Alternate History The State of the Future TL

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September 25th, 1988:
BREAKING: HIGHTOWER INDICTED FOR BRIBERY, WIRE FRAUD, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

TX Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower (D) was indicted this morning on all 25 counts of Wire Fraud, Obstruction of Justice, Extortion, Corruption, Improper Use of Public Funds & Bribery according to local news reports. The US Justice Department & the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been investigating Hightower over the past year due to corruption allegations which have engulfed several of his associates in the TX Department of Agriculture.

 

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Coming Soon in the State of the Future
January 15th, 1991: TX Governor Bill Hobby (D) is inaugurated for his 1st full 4-year term as the 44th Governor

 

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Coming Soon in the State of the Future
Edwin Washington Edwards returns to the LA Governor's Mansion securing historic 4th term & how his road to the White House began!

 

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Fall 1988
Highlights of the 1988 Presidential campaign

Following the RNC Convention, the GOPers aggressively dominated the presidential campaign. National polls showed that incumbent President George HW Bush was holding a comfortable lead over three-term MA Governor Michael Dukakis (D).

Bush aggressively went on the attack & never let up: criticizing Boston Harbor as a polluted disgrace & blamed Dukakis for the crisis. The incumbent President also controversially highlighted the case of a murderer named Willie Horton & ran TV commercials portraying Dukakis as soft on crime. To top things off, he labeled the MA Governor as a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union, & a man out of the political mainstream & out of touch with American values.

The campaign was criticized by many as being one of the most negative in recent history with campaign commercials showing convicted murderers & sewer sludges.

During the 1988 campaign, however, Americans could look to a long list of favorable conditions that they hoped would continue into the 1990s. The Arms Reduction Treaty with the Soviet Union had officially gone into effect & tensions eased between the two superpowers. There seemed to be a chance for positive changes within Soviet society & for a productive dialogue to continue between both countries.

Around the world, tensions were easing in many troublespots. The Soviets were making progress in finally withdrawing their troops out of Afghanistan; Iran & Iraq had agreed to a ceasefire & were moving toward peace in their bloody eight year religious war. The US agreed to direct peace talks with the PLO raising hopes for movement toward a more peaceful arrangements between Israel & her neighbors in the Middle East.

In Central America, the difficult peace process seemed to be offering at least some small hopes of negotiated settlements in Nicaragua. Americans had good reason to hope for a calmer international climate in many regions.

Plus the economy had performed well during the Reagan years (1981-86) & continued its expansion even after the 1986 Stock Crash; Inflation remained under control & unemployment was at a 14-year low, which continued under President Bush's administration once he ascended to the Presidency upon Reagan's resignation on December 14th, 1986.

Basically, Americans weren't convinced at all that the Dems would offer a better alternative for the country....

 

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November 8th, 1988: Election Night Results
PRESIDENT GEORGE HW BUSH EASILY WINS FIRST FULL FOUR-YEAR TERM
*President Bush garners 431 Electoral Votes in landslide victory.
*Carries 41 out of 51 states.
*GOPers keeps control of the White House for another four more years.
*Dems expanding majorities in US House of Representatives & United States Senate.

Incumbent President George HW Bush won in a landslide victory defeating MA Governor Michael Dukakis (D). According to the final tallies, Bush garnered 53% of the nationwide vote to Dukakis' 45%. The incumbent President carried 41 out of 51 states including Puerto Rico, while Governor Dukakis only managed to carry just 10 states. The country sought to build on the promises & philosophy of then-President Ronald Reagan's policies & philosophy. Bush, who brought up his long experience including foreign affairs as well as in public life & offered the nation the chance of continuing the conservative direction which Reagan had compellingly outlined.

Although Americans elected Bush as their President for his first full four-year term in his own right, they didn't give him the overwhelming mandate that several of his predecessors had enjoyed. The Dems increased their majorities in both the US House of Representatives & United States Senate.

1988 Presidential Election
President George HW Bush (R-TX)/United States Senator Dan Quayle (R-IN): 48,886,597 (53.5%)✔
431 Electoral Votes
Governor Michael Dukakis (D-MA)/United States Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX): 41,872,896 (45.6%)
111 Electoral Votes (+DC)

1988 US House of Representatives Elections:
262 Dems (+2)
43,673,683 (53.73%): Dem Hold
175 GOPers
37,209,225 (45 5%)

1988 United States Senate Elections:
57 Dems (+1: pickups in NV, NE, VA, CT)
35,373,383 (52.7%): Dem Hold.
45 GOPers (pickups in MS, MT, FL)
31,383,651 (46.5%)

 

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November 9th, 1988:
BREAKING: PRESIDENT BUSH NAMING JAMES BAKER, III AS US SECRETARY OF STATE

The next day following his landslide victory securing his 1st full 4-year term, President George HW Bush announced he was nominating his campaign manager, long-time friend & trusted advisor, James Baker, III to become the new US Secretary of State. It was a convincing sign that President Bush was intending on focusing his administration on international relations & foreign policy. He also centered the formulation of US foreign policy in the White House at daily meetings of the National Security Council. The President became known for hundreds of handwritten notes to leaders both public & private. Bush maintained close personal relationships with leaders throughout the world & telephoned them frequently.

Gallup Polling Survey (November 11th-14th, 1988)
President George HW Bush Job Approval Rating
Approve: 57%
Disapprove: 35%

 

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November 15th, 1988: The first Fairtrode label, Max Hoveiour is launched in the Netherlands.

November 16th, 1988: Pakistanis vote to elect populist Benazir Bhutto as the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.

November 23rd, 1988: Former Korean President Jeong Tae-yong, who served as the 13th President from September 8th, 1984 to February 25th, 1988, delivered an address to a special joint session of the Korean National Assembly, making a formal apology for corruption during his administration; announcing he'll go into exile.

December 1st, 1988: STS-27 NASA postponed their planned launch of the space shuttle, Atlantis from tge Kennedy Space Center.

 

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December 2nd, 1988: Benazir Bhutto sworn into office as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan.

STS-27 is launched into space by NASA.

December 6th, 1988: President Bush names Thomas Pickering as the new US Ambassador to the United Nations.

December 7th, 1988: Soviet President Mikhali Gorbachev makes an official visit to the United States meeting with US President George HW Bush at the Governors Island Summit.

December 8th, 1988: The British government announcing the closure of North East Shipbuilders, which resulted in a loss of 2,400 jobs.

US Supreme Court Associate Justice William Brennan, Jr., was hospitalized with pneumonia at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, MD.

December 9th, 1988: Final Dodge Aries & Plymouth Reliant rolls off the assembly line in Chrysler factories.

December 10th, 1988: Artic II capsized by large wave of water & sank about 55 miles north of Unimark Pass in AK; All five crewmembers boarded a lifeboat, but captain Stan Micnka & crewman Gary Hieney were both swept off the raft & lost. Three remaining survivors were rescued by fishing vessel American Beauty.

December 11th, 1988: Explosion at an illegal fireworks shop at La Merced Market in Mexico City, Mexico caused multiple explosions & fires killing over 60+ people.

December 16th, 1988: US President George HW Bush announced he was nominating US Rep. Dick Cheney (R-WY) as US Secretary of Defense pending Senate confirmation.

 

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December 19th, 1988
AR Governor's Mansion
Little Rock, AR
Strategizing for the next campaign ahead

Five-term AR Governor Bill Clinton (D) analyzed the fallout from the disastrous 1988 Presidential campaign that the Dems blew, one they had no business losing considering the obvious: Reagan's resignation in disgrace due to the aftermath of Iran-Contra on July 14th, 1987; Bush's ascension to the Presidency; Bush's controversial pardon of Reagan which angered many Americans.

Clinton originally had considered running for the Presidency in 1988, but chose not to for obvious reasons: allegations of womanizing had been flourishing for years including allegations of bribery, corruption, intimidation of political opponents, campaign finance violations, etc., For these unspecified reasons, Clinton announced he was not running for the Presidency, preferring to wait until the next cycle.

The assassination of then-TX Governor Mark W. White, Jr., (D) in July 1988 altered the political landscape nationally because many placed their hopes on White being mentioned as a contender for the Presidency in the future. Sadly, some crazed lunatic in San Antonio, TX altered those plans, which all but forced some insiders of the Dems to lobby the Boy Governor from Arkansas.

In the meantime, Dems watched helplessly as Dukakis choked away a 17 point lead in the polls as President Bush aggressively hammered the incompetent three-term MA Governor in controversial negative advertising commercials which some accused the Bush campaign of deploying racially-charged dog whistles.

Once Bush humiliated Dukakis in November, attention quickly turned to Clinton, who quietly began shadow campaign operations nationwide by offering the Third Way in aggressively moving the Dems more toward to Moderate-to-Conservative spectrum. Many Arkansans noticed all of the national news media converging into the Natural State for obvious reasons: covering Governor Clinton, who confirmed plans on seeking reelection to a sixth term in 1990 & the political jockeying among the down-ballot statewide officeholders began to take shape as many of whom realized that Clinton wouldn't serve out his sixth term because anonymous sources all but confirmed the obvious: Clinton was the one person, who could end 12 years of GOP dominance of the White House & become the first Southern Dem to win the Presidency since LBJ in 1964.

 

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The list of TX Governors in The State of the Future TL:
Mark W. White (D), 1983-1988: Assassinated.
William P. Hobby, Jr., (D): 1988-1995: Didn't seek reelection in 1994.
George W. Bush (R), 1995-2000: Resigned after winning the Presidency in 2000.
Rick Perry (R), 2000-2015: Didn't seek reelection in 2014.
Greg Abbott (R), 2015-present.