Ruins Revisited: The Robert Taft Story
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The really minor candidates like the Socialist Labor Party or whatnot will probably come later.
As for the People's Coalition... well, you'll see.
Indeed; they first came into being in 1979 following a Procedure Selection committee formed in 1976 and reported in 1978. In 1952 IOTL, Smithers did call for a "committee presided over by an English judge or QC… who could make an extensive enquiry into communist activities and report to [the prime minister]".
I'm guessing that LBJ either ends up breaking into the run-of or come close to it.
Oh. Well, even then, the issue is that the committee name was clearly based on HUAC, which never existed ITTL except maybe against Pelley supporters.
Therein lies the difficult question on the matter; in 1947 Smithers did ask in parliament whether the PM (Clement Attlee) would "set up a committee of this House on Un-British Activities, on the lines of the Committee on Un-American activities", however that is a different idea to his later proposal based on a committee being headed by an independent figure of a judge or QC. A select committee, after all, is responsible for overseeing the work of government departments & agencies and is composed of members of parliament itself.
While I initially hoped that Landon would win the Republican nomination and election in 1944. I know think that it is better that Taft won, because I never really realised how far to the left the US went in this timeline and a centrist like Landon would simply not be enough to counter it. He probably would not even move against the communists the same way Taft did. Let's just hope Taft wins against Taylor and doesn't get rid of fusion voting afterwards, because fusion imo makes the country a lot more democratic.
The thing is the committee that went after Pelley supporters, the Internal Security Committee, is now the center of the anti-British Second Silver Scare activities, so it would be weird to name it after that. I figured maybe Smithers could just make it up on his own.
I find this rather funny given the rampant theories in OTL that Edward was homosexual and his thrice-divorced, American wife was a beard and also a means to the end to get him off the throne he didn't want to be on ASAP.
Unfortunately for Edward, he never happened to meet a thrice-divorced American potential wife, so he's busy drowning his hatred of his job in alcohol and sex (of whichever type) and being a really bad influence on his nephew.
Of course, propaganda hides all this from the people, who just see a very popular and outgoing king, albeit one who has kept up the really jingoist and militaristic type speeches for longer after the war's end than might be expected.
The Wildcard
The Wildcard
The People's Coalition was not a formal party. They did not have any formal organization in most non-Southern states.
Historian Marsha Spielberg, PhD: "I think initially Lyndon Johnson did not intend his coalition to have a Presidential candidate, and in fact for it to stay focused on local issues. Perhaps he intended for them to endorse the Progressive nominee. However, it soon became clear that the Presidential election would suck up all of the oxygen in the room, and that without a candidate their base would not turn out."
Historian Kyle Anderson, PhD: "The People's Coalition could not endorse Taylor; he was too radical on civil rights. They could not endorse Taft, who was too far to the right. I think in some alternate universe where Elmer Benson had won the Progressive nomination, the PC would have joined a moderate Progressive ticket. But they were stuck."
Lyndon Johnson
Because the People's Coalition did not exist in most of the country, Johnson needed to find someone of the stature to run as an independent nationwide. He needed someone with name recognition and a prominent position, but who could appeal to moderate Progressives, Southerners, rural voters, and hopefully a few moderate Republicans.
Patton biographer Jim Ducane: "The first time Johnson approached from General George S. Patton to run, he was turned down. Patton had angrily retired in 1947 after being removed from command of the occupation of Peru by George Marshall. Without the military, he felt lost and depressed. But he didn't want to win a campaign without a good chance of winning, and Johnson couldn't promise him a good shot at the runoff."
Dejected, Johnson settled on running recently elected Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver as the candidate for a new nationwide party. Privately, he thought it would be a disaster.
An actually pretty good impression of Lyndon Johnson reading a letter: "I don't expect we'll crack ten percent - maybe not even five. This could be the beginning of the end for the People's Coalition and the white Southern left."
Then he was contacted by Patton again.
Jim Ducane: "Patton had a grudge against Taft, and Chairman Marshall. He was opposed to the isolationist policy of Taft, but most of all, he seemed to not understand how to live at peace. His diaries expressed a desperation to be in command again. A presidential campaign would be at least a distraction - and possibly the chance to command something even greater than an army. Do I think he knew what he was getting into? No. At that dark point in his life, I don't think he cared."
Video footage of General Patton: "You think that the folks in Washington care about our veterans? You think they care about the cost we had to pay for the war? Where's Sanchez? Where's Vargas? Did we win? No, we made peace with the devil, and decided to make trade deals instead. What even are these deals? Selling out American workers? They're probably creating more inflation. Listen, you come home from work, you have to support yourself, your wife, your son who lost his legs and can't work, you go to the store and the price is twice as much as it was before the war. What did we win? Where is our money going?"
The initial reaction across the political sphere was mockery.
Man impersonating Robert Taft, poorly: "I cannot believe that this silly commander will garner even a tenth of the vote. His policies are platitudes and his experience irrelevant."
Retired Journalist Simon T. Miller: "We all thought it was some weird joke. But the hero of Peru began to gather a bigger and bigger following with increasingly enthusiastic crowds at each speech he gave."
Video footage of General Patton: "The left can only look at Britain and say, 'stop the fascists!' The right can only look at Russia and say, 'stop the commies.' I can see the whole battlefield, and I say, stop everyone who messes with the USA, and send them all to hell if they try!"
Jim Ducane: "Patton's speeches were mocked in the press, mocked by the other politicians. But unlike Wherry, he didn't flounder when mocked, but fought on. The crowds in person were wildly enthusiastic. And his opponents didn't realize Americans watching on their new TVs were at first entertained by Patton, and then sympathetic to his arguments."
Martin Luther King: "When Patton started at ten percent, Lyndon Johnson was satisfied. When he rose in the polls to the high teens, Johnson was ecstatic. When Patton began polling well into the twenties, Johnson began to worry that he'd opened Pandora's box."
Denouncing a political class tied up in Supreme Court battles, years of gridlock, and increasing ideological extremism, Patton's no-nonsense heavily patriotic centrist populism gained increasing momentum. Within months, the polls showed a close three-way race. A run-off seemed assured, and the two spots in it were anyone's game.
Okay is it want an egotiscal man like Patton to actually get to the Presidency? Because damnit I want old blood and guts in the oval office
Oh boy. Tri-polarization here we come. Gotta say this isn't the form I expected the political center to take, but I'm here for it. Hopefully the power of Left Unity can prevail, but I'm not entirely optimistic. There's definitely at least going to be a runoff.
So the political extremist are established and well respected politicians with good reputations for personal integrity and decorum whilst the centrist is an unhinged demagogic outsider with an aggressive foreign policy and a domestic policy full of racist dogwhistles.
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