Story Idea Thread: post your ideas here!

For yet another cross-time presidential election of mine that I’m thinking of making into a TL, ‘1944 FDR Vs. 2004 G.W. Bush’—in which the western half of the 2004 United States gets sent back to 1944. Once the usual shock and awe of this ISOT dissipates and assuming that a mutually agreed-upon election cycle takes place, the ensuing months should prove a tough match-up to call. It's the Silent-Generation New Dealer versus the Boomer neoconservative from sixty years into the future.

At first glance, the notion that FDR would stomp Dubya into the ground on Election Day makes sense, mainly because of his historical clout and lasting legacy. After all, he did lead America through the Great Depression and to victory in World War Two IOTL, leaving the US a global superpower with progressive legislation—whether welfare programs like Social Security, or minimum-wage and child-labor laws to protect workers—that remains in place to this day. However, I also think he has a number of things going against him that Bush would milk for just about every last drop.

For starters, being someone straight from 1944, FDR would probably be too socially conservative to jive with most 2004 voters. Whereas Dubya is at least accustomed to the permissive society (even though he probably disapproves in private), someone like Roosevelt would probably balk at uptimer social and cultural norms of that sort. He might also need to be a whole lot more quiet about civil rights concerns due to the attitudes of downtimer America, which works in Bush's favor since he can be a whole lot more vocal about it towards uptimer audiences. Add in FDR's mass internment of Japanese-Americans that Dubya hasn't come close to replicating, and I'd be rather unsurprised at normally Democratic-leaning minorities largely supporting him this time around. I can definitely see uptimer senior citizens being more divided, though; on the one hand, many of them would have good memories of the era and lasting reverence for FDR as the man who got America through the Great Depression and (most of) World War Two, but on the other, they might also perceive him as too left-wing once they get wind of his very economically progressive platform. Moreover, so long as Roosevelt is just a few years shy of becoming a senior himself, uptimer revelations of his suffering health and otherwise-impending death in office from OTL might siphon off downtimer support as well, however much the man vows to get examined by the best doctors and take their advice all but religiously.

On foreign policy, they'd be mutually hellbent on ending World War Two and ensuring that America retains its superpower status into the coming decades and beyond, so there's no issue there. Even so, Bush might attack him for supposedly being too "soft", "generous" or "kid gloves-prone" with the USSR IOTL in terms of how Eastern Europe was ultimately carved up, and would voice a hardline opposition towards communism well in advance. How FDR might defend himself and convince the public that he hates the Reds and what they stand for every bit as much as his GOP opponent from the next century, I don't know.

Still, I suppose that the closest thing to finding out who comes out on top in this election cycle would either be a) discussing the scenario as a thread or b) composing a TL that features it, front and center. The latter, however, may have to wait until I've become a better alternate-historian.

Having come up with a potential title for such a TL just now, maybe I’ll call it Landslide For Liberty or something like that. In order to remain true to its name, it’d probably entail an overwhelming victory for the libertarian—or at least, libertarian-leaning—presidential candidate. Probably in a political environment characterized by everyday citizens being sick and tired of both parties and perceived government intrusion into their lives as well, but more on those grievances somewhere else, perhaps.

[Adjusts glasses] ...Well this premise certain seems...interesting. As much as I’d like to get the popcorn ready, though, I also get the impression that this will take time to flesh out and fine-tune before becoming an actual, full-blown publication online.

Alright, well, in that case, I’ll be waiting. How NATO plans on invading Russia of all places—albeit a vastly weakened one—is beyond me.

Hence one of the reasons that your proposed TL piques my lasting interest.

I had a feeling that you’d say that. Best of luck to nineties NATO in this nigh-impossible endeavor of theirs—because they’ll sure as f—k need it.

lordbyron, the page you have linked to AH.com does not work, also some members of the forum are not members of AH.com and thus cannot see some of the board there.

Here's the link for those who have access to AH.com: www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/able-archer-83-timeline-of-a-third-world-war-in-1983.279881