Let's play a game of "What if.."

[warrior1]

Al Gore didn't cheated out of his Presidency...

JFK, MLK, BFK had not been assassinated...

We never went to war with out just cause....

What if...

[Juche]

1. I'll bite

MLK: Would be viewed the same way Jesse Jackson is by now. Once he started speaking up for the poor, against the military and in favor of economic redistribution to benefit the lower class the right wing would've torn into him. He would not be the hero he is now had he lived, he would be someone that Fox News and talk radio whines about like the ACLU or Jesse Jackson. But I'm sure he could've done alot of good for the economy, civil rights or our foreign policy had he lived. But he wouldn't be viewed the way he is now. He would be alot more polarizing and hated.

Al Gore: Probably wouldn't have been any 9/11, at the very least it would've been less likely to happen since Gore already had the work experience to know the threat terror poses and he wouldn't have ignored the dozens of warnings the US got. The national debt would be closer to 4 trillion by now, instead of the 10 trillion it is due to no war in Iraq and no tax cuts for the rich. We would likely have an apollo alliance for renewable energy or some other program. Pretty much everything that has gone wrong lately wouldn't have happened.

JFK or Robert Kennedy: No idea really.

[still_one]

2. All interesting prospects, but the question is, if those events didn't occur

would many of the Congressional Democrats still done the right thing?

The true face of this country was expossed in the sixties, and it was through the civil right act, pushed by Johnson, that we got to see what representatives really stood for right and wrong

It is quite sad that some of the politicians who voted against the civil rights act, were never punished for that, but many were sent back to Congress

What is even more outrageous is that the media seemed to present the strom thurmonds, lestor maddoxs, and jess helems in a way that their racist past was ignored and forgotten

[Dogmudgeon]

3. We would have hated them, too.

JFK is a war-mongering anti-Communist! He's a Corporatist!

RFK supports a police state! He's a Fascist!

Martin Luther King has sold out! He's an Uncle Tom!

A young Christopher Hitchens would write about how they are each rapists. Noam Chomsky's first political writings would condemn them for being mass murderers. We'd hear no end about the evils of a political dynasty.

And Nixon would still be elected ... maybe in 1972 instead of 1968.

--p!

[warrior1]

4. What if

the south had of been cured of prejudice? Jobs under Kennedy and the next presidents. The poor became the middle class. The military complex had a soul. Fox news channel really was fair and balanced.

[Juche]

8. What if the south has seceded successfully

Considering the horrific human rights abuses the southern whites would've directed against southern blacks had they successfully pulled away, this would be very unpleasant. The only reason the south has treated people who are different decently is because the federal government forced them to in the 1860s and the 1960s, and is now considering doing so with GLBT rights. So from a human rights standpoint, the south needs a higher authority forcing it to obey human and civil rights legislation.

But what if they had successfully seceded? As Paul Krugman has said the rise of the radical right wing can be tied into the growth of conservatism in the south.

Outside of the south, very few states have more than 1 GOP senator. Those that do like Maine or New Hampshire may have moderate GOP senators. There are 17 states with 2 GOP senators, and 9 of them are southern states. Eliminate the 13 southern states, go to a 74 member senate and the ratio becomes 46 democrats to 28 republicans in the senate. Imagine what legislation would be passed with a clear majority in the house, a 62% majority in the senate, and the loss of 141 electoral votes that are almost guaranteed GOP (I'm excluding Florida). If not for the south, the GOP would be a perpetual minority party with no chance in hell of the white house or the senate.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/110th_United_States_Congress#Members

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:110th_US_Congress_Senate2.png

It isn't that black and white with the house of representatives, but there is still a pattern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:110th_US_Congress_House_of_Reps.png

According to Krugman, if not for the racism of the south, we'd have universal healthcare (the main opposition to this came from southern politicians scared of integrated hospitals and the shift of southern whites to the GOP cut the levels of political power needed to get healthcare reform). Our tax and economic policy would be more like Canada or Europes right now if we lost the south.

[warrior1]

5. What if

During the 60's we never got into the Vietnam war, and some young kid who had died in the war and of lived and others like him found cures for what is wrong in America. Maybe one had a solution to the oil problem.

[hoosier_lefty]

6. What if...

King George (of England not *) hadn't been batshit crazy and
won the revolution. Maybe we would be more like Australia ! G'day mate !

What if the native Americans would have banded together and killed "whitey",
then invaded England and won. Hey it's my what if.

What if every time we imagined "what if", we created a parallel universe where
everything was like our what if.

[Fovea]

7. Ok

Al Gore goes on to join, then re-vamp the Kyoto Protocol.
America starts on its way to a carbon neutral, total renewable energy economy in 2000.

No 911, Most ex Afghan war Sunnis in alQaeda die in additional rocket attacks on training areas. The Bin Laden family protests the death of their son Usama. Saudi Arabia falls to internecene struggle. Wahabbists purged.

Moving back


JFK wins in 1963, Vietnam war ends in 1965.

START treaty signed in 1967.

Lyndon B. Johnson wins in 1968. Medicare designed as universal single payer system.

1968. Six day war occurs. Israel nukes Syria, Soviet Union nukes Israel. Limited exchange between NATO forces and USSR. USSR suffers internal revolt. Moscow nuked by Soviet Rocket Army renegades in Kazakhstan. USSR surrenders to UN reps. Extended fuel shortage from regional conflicts kills airline industry. Rail passenger traffic doubles every year for next decade.

1970, C.I.S. formed from former Soviet states. CIS adopts Italian socialist model. East and West Germany reunite. NATO disbands in favor of UN peacekeeping force.

1973, LBJ dies Hubert Humphrey and Bobby Kennedy Pres/Veep.
Universal public education to grade 16 for students. UN starts to work on Planet wide standards for Labor, Health, Human Rights. Disco never catches on, legal hemp becomes #4 cash crop in a single season and marijuana replaces cocaine as drug of the 70s, new national anthem written by Jerry Garcia.

1976 HHH re-elected. Dies in 78, RFK becomes president. Alaskan-Russian Bering Straights rail tunnel started. India and Pakistan have single nuke exchange, UN rolls in. World nuke disarmament starts.

1980, joint Russian, US space station construction starts. Alaskan Russian tunnel opens. Transportation costs between Asia and North America drop, combined Korea's economy surpasses China. China and India form trade group with the Gulf states. Trans Tibetan Rail project moves forward under concerns for the fragile Tibetan ecosystem. India adopts Chinese single family program.

Running on a platform of fiscal conservatism, Moderate Republican President Ronald Reagan runs on a platform of replacing the lower income tax brackets with surcharges on grain sales to India and China.

MLK goes on to win Nobel prize for work with poverty. Southern Christian Leadership Council and So. Poverty Law center merge. The klan is shamed out of existance as anything but an underground hate group. David Duke grows up, goes into farming.

1986, Eldest son of disgraced former CIA officer George Walker Bush graduates from medical school after lengthly program of AA and rehab. Starts residency in obstetrics. Personal electronics boom starts a decade earlier.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. ...

[LeftishBrit]

10. Mine tends to be...

What if Maggie Thatcher had never been elected?

Or if she had been elected, what if the Falklands War had never happened? She would almost certainly have lost to Neil Kinnock in 1983; and wouldn't have been able to do half the harm that she did.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Correction - she'd have lost to Michael Foot

Kinnock was in 1987. Foot would have been better than Kinnock IMO.

We would probably also never have had a Labour government as disastrous as Blair's.