America's Funniest President: Mo Udall Presidency & Beyond
- Thread starter CountDVB
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Nope. Though because it’s not the neoliberal economic wave, I imagine it would be less a burst and more a usual recession, like a balloon deflating. So a definite slow down, but not a burst I think
WanderingProfessor
Banned
Japan will be luckier without the Lost Decade coupled with the anime boom.
Likely, though which ones? Meanwhile, I am not too sure on it given economics and so on. Like it’s gonna hurt, but not be brutal. The rampant corruption will still be there as a cause
It’ll definitely be a painful few years, but not as bad as OTL, to be sure. The rampant corruption and other preexisting issues will definitely cause pain, but not as much and I think the government may be able to do more to help. I’m not well-versed in economics to really understand the whole convoluted system, but I imagine it’s not gonna be as bad in the whole.
Well the biggest one was Recruit which was a massive insider trading scandal involving mostly everyone in the LDP. The Segawa express where Noboru Takeshita and Shin Kanemaru used the above company as a middle man for the mafia to kill (figuratively) some Extreme right wingers “praise killing” Takeshita, he turned against his mentor Kankuei Tanaka in the middle 1980s.
There is a lot of scandals.
Holy shit that’s nuts. Yeah o.0
Japan will be feeling the pain, but it’s not gonna be as bad as OTL I would imagine, if because without the same level of international madness
But yeah, will mention some of the trends in a later update regarding the early 1990s, and I appreciate y’all’s interest :3
Praise killing sounds extereme but it is usuing way too many compliments towards a person.
No worries, you aren't. I do appreciate the questions and input, especially since it helps if I missed something.
Unsure. He started out as a moderate early in his career surprisingly.
It's possible that he may maintain that perspective, especially since it would be advantangeous to his career. Unsure if he would make it into the Senate in Kentucky, but he may become a Republican House Rep of Kentucky.
Summer 1992: A New South Africa
Summer 1992: A New South Africa
Nelson Mandela, the 1st President of South Africa
Nelson Mandela, the 1st President of South Africa
Spring was quite an eventful period and summer would not stop there. The formation of the European Union heralded a new possibility moving forward with Europe, especially with the discussions over the fate of NATO. After all, was such a defense treaty really needed now that the Cold War was over? At the same time, it was not exactly a period of peace as seen with the Yugoslavic Wars. Additionally, the preexisting framework was quite convienent in organizing other matters and discarding the totality of it would seem rather impractical. There was also the discussions with the nations of the former Warsaw Pact, which have showned a desire to join NATO, especially as some were not that trusting of the SUSR, citing historical treatment of Russia with them as well as if it could last outside of Gorbachev's time in power. To that end, an old idea was being brought back over in Poland and being discussed with some of the other nations to serve as a counterpart to NATO and or their successor with the option that the two organizations can easily cooperate should the need arise, with some proposing the Western European Union should absorb NATO and take its place, or at least merge aspects of the two organizations into a new one to take the place of NATO.
Other issues were also requiring alot of diplomacy and discussion. The murder of Amha Selassie I would cause a surge in popularity for the monarchist movement in Ethiopia and the EPRDF was now on the backfoot. They let the king in as a sign of goodwill as not doing so would've spurred some more frustration on the populace. However, it seemed they were now in trouble regardless of their decision. Attempts at clamping down on it were making the people angrier and the coalition of parties making up the EPRDF was starting to crack, not just fighting with each other, but within the parties and the support, including the EPLF beginning to have problems and cracking. More support would go over to Moa Anbessa with the deceased king growing to become a martyr of sorts and spurring the hopes of a return to greatness over for Ethiopia. Other conflicts were also in the region, such as Somaliland trying to be recognized for its independence while at the same time willing to reconcile with Somalia and have a federal system of government. Speaking of delegating rule, the United Kingdom would see some fresh conflict after the election. Despite the Labor Party capturing more seats through the promotion of bringing Scottish home rule, their waffling with the European Union did cost them from getting the majority and the Liberal Democrats remained with the Tories. However, this did not stop momentum for a Scottish devolution referendum and in fact, some were wondering on how prominent the power balance of the LibDems were, especially with the Scottish there. Some even were wondering what would happen if the Tories kept putting it off.
News kept coming across the world. Sweden would host the UEFA Euro 1992 football tournament, which is won by Denmark. Krifast, a new road system connecting Kristiansund to the mainland of Norway, opens while Hurricane Andrew attains Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale and, at 2100 UTC, hits Eleuthera and the Bahama Banks. [1] The 1992 Summer Olympics would be the first Olympics since the Cold War. It would also show that the SUSR, being a confederated republic, meant that each one of its current constinuent nations, that being Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrghzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan would send their own teams though while most have designed their own flags, a SUSR flag has not yet been decided, resulting in a second flag being white with SUSR written on it. Khalistan and Jerusalem would also be newcomers over for the Olympics of 1992 held over in Spain, with the next one being held over in Atlanta in 1996. It would also be the last time that Czechoslovakia would be competing as the Slovak National Council declares Slovakia an independent country, signaling the breakup of Czechoslovakia, though this would not stop positive relations with the competition. Speaking of Russia, some surprising news would come on how the two skeletons that were excavated in Yekaterinburg are would be identified as none other than Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra. Georgia, formerly part of the USSR, would formalize its freedom, even renaming itself Kartvelia (referring to its endonym Sakartvelo) and join the United Nations, only to deal with Abkhazia trying to declare its independence and increasing the strife there. [1] Iran itself has noted that it would likely begin plans to try and bring a peaceful solution to the conflict, but aware that it may not go. Meanwhile, Iran's concerns over Azerbaijan have been justifed as Abulfaz Elchibey would become the new president of Azerbaijan and begin seeking closer relations with Turkey, further causing trouble with Armenia and further damaging Iranian-Azerbaijani relations due to his pan-Turkist views (which were surprisingly not popular over in the Turkic SUSR natons) and anti-Iranian views along with Azerbaijani irredentism.
However, perhaps the biggest bit of news came over from South Africa. The elections would finally be held, this time under the new system. Beyond the end of apartheid and the allowance of the ANC, there was also on shifting how matters were done to create the office of presidency. Despite the concerns on how well the ANC would do, the support from plenty of people across the world, including the United States, would see the ANC claim a majority of the seats, more than 2/3rds of them. The new National Assembly's first act was to elect Nelson Mandela as President, making him the country's first black chief executive. [1] The nation celeberated as Mandela would become president, outlining plans to balance the preexisting liberal system with more socialist-inspired ideals along with various reforms such as massive land reform plans for better representation and the like. Despite some of the troubles, it ws looking that things would be looking up well.
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992
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though I'll admit "Marching Through Kartvelia" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way
Well, Georgia is an exonym from it while natively it is called Sakartvelo, which means "land of Karvelians". Hence why them changing it to be more accurate to "Kartvelia" would be something I think could appear.
1992: An Interview- 20 Years After Watergate
1992: An Interview- 20 Years After Watergate
Few incidents linger in the hearts and minds of Americans as the infamous Watergate scandal. Starting from 1972 and concluding at 1974, it would lead to the resignation of President Nixon and dramatically shakeup the faith Americans had in their government. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual attempts to cover up its involvement in the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C. Watergate Office Building back in June of 1972. After the five perpetrators were arrested, the press and the U.S. Justice Department connected the cash found on them at the time to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. [1] After various investigations and revelations, it would be revealed the Nixon administration's role in trying to cover up the affair and would lead to near-impeachment, only failing because of Nixon resigning beforehand, as they would have been enough votes to impeach him. The whole affair would have qute a profound effect on politics as many believed that the stigma in Ford stung enough for Reagan to squeeze out a victory in the Republican primaries in 1976. After defeating Jimmy Carter in the general election, he would become President and be remembered for for his bad domestic policies and mixed foreign policies, setting up the rise for further New Deal style politicians like Mo Udall and Reubin Askew.
It was now the summer of 1992, 20 years since that break-in and as some people were looking back with newstations reflecting on how much has changed, others went further and planned articles or essays on catching up with what happened. Others believed that this was further spurred on by the passing of former President Mo Udall and presented the need to further find and interview these individuals before they would be lost to time. And perhaps also more into why this all happened. Of course, this was all still rather on the small cale and no one was sure if they would get too far. After all, former President Nixon was still alive and there was still some sentiment of respect against him in that regards. Nonetheless, the interviews could still be gathered and prepared for release later down the line in a few years or so. As people were going around and trying to find some of these figures and hearing what they said. And some had alot to say. While many stood out for one reason or another, one in particular would lay the foundation for upcoming shockwaves and decisions, casting a long and dreadful shadow.
And that one was a man named John Daniel Ehrlichman.
Ehrlichman was the Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs back under Nixon. In fact, he was an important influence on Nixon's domestic policy, coaching him on issues and enlisting his support for environmental initiatives. However, he would also become infamous for another reason. He was a key figure in the events that led to the Watergate break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal. He would ultimately be convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and served a year and a half in prison. [1] Over the past several years or so, he kept mostly his head down though he had alot to say on the subject matter.
During an interview with the journalist Dan Baum, various question came up in comparison to back then and now. And one of those questions would actually be on the War on Drugs. Having been escalated by Nixon, his approach on handling drugs, possession, distribution and so on had been discarded for more reconcilatory responses and treating as an illness rather than criminalizing it. When noting this, Ehrlichman would give a quote to Baum that would reshape the narrative, all with "the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect":
“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” [2]
In fact, when a shocked Baum asked on more on details and how it could be true, Ehrlichman noted to have paused before he merely pointed to the infamous Southern Strategy started by Goldwater and would be continued on in varying forms until 1988, where Anderson left the party as a result of its attempted reusage and the abysmal performance of the Dole/Bush ticket. The authenticity of the quote has remained debatable, especially since ultimately the article that the quote was considered wouldn't be published as is. That being said, it would remain among Baum's mind and before long, the quote would find its way across various papers, especially during the political season. Ehrilichman's name would remain anonymous on the subject matter though the words would remain and find their way across on the political spectrum.Pundits and talk show hosts repeated this in various forms and flavors. The questions and comments would unleash further questions, debates and discussions with the word on the Southern Strategy coming back, the comparisons to how the aggressive stance on the War on Drugs has failed compared to treating it as an illness and of course on the matters of race and so on. Some of the other former staff members and people in there understandably refused to talk about that subject matter, wanting to put it behind them, a sentimentality that was respected. Though it was noted how Nixon himself would be unwilling to speak on the subject matter outside of noting his own hatred for drugs. This also spilled over some of the other unpleasant aspects that would be associated with Nixon and the like, including that Richard Nixon was anti-semetic, with rumors of certain comments spilling over. Perhaps unsurprisingly, African-Americans and American Jews, having long struggled with tense relations that were being smoothed overtime found even more common ground on this and even helped with the growing amicability.
All in the background of the general election.
While the Andrews/Specter ticket itself was not that affected (as they didn't have much of a known stance on this and would note that the evidence on what approach worked better spoke for itself), it served as a fresh coat of distrust, wariness and concern for the Republican Party. Even with it merely beinge hearsay and anecdotal evidence, the preexisting anger that existed was enough for people to take this and add fuel to the fire. After all, many still recalled the lean times from the Reagan era along with the frustration from 12 years of the GOP White House and the change from Eisenhower-inspired conservatism to a new shift in kind, one that became a dead end for the party and one that may have never truly recovered from. People do not like being lied to and the revelations that the people were lied to as a result of political chicanery? Not something to be liked.
Beyond that, the Unizens used it to further promote themselves as a more trustworthy path than the GOP and the Dems did the same though with a step further. Namely in reinvestigating the actual hazard of some of these drugs and further reforms to help people affected by this.
The return of a casting long shadow and that even 20 years later, they were haunted by the ghost of 1960s neoconservatism and its trappings. Some of the younger politicians even expressed concern if the Republican Party could ever shed that image. And even if it did, how could they move forward from it?
An answer to that question would come over in an RNC special guest to speak, the author of the The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russel Kirk.
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[1]- Information and phrasing coming from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
[2]- Information and phrasing coming from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman
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