What Grant Wrought

[Colin]

Actually expect something Friday. I'm off school and I'll have alot of time to work on this.

[Bacon King]

No update?

[Colin]

No update?

Maybe latter this week. I've been busy with other things, including my vacation, as well as thinking up a Alternate History timeline that diverges from OTL in that the French keep Louisiana and Quebec in return for all territory in the Lesser Antilles and French Guiana becoming English. The US never ratifies the Constitution, Louisiana and Quebec become independent nations, Texas revolts against Mexico, an independent Mormon state forms in the Southwest and Britain takes over California and Oregon.

But I may continue with this one.

[Bacon King]

But I may continue with this one.

Yay!

[George W. Hobbes]

Please do.  Very enetertaining.

[Colin]

Expect some updates concerning this sometime between tomorrow and Sunday. They will either be timeline updates or "glimpses into the future" in which I present Wikipedia articles, current (ie 2004-2006) newspaper articles, book excerpts etc. instead of continueing the storyline more. There is a possibility for both or multiple updates.

[Colin]

1883:

January 2nd: Vice President Lyman Trumbull resigns stating that the “graft and corruption that has rotted this institution has become to much to bear. The constant attempt by the President to end fair politics in Washington has be despicable.” While some see this as a true representation of the feelings of the Vice President and the Liberal Party as a whole many see this as a ploy to increase popular support for the Liberals.

January 18th: The Cleveland-Palmer Civil Service Act of 1882 comes up to a vote in the House after constant debating. Many Republicans have stated their oppositions to the bill which, in the words Rhode Island Senator and Republican leader Henry B. Anthony, “would serve only to create a highly politicised appointment process and would reduce the power of the President and make him subservient to the whims of this Congress.” Unfortunately for the Republicans all Liberals and Nationals have stated their approval of the bill as have a majority of Democrats, who are supported by Speaker Stevenson. The final tally for the vote is 177 For-105 Against - 11 Not Voting. The party breakdown is such:

Democrats: 95 For, 5 Against, 3 Not Voting
Republicans: 10 For, 100 Against, 6 Not Voting
Liberal: 24 For, 0 Against
National: 48 For, 0 Against, 2 Not Voting

January 30th: The Senate begins to debate the Civil Service Act on its floor. People expect a vote sometime in mid February. Many consider the Civil Service Act, much like the Child Labour Reform Act, in danger of failing in the Senate which is still mostly controlled by party stalwarts and “moneyed interests”.

February 12th: The Palmer-Cleveland Civil Service Act passes the Senate with a vote of 54 For-38 Against-8 Not Voting. So-called reformers cheered the passing of what has been one of the most hotly contested bills since the Child Labour Reform Act was voted down by the Senate.

February 23rd: Alabama becomes the first state to pass antitrust laws.

March 3rd: The new Congress meets for its first session. Again a coalition of the Nationals, moderate and Silver Democrats, and outside support from the Liberals is enough to place Adlai Stevenson back into the position of Speaker of the House.

April 3rd: Senator Ignatius Donnelly, Congressman Benjamin Butler and Congressman James Weaver meet with Democratic leaders Senator George Pendleton and Speaker Adlai Stevenson. The National party leaders want Democratic support for a graduated income tax. Both Democrats are leery of the prospect. Pendleton says that he will not go along with it. Stevenson states that he is open to the idea but that both parties would need to figure out a full plan before it could be brought up. Weaver, who is now National leader in the House, states that the two parties had a deal when they supported Stevenson for Speaker. Weaver will introduce the his Income Tax bill on May 1st, May Day.

April 29th: President Sherman vetos the Palmer-Cleveland Civil Service Act of 1882 as he promised to do. Washington is sent into an uproar over the decision.

May 1st: Weaver introduces the Weaver-Donnelly Revenue Act of 1883. The bill calls for a reinstatement of the Revenue Act of 1862, which was repealed in 1872, and the creation of two more income tax brackets as well as raising the income which is subject to the tax from $800 to $1300. Stevenson initially, wearily, supports the measure at the behest of his National Party supporters. Cleveland is outraged that his party would even consider a measure like this and immediately calls for Stevenson’s resignation from Speaker. John Palmer and Theodore Lyman of Massachusetts, both of whom were Liberal leaders in the House, called the bill an affront to Capitalism and to entrepreneurship. Many believed Weaver had overplayed his hand.

Also major May Day parades occur in such places as New York City, Boston and Chicago. In Chicago alone almost 100,000 people turn out to march as both the local Knights of Labor chapter and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions organized a May Day strike. The strikers call for the implementation of an eight-hour workday and that the right to collective bargaining be protected by federal legislation.

May 22nd: Representative Charles Buckalew of Pennsylvania, a rather prominent Liberal Party politician, publishes a book called The Need For Electoral Reform: A Critique of Elections During This Age. In this book Buckalew proposes to reform the electoral college or, at the least, the way a winner is chosen in the House in order to make elections more democratic and more orderly. He also devotes many sections to the implementation of proportional representation in America. He had early written a book entitled Proportional Representation which made the case for its use in America. His idea influenced politicians in Illinois to use a system of proportional voting beginning in 1872.

June 13th: The veto override of Palmer-Cleveland Civil Services Act fails with a vote of 63-34-3. President Sherman’s approval, as well as that of the Republican Party as a whole, sinks even lower, though a third of Republicans in the Senate voted in favour. Both the Liberals and Nationals vow to reintroduce the bill “once we have run that scoundrel Sherman out of town.”

June 24th: Debate finally begins on the Weaver-Donnelly Revenue Act after much dragging of feet by Democratic leaders. The Nationals are again pushing for even greater tax increases on the rich from the original bill, with top rate income taxes now being proposed at 10%, while supporting the high cut off on income and special subsidies and exemptions for small farmers. Stevenson later recalled in a letter to former Governor of Indiana and Presidential Candidate Thomas Hendricks, “It was blackmail, simple blackmail. The only way to keep my party in a position of leadership was to sell our souls to the devil of Populism.” Even though Stevenson and his moderates were under the sway of the National leadership Cleveland’s so-called Bourbon Democrats were staunchly opposed and continued to be with Cleveland attacking the bill as “pure socialism. A desperate attack upon wealth and upon the capitalist system.”

July 10th: A vote is finally called on the Weaver-Donnelly Revenue Act. The bill failed miserably with 87 For - 218 Against - 20 Not Voting. The Nationals officially state that they have removed all support for Speaker Stevenson and that they would not support any Democratic speaker candidates in the future as well as any major Democratic bills. A breakdown of party voting:

Democrat: 41 For, 78 Against, 17 Not Voting
Republican: 3 For, 95 Against, 0 Not Voting
Liberal: 0 For, 45 Against, 3 Not Voting
National: 43 For, 0 Against, 0 Not Voting

August 15th: Republican National Committee Chairman Dwight M. Sabin warns that, “another year of Sherman and our party might be dead.” Sherman was almost certainly going to run for re-election again even though he currently had very low numbers. Although several Republicans were eyeing the nomination few felt that they could actually do better than Sherman, who except for his gruff style in dealing with the Congress over the Civil Service legislation, has mostly brushed off the allegations of his own corruptness and graft. Many though prepared for the worst as the election of 1884 came closer.

October 15th: The US Supreme Court declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional on the grounds that the federal government had no power to regulate the conduct of individuals. The Civil Rights Act had put in place prohibitions on giving certain groups in public establishments lesser quality service.

November 8th: In the gubernatorial elections on this day the Liberals regain the Governor’s Mansion in Kentucky which had been lost 4 years earlier.

December 10th: Representative Buckalew proposes the House Presidential Voting Amendment which would change the system of voting for the President in the House, if an electoral majority is not achieved, from the current state based system to one much like the system used for Speaker in which each Representative will cast his ballot for a Presidential candidate of his choosing. The candidate who receives a majority of the votes in the House is declared the winner.

[Colin]

Just for the record:

Presidents of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant (R) 1868-1877
Samuel Tilden (D) 1877-1880
Theodore Frelinghuysen (R) 1880 (Acting President)
Samuel Tilden (D) 1880-1881
John Sherman (R) 1881-Present

Speakers of the House

James G. Blaine (R) 1869-1875
Michael C. Kerr (D) 1875-1876
Samuel Randall (D) 1876-1877
John M. Palmer (L) 1877-1879
Grover Cleveland (D) 1879-1881
Adlai E. Stevenson (D) 1881- Present

[MasterJedi]

Great update, too bad it was only one year though. Wish we could have had more but at least we finally got an update. Keep it up!

[Colin]

1884:

January 15th: National Party leader Weaver calls on the party to stress, “new issues in the coming election. We must recommit ourselves to democracy and federal aid to the farmer and the working man of America. The Nationals should never give up the fight or cause of curtailing the moneyed classes.”
January 23rd: National Party Congressman Leonidas Polk of North Carolina introduces the Popular Election of Senators Amendment. This is the last major issue from the National Party platform that has not been voted down in the Congress.

February 3rd: The House Presidential Voting Amendment comes up to a vote in the House of Representatives after much debate. It has generally been received well since the debate official began due to the amount of bargaining and “horse trading” that had occurred in the last Presidential election. The final vote is 242-20-53. The party breakdown was:

Democrat: 92 For, 11 Against, 33 Abstain
Republican: 84 For, 6 Against, 8 Abstain
Liberal: 48 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstain
National: 28 For, 3 Against, 12 Abstain

March 12th: The Polk Popular Election of Senators Amendment comes up to a vote in the House. It is able, barely, to get over half of the House to vote in favour but was not able to reach the two-thirds mark. The final tally was 163-129-33. The party breakdown was:

Democrat: 39 For, 80 Against, 17 Abstain
Republican: 34 For, 49 Against, 15 Abstain
Liberal: 47 For, 0 Against, 1 Abstain
National: 43 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstain

March 25th: Leader of the Republicans in the Senate, George Edmunds of Vermont, introduces the Edmunds Anti-Trust Act. The Act stated that the creation of trusts or conspiratorial entities between corporations would become illegal and that attempts to monopolize or corporations that already monopolize certain industries would be guilty of a felony and subject to fines and imprisonment. Many stated that this bill was directly influenced by Sherman himself, in one of his few active moments as President, and that he believed that this would allow the Republicans to regain some spectre of legitimacy and honest.

April 19th: The Knights of Labour and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions call on all workers in any of their unions to strike again on May Day to protest poor living conditions and to demand the right to collective bargaining and an eight hour workday. The Democrats, Republicans and Liberals all state their opposition to these strikes. The most bombastic critic turned out to be President Sherman who said that “these unions and nothing more than a group of renegades, rogues, and anarchists whose only object is to bring down the glorious Union and replace it with a dictatorship.”

April 29th: After a short debate in the Senate the Buckalew Amendment is passed with a vote of 74-10-16. It was then presented to the states for ratification.

May 1st: Almost a hundred thousand people protest in Chicago and New York carrying out that calls of Samuel Gompers and the Knights of Labor. Smaller marches, strikes and rallies also occur in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, and Philadelphia.

May 3rd: Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Buckalew Amendment.

May 22nd: The Edmunds Anti-Trust Act is brought forward for a vote in the House. Both Edmunds and Sherman have done an excellent job at rounding up rogue members of the Republican party who might vote against the proposal. Sherman, some might say for the first time, used his political acumen in the fight for the bill. In a letter to former Senator James Garfield said that “my future in this office relies upon my ability to pass this bill. The party has been impotent and I have been impotent. In order for this party to survive we must band together again and move back into a position of power.” The bill passes the House easily, although many Democrats and Liberals are leery about support what they see as a bill propping up the Republican Party. The final vote is 280-20-25. The party breakdown is:

Democrat: 119 For, 5 Against, 12 Abstain
Republican: 84 For, 14 Against, 0 Abstain
Liberal: 45 For, 1 Against, 0 Abstain
National: 32 For, 0 Against, 11 Abstain

June 13th: The Senate passes the Edmunds Anti-Trust Act by a vote of 59-29-12.

June 19th: The Edmunds Anti-Trust Act is signed into law by President Sherman. He states that “this bill is a great achievement for America as we can now prosecute those who are trying to hurt the American public while retaining the view of a small government that was held by our great founding fathers.”

June 30th: Illinois becomes the 10th state to ratify the Buckalew House Presidential Voting Amendment with Colorado following the next day.

July 7th: The first session of the 48th Congress officially ends. Speaker Stevenson declares that he will not run for another term as Speaker if he is re-elected.

August 14th: The Knights of Labor and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions have a joint convention in St. Louis. Both Samuel Gompers and Terrence Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, agree that the need for a single unified organization overcomes any differences between the two bodies. The combine the two organizations into the American Federation of Labor with Gompers as Chairman.

August 17th: The American Federation of Labor also, for the first time, endorses a party in the upcoming elections. Gompers says that all union members should “put their support behind a party that actually believes in our ideals and in working for the common man. All the other parties in this election are controlled by the elites and are working against us working men represented by this new federation.”

September 17th: The Nationals hold the first convention of the election cycle. They are under pressure from labour leaders in the AFL the Nationals try to pick a ticket with both urban and rural appeal. For President they choose Georgia Congressman Thomas Watson who had been essential in both the Farmer’s Alliance in the south and in organizing southern mill workers. He is seen as a candidate of both the Farm and Labour wings of the party. For Vice President the National Party chooses popular governor of Kansas William Peffer.

September 22nd: In a unexpectedly upbeat convention the Republicans renominate John Sherman for President and pick Ohio Governor Charles Foster for Vice President.

October 1st: At the Liberal convention in Chicago the Liberal Party nominates Pennsylvania Senator Alfred Harmer for President and Minnesota Governor Lucius Hubbard for Vice President.

October 3rd: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad scandal. Treasury Secretary William Windom implicated by an assistant in the receiving of bribes and gifts from the B&O Railroad in return for interest free loans from the government. Windom immediately resigns but Sherman’s credibility is ruined before the election.

October 8th: The Democrats, sensing that victory was even closer now, have a hard time in the nomination process. Political moderates wanted to nominate Delaware Senator Thomas Bayard for President while Bourbon Democrats rallied around Cleveland. On the 10th ballot the convention finally gave a majority to Cleveland and the Gold Democrats. Cleveland, in an act of conciliation, chooses Bayard as his Vice President.

November 4th: After a very vicious campaign the Republicans were destroyed in a large electoral rout. The Liberals picked up most of the Republican vote over smears from the Republican party that “a vote for Harmer is a vote for Cleveland.” The Nationals increased their votes dramatically and were able to break through in the Democratic solid South in both congressional races and in the Presidential campaign.



Results:

Cleveland: 182 EV 32% PV
Sherman: 17 EV 15% PV
Harmer: 144 EV 30% PV
Watson: 58 EV 23% PV

New House Composition:

Democrats: 102 (-34)
Republicans: 70 (-28)
Liberal: 84 (+36)
National: 69 (+26)

December 4th: Speaker Stevenson announces that the opening of the second session of the 48th Congress will be postponed until January 2nd in order for the preparations to be made for a House vote for President.

[WMS]

*bump*

This is one of the best alternate timelines with a multiparty America, so I'm curious to see where it leads. Now to find those results Colin posted with modern-day election returns from this timeline...

[Colin]

Alright well it's been a long time but I am going to be doing something different with that. Alternate Wikipedia anyone.

Most of the names will be of current politicians even though I usually don't like the use of OTL people in ATL. The Green Party politicians will all be fake though since the party is both quite deviated from its current make up and is really unlike anybody in a major party nowadays. Also another note I will be using European political definitions throughout these articles, so liberal will mean what liberal means in most of the world and don't be suprised if descriptors such as "conservative liberal" or "liberal conservative" pop up.

This is the entry for the 2004 Elections in America:

United States 2004 Election

The United States of America had elections for the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and a third of the Senate in 2004. First round of the runoffs for the Presidential election were held on October 26th and the second round of the Presidential election as well as the Congressional elections were held on November 9th. The President was elected using a two-round runoff vote, the House was elected via proportional representation with each state acting as an electoral district, and the Senate was elected using two-round runoff voting. The Presidency is a mostly ceremonial position with the powers as Head of State. Most governing powers belong to the Prime Minister.

Presidential Election

With term limited Social Democrat Gary Hart not up for re-election the field the wide open between each of the parties. The three largest parties, the Social Democrats, Liberals and American Independent Party, all were looking for coalition partners in the first round in order to win a spot in the second round. On May 13th, the Social Democrats announced that they had earned the support of the Freedom Party contingent upon the Social Democrats picking a Vice President from the Freedom Party. There were no other coalitions during the run up to the election.

The Liberal Party, thought to be in the best position for the Presidential election, picked a relatively unknown Southern Liberal Congressman named Phil Bredesen as their candidate. He is known as one of the more socially moderate members of the party and was acknowledged by many for his fiscal restraint while serving for a term as Tennesee governor.

The Social Democrats picked party stalwart and Senator Jack Reed. He was mostly seen as a safe choice of the Social Democratic party establishment. He was also seen as the most left-wing of the candidates in the Presidential election. He is mostly known for being a staunch opponent of the welfare reductions and tax cuts of the current Barbour government.

The American Independent Party chose as its candidate Mississippi Senator Gene Taylor who was seen as a rather standard member of his party. Taylor was almost assured of bringing in a vast majority of the AIP base however his appeal outside of the South was questioned by many within the party.

The Republicans nominated, for the third time in a row, Senator Judd Gregg for President, with a promise to endorse the Liberal candidate if he made it into the second round. The Nationals again chose Senator Ben Nelson for President. The Democratic Party nominated Senator Thomas Carper for President after its most charismatic and influential leader, Bill Clinton, declined to run stating his wish to remain party leader in the Senate. The Green Party nominated California Congresswoman Beth Rodgers for President.

First Round Results

Jack Reed             Social Democratic Party            26.37%
Phil Bredesen       Liberal Party                             24.62%
Gene Taylor         American Independent Party    22.35%
Thomas Carper    Democratic Party                        9.03%
Judd Greg            Republican Party                        7.53%
Ben Nelson          National Party                            7.44%
Beth Rodgers      Green Party                                2.66%

Second Round Results

Phil Bredesen     Liberal Party                     53.87%
Jack Reed           Social Democratic Party    46.13%

[Colin]

Congressional Elections

Going into its fourth year the Barbour government was nearly falling apart. Faced with the possibility of the Liberal Party leaving the government to join the opposition and a leadership coup within the Republican Party the three party right-wing coalition of the Liberal Party, the Republican Party and the American Independent Party seemed doomed to failure. Plagued by missteps and overzealousness in its economic measures, such as running one of the highest budget deficits in years and a badly executed waste reduction plan which mostly targeted welfare recipients, lead to even some Southerners questioning whether the "party of the South" had lost its way.

The only hope for the coalition came on March 30th when Prime Minister Barbour announced that he would be stepping down as both Prime Minister and as American Independent leader. After a party conference on April 13th followed by primary voting later in the month Arkansas Congressman Mike Huckabee was announced as the new leader of the American Independent Party. In order to assauge voter concerns over the possibility of another AIP Prime Minister he stated that he would give his support, most likely, to the person put forward by the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party, out of all the parties in the coalition, was the most unhurt by the government's problems due to Liberal leader Rudy Giuliani's plan of distancing the party from the governing coalition and having the Liberals almost work independently of the coalition in order to get things achieved. Giuliani, who was elected leader in 2002, has driven his party left-ward on social issues, basically shaking it out of its old social moderation and big tent philosophy, and moving towards a more liberal platform. Many have seen this as a ploy to win over more urban and left-leaning suburban votes but it has caused some decline in rural and Southern liberal support.

The Republican Party, the most minor of the coalition partners, was seen by some as the instigator of the waste reduction efforts and some of the more disasterous economic plans of the Barbour administration but much like the Liberals the Republicans changed leadership midstream with the old conservatives led by Newt Gingrich lost to the so-called "Southwestern boys" a group of libertarians led by Congressmen Jeff Flake and Ron Paul. They have continually pushed for more free market measures and for fiscal responsibility. They have also bolstered the parties economically liberal credentials and have basically done away with the social conservative trappings that the new conservatives of the 90's like Gingrich had used to gain Southern voters.

The opposition was very divided. Though a shaky five-party coalition consisting of Social Democrats, Democrats, Nationals, the Freedom Party, and the Greens, entered the election rather unified it was later hurt by political infighting between groups and a political corruption scandel within the Freedom Party. The Democrats and the Greens, the most moderate of the opposition, stated that they would not be adverse to working with the right as long as the AIP was excluded. Nor would the Greens be adverse to working with a right-wing coalition either inside or outside of the cabinet.

The Social Democrats, the largest party of the left, seemed to be at a loss for ideas and many on both the left and the right critisized the party for its tired rhetoric and lack of new ideas. While they had been moving to the centre in recent years they were now being pushed back in the campaign by a Democratic campaign led by a charismatic group of Congressmen and Senators such as Senator Clinton, Congressman Mark Warner, and Congressman Evan Bayh. The SDP then lurched back to the left in its rhetoric later in the campaign but by this time it had lost momentum.

House of Representatives 2006 election results

Party	Seats	Gain/Loss	%Vote
American Independent Party	95	-16	19.10
Liberal Party	84	-4	19.34
Social Democratic Party	74	-9	17.34%
Democratic Party	56	+13	13.80
Republican Party	48	+2	11.99
National Party	35	+7	7.67
Freedom Party	33	-1	7.26
Green Party	10	+8	3.32

Aftermath

For the first time in eight years a party of the centre-right was in the White House and while the election was very close the right-wing coalition was able to maintain its majority by 9 seats. At first there were coalition talks between the Liberals and Social Democrats to possibly work out some sort of a grand coalition between the two parties however these talks didn't achieve any success. While some overtures were made to the Republicans they stated early on that they would not be in a coalition with the Social Democrats.

On November 20th the Liberals stated that they were looking to form a liberal/centrist coalition that would be made up of the Liberal, Democratic, Republican and Green parties however this was 20 seats short of a majority and centrist members of the Freedom Party willing to work with this coalition only numbered 10 at the most.

On December 3rd, after almost a month of coalition talks, the AIP, Liberals and Republicans announced that they would form the majority coalition in the House. The coalition pledged its support behind Liberal leader Rudy Giuliani. The election of 2004 marked the first time since after the snap election of 1978 that there was both a Liberal President and Prime Minister.

[True Democrat]

Very interesting.  Keep going.

It'd be really cool if you started in the 50s or 60s or 70s and then worked forward to the 2000s.  Also, could you explain when the election system changed?

[Хahar 🤔]

Bumpe.