Right as a general premise I was wondering if in 1964 the Republican party chose Nelson Rockefeller as its Presidential candidate instead of Barry Goldwater and then in subsiquent elections you had a situation where the Republicans and Democrats vied for first and second position (in Presidential and Congressional elections) with the Republicans never initating a Southern stratergy and the core Southern states being tied to the states rights party; keeping it with some form of electoral representation until the present day and remaining a sucessful US 3rd party
AH challenge: States rights party
- Thread starter bobbis14
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Rockefeller's loss would just embolden the conservative wing and prove that the Eastern liberals were more discredited than ever in terms of their wins: Nixon is best described as a centrist Republican by period stances: much closer to the liberals domestically but too centrist to formally classify him as one. Dewey and Rockefeller both lost, and Goldwater is saved for 1968 when he has a good chance of winning assuming no butterflies from OTL.
So how would you get the more moderate wing of the Republican party to control the party machine or get Rockefeller to win the election?
A GOP win in 1964 under OTL conditions is basically ASB no matter who either party nominates: JFK, LBJ, RFK, HHH for the Dems and Goldwater/Rocky for the GOP. Keeping the liberal/centrist wing in control is tough because they never had much strength at the grassroots level: very top-heavy and played into a lot of resentment. The Southern switch to the GOP began in the 1950s, with a major POD being Bush's decision to admit Dixiecrats into the Harris County (TX) GOP in 1962. Ironic considering events 30 years later, but "present at the creation" indeed.