Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll: 1968 (Signup/Character Creation)

[Orwell]

Ladies and Gentlemen! I know I said this wouldn't be coming until next week, but I found myself having a considerable amount of free time this afternoon. So I decided I would start the game today! This thread will serve as the signup and character creation thread. As with my previous game the rules below remain the same.


The year is 1968 and the situation in the United States, we will begin at the 1968 DNC/RNC and you will be able to draft candidates for Local, State, and Federal offices and we will also sim the elections using the keys. I will give an example of the use of points to influence an election:

I would like Strom Thurmond to run for Governor in 1970 for 2 points

This would make Strom Thurmond win the Governorship of South Carolina in 1970 and would set you back 2 points. This game is mainly about world-building and having fun.


Hello! I am here today to announce a new kind of game to the Election and History game field, and this is called Keys to the White House, I am sure many of you are familiar with how the Keys to the White House work, basically if 5 or fewer of the statements are false then the incumbent party will win reelection, but when 6 or more are true then the incumbent party will lose the election, just a note though that the keys only serve to predict the popular vote not the electoral college.

The Keys

1. Party Mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than after the previous midterm elections. This Key cannot be altered through player point expenditures​
2. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination. This Key cannot be altered through player point expenditures
3. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president. This Key cannot be altered through player point expenditures​
4. Third party: There is no significant third party or independent campaign.
5. Short term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign.​
6. Long term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms.​
7. Policy change: The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy.​
8. Social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term.​
9. Scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal.​
10. Foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs.​
11. Foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs.​
12. Incumbent charisma: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero. This Key cannot be altered through player point expenditures​
13. Challenger charisma: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. This Key cannot be altered through player point expenditures

​


Points:
Points can be earned through a lot of ways, the most common ways on AH.com are wikiboxes and roleplay.

Cost of Offices:
Elected to State Legislature: Free
Elected to HoR: 1 for 4 years
Elected to Senate or Governorship: 2, and at least 4 years spent in either the state legislature or House of Representatives
Appointed to a low-level Cabinet position: 3
Name added to Vice-Presidential Ballot: 3
Appointed to a high-level Cabinet position: 4
Name added to Presidential Ballot: 5, and at least 4 years spent in any other elected or appointed office
Name added to Presidential Ballot with no prior experience: 7

Other Point Expenditures:
Boost a major party downballot: 3 points
Boost a minor party downballot: 6 points
Change a Key (Player decides if value is true or negative, can be done once per player every 2 elections): 10

Character Sheet:
While characters are not required to play, I do suggest that you create a character as it will make it easier to roleplay, but you can still earn/spend points if you don't have a created character.

Photo:
Name:
Age:
Political Party:
Occupational History:
Bio:

the DNC and RNC will be open at 12 pm EST, On Monday November 9, and close on Wednesday November 11 at 12 pm EST. Character creation is open at all times though.

[GoTfan]

Thomas Kenway


[credit: Wikimedia commons]
Kenway at a university dinner in 1963

Name:
Thomas Kenway

Age:
42 (born February 17 1925)

Party:
Nominally Independent, but is usually supportive of the Democratic Party

Occupational History:
101st Airborne Division, US Army (1942-1945), undergraduate student, University of Iowa (1946-1949), graduate student, London School of Economics (1950-1957), Lecturer, University of Iowa (1958-1960), Associate Professor, University of Iowa (1961-1966), Professor of Economics, University of Iowa (1967-present)

Biography:

Thomas was born to George and Maria Kenway on February 17, 1925 on a farm ourside of iowa City. Prodigiously intelligent from a young age, Kenway took an early interest in mathematics and eventually, economics as he progressed through his school years, made possible due to his father coming into a small inheritance when Thomas' grandfather passed away in 1929.

When war came to the US, he was eager to sign up, but his young age prevented him from doing so. He eventually got tired of waiting, and a few days after turning 17, he lied about his age to join the army and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. He served with distinction, winning the Silver Star for actions at Hill 30 outside Carentan during the Invasion of Normandy and would win the Bronze Star for actions around Eindhoven during Operation Market Garden. He would later receive the Purple Heart for a light wound sustained towards the end of the operation. His finest hour however came during the Siege of Bastogne, where he and a close friend were awarded the Distinguished Service medal for defending an isolated outpost on their own for nearly an hour.

Returning home, he utilised the GI Bill to go to the University of Iowa and pursue his passion in economics. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's in Economics in 1949, and was accepted into the London School of Economics, completing both his Master's and PhD in Economics there. His dissertation was entitled "International Trade and Soft Power", and won plaudits back home. While in the UK, he was exposed to the left-wing politics of the Labour Party and while rejecting socialism as a theory, he became a staunch believer in social democracy.

Returning home, he took up a teaching position at the University of Iowa and progressed his career as an academic there, steadfastly turning down higher paying roles at more prestigious universities. He would continue teaching classes and writing articles before a 1961 visit to the Mississippi Delta got him into studying poverty in the US. He would eventually strike up a friendship with Michael Harrington. Not coincidentally, Harrington's book The Other America was published the same week as Kenways first in a series of articles entitled The Economics of Poverty and Crime in North America.

While his first interest always remained international economics, he retained a keen interest in domestic issues, and worked to expand his knowledge wherever possible. He has been a staunch ally of the Civil Rights Movement, arguing in recent essays that the extreme poverty in balck communities, particularly in the south, directly harms the national economy, as well as being morally and ethically horrific.

A believer in social democracy, Kenway supports a mixed economy and regulated market, combined with an international policy of fair trade and liberal institutionalism. It is this that has led to his intense opposition to the Vietnam War, and his preference for negotiation over force. While he has been registered as an Independent since 1958, he has consistently supported Democratic policies throughout the 1960s, and in some recent interviews has referred to himself as an 'Independent Democrat'. Despite this, he has consistently refused to seek public office, though the outcome of the 1968 election may persaude him to. 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I will give an example of the use of points to influence an election:

I would like Strom Thurmond to run for Governor in 1970 for 2 points

This would make Strom Thurmond win the Governorship of South Carolina in 1970 and would set you back 2 points. This game is mainly about world-building and having fun.

That ought to cost at lot more than 2 points. I can't imagine any scenario, even an unrealistic scenario, in which Thurmond would willingly give up his Senate seat for the crappy term-limited job of Governor of South Carolina.

[Orwell]

I will give an example of the use of points to influence an election:

I would like Strom Thurmond to run for Governor in 1970 for 2 points

This would make Strom Thurmond win the Governorship of South Carolina in 1970 and would set you back 2 points. This game is mainly about world-building and having fun.

That ought to cost at lot more than 2 points. I can't imagine any scenario, even an unrealistic scenario, in which Thurmond would willingly give up his Senate seat for the crappy term-limited job of Governor of South Carolina.

To be fair, that was a direct copy and paste from the 1948 game so it doesn't really make sense, but it's an example. Of course there will be some limits on it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Samuel Ravenel


[credit: Wikimedia commons]
Ravenel's photo in the 1952 South Carolina Legislative Manual

Name:
Samuel Calhoun Hampton Ravenel

Age:
70 (born July 4, 1898)

Party:
Republican Party of South Carolina

Biography:

A scion of the Ravenel family, Samuel was born on July 4, 1898. His father gave him permission to enlist in the 1st South Carolina Regiment upon his 17th birthday, expecting the privately tutored Samuel to spend a couple years in the militia regiment before going to college at the Citadel, and then off to USC for law school. Events did not go as expected. Along with the rest of the 1st South Carolina, he was sent to El Paso during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa, then called up for service in the Great War when the U.S. entered the fighting. The 30th served in II Corps which was attached to the Fourth British Army. Corporal Ravenel earned both the US Silver Star and the UK Military Medal on 10 October 1918 for his actions in the closing part of the Battle of St. Quentin Canal.

Samuel received an appointment to West Point after the war and served in the military until 1929, when 1st Lieutenant Ravenel accepted a reserve commission due to the poor prospects of promotion in the peacetime Army, so that could at last follow his father's wishes and go to law school, albeit at Harvard Law School instead of USC. Graduating in 1932, he clerked for Justice Brandeis for two years then went into private practice in Charleston. Elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1936, he served two and a half terms, but his reserve Army commission was activated in 1941 and he declined to run for reelection in 1942. Major Ravenel was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division, and participated in the landings in Morocco, Sicily, and Normandy. Returning home, he won election to the South Carolina Attorney General in 1946. Disgusted with the Russell-West switcheroo, which saw Gov. Russell resign, so that Lt. Gov. West could appoint  Russell to the Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Johnson in 1965, he switched to the Republican Party and in the 1966 elections defeated Gov. West for Governor just as ex-governor Hollings defeated Sen. Russell, albeit without switching parties. Governor Ravenel is on good terms with both Senators Thurmond and Hollings.

His son Quentin Ravenel had been a Democratic Representative from the 1st District since 1954, and is currently the chairman of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Quentin has remained a Democrat, despite his father's party switch.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Anthony Shepard


[Credit : Wikimedia Commons]
Shepard's first picture upon entering the Mississippi State House at age 23.

Name
Anthony Jackson Montgomery Shepard IV (Anthony J. M. Shepard)

Age :
March 17th, 1940 (28)

Party :
Independent but aligns with the Republican Party of Mississippi more often than the Democratic Party

Biography

Born the fourth child of a military family going back to the Revolution with his Great-Great Grandfather having served in it and the War of 1812, his Great Grandad in the Mexican-American and Civil Wars, his grandad in the Spanish-American war and WWI, and his father having served in WWII, Shepard taught himself how to write and read by age 10, due to his family being too poor and too out there in the farmlands of the state to be sent to a proper public school. At age 18, he went to the University of Mississippi in Oxford in 1958, gaining a master's degree in Business Administration, Economics, and Political Science by the end of 1960. Following graduation, he would start up a small business dedicated to helping fight injustices brought upon by racism and segregation while also giving aid to the homeless and helpless.

His father, being a Republican in a solidly Democratic state (his entire family had voted against the Democratic Party and the Democratic-Republicans going back to 1800), attempted to run for and win a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1946, 1950, and 1954, losing by over 13% each time. Shepard was encouraged to do the same thing by his father, but rejected the idea, as he saw the idea of both parties as morally and utterly corrupt, no longer caring about the american people but themselves, and with no end to poverty, it seemed he was right. However, he did indeed support and campaigned for Vice President Nixon in 1960, saying he was a better alternative than the inexperienced Jack Kennedy. While Nixon lost the election by the slimmest of margins, and the state of Mississippi by a large margin, Shepard didn't fret and instead continued to make a name for himself as a rabid critic of the Kennedy Administration, attacking it on several things, such as the appointment of the President's brother as Attorney General and the like. He became a conservative firebrand, claiming there needed to be limited federal and state government in local affairs (Though he was the first in his family to happily agree with Brown v Board of Education and the continued desegregation in the South). With rising popularity and growing support among disenfranchised Democrats, he was finally convinced to run for the Mississippi House of Representatives as an Independent caucusing with Republicans, with him winning the state's 26th house district by 5 points against the Democratic incumbent.

In 1961, he met a young African American activist by the name of Amber Adams who had been participating in sit-ins and many other protests across the state and across the South and the two instantly connected, with him even teaching her how to hunt and defend herself thanks to him owning a handgun in case of someone attempting to hurt him or his family. In 1962, when elected to the State House, he would transfer ownership of his business to her and by early spring the next year, they would marry, with her becoming Amber Adams-Shepard. While in the state House, he would push for radial change, such as continued desegregation, more anti-discrimination laws, more merit laws, and much better laws to guarantee African Americans the right the vote as well as better securing voting rights. Only some of these things would pass through the legislation however and all would be vetoed by the Governor. When the 1963 Civil Rights Act and subsequent 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, Shepard indeed praised President for working towards assisting the african american community, though he still refused to become a member of the Mississippi Democratic Party and did not support President Johnson, instead eagerly campaigning for Senator Goldwater in 1964, who he shared many an economic view with.

His wife had convinced him to hear Martin Luther King give his famous speech and then participate in the 1965 march to Selma, saving himself, her, and several african americans, such as a young individual by the name of John Lewis, from any harrassers by showing he was armed and ready to defend himself if need be. By the end of the year though, he decided to leave his cushy job as a local politician and do the right thing, serving in the Vietnam War with his fellow Americans, where he'd see action in the Battles of Ia Drang, Bong Son, Minh Thanh Road, and Long Tan as well as the Tet Offensive, where he'd lose his arm after rescuing several wounded soldiers. Following him being forced to retire from the military, he saw a nation in chaos as protests erupted over the disaster the war was becoming, the counter culture rising to challenge the old greatest generation, and the dixiecrat backlash to the recent progress made by African Americans, with one George Wallace leading the charge.

Disgusted, Shepard returned to his business and would continue to try and help improve the lives of others with his wife and his five year old bi-racial son, Kenneth. However, in January, when he heard that his younger brother Jimmy Shepard, who was an innocent bystander, was assaulted during a clash between protesters and police, he decided to make his move. He had become extremely popular across the state and specifically with the African American community for what he'd done and had appeal to both Republicans and Democrats due to himself being a registered and recognized Independent. He condoned both parties and stated 'I will only endorse a Presidential Candidate if they have these qualifications : Support for desegregation, an end to this stupid, terrible, costly war we have no business in being, support for small businesses, and a cracking down on any violent protests while endorsing peaceful ones.' and shortly there afterward announced his intentions to run for Mississippi's 3rd congressional district against Incumbent Democrat Sonny Montgomery. The Republican, former Congressman Prentiss Walker, had considered running as well but decided against when Shepard, extremely popular with many Mississipians, announced his bid, wishing him the best of luck. As an Independent, he's made the race extremely tight, with recent Gallup polling showing him slightly ahead of Montgomery 49-47 with 4% undecided.

What his thoughts on the Presidential Race and the how it will affect his own congressional race, only time will tell.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

If I should edit or change anything, please let me know and I'll change accordingly.