Although I will say. to draw us back in the direction at least of the era of McGoverning, that Hofstadter's timeless classic The Paranoid Style in American Politics correctly traces many of the cultural roots and enduring tropes of that paranoid style to early 19th century Anti-Popery.
McGoverning
- Thread starter Yes
- Start date
Although I will say. to draw us back in the direction at least of the era of McGoverning, that Hofstadter's timeless classic The Paranoid Style in American Politics correctly traces many of the cultural roots and enduring tropes of that paranoid style to early 19th century Anti-Popery.
Dooes neoliberalism emerge in this timeline later in the 80s and 90s? In OTL, there have been many explanations for the rise of neoliberalism. The inability of the Fordist capital-intensive economic model to survive the 70s supply/oil shocks. Shifting atitudes among business owners with elements of capital hostile to the New Deal allying with the New Right. Post-modernism causing economic issues to take a back seat compared to cultural issues. A combination of all three? What do you think is the most valid theory behind the rise of neoliberalism across not only the US but Western Europe as well? And how is this affected ITL by a more successful Presidency in the turbulent 70s?
Just a remark that is equal parts teaser and fair warning:
The biggest story - to my mind - in the next chapter is not the one you think you see coming.
It's not even, not really, the other one that maybe you think you see coming, either.
I'll leave it at that. Let the wild rumpus start. (But not too wild. We've kept this thread quite intelligent and tidy throughout which is as much or more the work of the Careful Readers than myself. Let's keep that streak.)
The biggest story - to my mind - in the next chapter is not the one you think you see coming.
It's not even, not really, the other one that maybe you think you see coming, either.
I'll leave it at that. Let the wild rumpus start. (But not too wild. We've kept this thread quite intelligent and tidy throughout which is as much or more the work of the Careful Readers than myself. Let's keep that streak.)
Well, any Rinka-equivalent might be included in the first declarative sentence, at any rate.
as an "Everything I Know About American Politics I Learnt From Reading Years Of Lyndon Johnson"* person, I don't know why but I've always had a minor obsession with Minnesota. I guess as someone from across the Atlantic, it's just mildly surreal that there's this big state with very liberal tendencies in the middle of the American Upper Midwest. I've always had a curious fascination with figures like HHH and Fritz and such, so hearing about how the other ADA liberal who was Mayor of Minneapolis is now so prominent in the cabinet leading a new department makes me feel a little joy in my heart.Right. Time for that DoP explainer (which I might also have called "Speaking One's Peace" because see what I ... is this thing on? ...)
The notion of a Department of Peace predates the Constitution: one of the more eclectic, at times eccentric, and interesting Founding Fathers, Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, proposed one during the ferment of ideas that led to the Constitution and the form of federal government it laid out. Rush's vision was a grab-bag of elements that made more sense in its own time than it might to later scholars and interpreters. Rush's vision had significant elements of what we might call a Christian Left spin on the Great Awakening, including the injunction that each house in the United States have written over its doorway in gold letters, "The Son of Man Came Into the World, Not to Destroy Men's Lives, But to Save Them" - but also practical and detailed injunctions to abolish the death penalty and abolish militia laws as part of a demilitarization of Federal Era society.
After the early intellectual and structural tumults of building the republic, Mister Rush's Fancy went the way of Mister Rush himself - to mortality and genteel obscurity outside a few circles in the know. The idea was revived in the wake of the Great War, during the early emergence of women voters and policy-makers as a political force, then again briefly in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (that time at the instigation of a young Jennings Randolph, who remained devoted to the idea through his senatorial career.)
Not long before the POD of this history, at the political tipping point of the Vietnam War as public opinion turned against the conflict, the idea of a Peace Department came around again. Vance Hartke, the liberal Indiana senator and sometime FOG (Friend Of George), put forward in 1969 S. 953, his "Peace Act" bill, while in the House ultraliberal Republican Seymour Halpern of New York filed a companion bill. Hartke's bill had an eclectic group of cosponsors, fourteen total, among them folks like Alan Cranston and Ed Muskie, but also Robert Byrd (urged on by Jennings Randolph) and Daniel Inouye. Halpern's bill had over sixty cosponsors, who ranged from Donald Fraser to Ed Koch and some of Halpern's fellow liberal Republicans like Pete McCloskey.
In both its versions, the Peace Act gave some tangible shape to what a Department of Peace might look like. It directed a DoP to develop "plans, policies, and programs designed to foster peace." It would pull together existing independent outfits in the Executive Branch with a primary or ancillary focus on building peace within and between nations, like the Peace Corps and the Agency for International Development (USAID), along with some novel sub-departments like a "Bureau of Peace Economics" (interesting but ill-defined relative to existing programs in departments like Commerce and the Treasury.) It also pressed for a Secretary of Peace who would have an equal seat at the table on national security matters, and in the development of policy for development of impoverished regions at home and abroad. While a number of the flourishing peace-driven political organizations of the moment pushed for the bill(s), alongside Catholic and American (i.e. Rhode Island) Baptist journals and organizations, plus some trade unions, S.953 ultimately wasn't reported out of committee and, though the idea lingered on into the 92nd Congress in 1971, it had largely died on the vine by then.
But. In our case, we have the upset victory of George Stanley McGovern in the 1972 presidential election to open the doors on the butterfly house. In that case, a refinement and haggling-out of Hartke's proposal to create a usable government department seems in order. The "practical idealists" of McGovernment see few downsides to pressure for a Peace Department as part of the new administration - the optics are great for McGovern partisans in the general public, and a tolerably constructed department, one that looks administratively viable and viable from a policy implementation point of view, might actually do some good while it's around.
So. Proto-McGovernment officials sit down with congrescritters during the Nixon-to-George transition, and sort out how the new department might plausibly take shape. There are two notable contours to that process:
So in the end you get a Department of Peace that's especially heavy on "departments within a department" (like, for example, the place of the Parks Department and Fish & Wildlife within the Department of the Interior.) The upper-levels structure looks more or less like this:
- The new department will indeed pull together several previously independent entities with significant "peace work" elements under its umbrella, and
- The Department of Peace will take up policy management and advocacy for several "soft" foreign policy issues that range among human rights issues, the logistics of humanitarian aid, and the "craft of peacemaking" itself, which will allow the State Department to stick with Proper Realist Diplomacy rather than have those hippie-dippy roles shunted uncomfortably into State's portfolio. (Not that Sarge would mind if they were, but that's exactly what the career bureaucrats and FSOs, led by their champion Deputy Secretary George Ball, are worried about.)
Which really is actually a whole lot of bureaucratic/policy juice under one roof. Nearly too much to manage but, if the Secretary and Deputy Secretary divide their roles properly, and none of the agency/bureau heads gets too bolshie, it can be done.
- A Secretary in charge of everything, but especially in charge of strategic views and goals for the department's many sub-entities, and also herding the cats of DoP's several once-independent fiefdoms
- A Deputy Secretary who manages most of the granular bureaucratic details like deconfliction of roles, personnel management, paper flows, etc.
- The Peace Corps, one of the most obvious candidates for absorption by DoP, whose Director is now at Undersecretary level for DoP
- USAID, likewise with an Undersecretary-level Director
- The Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, restored in many ways to its original broad purview - much beyond just haggling over nukes with Moscow, on to issues like nuclear and biological nonproliferation, reduction of global arms sales, superpower demilitarization of specific global regions, etc.
- Food for Peace (hi, Norman!)
- VISTA-on-steroids (most of the way to an Americorps type/scale operation after invigorating legislation in 1973)
- An Undersecretary for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (in charge of Assistant Secretaries who run, respectively, the department's Human Rights Office for investigation and advocacy, and the humanitarian relief division)
- An Undersecretary for Peacemaking (in charge of, among divers things, a National Peacemaking Institute)
DoP also gains an automatic seat on the National Security Council, and also a not insignificant domestic policy role, especially in an advisory capacity. Also, who runs the store matters greatly as to how the department conceives of itself, manages itself, and conducts itself. In its formative years that would be this guy
Hi.
That vision in seersucker is Donald M. Fraser, longtime Democratic representative from Minnesota. Don Fraser has some key political advantages: he was cochair with George of the McGovern-Fraser Democratic Party reform committee, he's old friends with Fritz Mondale, and both of them are longtime horses in Hubert Humphrey's DFL stable out of Minnesota. Fraser was also a notable House activist against the Vietnam War, and in every other respect the sort of guy who McGovernment's transition mandarins would look at very closely for the SecPeace job.
Don Fraser also has other advantages. Already by the early Seventies he had begun to emerge - as he would ever more so until his failed Senate run in 1978 (edged out in the primary) - as one of the principal Congressional advocates for a new sort of American foreign policy, focused much more on human rights, and not only (as with Scoop Jackson's crew) human rights problems in the Soviet bloc but very much also among jackbooted "anti-communist" regimes around the world.
Barbara Keys' recent and very interesting Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s, has much to say about Don Fraser's OTL role in the development of human rights advocacy as a major element of American foreign policy. Keys especially argues that the turn both by the Cold War Right and Cold War-skeptical liberals was an effort to turn the page after the traumas and sometime shame of Vietnam. Not only the Scoop Jacksons of the world but also their liberal critics saw in human rights advocacy a chance to put Vietnam in the past, to reemphasize the American capacity for moral uprightness and crusading virtue.
Of course, within a McGovern administration that gets complicated, not least because of George himself. President McGovern is one of the McGoverners least inclined to simply let go the painful accounting of America's Vietnam experience, who believes understanding and atonement are essential parts of really moving the country beyond that tragedy. Don Fraser is a McGoverner of the first order but also - like some other senior McGoverners - more inclined to turn the page and reinvigorate the United States' moral compass without reference to the sins of Southeast Asia. There's common ground with George Himself on the human rights emphasis itself, and the need to "wage peace" creatively and vigorously around the world to improve US relations with the Global South (an emergent term at the time), improve the optics of US foreign policy, and provide an "ounce of prevention" for more bloody local conflicts that might suck in the superpowers. But there are meaningful differences of nuance and intent to consider.
In purely bureaucratic/administrative terms, Don Fraser's two most considerable strengths as the first SecPeace are that he's a capable administrator, and he has a strategic vision for peace/human rights advocacy that gives him a clear plan and a strong voice in Cabinet-level policymaking. Also as an old political associate and sometime ally of President McGovern, that's another in for DoP methods and priorities. So there's some real potential for this "department of departments" (it's a sort of anti-Heimatsicherheitsabteilung, i.e. Homeland Security) to make a go of itself.
Go Vikings? I don't know
*mostly. In all honesty, reading Caro was the best decision I ever made in my life of reading history but it also makes reading other history suck because YOLJ is just that fucking well done. How am I supposed to enjoy history now if I don't have 100 page long descriptions of the life and times of every political opponent Mo Udall faces?
Probably not, I’m guessing. A lot of these are in flux and neoliberalism became the in-thing by opportunists trying to undo the stuff of the New Deal and people thinking austerity measures would work. I doubt we’d reach that
Very cool Campaign Trail mod based off this TL!
https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/w08gni/mcgoverning_1972_the_mod/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/w08gni/mcgoverning_1972_the_mod/
McGoverning: A Long-Expected Party
That threadmark's a little off - he's not eleventy-one - but today is a special day here at McGoverning Estates.
Today marks the centenary of George Stanley McGovern's birth. That's right - as of today we have a hundred years of George. Half that span within my lifetime. We'll start the occasion with his most famous bit of (OTL) oratory, which is just a couple of days older than fifty itself right now, possibly I was keeping my late mother up, in my infancy, when it originally ran on television:
Followed by a brief clip of one of my favorite McGovern speeches, he'd really gotten the hang of it by then. This from the 1984 Democratic convention:
Also, because some of you are fond of recounting that fun bit of trivia (IMyTL I think Buck Henry will make a nice sideline in McGovern impressions on TV), George's SNL monologue from that same year.
Lastly, a goodly chunk of George's oral history interview with the great Timothy Naftali back in his days in charge of the Nixon Presidential Library:
Many happy returns of the day, folks. I can tell by the font of the numbers that, on the front of that podium in this picture hangs the poster an original of which also hangs in my home:
That's the root from which all of it around here - good bad and indifferent - stems, the brief bright McGovern Summer of '72 twined together with my own path into the world. Mazel Tov, George - you were better at being right than at being president but, there are some places and cases where we can change that...
Today marks the centenary of George Stanley McGovern's birth. That's right - as of today we have a hundred years of George. Half that span within my lifetime. We'll start the occasion with his most famous bit of (OTL) oratory, which is just a couple of days older than fifty itself right now, possibly I was keeping my late mother up, in my infancy, when it originally ran on television:
Followed by a brief clip of one of my favorite McGovern speeches, he'd really gotten the hang of it by then. This from the 1984 Democratic convention:
Also, because some of you are fond of recounting that fun bit of trivia (IMyTL I think Buck Henry will make a nice sideline in McGovern impressions on TV), George's SNL monologue from that same year.
Lastly, a goodly chunk of George's oral history interview with the great Timothy Naftali back in his days in charge of the Nixon Presidential Library:
Many happy returns of the day, folks. I can tell by the font of the numbers that, on the front of that podium in this picture hangs the poster an original of which also hangs in my home:
That's the root from which all of it around here - good bad and indifferent - stems, the brief bright McGovern Summer of '72 twined together with my own path into the world. Mazel Tov, George - you were better at being right than at being president but, there are some places and cases where we can change that...
Your general eye on municipal politics is not off, though.
For example, Mayor Badillo sends his best.
I do wish I knew more about New Yohik city politics. I do know at this point New York’s cultural reputation was as almost as in the toilet as it’s economy in the 80’s and especially the 70’s, before the onset of the maniac formerly known as (or rather thought of as) America’s Mayor. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine George leading to a headline as wonderfully emphatic and New York-y as FORD TO CITY, but I hope for something like it.Your general eye on municipal politics is not off, though.
For example, Mayor Badillo sends his best.
McGoverning: Da-Da-Da DAH-dah dah-dah dah-dah...
With Impending Britstuff in the narrative material ahead, I thought it might be nice, by way of a pleasant diversion, to go through a little data on proper football for the first three seasons' worth ITTL, with a distinctly UK focus. Not a grand trove a la HANDEGG but some essential basics for casual and not-so-casual footy fans among the Careful Readers.
Right: everyone have their sausage and chips plated and on their TV tray? Bottle of HP Sauce in hand (I have one in the fridge, God bless globali(s)ation)? Then we'll begin.
1972-73 Season
English First Division: ARRRRSSSNUUURRRRRRLLLLLL hold off the Reds to win the league for the season, while a bit more late-season offensive invention from Ipswich Town puts Robson's upstarts in third position. Man U comes within an ace of relegation but survives, while WBA meets the burden of circumstance (unlike OTL) which leaves Norwich City and Crystal Palace relegated.
English Second Division: Despite a better-than-OTL effort from the Robins down in Bristol, Burnley and QPR remain prohibitively the class of the division for promotion. Luton and Sheffield Wednesday likewise overperform OTL.
English Third Division: Bolton and Blackburn lead Lancashire sides into promotion, while the West Country's represented by Plymouth Argyle and Bristol Rovers (GOODNIGHT IRENE MY HOMIES) knotted in third just shy. Notts County finish weaker and Wrexham stronger than IOTL, while Elton John Is Sad because equivalent exchange swaps a Rotherham rise for Watford's fall at the relegation end.
Scottish First Division: It's CELLLLLLLLLL-TIC by even a little more in the Old Firm Stakes as Rangers bemoans a season-ending injury to Willie Johnston, while Aberdeen muscles their way ahead of OTL into third.
1972-73 FA Cup: Yes, I miss Sunderland too. But sometimes AH regresses towards the mean as the Black Cats get tripped up in the fifth frickin' round (THISCLOSE). It's UP THE RAMS as Derby County denies ARRRRRSSSNUUUURRRRRRRRLLLL the double 2-0 in a decisive Cup Final, while Man City shuts down Bristol City's suddenly wayward offense and plays a counter to good effect 1-0 in the third-place fixture.
1972-73 League Cup: Sometimes equivalent exchange loves an underdog as Norwich City salvages joy from their season in a memorable 1-0 final over suddenly stumped Liverpool
1972-73 UEFA Cup: Sometimes regression to the mean looks pretty familiar, as Twente still plays Borussia Monchengladbach in the semis but ambushes them with a bit of Clockwork Orange, only to be felled decisively 5-1 in the finals by Liverpool.
1972-73 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: It's the East at play as Spartak Moscow bulls past Hajduk Split in the final, 2-1.
1972-73 European Cup (now Champions League Cup): It's not all beer and Bakewell tarts for Derby County as they go down 2-1 in a hard-fought final against champions Ajax.
1973-74 Season
English First Division: There's above-OTL drama at the top of the division as Derby County stay in the mix atop the division most of the season until C L O U G H I E finally gets his walking papers in late March, which emotionally conflicted fans blame for a late stutter and their second-place finish behind a surging Liverpool. (Ipswich Town, Leeds United, and upstart Burnley finish out the UEFA qualifiers.) A slaughter of giants proceeds at the bottom of the table as each of Chelsea, Man U, and West Ham end up relegated after a brilliant escape from relegation by Brum City in their last match.
English Second Division: B O R O, Leyton Orient, and Sunderland make their way topside in a good year for Geordie football (ref. Middlesborough and Sunderland.) Notts Forest dogs their heels in fourth, while Bolton Wanderers and Hull also overperform their OTL seasons. Palace continue their free fall through the league.
English Third Division: ROVERS YO as Bristol's other side takes the division with Oldham and Wrexham hard behind them while Port Vale and Brighton & Hove Albion are among the big losers.
Scottish First Division: A stunning upset of the Forces of Evil & Darkness as Hibernian outpaces the usual Firmathon with stronger-than-OTL defense, as CELLLLLL-TIC comes second and Rangers continue to lick their wounds.
1973-74 FA Cup: Liverpool does the double at Wembley when a Kevin Keegan hat trick ends a sterling Bristol City run 3-1, while the Magpies (sans riot) return to a bit of their 1960s form beating scrappy Burnley 2-0 in third.
1973-74 League Cup: In a fixture of two battlers after qualifiers full of upsets (described, depending on the tabloid in question, as either the pinnacle or the nadir of the English game), Plymouth Argyle holds off Norwich City 2-1.
1973-74 UEFA Cup: Spurs launch a massive second-half comeback to overcome Standard Liege 3-2 for the cup.
1973-74 European Cup (later Champions League): Bayern München power past Celtic 3-1 for the title.
1973-74 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: Intra-German violence as Magdeburg still finds a way against Borussia Monchengladbach, 3-2.
1974-75 Season
English First Division: Even across the multiverse Derby County lead a charmed life, finishing ahead of Ipswich Town on the final day of play, followed by Everton, B O R O, and defending champions Liverpool in that order. Big news at the bottom is the plummet of Arsenal and Leicester City into the Second Division.
English Second Division: V I L L A, Man U, and Bristol City arrive in the top flight in that order, with a brilliant late-season run from Blackpool thisclose. Oldham and Cardiff City lead the way out the back door towards the Third Division.
English Third Division: Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, and Peterborough United advance, with Hereford United dogging their heels - a bad year for Oor 'Arold as Huddersfield finishes bottom.
Scottish First Division: Needing to win their last two matches by wide margins, scheduling butterflies give Hibernian the juice they need to repeat past a reinvigorated Rangers side by one point in the league table. Celtic come third because #AuldFirm.
1974-75 FA Cup: Ipswich Town win through with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Brum City, while Leeds United thumps gallant Carlisle 3-0 for third place.
1974-75 League Cup: Miracle boys Chester beat Man U 1-0 in the final as Sky Blues and Liverpudlians, among others, take satisfaction in the affront.
1974-75 UEFA Cup: We'll take "What Are Bundesliga Clubs Founded by Socialists" for the Daily Double as Borussia Monchengladbach defeats Hamburg SV, 2-1.
1974-75 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: Dutch stalwarts PSV Eindhoven outshoot Dynamo Kyiv in a wild final 3-2.
1974-75 European Cup (later Champions' League): Liverpool beats Bayern München 3-2 after extra time in a classic between the tournament's best sides.
That's really as far as we should take it for now.
Right: everyone have their sausage and chips plated and on their TV tray? Bottle of HP Sauce in hand (I have one in the fridge, God bless globali(s)ation)? Then we'll begin.
1972-73 Season
English First Division: ARRRRSSSNUUURRRRRRLLLLLL hold off the Reds to win the league for the season, while a bit more late-season offensive invention from Ipswich Town puts Robson's upstarts in third position. Man U comes within an ace of relegation but survives, while WBA meets the burden of circumstance (unlike OTL) which leaves Norwich City and Crystal Palace relegated.
English Second Division: Despite a better-than-OTL effort from the Robins down in Bristol, Burnley and QPR remain prohibitively the class of the division for promotion. Luton and Sheffield Wednesday likewise overperform OTL.
English Third Division: Bolton and Blackburn lead Lancashire sides into promotion, while the West Country's represented by Plymouth Argyle and Bristol Rovers (GOODNIGHT IRENE MY HOMIES) knotted in third just shy. Notts County finish weaker and Wrexham stronger than IOTL, while Elton John Is Sad because equivalent exchange swaps a Rotherham rise for Watford's fall at the relegation end.
Scottish First Division: It's CELLLLLLLLLL-TIC by even a little more in the Old Firm Stakes as Rangers bemoans a season-ending injury to Willie Johnston, while Aberdeen muscles their way ahead of OTL into third.
1972-73 FA Cup: Yes, I miss Sunderland too. But sometimes AH regresses towards the mean as the Black Cats get tripped up in the fifth frickin' round (THISCLOSE). It's UP THE RAMS as Derby County denies ARRRRRSSSNUUUURRRRRRRRLLLL the double 2-0 in a decisive Cup Final, while Man City shuts down Bristol City's suddenly wayward offense and plays a counter to good effect 1-0 in the third-place fixture.
1972-73 League Cup: Sometimes equivalent exchange loves an underdog as Norwich City salvages joy from their season in a memorable 1-0 final over suddenly stumped Liverpool
1972-73 UEFA Cup: Sometimes regression to the mean looks pretty familiar, as Twente still plays Borussia Monchengladbach in the semis but ambushes them with a bit of Clockwork Orange, only to be felled decisively 5-1 in the finals by Liverpool.
1972-73 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: It's the East at play as Spartak Moscow bulls past Hajduk Split in the final, 2-1.
1972-73 European Cup (now Champions League Cup): It's not all beer and Bakewell tarts for Derby County as they go down 2-1 in a hard-fought final against champions Ajax.
1973-74 Season
English First Division: There's above-OTL drama at the top of the division as Derby County stay in the mix atop the division most of the season until C L O U G H I E finally gets his walking papers in late March, which emotionally conflicted fans blame for a late stutter and their second-place finish behind a surging Liverpool. (Ipswich Town, Leeds United, and upstart Burnley finish out the UEFA qualifiers.) A slaughter of giants proceeds at the bottom of the table as each of Chelsea, Man U, and West Ham end up relegated after a brilliant escape from relegation by Brum City in their last match.
English Second Division: B O R O, Leyton Orient, and Sunderland make their way topside in a good year for Geordie football (ref. Middlesborough and Sunderland.) Notts Forest dogs their heels in fourth, while Bolton Wanderers and Hull also overperform their OTL seasons. Palace continue their free fall through the league.
English Third Division: ROVERS YO as Bristol's other side takes the division with Oldham and Wrexham hard behind them while Port Vale and Brighton & Hove Albion are among the big losers.
Scottish First Division: A stunning upset of the Forces of Evil & Darkness as Hibernian outpaces the usual Firmathon with stronger-than-OTL defense, as CELLLLLL-TIC comes second and Rangers continue to lick their wounds.
1973-74 FA Cup: Liverpool does the double at Wembley when a Kevin Keegan hat trick ends a sterling Bristol City run 3-1, while the Magpies (sans riot) return to a bit of their 1960s form beating scrappy Burnley 2-0 in third.
1973-74 League Cup: In a fixture of two battlers after qualifiers full of upsets (described, depending on the tabloid in question, as either the pinnacle or the nadir of the English game), Plymouth Argyle holds off Norwich City 2-1.
1973-74 UEFA Cup: Spurs launch a massive second-half comeback to overcome Standard Liege 3-2 for the cup.
1973-74 European Cup (later Champions League): Bayern München power past Celtic 3-1 for the title.
1973-74 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: Intra-German violence as Magdeburg still finds a way against Borussia Monchengladbach, 3-2.
1974-75 Season
English First Division: Even across the multiverse Derby County lead a charmed life, finishing ahead of Ipswich Town on the final day of play, followed by Everton, B O R O, and defending champions Liverpool in that order. Big news at the bottom is the plummet of Arsenal and Leicester City into the Second Division.
English Second Division: V I L L A, Man U, and Bristol City arrive in the top flight in that order, with a brilliant late-season run from Blackpool thisclose. Oldham and Cardiff City lead the way out the back door towards the Third Division.
English Third Division: Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, and Peterborough United advance, with Hereford United dogging their heels - a bad year for Oor 'Arold as Huddersfield finishes bottom.
Scottish First Division: Needing to win their last two matches by wide margins, scheduling butterflies give Hibernian the juice they need to repeat past a reinvigorated Rangers side by one point in the league table. Celtic come third because #AuldFirm.
1974-75 FA Cup: Ipswich Town win through with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Brum City, while Leeds United thumps gallant Carlisle 3-0 for third place.
1974-75 League Cup: Miracle boys Chester beat Man U 1-0 in the final as Sky Blues and Liverpudlians, among others, take satisfaction in the affront.
1974-75 UEFA Cup: We'll take "What Are Bundesliga Clubs Founded by Socialists" for the Daily Double as Borussia Monchengladbach defeats Hamburg SV, 2-1.
1974-75 UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup: Dutch stalwarts PSV Eindhoven outshoot Dynamo Kyiv in a wild final 3-2.
1974-75 European Cup (later Champions' League): Liverpool beats Bayern München 3-2 after extra time in a classic between the tournament's best sides.
That's really as far as we should take it for now.
Last edited: