Which Party Would You Rather Vote For? (Populist Edition)

[It’s so Joever]

CWP would get my enthusiastic vote.

[Alcibiades]

Lean CWP voter. Might vote NPP out of annoyance if the CWP went too far with the religious rhetoric.

[PSOL]

National people Party most likely.

[Tiger08]

CWP! Honestly wouldn't be too far from a lot of younger evangelicals' political views

[bagelman]

Prefer NPP, but prefer strength on environmental issues.

[ON Progressive]

CWP would fit my beliefs better, although I'd still not be very happy with them.

[Kingpoleon]

Maybe it comes from being a Bible Belt kid, but I’ve never met a social conservative who was for LGBT rights. I doubt the CWP would take the soft stance they do here on that issue.

[Middle-aged Europe]

CWP, although I'd be constantly writing them letters and e-mails giving them sh**t for their LGBT stance.

[Hope For A New Era]

I'd probably be a swing voter in this system, with a preference toward CWP.

Regardless, it's not a party system I'd want. So much good and so much bad in both parties.

[redjohn]

Extremely tough choice. I don't like the LGBTQ+ and abortion stance of the CWP, but the immigration stance would make me very hesitant to support the NPP.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

So this is rather interesting in that, if we were to walk back American politics to the point of some great divergence that led to real life Republicans and Democrats having to choose between either party, I would expect most Republicans prior to ~1980 or ~1992 to be part of the NPP and most Democrats to be part of the CW. The advent of the religious right starting in the seventies skews these, but most Republicans would probably end up in the party that is less left-wing on economics while being realist in foreign policy and nationalist in cultural orientation. The Democrats, meanwhile, have historically been the home of many populists and immigrant groups.

I imagine that, were these parties to form in the US, such might happen between Roosevelt's 1912 presidential run and the Great Depression-era elections. The first gives birth to the Progressive Party, which becomes the National People's Party as the Great War and anarchist terrorism shift focus, while the latter brings several disparate elements--many from the now-dissolved Democratic Party and some from socialist parties--together. Their first president might be Alfred E. Smith or Huey Long. During the Cold War, the division between the two parties would probably be a mixture of the early years (internationalist liberals versus isolationist conservatives) and the Nixon era (a realist White House facing backlash from a not-so-strange mixture of hawks and human rights advocates).

As you can see from the lists below I put more thought into the oddities of the NPP than I did those of the CW. I'm imagining the CW finds its strength in the Sun Belt and in coastal cities while the NPP's base is in the Interior and the Midwest, as well as the suburbs.

Notable NPP Members
Theodore Roosevelt (NY)
Herbert Hoover (CA)
Charles Lindbergh (NJ)
Henry Ford (MI)
Prescott Bush (CT)
Richard Nixon (CA)
Barry Goldwater (AZ) - constituting the hard edge of the party--aggressively secular and very socially liberal while also somewhat more liberal on economics than his colleagues.
John Anderson (IL) - notable here in that his sentiments on a lot of issues that don't get much public attention (opposition to Israel and I believe openness to euthanasia) put him in the NPP basket.
Paul Tsongas (MA) - He was economically nationalist, socially liberal, and economically moderate in real life, so one good example of a crossover
Patrick Buchanan (VA) - In the 1990s he would probably form a wing opposite Tsongas'.
H. Ross Perot (TX)

Notable CW Members
Huey Long (LA)
Alfred Smith (NY)
Harry Truman (MO)
Hubert Humphrey (MN)
James Carter (GA)
Michael Huckabee (AR) - Here representing the many Democrats throughout the Sun Belt and in evangelical groups that changed parties in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, many of which were in response to abortion and several of which were in response to a political sea change that may not happen in this timeline.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

CWP, but could be convinced to vote NPP depending on the prevailing issues. A lot would depend on each party's economic programmes.

[jaymichaud]

NPP, easily.

[AGA]

CWP because economics>social issues.

[Vice President Christian Man]

CWP sounds great even though I have a few disagreements with them

[Aurelius]

NPP easily.

[Cokeland Saxton]

Reluctantly, the NPP

[wnwnwn]

National People's Party sounds what one could had expected the GOP of the Grant years to become.

[Elcaspar]

A tenatative CWP voter. I agree broadly, but some specifics i disagree with.