Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VII (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

King of the Uzbeks

King of the Uzbeks

King of the Uzbeks said:
Light of the Nation - Part 13: Galloping Towards Victory

The 1984 election started close. Vice President Jimmy Carter facing off against Senator Bob Dole, it was anyone’s game. But it would not stay that way for long. Several factors were at play. Firstly the Mondale connection buoyed Carter more than was expected. As the economy began to grow, and Mondale’s term wound up, many Americans liked the President more than ever. And that quite naturally led to folks looking at his Vice President favorably.

Carter may not have enamored Democratic elites, but he was acceptable and benefited from a strong apparatus. Meanwhile, Dole saw campaign staff turnover quickly, the campaign muddled. He lurched from a Southern strategy to a Northern strategy and back again. The initial plan of “make the election a referendum about Mondale” had to be scuttled. Ad buys did do some work portraying Carter as weak, but Dole was an imperfect messenger. He could play the stable statesmen, but he wasn’t exactly a tough macho man.

Carter meanwhile, benefited from a clearer campaign vision. Let Jimmy by Jimmy in the South, and let Jimmy be Mondale’s Vice President in the North. It was a strategy that left the west and plains adrift. But it was a sound one. The debates, a rematch of the ‘76 VP debates, were something of a draw. Dole proved less plodding than expected, and got off a few “zingers.” But Carter acquitted himself well against all attacks. A similar dynamic played out in the VP debates.

The end result was a solid popular vote performance, accompanied by a stirring electoral college one. Carter took the East by storm and Dole the West. They split the Northeast, but Carter took the big prizes. And he ran away with the South and Midwest.

For the first time since 1948, the Democrats had managed three successive terms in office.

For the first time since 1836, a Vice President had been elected directly to the Presidency.

For the first time ever, a woman would be Vice President.

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Light of the Nations - Part 14: The Whirlwind

Jimmy Carter entered office aiming to put his own spin on Mondale’s foreign policy. Maintain an active American Foreign policy, but avoid the sort of quagmires that had dogged Presidents in Vietnam.

Carter worked to rebuild the détente that had been broken by the Iranian Civil War. He was helped by the fact that said war was beginning to stabilize in favor of American backed factions. Battered by the Pre-War Military and American weapons the Left was falling back. The American backed National Salvation Front was a pretty standard military junta, but portrayed itself as Islamist, Shia. This gave it trappings of legitimacy and legitimate popular support that the Shah had lacked, allowing the forces on the right to advance again. Most surprising was the response from Iraq, where despite linguistic and cultural differences, thousands of young Shiite men flocked across the border to support their cause, getting away from the secular but Sunni Hussein.

The Reds were not gone yet, but Moscow was willing to draw back, which Carter appreciated and reciprocated. He used more human rights based approach to diplomacy. Where Mondale had been hesitant about some allies, Carter was willing to lean on them to reduce oppression except when he wasn’t. Take, for example, Somalia. Siad Barre had taken power in a military coup in 1969, and embraced a Marxist dictatorship. Until he picked a fight with Ethiopia’s similarly Marxist Junta and the Soviets backed Addis Ababa. Barre looked around for a new patron the US was the only real alternative. Dropping the “People’s” from the Republic of Somalia, Barre embraced America. And fearful of a Communist Horn, America embraced him. For the average Somali though, things didn’t change much. Services were privatized, but they were still conscripted and lacked basic rights. Barre reasserted his shaky control of the country brutally, using American weapons to near-genocidal effect in Somaliland.

Carter’s crowning achievement were the Camp David accords. There he brought together two sides with a bloody history of war and partition. Despite religious differences, he hammered out an agreement.

That’s right, he started the Indio-Pakistani Peace Process.

It was said only Nixon could go to China. Carter needed two. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan had come to power in a military coup, and had been aggressive in Islamization. To say nothing of his Nuclear ambitions and sly diplomacy. He was a dictator no doubt. Indira Gandhi’s status was murkier. She had remained in power and had a habit of using the arm of the state to beat down opponents. But her second time in office had never reached the hights of The Emergency, although it seemed unlikely anything but death would stop her. Zia was facing refugee crisis from Afghanistan and Iran, which being a military hammer he saw as a nail, thus needing a way to lessen the threat from the East. Gandhi was increasingly concerned with her legacy and saw talks as a way to gain domestic leverage.

It was Carter who helped turn these cynical, situational, peace initiatives into something more tangible and long lasting. Working non-stop at the Presidential retreat in Maryland, Carter crafted an agreement featuring arms reduction (nuclear and conventional), a hotline etc. The trickiest element was, unsurprisingly, Kashmir. The Line of Control was formalized, but Pakistan was recognized as having an “exceptional interest” in Kashmir, helping to write a new state constitution enshrining power sharing and eased border crossings. No deal is perfect, and this one faced backlash in both countries. Zia faced attacks for giving up without a fight and prioritizing peace in Kashmir for national honor. Gandhi was seen as selling out India’s military and sovereignty for vague promises.

Yet the General had military and Islamic credentials to back him up (and a secret police) while the Prime Minister had the memory of ‘71. As the countries got used to peace they found it agreeable and the thaw held. Pakistan would get the bomb, but never feel the need to test it. India and Pakistan were never going to be friends, but perhaps they could be rivals in Cricket without the threat of nuclear war. And Jimmy Carter, while he did not share Zia and Gandhi’s Nobel Peace Prize, deserves plenty of credit for that.

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Jett-Power

Jett-Power

KolyenuKS said:
an alt-civil war happened, with virginia remaining in the union. slavery was still abolished though
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Why is Dakota not split in two and still has Wyoming? What is the name of the fusion between Utah and Nevada? When were Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico admitted into the Union? Is DC a state?
 
KolyenuKS

KolyenuKS

Jett-Power said:
Why is Dakota not split in two and still has Wyoming? What is the name of the fusion between Utah and Nevada? When were Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico admitted into the Union? Is DC a state?
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- because it was funny at the moment; in canon, the in power toleration party didnt want the anti-masons to have 6 senate seats when they could have 2
- Utah
- late 1800s
- no
 
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