Zyobot
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Just a time-traveling robot stranded on Earth.
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Post by Zyobot on Jul 15, 2020 16:04:20 GMT
Besides helping out in the Korean War and acting as a further deterrent to the communist bloc (unless the Kremlin vastly overreacts, that is), I wonder how the Lower States' foreign policy would take shape? Due to the economic strain of picking getting themselves back off the ground, I'm not sure how much they can invest in other ventures. Thank god the Marshall Plan is no longer an imperative. Also, to address the point made by stevep up-thread, I think that it'd make sense to bring the British and French colonies into the fold of TTL's international trade deals, as well as the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Lower States might also lean on the Upper States to let Japan develop into a wealthy, liberal-democratic ally and trade partner, much to the grumbling of the everyday Joe and the grudgingly pragmatic concessions of the Washington elite. I still think they'd impose more controls on outsourcing overseas, at least to illiberal anathema-regimes like China. Again, the prospect of some 'commie-capitalist chimaera power' holding American manufacturing by the balls would sound...perilous to the average man (or woman) on the street--and rightly so. |
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Zyobot
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Just a time-traveling robot stranded on Earth.
Posts: 17,352
Likes: 7,260
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Post by Zyobot on Jul 19, 2020 14:20:58 GMT
Once the initial fanfare dies down and Fifties people become curious about what the future brings, I especially wonder what they might think of future POTUS's who took the reigns of power IOTL. I already speculated how downtimer pundits and politicos would be much more critical of Bill Clinton--not only for the Monica Lewinsky scandal or perjury before Congress, but also for his purported role in outsourcing American manufacturing to China, of all places. Ronald Reagan would probably strike people as an out-there choice, doubly so for having become a GOP icon who scaled back government (but increased it in other ways, namely military spending). There's also both George Bushes, both of whom are remembered as failures, but the latter likely having the worse reputation overall because of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 recession during his tenure. All things considered, then-President Obama is probably fortunate to have not joined the Lower States for the ride, due to the Racist Derangement Syndrome he'd be bombarded with on a 24/7 basis, even with the Jim Crow South now gone.
Moreover, leaving more indecisive electoral cases like 2000 aside, I think downtimers would be surprised at how certain post-Fifties candidates were able to rival FDR's 1936 landslide not once, but twice. And even narrowly surpass it in 1964, as far as LBJ's share of the popular vote is concerned.
Election Night 1972 ABC News Coverage
Election Night 1984 NBC News Coverage
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jul 19, 2020 15:39:52 GMT
Once the initial fanfare dies down and Fifties people become curious about what the future brings, I especially wonder what they might think of future POTUS's who took the reigns of power IOTL. I already speculated how downtimer pundits and politicos would be much more critical of Bill Clinton--not only for the Monica Lewinsky scandal or perjury before Congress, but also for his purported role in outsourcing American manufacturing to China, of all places. Ronald Reagan would probably strike people as an out-there choice, doubly so for having become a GOP icon who scaled back government (but increased it in other ways, namely military spending). There's also both George Bushes, both of whom are remembered as failures, but the latter likely having the worse reputation overall because of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 recession during his tenure. All things considered, then-President Obama is probably fortunate to have not joined the Lower States for the ride, due to the Racist Derangement Syndrome he'd be bombarded with on a 24/7 basis, even with the Jim Crow South now gone. Moreover, leaving more indecisive electoral cases like 2000 aside, I think downtimers would be surprised at how certain post-Fifties candidates were able to rival FDR's 1936 landslide not once, but twice. And even narrowly surpass it in 1964, as far as LBJ's share of the popular vote is concerned. Election Night 1972 ABC News CoverageElection Night 1984 NBC News Coverage
I think as I may have mentioned before the big things about Reagan might be his breach of the law in the Iran-Contra affair and his willingness to outsource US industry, which was markedly more than anything Clinton did. Remembering his famous chips remark which would be horrifying to the down-timers once they realise what computer chips were and how important they were to the 1980 world. Don't forget that 1952 US was still very familiar with the countries protectionist roots.
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