With great instability comes ample opportunity. China had claimed the 'last surviving heir' before anyone else, offering up a scruffy twenty-something they claimed was the bastard lovechild of Kim Jong-nam and a supposed mistress. He wasn't biologically related to the Kim dynasty, but actually a second-generation Korean immigrant born in Baishizhou. It was very entertaining when everyone found out, you should've seen the stock market. America had an ace in the hole on that one, showing off how they'd had Kim Han-sol in protective custody since 2013 and could, at any moment, return him to the seat of power he was now eligible for. Russia, not having any of that, offered their own lost Kim family member, an orphan boy with charcoal eyes and grubby hair who'd been left in an orphanage. He is very much the Young Griff of the three possible successors, with those following him defending him at every turn with no actual evidence. So what if he's keen on letting the Kremlin have as much oil as they want after he takes power?
2021-2025: Joe Biden (Democratic) (With Kamala Harris)
2020 Def. Donald J. Trump/Mike Pence (Republican) [306-232]
2025-????: John Kasich (Republican) (With David Valadao) 2024 Def. Joe Biden/Kamala Harris (Democratic) and Jesse Ventura/Jesse Jackson Sr. (Independent) [309-229]
I really doubt that an establishment Republican, let alone John Kasich, could turn out enough Trump voters to win even without accounting for the inevitable Trumpist splinter that would follow such a nomination.
I really doubt that an establishment Republican, let alone John Kasich, could turn out enough Trump voters to win even without accounting for the inevitable Trumpist splinter that would follow such a nomination.
@Japhy out of curiosity, what was your rough outline for Summons to Greatness because I forgot what a fabulous prompt it is: What if Nixon was born a hundred years ago. Were you going to have him screw up the war or the peace somehow? I'd love to see a list like you did with your Jeb Bush wins in 1994 idea.
If not, I may give it a shot for a one-off list although I'm sure my interpretation will be very different. It's just such a good prompt.
@Japhy out of curiosity, what was your rough outline for Summons to Greatness because I forgot what a fabulous prompt it is: What if Nixon was born a hundred years ago. Were you going to have him screw up the war or the peace somehow? I'd love to see a list like you did with your Jeb Bush wins in 1994 idea.
If not, I may give it a shot for a one-off list although I'm sure my interpretation will be very different. It's just such a good prompt.
1853: Franklin Pierce (NH) / William R. King (AL) (Democratic)
1852: def. Winfield Scott (NJ) / William A. Graham (NC) (Whig),John Hale (NH) / Joshua Giddings (OH) (Free Soil)
1853-1857: Franklin Pierce (NH) / vacant (Democratic)
1857-1861: Franklin Pierce (NH) / Aaron V. Brown (TN) (Democratic)
1856: def. Millard Fillmore (NY) / Thomas Corwin (OH) (Whig), Samuel Morse (NY) / Henry B. Anthony (RI) (Native American), John C. Fremont (CA) / Horace Mann (MA) (Free Soil)
1861-1864: James Buchanan (PA) / John A. Quitman (MS) (Democratic)
1860: def. John P. Kennedy (MD) / John van Buren (NY) (National), Henry S. Foote (CA) / William G. Brownlow (TN) (Native American)
1864-1865: John A. Quitman (MS) / vacant (Democratic)
1865-1873: Nathaniel P. Banks (MA) / Schuyler Colfax (IN) (National)
1864: def. John A. Quitman (MS) / Fernando Wood (NY) (Southern "Fire-Eater" Democratic), John A. McClernand (IL) / Lazarus W. Powell (KY) (Northern "Terrapin" Democratic), Richard Taylor (CU) / Washington Hunt (NY) (Native American)
1868: def. Millard Fillmore (NY) / Samuel P. Lee (VA) (Constitutional Coalition), Austin Blair (MI) / Ben F. Butler (MA) (Radical)
1872: def. Felix Zollicoffer (TN) / John T. Hoffman (NY) (Democratic)
No Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Black Warrior affair leads to USA acquiring Cuba, most likely through a short war with Spain; without the Kansas-Nebraska Act holding up them, Pierce and the overwhelmingly Democratic 33rd Congress approve a quick suspension of the neutrality act to do so, while going along with Kansas being organized as a free state.
Without Bleeding Kansas there's no incentive for a strong northern anti-slavery party to form (at least not in 1854). The Whigs drag on, although with only a dozen seats in Senate they remain largely impotent.
With the acquisition of Cuba and without Kansas-Nebraska to poison the idea of Manifest Destiny, the filibuster movement is strengthened; thousands of freebooters from below the Mason-Dixon Line and beyond enlist to wreak havoc in Central America. Nicaragua becomes an American Territory.
Stephen Douglas succumbs to cholera following a visit to Chicago in 1856.
With Pierce's popularity at an all-time high and anti-Democratic opposition wholly divided, the 1856 presidential election is widely predicted to result in a Democratic landslide. Early into the campaign, Millard Fillmore attempts to court the Know Nothing movement in order to bolster his presidential campaign and the Whig party apparatus; however, a group of Know Nothing leaders dissatisfied with the 13th President's muddy relationship with immigration reject him, nominating Samuel Morse for President instead.
As the Reform War's gears begin rolling, Pierce and Secretary of State Buchanan look towards Mexico to "extend a helping hand to the legitimate government" and end disturbances along the southern border - starting with a "temporary" military protectorate over Sonora and Chihuahua, which Congress authorizes in a surprisingly narrow fashion.
The 1860 Democratic convention is contentious: Senator John "Ace of Havana" Quitman of Mississippi and Senator Sam Houston of Texas all emerge as the primary frontrunners, but Secretary of State James Buchanan, as the principal Northern candidate in the race, clinches the nomination. There are some rumblings regarding the Sonoran War as several northern delegations nominate former Sen. Henry Dodge of Wisconsin, but they are ultimately shut out of the nomination process.
Unlike the Cuban War, the Sonoran War is rather more disastrous for the United States of America and its freebooters; with Maximilian I successfully uniting liberals and conservatives behind him against the slavedriving occupiers, American soldiers in Sonora find their position tenuous. Benito Juarez is Chancellor of the Second Mexican Empire, and is somewhat uncomfortable about it.
By 1862, an emerging view of the Sonoran War among the American public is that Maximilian I is commanded directly by the Pope and "agents of the global Catholic Church" to vanquish American liberty, leading to several riots and rising anti-Catholic sentiment - particularly among Democrats.
As Imperial troops retake Guaymas, Buchanan finds himself in the unenviable position of having to choose between pulling out of Mexico (and thus pissing off his immensely ambitious Vice President, the Knights of the Golden Circle that permeate his administration, veteran freebooters and general supporters of the Monroe Doctrine) and remaining (and thus pissing off the increasingly disaffected North and, more importantly, London and Paris). "At least we kept Nicaragua," Harriet Lane would quote him.
The 1864 presidential election is a polarized affair; however, the Nationals present an united front, while allegations surrounding President Buchanan's abrupt (supposedly stress-induced) death, talks of secession in Quitman's camp, rumored plans by members of the Buchanan admin to kidnap Banks in case he wins, and an "anti-Sonora, anti-nullificationist" walkout led by Senator McClernand serve to weaken Quitman's candidacy. With Banks accused of being a supporter of Kennedy's seven-year emancipation plan and Fire-Eaters fuming at their candidate's defeat, secession is all but inevitable.
Governed by John Netherland at the time of the secessions, Tennessee stays in the Union.
The War of Southern Secession (1865-1871) dominates Banks's presidency, with alternating results for the Union and the Southern Confederacy; however, beset by incompetent, dictatorial and continually changing leadership, by 1870 the Confederacy is limited to a few holdouts scattered across the Deep South as well as Cuba and Nicaragua. In January of 1871, certain of their inevitable loss and hounded by General Garcia's forces, President Wigfall and the rest of the remaining Confederate elite make a decision to flee for the "State of Walker", establish a remote planter's paradise and appeal to London for protection, in a bold plan intercepted by Captain Robert Smalls.
What I mean is Popular Sovereignty was the big thing at the time and had been the Democratic platform in 1848. Even if we don't get our Kansas-Nebraska we'd have gotten something along those lines. It's perhaps the largest reason Pierce was nominated in the first place.
1853: Franklin Pierce (NH) / William R. King (AL) (Democratic)
1852: def. Winfield Scott (NJ) / William A. Graham (NC) (Whig),John Hale (NH) / Joshua Giddings (OH) (Free Soil)
1853-1857: Franklin Pierce (NH) / vacant (Democratic)
1857-1861: Franklin Pierce (NH) / Aaron V. Brown (TN) (Democratic)
1856: def. Millard Fillmore (NY) / Thomas Corwin (OH) (Whig), Samuel Morse (NY) / Henry B. Anthony (RI) (Native American), John C. Fremont (CA) / Horace Mann (MA) (Free Soil)
1861-1865: James Buchanan (PA) / John A. Quitman (MS) (Democratic)
1860: def. John P. Kennedy (MD) / John van Buren (NY) (National), Henry S. Foote (CA) / William G. Brownlow (TN) (Native American)
1865: John A. Quitman (MS) / vacant (Democratic)
1865-1873: Nathaniel P. Banks (MA) / Schuyler Colfax (IN) (National)
1864: def. John A. Quitman (MS) / Fernando Wood (NY) (Southern "Fire-Eater" Democratic), John A. McClernand (IL) / Lazarus W. Powell (KY) (Northern "Terrapin" Democratic), Richard Taylor (CU) / Washington Hunt (NY) (Native American)
1868: def. Millard Fillmore (NY) / Samuel P. Lee (VA) (Constitutional Coalition), Austin Blair (MI) / Ben F. Butler (MA) (Radical)
1872: def. Felix Zollicoffer (TN) / John T. Hoffman (NY) (Democratic)
No Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Black Warrior affair leads to USA acquiring Cuba, most likely through a short war with Spain; without the Kansas-Nebraska Act holding up them, Pierce and the overwhelmingly Democratic 33rd Congress approve a quick suspension of the neutrality act to do so, while going along with Kansas being organized as a free state.
Without Bleeding Kansas there's no incentive for a strong northern anti-slavery party to form (at least not in 1854). The Whigs drag on, although with only a dozen seats in Senate they remain largely impotent.
With the acquisition of Cuba and without Kansas-Nebraska to poison the idea of Manifest Destiny, the filibuster movement is strengthened; thousands of freebooters from below the Mason-Dixon Line and beyond enlist to wreak havoc in Central America. Nicaragua becomes an American Territory.
Stephen Douglas succumbs to cholera following a visit to Chicago in 1856.
With Pierce's popularity at an all-time high and anti-Democratic opposition wholly divided, the 1856 presidential election is widely predicted to result in a Democratic landslide. Early into the campaign, Millard Fillmore attempts to court the Know Nothing movement in order to bolster his presidential campaign and the Whig party apparatus; however, a group of Know Nothing leaders dissatisfied with the 13th President's muddy relationship with immigration reject him, nominating Samuel Morse for President instead.
As the Reform War's gears begin rolling, Pierce and Secretary of State Buchanan look towards Mexico to "extend a helping hand to the legitimate government" and end disturbances along the southern border - starting with a "temporary" military protectorate over Sonora and Chihuahua, which Congress authorizes in a surprisingly narrow fashion.
The 1860 Democratic convention is contentious: Senator John "Ace of Havana" Quitman of Mississippi and Senator Sam Houston of Texas all emerge as the primary frontrunners, but Secretary of State James Buchanan, as the principal Northern candidate in the race, clinches the nomination. There are some rumblings regarding the Sonoran War as several northern delegations nominate former Sen. Henry Dodge of Wisconsin, but they are ultimately shut out of the nomination process.
Unlike the Cuban War, the Sonoran War is rather more disastrous for the United States of America and its freebooters; with Maximilian I successfully uniting liberals and conservatives behind him against the slavedriving occupiers, American soldiers in Sonora find their position tenuous. Benito Juarez is Chancellor of the Second Mexican Empire, and is somewhat uncomfortable about it.
By 1862, an emerging view of the Sonoran War among the American public is that Maximilian I is commanded directly by the Pope and "agents of the global Catholic Church" to vanquish American liberty, leading to several riots and rising anti-Catholic sentiment - particularly among Democrats.
As Imperial troops retake Guaymas, Buchanan finds himself in the unenviable position of having to choose between pulling out of Mexico (and thus pissing off his immensely ambitious Vice President, the Knights of the Golden Circle that permeate his administration, veteran freebooters and general supporters of the Monroe Doctrine) and remaining (and thus pissing off the increasingly disaffected North and, more importantly, London and Paris). "At least we kept Nicaragua," Harriet Lane would quote him.
The 1864 presidential election is a polarized affair; however, the Nationals present an united front, while allegations surrounding President Buchanan's abrupt (supposedly stress-induced) death, talks of secession in Quitman's camp, rumored plans by members of the Buchanan admin to kidnap Banks in case he wins, and an "anti-Sonora, anti-nullificationist" walkout led by Senator McClernand serve to weaken Quitman's candidacy. With Banks accused of being a supporter of Kennedy's seven-year emancipation plan and Fire-Eaters fuming at their candidate's defeat, secession is all but inevitable.
Governed by John Netherland at the time of the secessions, Tennessee stays in the Union.
The War of Southern Secession (1865-1871) dominates Banks's presidency, with alternating results for the Union and the Southern Confederacy; however, beset by incompetent, dictatorial and continually changing leadership, by 1870 the Confederacy is limited to a few holdouts scattered across the Deep South as well as Cuba and Nicaragua. In January of 1871, certain of their inevitable loss and hounded by General Garcia's forces, President Wigfall and the rest of the remaining Confederate elite make a decision to flee for the "State of Walker", establish a remote planter's paradise and appeal to London for protection, in a bold plan intercepted by Captain Robert Smalls.
1920-1922: Arthur Meighen (Conservative) 1921 (Conservative Minority) Def: Thomas Crerar (Progressive), William S. Fielding (Liberal) 1922-1929: Thomas Crerar (Progressive) 1922 (Progressive Minority) Def: Arthur Meighen (Conservative), William S. Fielding (Liberal)
1923 (Progressive Majority) Def: W.L. Mackenzie King (Liberal), Arthur Meighen (Conservative)
1927 (Progressive Majority) Def: W.L. Mackenzie King (Liberal), Sir Henry Lumley Drayton (Conservative) 1929-1934: W.L. Mackenzie King (Liberal-Conservative Coalition) 1929 (Lib/Con Coalition) Def: Thomas Crerar (Progressive), J.S. Woodsworth (Ginger Group) 1934-1953: Thomas Crerar (Progressive) 1934 (Progressive Majority) Def: Hugh Guthrie (Conservative), W.L. Mackenzie King (Liberal), J.S. Woodsworth (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)
1938 (Progressive Majority) Def: R.B. Bennet (Conservative), Ernest Lapointe (Liberal), J.S. Woodsworth (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)
1943 (Progressive Majority) Def: R.B. Bennet (Conservative), Ernest Lapointe (Liberal), J.S. Woodsworth (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)
1947 (Progressive Majority) Def: Thomas Gerow Murphy (Conservative), Arthur-Joseph Lapointe (Liberal). Angus MacInnis (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)
1951 (Progressive Majority) Def: John Diefenbaker (Conservative), Arthur-Joseph Lapointe (Liberal), Angus MacInnis (Farmer-Labour-Socialist) 1953-1961: David Lewis (Progressive) 1954 (Progressive Majority) Def: John Diefenbaker (Conservative), Arthur-Joseph Lapointe (Liberal), Angus MacInnis (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)
1959 (Progressive Minority) Def: George Drew (National), Angus MacInnis (Farmer-Labour) 1961-1964: George Drew (National) 1961 (National Majority) Def: David Lewis (Progressive), Angus MacInnis (Farmer-Labour), Marcel Chaput (Bloc Populaire) 1964- Donald Fleming (National)
William S. Fielding wins the 1919 Liberal Leadership Election instead of Mackenzie King, he then proceeds to completely alienate the left wing of the Liberal Party, causing defections to the new Progressives. the 1921 election comes around and the Progressives do much better than OTL, slightly exceeding the Liberals in seats, allowing the Conservatives to come up the middle and win a plurality by the skin of their teeth. Fielding refuses to support a Progressive government, so the Tories hang on to power for a little longer. When Meighen's government does fall the Progressives end up just missing a Majority, and are able to win one a year later.
Governing isn't easy for the Progressives, in large part due to party discipline being nearly non-existent. Despite this they are able to win another majority but things start to fall apart not long after. Angry over what they see as the slow pace of the government, several left-wing members cross the floor and sit with Independent Labour MPs. They will initially be known as the 'Ginger Group' but will later form the Farmer-Labour-Socialist Party. As a result the government loses its majority and falls soon after. The Progressives win a plurality, but Liberal and Conservative leaders Mackenzie King and Hugh Guthrie (himself a former Liberal) agree to form a coalition, ostensibly to save the from another chaotic Progressive government.
Things don't go particularly well for them. The Coalition's response to the Depression is lackluster at best, first refusing to take any action at all, then being paralyzed by infighting over what action to take. What measures are taken end up being blocked by the courts for being unconstitutional. When the election finally comes the Progressives, having been whipped into shape during their time in opposition, win the largest majority in Canadian history on a platform of economic relief and constitutional change.
The party wins a renewed mandate in 1938 on the back of a successful economic program and the negotiation of a new constitutional settlement with the provinces and the UK. Plans for the new mandate are derailed by the outbreak of the Second World War, although the party does win an additional mandates first on a steady as she goes platform, then based on promises to expand the welfare state in the post-war era.
Crerar, the dominate force in Canadian politics for three decades announces his intention to resign in late 1952, having established a national healthcare system and overseen the successful shift to a post-war economy. He is succeeded by the young David Lewis, who is able to breath enough life back into the old Progressive Machine to manage one more majority.
After another defeat in 1954 the Conservatives merge with the Liberals, who are at this point a largely Quebec party but who are still fielding enough candidates in English Canada to split the non-progressive vote. in 1959 they will limit the Progressives to a minority, and in 1961 will finally end 27 years of Progressive rule. George Drew isn't given long to enjoy his success. Hit with a severe case of meningitis he is forced to resign before the end of his mandate.
In third party news, the Farmer-Labour-Socialists have dropped Socialist from their name due to tensions heating up with the Soviets, while a new party in the form of the Bloc Populaire has split from the Liberals to continue to advocate for Quebec in Parliament.