An Effective Consensus

[Elcaspar]

What is McCarthy’s platform? I’m still leaning Kemp, but I’m curious about McCarthy.

Basically a home for disgruntled lefties

Sounds like i am a McCarthy supporter this election.

[KaiserDave]

What is McCarthy’s platform? I’m still leaning Kemp, but I’m curious about McCarthy.

Basically a home for disgruntled lefties

Sounds like i am a McCarthy supporter this election.

I thought so, but fear not. Your patience will be rewarded eventually, and you will like it.

[Elcaspar]

What is McCarthy’s platform? I’m still leaning Kemp, but I’m curious about McCarthy.

Basically a home for disgruntled lefties

Sounds like i am a McCarthy supporter this election.

I thought so, but fear not. Your patience will be rewarded eventually, and you will like it.

Oh i know since i tried to guess at it in your DMs after all. I just don't know who exactly said person is.

[Continential]

I'm a McCarthy supporter.

[Ferguson97]

What's Joe Biden doing in this timeline?

[America Needs R'hllor]

Don't like McCarthy enough to protest vote for him. Kemp in close states, write in: Birch Bayh/Bobby Kennedy in safe states (perhaps McCarthy where there's no WI option).

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

I have no patience for wasted votes. I'm behind Kemp 100%.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

I live in North Carolina, so McCarthy it is.

[KaiserDave]

Campaign 1984

Wikimedia Commons



Jack Kemp appeared to be in a strong position, but it just seemed that the progressive wing of the GOP, with their La Follette politics would never go over to Jack Kemp no matter how hard he tried. It didn't help that Charles Mathias clearly wasn't a believer in supply side economics. However, outside of Helm's conservative legions, there didn't seem to much of a constituency for him either. His rhetoric on every issue just seemed to repulse half the country. The Democratic Party, split between the fiscal conservative New Democrats represented by Bentsen and Tsongas, and the paleoconservatives led by Helms and Buchanan couldn't seem to unite either. Glenn who seemingly tried to straddle the center of everything said that "I think there's a bunch of good arguments from all corners of all party" while he said he would "probably vote for my party's nominee." In any case Kemp led by all metrics going into the height of the campaign.

The economy seemed to be improving, although not many could tell. Jack Kemp's economic arguments weren't overly popular, but they seemed to catch on with enough people to pull together a winning coalition. Black voters were also enthused by the Kemp campaign, with his strong commitment to civil rights, unique ideas around enterprise zones, and the odious Helms. Kemp held big rallies across the midwest, west, and northeast, and also headed down south where he he pushed the offensive. His debate victory further propelled him forward, as Helms' odds increasingly got worse.

As for Helms he left the strategy to Buchanan, who was indeed putting together an impressive campaign. Despite the long odds projected by the media and observers, the Helms campaign remained confident. Helms had a dedicated conservative following, and it seemed that bad memories of the Wallace presidency were fading. Perhaps there was indeed a silent majority for Helms, and perhaps there was indeed a conservative revolution brewing. There were no major news stories before election day, and the voters went to the polls.

[S019]

A Helms Presidency would be an utter disaster to the nation, and Kemp's loss would clearly show that the old conservative Republican Party and old liberal Democratic Party are both dead. Though honestly I'm wondering where Helms is doing well, outside of the South. Still hoping Kemp can hang on and defeat Helms, though.

[Captain Chaos]

Hope Barack Obama makes an appearance.

[KaiserDave]

Hope Barack Obama makes an appearance.

He will be back but he was mentioned on a 1980 election night post

[KaiserDave]

This is not finished

I am merely busy and vacationing

[KaiserDave]

I still plan on continuing this timeline, I've just had creative outlets going elsewhere recently.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I still plan on continuing this timeline, I've just had creative outlets going elsewhere recently.

Will this be back

[KaiserDave]

This is coming back

[Stm85]

This is coming back

Great news, was getting worried I wouldn’t be able to see my fantasy of a Jack Kemp Presidency.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

If it's Helms, Bayh '88: Bayhers' Remorse. I don't care it's going to be a conservative's paradise for the next 30 years. I need this, dammit.

[KaiserDave]

So this is coming back but expect the formatting to be different. I'd like to move a little faster and remove some superfluidity.

[KaiserDave]

Results of the 1984 Election


Jack Kemp/Charles Mathias: 52.0%/404
Jesse Helms/John Melcher: 45.1%/134
Eugene McCarthy/Richard Walton: 1.3%/0

When the votes came in on election night it was very clear that Jack French Kemp would win an easy election to the nation's highest office. While Jesse Helm's swept the south, with some precincts in rural Alabama and Georgia giving every last vote to Helms, Jack Kemp defeated him soundly everywhere else. The Glenn coalition turned their back on Helms, who many deemed as just "too radical" while the suave quarterback won their hearts. Jack Kemp declared victory on election night, and Jesse Helms soon conceded. However in the introductory speech for Helms that night, campaign advisor Pat Buchanan declared that the Democratic Party had experienced an "ideological revolution" that perhaps not in four years, but in time would transform the party into "truly the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, the party of true working America."

Jack Kemp projected confidence, statesmanship, and steadiness as he declared that "8 years of stagnation are over, and 8 years of progress and prosperity are on the horizon!" However, Republicans were concerned that in the Senate their gains were limited, they did not take the majority. They flipped Nebraska, but lost other races, such as in Delaware where Joe Biden was reelected, in Maine where Bill Cohen won. Democrats won victories such as in Tennessee, where moderate Democrat Al Gore was elected. Time will tell if President-elect Kemp is successful.


United States House of Representatives
Republicans: 249 (+9)
Democrats: 184 (-9)


United States Senate
Democrats: 52 (-1)
Republicans: 48 (+1)

Flips: Nebraska (D to R)

[OSR stands with Israel]

Touchdown Conservativism !!!!!!


What an amazing pass by Jack Kemp

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Biden '88. Let a girl dream, will you?

[KaiserDave]

Wikimedia Commons

The Kemp Administration

The Kemp inauguration was an odd one. The harsh cold weather forced the festivities inside, and the parade was cancelled. Nevertheless President-elect Kemp was inaugurated without issue. Chief Justice Marshall swore him in, and Vice President Mathias was sworn in by Associate Justice Potter Stewart. President Kemp delivered a speech that largely ignored the harsh climate of his inauguration, and focused on American potential to good at home and abroad. It echoed themes of patriotism and optimism. The event was attended by former Presidents Nixon, Wallace, Romney, and Glenn.

Kemp's cabinet most prominent members were Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a bipartisan choice for the State Department. James Baker for the Treasury Department, Charles Fried as Attorney General, and Donald J. Atwood Jr. as Secretary of Defense. President Kemp's first 100 days were entirely dominated by tax policy. Kemp planned massive tax cuts at every bracket, reducing the top marginal rate to 45%, reducing the lowest tax bracket down to 8%, and slashing the corporate tax rate down to 35%. He planned to reduce the capital gains tax, and even wanted to included ambitious plans for opportunity zones in predominantly black neighborhoods in his plans. Unfortunately Congress proved to be a stumbling block. Liberal Republicans balked, the liberal wing of the Democrats fumed, and deficit hawks in the Democratic Party wouldn't have it. Congress poked and picked at the proposal, former segregationists dismembered the opportunity zones plan, and deficit hawks tried to moderate the tax plan. So Kemp moved, he withdrew the plan and redrafted with it with Republicans and Democrats who shared his supply side vision. Meanwhile the economy continued to see tepid growth, however there was no negative growth or mass layoffs.

Kemp reintroduced the tax plan, and the opportunity zone plan separately. Eventually both proposals would pass. Critics pointed to projections for a mountainous deficit, to which Kemp said that "the same people who now complain about the deficit had no issue with kicking back money to special interests in their district before, and now have a problem when we're sending lower tax bills back to the American people." Kemp however faced pressure from the Republican left when he began to proposed cuts to some welfare programs. Kemp planned to roll back Romney's bigger welfare programs, and replace it with a Negative Income Tax. However pressure groups moved fast. Jesse Jackson led a "Poor Man's March on Washington" where he delivered a rousing speech endearing him to the growing progressive wing of the Republican Party. Kemp ultimately backed down from his more ambitious plans, and passed a Welfare Reform Bill that kept the core of the programs, while only trimming some more ineffective appendages without the NIT.

Meanwhile in the Democratic Party a rift was growing. Yes there was still the liberal ring, which led by Ted Kennedy continued to stand for the party of Roosevelt and Humphrey, but there were two main factions. The New Democrats were moderate, fiscally minded pragmatists who while right of center, were entirely in support of civil rights, and focused more on balanced budgets and foreign policy. Then there was the New Right, who were ironically based in the Old Right, who were in on the Buchananite Revolution, and were skeptical of civil rights enforcement, opposed to foreign entanglements and immigration, and skeptical of all things big government.

In the GOP Kemp was ideologically a conservative, but frequently sent out olive branches to all wings of his party on common cause issues such as civil rights, support for immigration, support for affirmative action, and the general themes of building a kinder, gentler nation. The party however was made up of moderates, liberals, and progressives in a big tent.

Abroad, President Kemp focused on combating communism in South and Central America, specifically in Chile where President Allende's elected successor in leading the Popular Front, Luis Corvalán pushed a more extreme policy of Marxism-Leninism. He received even more aide from the USSR. President Kemp went under the table to provide arms and funds to right wing insurgent organizations, and a bush war soon developed in the rainforest and mountains of the nation between the forces of the government and the "Organized Counter Revolutionary Forces." President Kemp pursued a similar policy in Nicaragua.

However it was around this time that Bob Woodward released a book alleging that Congressman Dick Cheney had been partial to a plot to swing Wyoming in Glenn's favor in 1976, backed by major financiers who didn't want Bayh in the White House. The book alleged that Cheney had used operatives on the ground to destroy ballots, and enough to swing the state. In "The Stolen Election" Woodward slammed corruption in government. While the book never implicated President Glenn, it did not make him look good. Cheney denied everything, and while the book created quite the stir, charges were never filed.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Kemp despite having a much stronger liberal wing than Reagan faced has still managed to be at least as conservative if not more so

[Stm85]

NUT