A Promised Land - A Far Right Barack Obama and Beyond

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Hello!

Hi.

So, what is this?

It is exactly what it says on the title, Barack Obama is a Far Right Republican in the mold of Coulter, Bannon, Ingraham, and Buchanan instead of a Centre-left Liberal.

What?! How?!

It's not easy and takes a few early PoD's in Barack's childhood and young adult years which will be covered extensively.

So is Obama an entirely different person?

Personally, not really as a lot of his personality traits of otl (well spoken, insanely charismatic, clean cut, intelligent, eloquent, etc, etc) are kept here, but policy wise, he is way different.

How does this affect American and Global Politics

A lot, as one can assume with a right-wing populist Obama being President in the aftermath of the Second Great Depression.

How did this TL come about?

It came to me as a result of listening to Ann Coulter's interview for America's Great Divide and her speaking about Obama.

Can we see a few wikiboxes to see what we're in for?


Source : Own Creation

Some things I noticed. Pretend Obama is in the US HoR from 1995-2003 and pretend that Inhofe is not seated in the OK HoR.

For RN, I will be transferring what I wrote on AH.com to here to be one full Timeline that you all can read and see what is there and get all caught up.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in." - Graham Greene, English Writer and Journalist

Origins (1961-1975)

(Despite being born in Hawaii, Barry spent his early years in Abbeville, South Carolina in Abbeville County)
Source : https://www.atlantamagazine.com/travel/6-reasons-why-abbeville-south-carolina-should-be-your-next-weekend-getaway/

Born at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital at 1611 Bingham Street in Honolulu, Hawaii, the man who would become the 45th President of the United States Barry Harrison Dunham Sr., was born as Barack Hussein Obama II on August 4th, 1961 would spend the first few years of his life in both Seattle and Honolulu as his mother, Ann Dunham, took classes at the University of Washington until June of 1962, the pair living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood before moving back to Honolulu. Meanwhile, his father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., finished his education in Honolulu and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to complete his education at Harvard University. When Ann moved back to Honolulu in 1963, she would discover that her husband had in fact lied about being divorced from his first first wife, Keiza, and the younger Obama's older half-siblings, and soon she would file for an uncontested divorce, separating from Barack Obama's father, who would leave the United States for Kenya in 1965. However, the young Dunham would not be alone for long as soon she would meet James Mcfulley, a small businessman from South Carolina who was trying to purchase some fruits for his restaurant back in his home town. The pair, after hitting it off, would marry in 1965 and move with McFulley to his home in Abbeville, South Carolina where the younger Obama would spend the rest of his childhood. Growing up in Jamestown, Obama, as a child of mixed race descent, did not have an easy upbringing even in the post Jim Crow south. Despite the actions and efforts of President Johnson and Senator Bobby Kennedy as well as Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr., the South had yet to fully integrate and nowhere was this more apparent than in South Carolina, which had been one of the states most resistant to both the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Despite these troubles, however, the young future President learned to make due with what he had been given. McFulley was a well enough respected businessman and while many adults in the town disliked him, many children found him friendly, kind, and endearing.

Obama would also have the ideas of hard work, discipline, and patience drilled into him by his new step-father as he made sure that Barack helped around the restaurant and worked as a newspaper delivery boy around the town. McFulley was never mean or cruel, always praising Obama when he did right and scolding him when he did wrong, but he treated him like a legitimate human being. On McFulley, Dunham would write in his memoirs To Bring Change : The Dunham Story "He was never too cruel to me nor was he ever too forgiving. He was always in the middle and just right when it came to how he treated me. Perhaps that is why I came out why I am how I am. He was more of a father to me than my absent biological father in my development years." Ann and James would continue to work together, with Ann teaching in the local high school that was allowing interracial schooling while James worked on his restaurant, making a decent profit and a name for himself as someone who would hire both Blacks and Whites as well as mixed folk. However, the most interesting development in the young boy's life would come in 1968 when George Wallace, the Pro-Segregation, anti-Civil Rights former Governor of Alabama, ran for President of the United States. To the surprise of James' friends and family, including Ann and the young Barack, McFulley fully supported and donated Wallace for President over Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Former Vice President Richard Nixon. When asked why he would support a man against the values he was for and the ideas he had, Mcfulley would reportedly tell Ann and his step-son "I don't like everything the Governor says, I have never been a huge fan of segregation and never will be. However, he speaks to a forgotten sect of the population, a group that feels unrepresented and is being ignored by Humphrey and Nixon. And the policies of both parties are no different from one another. They offer the same thing that has always been promised and what they promise always hurts the nation in the long run. When President Johnson promised the Great Society, he should've named it The Great Plantation, because it will put blacks and mixeds on a government plantation, reliant on the taxpayer's money, for generations. You want black men to succeed, you help them set up businesses but don't give them handouts. Handouts make people lazy. Wallace, while I don't agree with everything, is at least offering some idea of ending all this stuff that will hurt America more than help it. He deserves at least a chance to be President."

Ultimately, Wallace would lose the Presidential Election but McFulley would take the young Barack to many Wallace campaign events and while at some, the young mixed boy would face some harassment, for the most part he was either largely ignored or even talked to by some of Wallace's supporters, telling the young boy that Wallace didn't mean what he said on segregation and that what needed to be focused on was his platform for President and the meat and potatoes of what he was pushing for. While the young Obama did not know what this meant until he was in his adolescence, his stepfather's support of Wallace and the stops at Pro-Wallace rallies in South Carolina left an impression on him that would only harden with time.

Of course, his entire time in the South was not all pleasant but not for the reasons one would think. During 1968, Obama would witness the rioting and looting across the country as law and order broke down in the United States and mobs reacted violently to the deaths of MLK Jr. In several of these riots, McFulley's restaurant was damaged severely and while he always repaired them, he started to operate it at a loss and grew increasingly saddened and distant from Ann and Barack. While the young ten year old did not understand the feelings he was feeling, in his later adult years, Dunham would say : "I felt...ashamed to be half black. I recognize now that not all African Americans are like those that ruined my step-father's business several times over, that there's a lot of them who are honest hard workers who are being painted by a very bad, very vocal minority that calls people like me Coons and Uncle Toms. However, back then, I associated being black with what happened and felt like because I am half-black, I was partially responsible for what was happening." Despite the problems, McFulley would continue to try to keep his step-son happy and continue to work hard to keep both him and his wife happy at his own expense.

In December of 1971, the young Obama would see his biological father for the last time and it was fair to say neither saw eye to eye. The elder Obama, disliking the way his son was being brought up, tried to convince to take a short trip to Kenya to get in touch with his paternal roots only for McFulley to say it was the boy's decision. When the younger Obama rejected the offer, his biological father reportedly claimed that he never should've married Ann as she was a two bit whore who cheated him out of getting to know his son. James, upon hearing this and loving Ann and Barack like they were his world, flew into a rage and nearly attacked the elder Obama only to be stopped by Ann and his step-son, who pleaded for him to not get violent. Barack Sr. would then leave the McFulley home, never returning to be in his son's life again as his life went on a downward spiral from there. Shortly thereafter, in February of 1972, Barack II would have his name be legally changed to Barry Harrison Dunham, adopting a more English sounding first name and taking his mother's last name to be his as he did not want to be associated with his father after what nearly occurred. He would later say : "That was the moment, I think, that I stopped considering Barack my father. I mean, I had always seen James as more of a father because of how present he was in my life, but I still had some sort of vague connection with Barack due to being my biological father and sharing his name. However, when he called my mother did, which James explained meant something truly awful, I just didn't want to be associated with him anymore..."


(Barack Hussein Obama Sr., Barry Harrison Dunham's Biological Father)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Hussein_Obama,_Sr..jpg

Once more, in the 1972 Campaign Season, McFulley would support George Wallace, who was running on a populist platform for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. Barry, now older than he was at in 1968 if only slightly, was taken to several meet and greets of fellow Wallace supporters and he would even befriend some of the children of the supporters, becoming close friends and playmates while hearing their parents talk about policies. A curious Barry would always eavesdrop for long periods at a time at what the men was discussing and Ann, who had been convinced enough to at least be neutral on Wallace in 1972, allowed the young boy to listen in. Later, when Wallace lost to McGovern, McFulley would switch his support to President Nixon and soon, the future President would be listening to the speeches and campaign stops of Richard Milhous Nixon and even meet a man who would be very important in his future, being Patrick Joseph Buchanan, an advisor to President Nixon and later a 1992 Republican Candidate for President and 1996 Republican Nominee as well as someone Dunham would grow close to over the years following the 80s. In the aftermath of the election and the oncoming of Watergate, McFulley fully implanted into the young Obama that President Nixon had been framed and that to be careful if he sought political office.

For the rest of Barry's childhood, things remained normal with the continued work at the restaurant, Dunham being a newspaper delivery boy, and the occasional meet and greets with schoolmates who became more accepting of the mixed boy as time grew on and they got to know him better. However, in early 1975, at the tail end of his childhood, disaster struck when James, while delivering orders for his restaurant, died in a car crash, leaving Ann and Barry to manage his restaurant and a small inheritance of $10,000 to use however they saw fit. Ann would split the inheritance in half for herself and her son and began to work overtime at the school for extra pay while Barry began working under one of James' friends who had agreed to take over the restaurant from him. Barry would continue working there to make a small wage and save up to hopefully attend college in the future. When Ann asked if he wanted to live in Kansas where she grew up or South Carolina where he did, he told her that he was more interested in staying in South Carolina because that was where James had lived for most of his life and Barry had lived for most of his. Thus, Barry would stay in South Carolina as he made the next step in his life, towards adolescence.

Meanwhile, in 1966, Dunham's future Vice President James Mountain Inhofe, would make a major step in his political career. Born in Des Moines, Iowa in November of 1934 during the height of the Great Depression, his family would move to Tulsa, Oklahoma when the future Vice President was eight years old. For much of the rest of his early life, he would begin to entangle himself in Oklahoma politics, allowing himself to know names and faces and even be able to discover how to successfully run a campaign, as shown when he helped B. Hayden Crawford be nominated by the Republican Party in both 1960 and 1962 for the Senate and ran the campaign of former Oklahoma Sooners football coach Bud Wilkinson in 1964 for the Senate while also having graduated and getting his degree in 1959 and having a year's experience in the military under him. When 1966 was around the corner, James was undecided on if he should run for State Legislature or for the U. S. Senate. In the end, Wilkinson would talk with his former campaign manager briefly and convince him to run for Senate. After a hard fought campaign, he would win the nomination and then the 1966 General, helping the Republicans gain nine Senate Seats and bring the Senate from 67 Democrats and 33 Republicans to 58 Democrats and 42 Republicans as the Democrats would be forced to take resources away from several other battlegrounds in their attempt to hold Oklahoma. The 1968 Senate Elections would see the Democrats have 53 Senate Seats to 47 Republicans and 1970 would see the Democrats 51 Democrats, 48 Republicans, and 1 Conservative. Inhofe would be handily re-elected in 1972 against Civil Rights Activist Clara Luper, who had won the Senate primary in an upset. When Watergate came and went, Inhofe himself would accuse the Democrats of blowing the scandal out of proportion but would otherwise remain quiet. All of that would lead to him being on President Gerald Ford's Short-list in 1976 for running mate, being one of the three finalists alongside Kansas Senator Bob Dole and South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler, though ultimately Dole would be chosen. Eventually, when Dunham would enter the Senate, he would meet with and talk to his future running mate and get to learn all the ins and outs of politics under him. Inhofe was also the first Republican to represent Oklahoma in the United States Senate since Edward H. Moore in 1949 and the first to win two senate terms on his own. At the same time, future Vice President John Breaux would himself hit his first elected office upon being elected to the Senate after long time incumbent Russell B. Long retired following a health scare in 1973.


Source : Own Creation
AND SCENE! Hope you enjoyed Barry's childhood and how there are a few differences in his childhood that is leading him in a more populist conservative direction, along with a hint of what the future of ITTL looks like.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

"Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born." - G. Stanley Hall, American Psychologist and Educator

Adolescence (1975-1979)

It was a quiet occasion that day. After all, it was for the funeral for the man that had been his father in all but blood for almost a decade and was the husband of his mother. James McFulley was a great man and deserved to live a longer life than he did. Both mother and son hugged each other and cried for their shared loss of a man who had helped them, protected them, and loved them both equally. Then there was the small inheritance he had left behind, $10,000. It wasn't a lot, but both of them felt it was enough to hold both of them over for the time being as Barry grew into a proper man and Ann made a life for herself. James had had plans to move his business to Charleston and had made sure his family knew that as well and while Barry was reluctant to move, Ann supported it. Of course, with his death, Barry had told her that he wanted to stay in Jamestown at least until he was finished with adolescence due to it being where James had lived his entire life and she accepted what he wanted, though he agreed to go to High School in Charleston instead. That city had better schooling, after all, and even if it took an hour and a half to get there, it would be worth it for the young boy to have a proper education. The young mixed boy would continue to be respectful as he began the next phase of his life.


(Greenville, South Carolina, where Barry Dunham would spend his adolescence getting a proper High School Education)
Source : https://pin.it/4ysnTn3Z5
​
"I disliked waking up so early to get ready and go to High School." Barry said during an interview on 60 minutes shortly after the end of his Presidency. "Waking up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to arrive at School that is just barely opening for Students to get breakfast and head to their classes, I was not a fan of that, but we made it work." Of course, being educated for High School in Charleston was one thing. Most nights, Barry had to spend both working at the restaurant to continue to make a living for himself and study to ensure he could get himself into a good private school. Dunham understood his goal was to try and be the best he could be and make a great future for himself though he did make friends and still played around and chatted often times, making strong relationships and connections that would be critical for his career in politics. His charisma would also be hardened and refined into something sharp and skillful, painting a beautiful picture of his ideas in a way that made even moderates be interested in listening to it.

Working hard for the top marks at school, Dunham learned skills and abilities he didn't as a child and in 1976, joined a local chapter of Youths for Wallace during the 1976 Democratic Primaries (surprising many of his fellow students and participants given Wallace's past comments and statements only for Dunham to explain that he believed Wallace was a better choice than most of the other Democratic candidates) and Youths for Reagan during the Republican Primaries. While the impact of him being in these two groups was less than minimal, he was able to interact with supporters of both Wallace and Reagan and learn more about the policies they supported and even debated them on some of their political stances to try and reach a broader understanding and morph his politics into ideas he thinks could be reasonable, such as the idea of creating an income for mothers to raise their children, which he explained as an investment in the future of the nation and not a government handout, the construction of a border wall and repeal of immigration laws to allow for wages to stabilize and even grow once again, implementation of tariffs on America's allies and enemies to protect american business, investment in nuclear energy, and many other factors.

Of course, politics wasn't the only thing Dunham found fun in discussing. Childhood friends would go on to tell people in interviews that he absolutely adored technology, legal theory, history, and economics, being able to talk someone's ear off for those subjects so any lengthy period of time. In a contest on liberal arts sponsored by Columbia University in 1978, Barry Dunham would place first with a massive thesis titled "The History of Immigration and Why it is a ticking time bomb" in which he laid out the entire history of immigration from the Roman Empire to the present and detailed the negative consequences from the depressing of wages to the disturbing of a nation's homogeneity and shared culture, to even the effects of multiculturalism, predicting the violent break-up of Yugoslavia and ethnic violence in other multi cultural nations such as South Africa that cannot be sustained for long, ending on a warning that America must find a way to stop immigration before they become just like the Roman Empire of old. His thesis had a great many sources and even refuted some arguments he found against his stances, citing those as well. The thesis, around 19 pages long, would garner the attention of political philosopher and Hoover Institute Professor Thomas Sowell, who would read the entire thing thoroughly and decide the take the young mixed child under his wing, tutoring him and even recommending him for a Columbia Scholarship with the first two years free of Charge as he would pay for the first two year's tuition if he maintained good grades and proved the thesis and the intelligence behind it wasn't just a fluke. His victory in the competition had secured him a spot in higher education and that higher education, he would grow further as a man of politics on the far right of the Overton window.

Barry had learned charisma, confidence, and discipline when growing up and had also learned the ability to speak in a manner that could capture attention of an audience and keep them in the palm of his hands for hours on end while also being viewed as friendly and trustworthy by many. However, he still had a lot to learn and his future higher education would be where he would learn those skills, meet the man who would inspire is increasingly rightward shift in politics.


(Thomas Sowell, one of the greatest minds in economic and political philosophy and later, Dunham's first Education Secretary)
Source : https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/noble-lies-race-politics-thomas-sowell
​
It is often wondered by modern historians that had Sowell not taken notice of the young Barry if the policies he pushed for would still be seen as far right and not as reasonable positions for the right wing, being pushed for by people like Ted Cruz, Kari Lake, or even worse for the movement, New York Business Magnate Donald John Trump Sr. Meanwhile, Inhofe would win a third term and future Vice President Paul Broun would win his first senate term as well, though the latter one would be a hard fought battle with a drawn out recount.


Source : Own Creation
And Adolescence is finished and the next chapters will be his life at Columbia and Yale before he graduates from them. They will be Point of View moments so be prepared for them. In the meantime, thoughts on the young Obama's radical change in life so far?

[Huey Long is a Republican]

"Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat." - David Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States of America (1953-1961)

(Entering University (1979)) :


(A group of students hanging out on the steps of Columbia University, 1979)
Source : https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/cuarchives/resources/coeducation/coedatlast.html

Before him stood the gates to success and a future that years ago felt unimaginable to the young Barry Harrison Dunham. The son of a Kenyan Economist and American anthropologist, the road to Columbia had not been an easy one. When he was just two, his mother would bring him to all sorts of countries before he would finally settle down with his mother and step-father at the age of four years old and then he had to grow up in post-Jim Crow South Carolina and had to face the hardships of being a southern African American but despite that, he took the words and lessons of his step-father to heart, ideas of discipline, virtue, strength, gratitude, and charitable. Then he finally made his big break just a year ago with his thesis on immigration that got Thomas Sowell of all people's attention and that led to him being offered this scholarship, which he would gladly took. His step-father was dead and his mother was off working in some third world country trying to help families there, bless her heart, while he couldn't care less of what was becoming of his biological father, so he needed to do well in Columbia. "At least she was able to see my scholarship offer." He lamented, thinking back on James and how much he meant to him.

Walking on to the campus for the first time, Barry felt a sense of excitement as he saw students in their own collective groups chatting with one another and walking about, some obviously more used to the campus grounds then the South Carolinian. He smiled as he walked by a group of friends arguing about what he guessed was a minor dispute about what class had the better teacher or something. He didn't care, he came here to learn and learn he would. As he walked up the stairs, he heard a voice calling out to him. "Hey!" He turned and saw an about average look white guy run up towards him. Barry looked from side to side before looking back at the man and pointing at himself. "Yeah, you." The man breathed out as he caught up to the southerner. "Saw you were about to walk in to the building and avoiding everyone. Just on your way to class?" A nod. "Nice, me too. I'm Wayne, by the way, but my friends call me by my middle name Allan. What's yours?"

"Barry. I'm going to keep the rest of it private for now. Personal reasons." Wayne held up his hands.

"Hey, I get it. You just met me and don't know if I can be trusted." A smile before he continued. "I just came here to talk to you because it looks like you need some help getting around."

"Uh, yeah. Can you help me find Mr. Huntington's lectures?" Barry asked, holding up the piece of paper that told him who was going to be his primary professor. Wayne glanced at the paper and gave a small whistle at the name.

"The former Security Planning coordinator for the White House. Whoever's got your back, they must be really influential." Then he turned around and pointed at some buildings. "You want to go there, walk inside, and then take a few lefts. You'll know when you're there." A pat on the back and Dunham was off after thanking Wayne for the assist. It wasn't long before he reached the classroom, one of the first ones there too. While waiting, a warning bell soon rang and quickly soon after, more and more students flooded into the room and began talking to friends and fellow students while Barry read up on Russell Kirk's"The Conservative Mind", a book he had recently gotten and wanted to study at length to draw more inspiration from. After a few more minutes of waiting, the door creaked open and the professor walked in, a small smile on his face ashis students took their seats, eager to learn.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, first and foremost I want to congratulate you all on acquiring your scholarships to this prestigious institution. I know working for it must've been difficult, but you all showed you believe to be here and because of that, I welcome you." A moment of silence was held which allowed for Huntington's students, including Dunham, to briefly applaud before he started to speak again. "Now, before we get onto any actual lessons, I want to ask, has anyone read my book "Political Order in Changing Societies"? Anyone, anyone at all?" Dunham timidly raised his hand, remembering he had read the book at least five times in high school on his own time. "Well, at least one of you has taken an interest in these things." He joked and a few students laughed. "Now, what's your name?"

"Barry, Barry Harrison Dunham." Barry replied, a bit timidly once more. His professor nodded.

"Well, Mr. Dunham, can you give a brief explanation of my work to the class so they aren't in the dark?" Barry nodded before speaking aloud, a bit more assertively. He always enjoyed revealing what he had learned to his peers, ideas that he enjoyed, and debates he was interested in having.

"Well, your work argues that tensions are caused by problems within a nation's own economic, political, and social systems and that the belief that economic change and development can lead to strong, stable democracies is fundamentally a flawed idea as it ignores the basic concept that a nation's stability is only as strong as its society and its political institutions alongside its economy. Some examples of this can be Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and Brazil." After the brief explanation, Samuel began to clap in approval at the young man's description.

"Well, I think I found out who Sowell was talking about when he mentioned that he signed onto a scholarship for a bright young African American and wanted me to teach him." As Barry rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, Huntington turned to the rest of the class to continue to speak. "As Mr. Dunham said, a nation's political success and democratic stability is only as strong as its economy, politics, and society, all three of which are completely independent of one another. However, it is significant to note that if one of these three key pillars fail, then the entire nation will collapse." Barry, curious and questioning, raised a hand. "Yes, Mr. Dunham?"

"Mr. Huntington, wouldn't it be right to add the legal systems and the culture of said nation as two other independent but important pillars to a stable nation and democracy?"

"Explain your reasoning."

"On legal systems, to have them be ignored means that feasibly, a nation's government can be abusing the legal system and causing harm to the nation itself through the abuse of the legal system but as long as the other three pillars remain strong, then the nation is considered stable, even if it isn't."

"And why would that be?"

"Say I was running for President in Kenya against an extremely unpopular incumbent government. Kenya's economy, society, and politics are stable but I get arrested and sentenced for twenty years despite committing no crime. While that could lead to societal turmoil, it deeply harms the stability of the nation when it happens in the first place."

"But should it instead be considered a part of the political pillar?"

Barry held his thoughts for a second. "No, because politics and the law can be separate from one another and still be abused. A nation's politics can do everything right but as long as the legal system does not back it up, the stability will eventually collapse as people will question the system, which will cause more chaos than just allowing for an election to be held." His professor nodded approvingly, glad to see his new student being so keen to debate on such an important issue and question the wisdom that came before him, always showed someone willing to bring up ideas not yet thought about.

"And what of your proposal for culture, shouldn't that fit into society?" He wanted to continue this debate just a little longer, to see where the young man would take it. He did not disappoint.

"Not necessarily. At first glance, you could assume that, but society is how a nation internally operates while a culture is a nation's identity, its very essence. If we combined Culture with Society, one could argue that it would be smart to allow for unfettered immigration and open border policies because that could be viewed as improving society for the better. However, what that will instead do is encourage the creation of enclaves of communities not loyal to the nation, a class of serfs who will be abused by companies to keep wages down, wages will be kept down as why would businesses raise them if they can replace natives seeking higher wages for immigrants who will keep working for next to nothing, the language of the country will not be cohesive or uniting, and the core identity will be seen as a strange amorphous blob that is due to collapse under its own weight eventually." The young student finished his answer but continued after a brief pause. "I don't know if you read my thesis from last year, but I wrote that I think culture and immigration was a major reason as to Rome fell alongside the often cited ones and have stated that I believe multicultural states such as Yugoslavia and South Africa are due to collapse eventually." And like that, it was over.

A smile from his professor told him the message had been sent. "Thanks, Mr. Dunham. I am honored to have a debate with such a bright young mind that is making me consider those additional points as well. Maybe when I revise my book in the future and you are older, you can help me write it?"

"I would love that, sir!"

"Good. As for your thesis, I sadly haven't read it. However, if you can deliver it to my desk as soon as possible, I would love to read it and see what you said in it and all of your sources." With a nod from Barry, the lecture continued for another hour and a half until when nearing the end, before the dismissal bell rang, he turned to the clash. "My students, I am here on a short temporary visit. I will not be your full time professor here. In fact, I will only be here every so often to cover your progress and check in on a few students that have caught my eye." He glanced at Barry, who beamed at the attention. "I don't know who your full time teacher will be, but I have no doubt they will enjoy teaching you all as I have. Have a pleasant afternoon and I wish you the best of luck!"

Then the bell rang and the students began to leave the room. Just before Barry could leave, however, the Professor stopped him. "Barry, I would like your thesis on my desk by tomorrow afternoon if you can give it to me. I'd love to read it and give you my thoughts."

This shocked Barry. Right in front of him was his chance, a shining light that beamed what his future could look like if he was smart. So, he reached out and grabbed it. "Of course sir, first thing tomorrow!"

And with that, Barry left the room, his eyes filled with imagination of what was to come his way.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

The Interaction (1979) :

Barry Harrison Dunham zoomed down the halls Columbia University, determined to not be late for the one meeting that could determine his future forever. He ignored the confused glances from his fellow students as he walked by. A few days ago, he had handed professor Huntington his thesis and just yesterday, the professor had told him he had arranged a meeting with between the two of them and three others to discuss his thesis at length. He had no idea who the other three was, but he had a guess that one of them was Thomas Sowell. This meeting would be with four of the greatest political thinkers in the second half of the 20th century. He could not afford to miss it!

Finally, he reached Mr. Huntington's office with a minute and a half to spare. Taking a few seconds to compose himself, he knocked on the door to see if anyone was inside. "Come in." came the voice of the professor. Barry grabbed the door handle and slowly opened it to reveal the professor and three others, being Thomas Sowell, as he thought, as well as Francis Fukuyama, a former student of the professor's, and Harvey Mansfield, who had worked with the professor. All four men were staring at the young South Carolinian with eagerness and interest, so much so that Dunham felt a little intimidated with so much attention being put on him by these great minds. Then, he heard his stomach growl. That's right, he had forgotten lunch, hadn't he? As he opened his mouth to apologize, Sowell spoke up.

"We had a feeling you'd feel hungry so I went out and got you this." He placed on the desk a Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich which the student graciously accepted.

"Thanks, Mr. Sowell. I'll pay you back." The elder African American simply chuckled and waved his hand.

"No, it's good, Mr. Dunham. You can't have a good meeting without a full stomach and that Chick-Fil-A barely put any dent in my income." A nod from the student was sent his way before he dove into the crispyness of his meal. The taste and texture of the chicken sandwich was beyond delightful and Barry hummed in happiness as he ate it, savoring every bite. After a few minutes, the sandwich was now gobbled down and Barry used a nearby napkin to wipe his hands before putting it in the trash. Once that was settled, Sowell began to speak once more. "So, I assume you know why we are all here."

"To talk to me about my thesis, correct?"

"Well, yes and no..." Mansfield spoke up, his voice commanding the respect of everyone in the room. "I read your thesis over and over again and I have to say, I'm impressed you put such a thing together at eighteen. You have a bright young mind and that needs to be encouraged and protected, but..."

"Well, you leave out some things and ideas such as how America should be on the foreign policy spectrum and what should be the role of the sexes going forward." Fukuyama spoke up. "I get immigration is important to you and I won't deny you brought up a lot of good points to how it can harm society in your thesis, but what are your thoughts on what America should do going forward, how should it handle other countries to prevent immigration? What should be the roles of the sexes? This is what we want to pick your brain about."

Barry held his mind a brief solid few minutes, thinking long and hard about what he wanted to say. After all, he was an expert in immigration but knew next to nothing about the roles of the sexes and foreign policy. Hell, the latter was why he wanted Huntington to be his main professor, after all! Once he figured out what he was going to say, he open his mouth and let his answer flow. "To prevent immigration, America should care less about outright intervention and foreign investment. We already have enough problems here at home that we should put money in, we shouldn't have billions go to a foreign country. If they border us and are unstable, we should try and get a UN or international intervention to help us there but we shouldn't intervene without support from the people or an actual plan. Take Mexico, Cuba, or Haiti. If we try and march in there right now, we'd get no support and it would be Vietnam on steroids for us. However, if we get the support of the people before we intervene, help them create a new government with little involvement by us outside of making sure none of the negative forces in the prior government exists in the new one, and handles the criminals of the last regime, then I think then, AND only then, can intervention work in our favor. Outside of that, the best way to prevent immigration from going rampant is to militarize our border and defend it like nations have done for centuries while also implementing an immigration moratorium every few cycles and a strict assimilation prgram. Finally, repeal Hart-Celler, that is a mistake and should not have been passed because I have a feeling in forty years or so, immigration will reach a point where foreigners outnumber native born Americans in employment numbers and the government will claim that means the employment rate is going up, which would be a lie by omission. As for the argumentation on the sexes, I believe I might have to look more into it, since its not exactly my forte, and neither is international affairs or relations, but I believe that a family should be raised on a single income, with a mother to take care of the children and the father to work and earn a livable wage." Once the answer was finished, the four professors were left stunned in silence, taking in the answer and beginning to formulate their own responses.

Sowell simply laughed and patted Dunham on his back after he took in the answer. "What did I tell you all? He's smart, can think on the fly, and his answer will bring up interesting points for you to consider." The other three professors smirked at that.

"Yes, yes. We get it, Tom. You were right." Harvey replied before looking at Barry. "You have a bright future ahead of you, kid. I recommend you keep reading, keep looking up information, soak in as many ideas as necessary. If interested, all of us will be interested in guiding you along, if that's alright with you." Barry smiled and shook the hands of all four men frantically, pleased at the news.

"Yes sir, I would be honored!" With that, they would continue their conversation for almost three hours. Yes, all four professors were busy men, but here was a young mind eager to learn, yearning for information, and they wanted to feed it as much as possible, nurture it, help it grow. They debated on what should be done for immigration, for international relations, on culture, on education, on sexes and the family, it was a conversation that the student adored. When they finally separated, Barry felt more invigorated then ever as he met up with his friend, Wayne Allan Root, and his friends. This was the start of his true intellectual journey and it would take him down a path many others wouldn't expect him to go on.


(Harvey Mansfield, One of the Four Main influences on Barry's young ideology and life in higher academia)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harvey_Mansfield_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg


(Francis Fukuyama, Another of the Four Main influences on Barry's young ideology and life in higher academia)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Francis_Fukuyama_2015_(cropped).jpg


(Samuel P. Huntington, Barry's primary mentor when it came to foreign policy and international relations)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_P._Huntington_(2004_World_Economic_Forum).jpg

[Huey Long is a Republican]

A Cool Winter's Day (1979) :

It had been a few months since Barry Harrison Dunham had held his meeting with the four professors and in that time, he had learned quite a lot from the four men. Everything that could be learned about economics, society, foreign policy, and culture, he was learning it all while also challenging them on the stances, such as the major faults in social libertarianism and how economic libertarianism could leave itself open to hijacking, the faults in believing that interventionism was the way to go and that America should be the world's police even if the Soviet Union fell, and so much more. His young mind was being well trained and well drilled for over a year. It reached the point that he began to write in a new journal is own ideology, his views on certain issues and how they could benefit or harm the american populace in the long run. Already, he was a quarter of his way through it and he already felt it would be a few more years before he had a fully complete ideology to start a political career on.

As he took his walk on campus, he noticed the snow falling and realized that Christmas day was only about two weeks away. He had no idea where his mother was, as they hadn't spoken in a few months, so maybe he could visit his grandparents in Kansas? They weren't that political but Christmas wasn't about politics, it was about hanging out with friends and families. Continuing to walk onwards to the campus library, he soon noticed a pretty loud and raucous crowd having gathered in front of a few buildings. As he got closer, he noticed the leader of it was an African American man shouting to the crowd before him. A little ways away, he saw Wayne standing near a tree and shaking his head. Wanting to know what this commotion was all about, he walked up to his friend. "Wayne, what's going on?" He asked, a brow raised in confusion.

His friend gave an agitated sigh. "I don't really know, some type of protest over some type of new law that was passed in a state or some sh**t like that. I really don't care, I just want to get in there."

"Mind if I go there and talk it out some?" Wayne directed towards the crowd.

"Sure, just don't think you'll change any minds." And with that, Barry jogged up to the crowd of protesters and began to hear the first words from the leader. He was screaming about how a recent law passed would restrict the rights of African Americans from voting, how the progress of Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies were being undone, how the Civil Rights was being set back by this. It was the typical thing you heard from protests like these. While he wasn't a fan of King after read more on his and his ideology, he did do some good for the Civil Rights Movement and without him, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts might never have been passed so to hear such things did agitate him a bit. Still, he wanted to hear it straight from the lion's mouth.

"Excuse me, can I ask what all this is about?" He spoke up in a loud voice, directing his question to the leader who paused from his chanting and spoke up.

"This is a protest on behalf on all those being denied from voting in the state of Alabama!"

"How are they doing so?" He had looked at recent news in Alabama. Nothing concerning was happening there, as far as he knew.

"You didn't hear? They've recently instituted a new voter ID law that is taking away the rights of African Americans who can't get any identification! Next thing you know, they'll be re-instituting the poll tax and voter comprehension test under different language to prevent us from voting!" That was it? Obama could maybe see some of the problem, if you tilted your head and squinted and forgot the context. The leading protester probably picked up on Dunham's confusion as he spoke on about it. "What is it, boy? You seem confused."

"Well, I am." He scratched his head before explaining his position. He knew this would probably get quite the negative reaction. "I personally don't think there is a problem with a voter comprehension test nor voter ID laws, though a poll tax is out of line in my opinion."

"What?!" Yep, here comes that reaction that he expected. Oh boy...how to prepare for this one? Barry took in a deep breath, let it out, and continued before it could get worse.

"Well, my opinion is that over time, voters may be less and less informed and educated and vote for absolutely terrible politicians who say they're for you but will then vote against your interests down the line for their own personal benefit and laughing at the stupidity of the voter who put them into office in the first place. It will be the common uninformed voter selling the country down the river and people like me and you suffering for it as the politician votes against our interests even more." He had a feeling he would need to explain his position more because of the ideological tilt of these people, but he hoped they were at least smart enough to not-

"So you think all of us are dumb and that only crackers should vote?" Yep...there it was...the race card. "What are you, some kind of house ni-?"

"I'll just stop you right there, sir. I'm not arguing for that. All people can smart and educated. White or Black, Hispanic or Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander. Intelligence and education isn't racially connected, nor is being informed with the government process." Thus, he began to speak, now on a roll as his ideology came flowing out. "Thomas Jefferson, our nation's first Secretary of State, Second Vice President, and Third President, famously said "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." and while people love to quote him, no one knows what it really means. I am willing to take a crack at it. What he was saying was that a populace that was well educated, well informed, and well learned would prevent demagogues and tyrants from taking power and abusing the nation for their own personal gain. A voter comprehension test ensures that all voters, no matter income bracket, no matter the race, no matter the ideology, must at least know how their incumbent politician is voting so we don't keep entertaining out of touch politicians or corrupt officials and seeing them continue to abuse the nation while in office because the uninformed keeps voting for them because they recognize the name. What if a cousin of Roosevelt ran for Senate here, but he was far right and wanted to re-institute segregation but you all didn't know that. Would all of you vote for him simply for his name?" An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. A few coughs were heard but Barry's point was made. "Exactly my point. A democracy, a republic, cannot live off a voting populace that votes on name recognition alone as a politician who is voted in through that method may be against the interests of this country, only interested in themselves. As for voter ID, I believe its simple common sense that we don't want criminals and illegal immigrants to vote in our elections, as they will vote for politicians promoting policies that will benefit them but hurt us law abiding citizens in the long run."

"What of those who can't afford an ID, huh?" The leader spoke up and Barry could see he was starting to fume. "You think everyone is as rich as you?!" Barry was bewildered at the question.

"You...you don't have $3?" And there went his entire point. The protest leader got even more furious, his veins bulging from his neck and his body shaking in silent fury.

"Then what about the voting rights act, huh? What about Section 2?" He barked out, angrily trying to give his case. "That is something you at least have to support! It gave us our own districts and now we can be actually represented by black folks and no longer white folks who hate us!"

"And that's all well and good until the internal contradiction of Section II emerges. When a minority group, like Hispanics or even blacks, become a majority or plurality in a state, then does that mean that White People get the ability to have a congressional district all to themselves?"

"Who cares about them crackers?!" One protester yelled.

"They put us in chains!" Another hollered. Barry held his breath as he tried to calm his breathing. He hated these types of people,one who hated the other race. It only continued the cycle of hatred they claimed to be against.

"I'm not dismissing any of your points, but Section II will inevitably mean that whites should, by law, be granted a congressional seat of their own unless it is a hypocritical law and only matters if a state's minority is non-white. A congressional district should be clean, compact, and based on communities of a shared interest, not by race." Despite that, however, the crowd began to boo and jeer at him, with many telling him to leave and yelling racial slurs that insulted his African heritage and white ancestry at the same time. Barry sighed as he walked away from the crowd. Some people were never going to listen, he guessed, but he still was able to get his ideas out there and now he knew they could at least convince some people as he had seen some protesters walk away as he was talking, his point likely ringing clear in their minds. That was good. He hoped this all would continue well into the future.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

(1978-1980) :

In the aftermath of the 1953 coup d'etat that removed Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh from power, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became a fierce autocratic reformist ruler. However, his autocratic rule, friendly relations with the United States (who pushed for the coup), violations of the Iranian Constitution, political corruption, and actions of the SAVAK Secret police led to large scale opposition by Leftist and Islamist groups, such as the Marxist-Leninist Tudeh Party and the Shia fundamentalist Fada'iyan-e Islam. It would be under the Shah's autocratic regime that Iran would begin to modernize, westernize, and liberalize to some extent.

In what would later become known as the White Revolution, the Shah would implement land reform, the selling of some state owned factories to finance said reform, enfranchisement of women, nationalization of forests and pastures, formation of a literacy corps, institution of a profit sharing scheme for workers in industry, along with many other things. The main goal of Pahlavi with the White Revolution was to legitimize his dynasty, rid Iran of the influence of landlords, and create a new support base from the peasants and working classes of Iran in a way to introduce reform from above and preserve traditional power patterns. With the land reforms, the Shah hoped to ally himself with the peasantry and sever old ties to the city's aristocracy, however, it would lead to new social tensions as the two groups that posed the most challenges to the regime in the past, the intelligentsia and the urban working class, more than quadrupled in size while old resentments remained, largely due to the Shah stripping away organizations such as political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and independent newspapers. Then, the land reforms, instead of causing a new alliance between the government and peasantry, created new farmers and laborers who had political beliefs and no loyalties to the Shah, with many of the new masses feeling enraged at the Shah's corruption while their loyalty to the clergy remained consistent or even increased. A moment that tipped the scales slightly was when, in 1969, cleric Ruhollah Khomeini was killed likely by the SAVAK secret police while in exile in Najaf, Iraq potentially at the orders of the Shah.

Finally, after years of boiling tensions, the Shah's regime slowly began to fall as soon protests began to erupt all over the country against his autocratic regime. Said ruler had been taken completely by surprise by the protests and was indecisive as every action he took quickly undermined his government. While he would promise a continued liberalization and democratic elections in 1979, the protests increasingly got out of hand which would lead to a massacre of civilians in the summer of 1978 and this would lead to continued disaster as the military got demoralized and was demobilized to prevent outright mutinies and executions of its officers. An attempt to return to civilian rule was brought forward with the suggestion of Shahpour Bakhtiar, a National Front figure. However, his assassination on January 13th by Islamic fundamentalists led to an even greater breakdown. After the Shah would leave on January 16th, 1979, the military would move forward despite the insistence of American general Robert Huyser to introduce a civilian government and try and make any agreements with the protesters with the fourth leader of the SAVAK, Nasser Moghaddam, becoming the new military dictator of Iran for a pro-Shah regime. Under Moghaddam's regime, the military and government became more brutal and rejected any compromise with the protesters and unleashed the SAVAK on them. The intense brutality of Moghaddam's leadership would soon lead to a great deal of criticism come his way and, at the insistence of United States President Jimmy Carter, Nasser would be forced out and replaced by a military council who would slowly set up a new transitional democratic government in the summer. Unbeknownst to many in the military council, Captain Bahram Afzali would slowly begin to influence the council and the planned autumn elections for the Iranian Parliament in a direction that would favor him.


(Captain Bahram Afzali, who's actions would lead to the establishment of PDRI and the later Soviet intervention in Iran (Soviet-Iran War))
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bahram_Afzali.png

Bahram Afzali, a member of the Iranian military who was aligned to the leftist Tudeh Party, moved behind the scenes to have other members of the council discredited or removed while he moved to slowly seize power for himself, getting assistance from the United States by claiming he would bring proper democracy while getting aid from the Soviets for claiming he would end western influence in Iran. By September, only Afzali remained and on September 19th, elections were held, seeing Tudeh win all 328 seats in both the Parliament and Senate. Afzali would appoint Tudeh Party leader Reza Radmanesh as the new Prime Minister of Iran. From mid-September to late November of 1979, Afzali and Tudeh would pass a series of laws that greatly strengthened the power of Tudeh, purged the military and government of any remaining anti-Tudeh elements, harshly cracked down on protesters, gave special access of Iran's oil to the Soviets, and finally rebranded the nation as the Democratic People's Republic of Iran/Jmhwra Dmwkeratake Khlq Aaran (DPRI or JDKA) by abolishing the monarchy and outlawing every single political party, newspaper, and organization except for Tudeh aligned and Leftist ones. What would be known as the Autumn-Winter Laws led to more protests and mass demonstrations, as well as desertions by many Iranian soldiers who felt betrayed and enraged. On December 5th, Afzali, while attending a military parade, would be assassinated by an Islamic radical and in his place, Reza Radmanesh would become the most powerful man in Iran. He would first appoint Qajar Prince and Tudeh Party founder Iraj Eskandari as his second in command, having him take care of domestic policy and internal politics, and philosopher, poet, and literary giant Ehsan Tabari as his third in command and his chief of propaganda while General Secretary and President Reza Radmanesh himself would hold power when it came to diplomatic and foreign relations.

Following a final massacre in Tehran used by Tudeh to try and strengthen their own positions, the protesters would finally get violent against the regime with the Saudis, Iraqis, Turks, Israelis, Pakistanis, Kuwaitis, Jordanians, and Syrians being the first to financially support and arm the protesters and then in March of 1980, as full on violent revolution broke out against Radmanesh, America would join in, sending material and financial aid just like how they were treating Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Radmanesh would get Soviet assistance along with aid from India, China, and Afghanistan as Soviet troops poured into Iran, looking to prop up both the DRA and PDRI in what would be the two final true proxy wars of the Cold War. Due to the Soviet intervention, the revolution was turned away from being one against the Shah, Afzali, and Radmanesh and into a holy war of defense to kick the foreigner out of their country with the most prominent group rising in the revolutionaries being the Mujahideen, who were led by various islamists, republicans, and royalists with neither of the three main factions agreeing on anything except for removing Radmanesh and Tudeh and expelling the Soviets from Iran. The last two great holy wars had begun and the 1980s would see how they would both play out.


(Reza Radmanesh, Prime Minister of Iran (1979), Prime Minister of the People's Democratic Republic of Iran (1979), and General Secretary, Prime Minister, AND President of the People's Democratic Republic of Iran (1979-) who's government would see Iran fall into total civil war and ruin for over a quarter of a century)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reza_Radmanesh.jpg
Hope this seems like a good update for all of you. I know next to nothing of Iranian History and a lot of this was what I could gleam from the Wikipedia page on the Revolution and a few threads on it, including my own. Decided to have some early alternate history on the global stage for added flavor. Anyone who you guys think should be the leading Islamic, Royalist, and Republican voices for Iran's Mujahadeen? (Also, four more changes on the world stage will come, don't you worry). Expect two more updates before we are all caught up.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

The Election of 1980 :

Under the Carter Administration, the United States was in a major decline. What started as a hopeful presidency in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal quickly fell apart with the soaring gas prices due to the oil embargo, the Iranian Revolution and Soviet interventions in Iran and Afghanistan, and the President being seen as generally incompetent and unable to do his job, making many a gaffe when doing his speeches and interviews. In July of 1979, President Carter would deliver his Crisis of Confidence speech that was initially well received until he would later remove several cabinet members including his own energy secretary. Finally, he would be hit by a long and painful period of stagflation that hurt any potential for his economy to be a success. Finally, there was the Iranian hostage crisis, when Islamists who were against both the United States and the Soviet Union took over the American embassy in Tehran and brought the hostages to a location where they would be kept while an economic recession hit. Carter's few successes, such as the Camp David Peace Accords, would be drowned out by these failures and would lead to him getting a strong primary challenger by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, and California Governor and 1976 Presidential Candidate Jerry Brown, who was a lesser primary challenge.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Former California Governor and 1968 and 1976 Presidential Candidate Ronald Wilson Reagan had handily beaten Texan George Herbert Walker Bush, who had, prior to 1980, been a United States Representative, United Nations Ambassador, Republican National Committee Chairman, Chief American Liaison to the People's Republic of China, and Director of Central Intelligence as well as the youngest fighter pilot in history, as well as United States Representative John Bayard Anderson, Kansas Senator and Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976 Robert Joseph Dole, and three term Oklahoma Senator James Mountain Inhofe. Despite having initially considered both former President Ford and Inhofe for running mate, they would ultimately be overlooked in favor of Bush.

The Debate between the two men was quick and snippy but would ultimately end when Reagan brought out his famous quote "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" that effectively gave the former California Governor the edge over the President and allowed him to take a major lead in the polls. For the rest of the election, Carter would struggle playing catch-up as Reagan continued to hit him on his weaknesses, including the failure to rescue the hostages who had been found and stop the Soviets from intervening in Afghanistan AND Iran. When election day came, it was clear who the winner would be and none would come to question the result.


(A political cartoon depicting President Carter debating Governor Reagan with a hostage tied to him)
Source : https://www.loc.gov/item/2020631630/

Born to a Kenyan father and American mother, Barry Harrison Dunham had been raised in South Carolina for most of his early years. Due to the recent passage of the XXVI Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the voting age, 1980 would be the first election that Dunham could vote in and he would vote for Reagan even though his home county went to Carter by 25.45 %. He would later write in his journal that he believed Carter was a decent and wall meaning human being but was not the type of person who could be President.

"While Carter has the stronger moral character, Reagan is a far more competent man politically and can get the policies I believe in while Carter is promoting the same ideas of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson with a fresh coat of paint. However, that is not to say I fully support Reagan. He seems like someone who can be easily duped and tricked and someone willing to betray social conservatism for the false song of libertarianism while granting mass amnesty to illegals because he feels bad, despite it being the President's responsibility to be cold and hard when making decisions and not be swayed by emotions. For a real right-wing politician to emerge and take power, he must first establish a name for himself in any way he can, then he must get allies of his elected, then he must begin planning a run and forming an idea of a potential cabinet, and then campaign hard and fast and attempt to get as much momentum as possible. At the same time, to win, the conservative must be a populist, combined economically populist ideas with social conservatism and there is a high likelyhood of victory. Whether any Republican will take this in the future, however, remains to be seen." - From the journal of Barry Harrison Dunham, 1980

Election Results :

Source : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1980_election_map_(30798499131).jpg

Former Governor Ronald Wilson Reagan (R-CA)/Former Director of Central Intelligence George Herbert Walker Bush (R-TX) : 489/50.7 % (43,903,230) [44 States]
President of the United States James Earl Carter Jr. (D-GA)/Vice President of the United States Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (D-MN) : 49/41 % (35,481,115) [6 States + DC]
United States Representative John Bayard Anderson (I-IL)/Former United States Ambassador to Mexico Patrick Joseph Lucey (I-WI) : 6.6 % (5,719,850)

[Huey Long is a Republican]

A Debate on Ideas (1981) :


Source : https://columbiadebate.com/

Barry Harrison Dunham took a deep breath as he walked out onto the stage and took his seat. In late 1980, he joined the Columbia Debate Society after being pressured into doing so by Root and his professors and other friends. He had always proven himself as an eloquent speaker and could give on the fly responses but they were against protesters, activists, students who weren't ready to argue back with him nor bring in legitimate points of their own. Here, he was being challenged by someone with actual experience in debating, a center-left African American from Baltimore by the name of Aaron Coles. In many ways, he was just like Barry, clean cut, handsome, well spoken. Only difference was that Coles was a Sophmore while Dunham was now a Junior. However, both men didn't care about the age difference between them. They agreed to this a few months in advance and had even agreed to a set number of issues to discuss and a set time limit for the answers and responses. They agreed, seven issues, ten minutes on each issue plus three minutes to respond if necessary, and no personal attacks. He looked up as the moderator took the stage and spoke to the audience and Barry took note of some local and federal politicians watching the debate and the media covering it at a local level. This debate was huge news, after all, being the first time two African American Columbia students debated one another. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this debate between Junior Student Barry Harrison Dunham and Sophmore student Aaron Robin Coles. This debate, sponsored by the Columbia Debate Society, will be focusing on seven issues in no particular order, being Apartheid in South Africa, Infrastructure, Healthcare, Voting Rights, Foreign Policy, Iran, and Taxation. It will be up to the students on which issue will be debated on first. We ask that from the moment the debate begins to the end of the debate that the audience remains quiet. The students will be allowed five minutes to speak on an issue and if required, a two minute extension for said issue will be given. Without further ado, our debaters." And with that, Barry and Aaron got up from their seats and shook one another's hand. "As for who goes first, we will decide with a coin toss." Barry chose Heads, Coles Tails. The moderator flipped the coin and it landed on heads. Barry smiled. "Mr. Duham, you will go first. Once we are done with the issue you chose, we will then go with an issue that Coles chooses and that will continue until this debate ends." With that, both men took their podiums as Barry readied himself. He knew Coles was going to come at him with Apartheid, so he decided to hit first with Voting Rights.

"So, the issue I think should be covered first in this debate is the issue of voting rights, because it is a major issue near and dear to both me and Mr. Coles given our racial heritage. Is that alright with you, Aaron?" He looked to his opponent who waved a go ahead. Barry smiled, perhaps this will be a fun little exercise for them both. "So, the issue of American voting rights has two origins, or three. There's the first origin of no taxation without representation, the second origin of universal white male suffrage, and then voting rights for African Americans and other minority groups and women. Now, why I am having voting rights be a debate topic here is not on any of those issues, as I think good has come from all three. What I wish to debate on, however, is the idea of the uneducated voting being more harmful to a democracy than a well-informed one and that voting laws, by nature, aren't anti-democratic and racist and are, in fact, very much the opposite. A voter who is uninformed on their incumbents and the government are a greater danger then those who are for uninformed voters will support anyone based on knowing their name and seeing the word incumbent on the ballot. Uninformed voters will allow for a terrible politician to be elected simply because they remember the person's name due to the ads they've seen, even if the politician doesn't align with their views at all. Then, when it comes to race, I believe it was a good thing that the polling tax and the regular voter comprehension tests being abolished were a good thing because it allowed for minorities and other disaffected groups to vote. However, that is not to say that the idea behind these laws are wrong. A flat poll tax with an escalating crash that is small and relatively inexpensive can generate massive revenue for the federal government while allowing for all citizens to vote and the re-introduction of a fairer voter comprehension test that have questions at a high school level with any of the extremely difficult questions for the old test. Finally, the institution of a voting guide system that will help a voter see what candidate aligns the most with their values and ideas. Also, the abolition of Section II of the Voting Rights Act will stop diversity districts and prevent the potential contradiction on if whites will get a majority white district should they ever become a minority in a state and prevent hyper gerrymandering." With that, Barry closed off his initial argument and motioned for Aaron to respond.

"First, let me thank Mr. Dunham for agreeing to this debate. Debate is a natural thing and should be encouraged more to allow for young minds such as us to encounter opposing views so that we can grow and expand our viewpoints and also challenge ourselves. Now, onto the response to his answer. Mr. Dunham, you say that a flat poll tax, new and fairer voter comprehension test, voting guide, and abolition of Section II will make for a better democracy and voting populace. I ask you this, what is a proper flat polling tax to be made? What may be inexpensive for one person is extremely expensive to another depending on how high the flat tax is and there may be a point where people are disenfranchised from voting due to how expensive it is. For a voter's comprehension test, what you are suggesting seems like a great idea on paper but leaving such a law to the states could lead to different states and areas implementing different tests that vary on fairness and then that is to not account for those who dropped out of school for family or personal reasons which could seriously hamper a potential voter's ability to answer said comprehension test or have the necessary education level to answer said questions. With a voting guide for voters, while it seems like another good idea, the idea of a government database taking into account the voting stances of every person is something that is rife to be abused by the government and become an authoritarian policy that can be used to force voters to vote a certain way. Finally, your last point on how Section II is inherently contradictory is a smart statement but it ignores the point that whites becoming a minority in any state is a statistical impossibility and reeks of far right, racist conspiracies." Barry smiled and gave a small laugh before he gave his answer.

"Let me respond to the first part of your debate answer and go down them each one by one. First, the flat poll tax I want to introduce is small, anywhere between $2.50-$5, affordable to most people. If you know anyone who can't afford such a small flat tax to vote, then that means they either aren't interested in voting or are not an actively contributing member to this society. Second, let's cover voter comprehension. If you want it to be fairer, let's have it be a federal law with unchanging and permanent federal regulation and put the comprehension test at least a fifth grade comprehension level with fifth grade level questions and these issued by the federal government outright and that if any place tries to change it, we get rid of it. Then there's also the voting guide, which will..." And the debate continued for a while longer as both Dunham and Coles bounced their arguments off one another. The rest of voting rights went by as expected with Dunham supporting the more hardline right wing ideas with modifications while Coles continuously brought up the liberal viewpoints of how any type of voting laws were racist and that they inherently disenfranchised minorities and lower income citizens from voting. When Apartheid came up, Dunham argued how the ANC was ran by racial Marxists and that they were mostly uneducated which meant that if they were to ever gain power, within a generation, South Africa will be ran by communists who cares less about the nation and more about enriching themselves and their own race who have no actual education while Coles stated that Apartheid, as a system of evil, must be abolished, which Dunham didn't argue against, before going on to say that if the ANC turns out so horrible, then they will naturally be booted from power only for Dunham to counter with the potential idea of buying votes and voter intimidation to win elections. On taxes, there was general agreement on raising taxes on the higher classes, closing the loopholes, simplifying the tax code, and cutting taxes for the lower classes, but the real argument was how high with Coles arguing for a upper class tax rate of 67 % while Dunham argued for a tax rate at the highest possible level the Laffer Curve would allow. On Healthcare, Coles would argue for Universal Healthcare and how popular the idea was, citing that cutting and dramatically lowering the military budget would allow for the United States government to pay for it while Dunham responded that Universal Healthcare was far more unpopular than it seemed and that the populace wanted catastrophic coverage for those who absolutely can't afford the hospital bills for surgery or for proper treatment. On Iran, it was generally agreed between both men that the United States should stay out of the conflict but for different reasons, with Coles arguing that by intervening, the United States is only prolonging the suffering of the Iranian people when the DPRI will likely collapse on its own even with Soviet support while Dunham argued that the United States was not properly vetting who they were supporting in the Iranian Mujahadeen, being between the Jngujwaan/Dansh Amwzan (Meaning Warriors/Students), who was the Shia Islamist Faction led primarily by Mohsen Rezaee, and the Azada Khwahan (Meaning Liberators), who was the merged faction of Royalists and Republicans primarily led by Amir Hossein Rabii who debated on either a royal restoration or complete democratic overhaul of Iran, with the improper vetting of these factions meaning that a civil war following the eventual overthrow of Tudeh was inevitable unless one faction became the overwhelmingly dominant force in the anti-Tudeh movement.

On Infrastructure, Dunham argued for an opening of empty federal land, a national beautification program, a rebuilding of roads, airports, ports, and railroads through having the government work with private businesses while Coles argued a great confiscation of wealth to be used for the nation's crumbling infrastructure even though Dunham argued that it would not pay for the work that was needed. Finally, on foreign policy, Coles argued that the United States of America should be the international defender of peace and liberty and the spreader of democracy for the rights of all citizens internationally while Dunham argued that America interfering in so many countries will spread its resources thin and only increase laziness in government and resentment in the countries America is involved in, along with forcing NATO members to pay more than 2 % of their GDP to national defense to ensure the United States does not get left footing the bill. When the debate ended, both men shook one another's hand and walked away, a smile on their faces as the debate had allowed them to develop their ideas further and gave them a way to speak going forward. Dunham knew that this debate would be important and now, he was ready for what came next in his life.
And there, all caught up on this TL. Feel free to give thoughts for what the TL looks like down below. Who knows, I might rewrite the debate and have a longer transcript of it when I'm not so tired, overworked, and actually wanna do it, lol. Til next time.

[Steve from Lambeth]

Can you PLEASE make that image of Harvey Mansfield a bit smaller? It makes you have to scroll if you actually want to read any of the text on this page and, to make matters worse, it's literally a jumpscare at its current size.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Can you PLEASE make that image of Harvey Mansfield a bit smaller? It makes you have to scroll if you actually want to read any of the text on this page and, to make matters worse, it's literally a jumpscare at its current size.

Thing is I don't know how to do that. If you do, please let me know and I will try to fix it.

[Cooper For Veep, I Guess]

Code:

[img width=304]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Harvey_Mansfield_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg[/img]

Here's the same picture, but 1/7th of the size.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Thanks.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Can you PLEASE make that image of Harvey Mansfield a bit smaller? It makes you have to scroll if you actually want to read any of the text on this page and, to make matters worse, it's literally a jumpscare at its current size.

alright, its fixed now. Hopefully it works better and allows for better TL reading now.

[Prez_zf]

Super cursed already!

[Huey Long is a Republican]

Super cursed already!

I will take that as a compliment!

[Huey Long is a Republican]

"Why Immigration is a danger to the United States & How to Fix it" Essay by Barry Harrison Dunham (1982)

"...On the right side of the political aisle, the whole focus is not on society but rather economics. It is in the view of this author that this is the wrong way to look at politics and the issue. Yes, the economy is important and the battle between Capitalism and Communism even more so, but day by day, it seems like the communist bloc is burning itself out as their economies stagnate, their governments fall to infighting and corruption, and their militaries crumble in forever wars. In order to beat Communism, we don't have to do much of anything now, we can just wait for the whole structure, rotten from the start, to finally collapse in on itself while we promote our capitalist values. No, the american right must now shift focus to culture. President-elect Reagan has been given a mandate to be President and while appointment of Phyllis Schlaffy to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of retiring Justice Potter Stewart last year was a great move, the moves he has taken ever since has proven to me that he is a rather easy figure to dupe, for he has left behind his culture warrior days and proposals to instead be a war hawk libertarian. The biggest void in American politics at this very moment is to the right of President Reagan and I earnestly hope someone will take it in the next decade.

When the cold war is finished, the right must immediately pivot to going into culture once more. We can adopt some ideas of the left on fiscal issues and become economically populist, which is what the majority of the population is. By focusing on cultural issues, the right will be hitting on the one thing that really gets our supporters motivated, social issues. Social issues are the issues that shape society, shape a person's day to day life, and determine the life, and death, of a country from its culture. And above abortion, above religion, above all the others social issues that can be solved by the stroke of a pen or a legal decision, immigration will be the issue that will be the most important of them all. The reason for this is that ever since the passing of the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, immigration has become a net negative as chain migration, also known as family based migration, causing a surge of immigration into the United States from the third world looking to abuse our government welfare services due to the fact that one immigrant has the potential domino effect of bringing in hundreds of immigrants with them due to the fact they are related by blood and then they will use the excuse that any child born on American soil is American due to archaic Reconstruction era amendments passed to ensure newly freed slaves were citizens and no one else. While many would claim it is not as big an issue now, in future decades, there will be waves of immigrants coming in from the third world, be it Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, or Africa. When they come here, our crime rate will skyrocket, our cities will become less clean, our schools less friendly and welcoming, american workers will lose their jobs, wages will be lowered drastically, and our nation less united.

What is one way to end this crisis? The first major fix will be the complete and total repeal of Hart-Cellar when the power is obtained. That will be followed up by the immediate deportation of any and all criminal migrant or migrant that was granted amnesty despite their criminal actions. Then follow that up with a deportation of asylum seekers from countries that have, for the most part, stabilized from whatever crisis they were fleeing from. From there, introduce a strict and stern but simple assimilation program that ensures the new immigrants are no longer Mexican or Greek or Finish or Egyptian or Brazilian or Chinese but are instead American and recognize that as their new culture alone. Furthermore, birthright citizenship must be revoked. It was a good idea when it was first introduced and it did its job but it is no longer needed and must be replaced by a Right of Blood citizenship law. Finally, immigration quotas and periodic moratoriums must become permanent to allow for smaller numbers of migrants to come in and to allow for a strong assimilation period to take place..."


(Immigration would be a major issue that Dunham would always focus on throughout his life)
Source : https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1983/11/immigration/305928/

"Like always, Dunham had believed that immigration was the best choice for his entrance paper into Yale Law School. A risky choice considering more and more as of the time, Yale was swinging towards the liberal side of the aisle. Despite that, the future president remained undaunted, pushing forward his essay as one of his best works. A fifteen page essay with a nine page bibliography citing sources for his statistics, quotations, and numbers. While the admission board was slightly adverse to allowing such a radical student onto their campus, considering they had taken note of the 1981 debate he had and how radical and far to the right he had shown himself being during it. Despite that, however, it was decided to still take him if only to see if they could try and mold him into a proper young man and get him to abandon his far right views." - The Seventh Party System (2008-2050), from Dunham to Doyle by Stephen L. Pollard, American Historian, Author, and Political Analyst, published in 2067.
"The African National Congress : South Africa's Secret Enemy" - Essay by Barry Harrison Dunham, published in a local newspaper and later circulated nationally (1983)

"...Founded in 1912 to fight for the rights of native South Africans and try to represent them in what was then known as the Union of South Africa, the African National Congress is seen as the main body of opposition to the ruling National Party that has been at the head of the nation since 1948 and has overseen the institution of Apartheid. I will not be one to defend the system of Apartheid, for it is a morally wrong, reprehensible, and evil system that brings back memories of what the National Socialists would do in Germany and the era when Jim Crow ruled over the American South. However, I will be discussing why the African National Congress is not nor should it be the party that leads South Africa out of the darkness of Apartheid, at least in its current iteration of being led by Nelson Mandela and his ilk. Mandela, and his ilk, for all intents and purposes, are racially motivated Marxist terrorists and while they may say they're fighting for an equal South Africa, it would be wise to remember the Marxists in Spain said the same thing, the Soviets said the same thing, the Maoists in China said the same thing, Tudeh said the same thing, the Marxists in Greece said the same thing, the Marxists in Cuba said the same thing, and Robert Mugabe is saying the same thing. That last one is important because he has all the makings of a tyrant and his example is what South Africa is likely to go down if the African National Congress ever takes control.

Yes, when Apartheid ends, Mandela and his second in command are likely to become the leaders of South Africa, they will likely be well educated enough to help the country. However, when their tenures end, what will the ANC be left with? Uneducated militants and activists who left education of any kind to militarily fight Apartheid and not seek education and use that education to prepare themselves for higher office while peacefully protesting, as was done in the American South. The African National Congress will become so rife with incompetence and corruption that the idea of it as a political party will be synonymous with the term corruption but it will remain in power due to it being viewed as the heroic party that ended Apartheid. Imagine a South Africa with power outages, horrific infrastructure, high inflation, skyrocketing crime, terrible race relations, and so much more and that is the future that is likely to come if the ANC, in its current iteration, ever took power..."


(Barry Dunham was never a fan of the African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela nor of his movement and party and would continue to not be a fan of them for his entire life)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Soviet_Union_1988_CPA_5971_stamp_(70th_birth_anniversary_of_Nelson_Mandela,_South_African_anti-apartheid_revolutionary,_political_leader_and_philanthropist).jpg
Four years ago, Barry Harrison Dunham, a mixed boy from rural northern South Carolina had come to Columbia at the age of eighteen. After four years, he had graduated from Columbia with degrees in several fields, mainly business, politics, economics, and international relations. However, he still wanted one more degree before he felt like he could have a decent record to run for Politics. And that's why, immediately after his graduation from Columbia, he set his sights on Yale, one of the preeminent schools of law in the country. If he got a Juris Degree from there, he could use that to springboard into becoming a lawyer and political operative and candidate in the future. The young man's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knocking on his door. He looked to the door way, now empty, and saw Professor Huntington standing right there. "Professor! What are you doing here?"

"I want to see my greatest student off. For the last four years, you have been excellent to teach and excelled beyond my wildest imaginations. I can only imagine how Yale will handle a brilliant young mind such as yourself." Barry flushed slightly at the compliments. Even after all these years, he was still not used to being seen by his tutors (Sowell, Mansfield, Fukuyama, and Huntington) as on par with them intellectually. James raised him to be humble after all.

"Thanks, sir."

"Don't mention it. Columbia will be a lot worse with you gone. Might just leave." After a brief moment of thinking, Huntington glanced at him. "When you get to Yale, look for a professor named Guido Calabresi. He's taught a lot of people in law and you'd be wise to learn under him. Me and the others put in a good word for you, Barry. Just please don't embarrass us." A nod and the professor turned to leave before stopping. "Oh, and I finally got around to reading that essay you wrote on South Africa. It was...interesting, to say the least. Definitely food for thought on if the ANC is as good as they portray themselves as. But I know you're seeking a political career, so word of advice, avoid publishing stuff like that in the future. It will seriously harm your chances because your opponents to latch onto it and use it against you."

"Understood sir. Thank you." With that, the professor was and after a few more minutes of packing, so was Dunham. His biological father and his step-father were both dead, his mom was off in some third world country, and his grandparents were hanging out in Kansas. Barry had been independent for the last few years of his life and now he was going to make the step into law and potentially even political activism that was greater than what he did now. He could only dream of what awaited him in the future.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

(In the Shadow of Giants) :


Source : https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/striving-golden-age-historical-look-yale-law-school
(Yale Law School, Where Dunham would enter for his Juris Degree)

As soon as Barry got out of the cab with his luggage, he could already feel the air of prestige and importance of the institution before him. This was where so many American figures in law and politics had learned, be it President Ford, Vice President Bush, John C. Calhoun, President Taft, Justices Brewer, Davis, White, Stewart, and Senator Buckley along with so many more. He felt so honored to be in the same place these great men stood and learned and now, here he was, coming to get a law degree of his own before he would enter the practice. Who knows, if he landed a major success here, he could wind up arguing a major supreme court case in the future and that could really boost his chances for going forward in American politics. Taking in a breath to steel his nerves,he began to walk towards where his dorm apparently was. It didn't take long to reach and after he put everything up there, he began walking to class. As he walked onwards, he noticed the rather odd stares he was getting from the other students on the campus. He couldn't exactly blame them though, it was rare to see African Americans go to Yale and not a historic black college for a higher education of some kind. Barry, however, always found those lacking, a bit dull, and internally racist to the point of harming their own students. He wanted to change the norm and bring change not just to his community, but to everyone.

It wasn't long until he reached the classroom of his professor for the next few years, Guido Calabresi. Much like when he entered Professor Huntington's Classroom four years ago, it was quiet and little students were in the room. but whereas that room was large, this was small and sort of cramped. Barry guessed it made sense as he took his seat, not many students got to learn from man such as Calabresi's stature and less Yale students were interested in Law anyway. He noticed that, at most, there were only a few students in the room, couldn't be more than 14. Still, it was pretty astounding that when he took his seat, every student there took a unique interest in him because of his skin complexion and he even heard a few whispers of "What's he doing here?" and "Isn't he that star student from Columbia?". That last one made Barry smile a little as someone knew about him from his Columbia days.

The talk quickly simmered down into quiet as professor Celebresi entered the room and smiled at the students before him,with a sparkle in his eyes as he saw the young Barry seated there. "Good afternoon, everyone. I am Guido Celebresi and I will be your professor for your time here as a student. I will be teaching you all about law and legal theory, from civil and human rights to constitutional and financial law. By the end of these classes, you will be experts in all law and will know the ins and outs of all that you will need." And with that, the lesson began. Dunham would ask a few questions here and there on certain things, but they were relatively minor law things that not many people cared for. At the end of the first lessons, he was exhausted yet energized, amazed at what he had learned but also bored to tears from all the legal jargon. How anybody put up with it for an extended period of time, he had no idea. He was going to crash the moment he saw his bed until he saw a package on it rather neatly. On top of it was an envelope and when he picked it up, and opened, he was stunned at what he saw.

To : Barry Harrison Dunham

From : Patrick Joseph Buchanan

I heard about you at Columbia and heard you were going to be attending Yale for the next few years. You quite the intelligent and eloquent man and ideas you have are amazingly well thought out for someone your age. I'd love to talk with you some more.

And when he opened the package, he saw it was a bunch of things that showed that this was Patrick J. Buchanan, who worked in the Nixon and Ford White Houses and was a host of Crossfire. To Dunham, this moment meant everything as it meant that, if he made a good impression on Dunham, he could meet with some other high up politicians! God, what did he do to deserve this level of luck?