many people to find a saviour.
Richard Nixon, by now having retired from the Senate and doing the tour circuit, TV Show circuit and University circuit as an Elder Statesman starts to resonate with certain demographics. Indeed he criticises the economics policies of Taft Jr. and says he was too harsh on Labour Unions, says Harris should support aspiration over ‘Socialistic fear-mongering’ and talks about issues that effect ‘ordinary Americans’. In Gallup poll conducted in the Spring 1979, Nixon comes out on top as the person the public want as President.
Despite it all, a draft Nixon campaign in the Republican Primaries fails to launch and Nixon’s support John Connally comes up short behind Phil Crane. Nixon is seen as another’s wannabe, until Phil Crane’s alcoholism and inability to cope with stress is quickly revealed and his numbers dip drastically. Suddenly four more years of Harris seem imminent and Nixon see’s another shot.
Supported by an unholy coalition of big business, labour unions, Centrist technocratic wonks, politicians from across the aisles and the Secret Services, Nixon with his running mate Daniel Patrick Moynihan barnstorm the nation. Nixon and his campaign pull out every trick including many dirty ones to ensure victory. Nixon wins, not by a landslide but with enough to call victory on the night. Nixon becomes the first Third Party President in America’s history.
It’s now 1983 and Nixon is pondering another run, with his own party this time. And the interests that got Nixon into office the first time are hoping to get him in again, four more years to fatten there bellies and consolidate more power is the hope...
