This rose from some thoughts and discussions in a few other threads and I decided to post it for a belated Presidents' Day treat and Black History Month. I don't have time to do a full timeline, but I think it'd be fun for someone else to flesh out.
I'll note at the start I was torn on the LImbaugh thing, Wilder was big into grass roote and talking to common people but I don't know if he'd go this far - I did it for story effect, but I do think Limbaugh would face what he does here because he would support conservative values regardless of who pushed them - yet some would be bothered by it.
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It may have come a little further back than that. As he was doing what governors do, he happened to visit a school with a Christian club that met after school. One of these students encouraged him by telling him that he could be President someday. When he downplayed the idea, she replied that America was "a land of moderation." And that he could get votes for crossing the divide between whites and blacks given his mixed race.
He thanked her for that and other things, and thought to himself that this was what the Bible said about always building others up, edifying one another. Her comment about the very fact of American freedom moderating those who came led him to make a comment that which might otherwise have come out as much more divisive.
It was during the Clarence Thomas hearings. He would have normally made a somewhat scathing remark about Thomas supposedly being Catholic, following the Pope in everything including abortion decisions. Instead, he thought of what this student had said and remarked that he knew that Clarence Thomas would not adhere to the dictates of the Pope because America was a land of moderation and that he knew that Catholics in America were much different than those in Latin America or Europe. That was because they did not follow the pope on everything. He praised John Paul II on his great political leadership in helping to end the Cold War but said that he knew that not everyone believed everything that the pope said when it came to religion.(1)
This allowed Clarence Thomas to laugh off the comment and point out that he was Episcopalian so he certainly would not be abiding by any of the Pope's dictates. Instead of Governor Doug Wilder appearing to be too harsh and hurting the Catholic vote, this was seen as a feather in his cap.
At the same time, President Bush was at his highest approval rating. He had won the Gulf War and now appeared unbeatable. Some Democratic leaders began to push Governor Wilder of Virginia to run for president. They figured that if they were going to have a sacrificial candidate, they may as well do what Mondale did with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and make a statement about their party being all inclusive, thereby implying the Republicans were not.
Wilder considered it, but Clinton was still there. Wouldn't Bill Clinton be better?
Something else happened that caused Governor Wilder to go up in the polls and Clinton to go down. He was asked if - during a hypothetical run for the presidency - he thought his divorce would cause a problem. He said that President Reagan had been divorced and it had not been an issue, and that - while marriage had not been for him - it was still an important institution and he would stand by anyone who was a victim of anything like domestic violence. It was part of his desire to be tough on any type of crime. He also said that, during the hypothetical Presidency, he would have a task force which would encourage people to come forward and help victims. Perhaps a first lady by committee would help to consider different women's rights issues, he considered out loud.
This made him sound like a candidate all right, but at the same time, it encouraged one person in particular to come forward and say something had happened to her during encounters with Bill Clinton.
Wilder had decided to announce his candidacy but not try really hard right away, just as a trial balloon in early fall of 1991. Suddenly, he found himself getting more support. Although Paul Tsongas was seen as the early leader, there wasn't one clear favorite. Votes were scattered among several candidates. While he began to rise in the polls and win primaries that Clinton might otherwise have - Clinton dropped out in early April just after Wilder won a couple of big primaries and after a big News expose in February about Whitewater - Wilder wasn't the clear favorite until those early April victories.
Some conspiracy theorists said that Jerry Brown remained in the race until the convention because the Democrats were now desperate for someone who was not black to win. After all, the economy was starting to get worse and it was now apparent that the Democrats had a chance. However, it is more likely that he remained in to become vice president.
Instead, Wilder chose Dick Gephardt of Missouri. He knew he would need someone very experienced in Washington DC government. Gephardt was against Nafta, which would allow them to draw quite a few Perot voters. He felt like he had more of a shot to win California anyway, whereas someone from an industrial state was necessary to capture those votes. Finally, the congressman was much more conservative in the abortion area which could also help him to draw some Republican voters.
He painted himself as a person of moderation who would bring everyone together, including those of different races. He continually emphasized the Statue of Liberty and the freedom that she promised to everyone who came. In fact, right after the convention, his first campaign stop the next day was a speech with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
He made some announcements for his cabinet before the election was even held. He discussed John Glenn, who would become Secretary of state, and Sam Ninn, who would become Secretary of Defense. These men very actively campaigned for him and were crucial in winning certain states. And yet, he could share how he himself was a Washington outsider.
His America First policy was one where his promise to balance the budget and to be tough on crime made him seem more like a conservative. Sure, there would be Federal incentives for programs which reduced drugs. But with the Cold War over he proclaimed that America must work together with her allies to help them to protect themselves, and make sure that America's inner cities were safe for her own people.
Another thing he did which drew some conservative votes was to highlight President Bush and his "new world order" talk. He not only attacked the economy and said it was the main problem, he implied that President Bush was trying to make America more involved overseas with global politics when in fact it should be less involved while saying no to foreign dictators.
This even earned him some plaudits from Pat Robertson, who nevertheless stated on the 700 Club that Wilder seemed to be "a nice man but unfortunately some of his personality and knowledge of government make me worry that he will just be another Jimmy Carter, an honest man who may well know Jesus personally as Savior but who will just be overwhelmed by the responsibility of the office." Indeed, Wilder had responded truthfully to a question by a 700 Club reporter that he had made a profession of faith several months earlier after talking with that same student who he went back to see and talk with about the Gospel. He said he preferred doing that in secret rather than allowing any single major evangelists to get credit. He was trying to reach down to Grassroots support by doing this.
Governor Wilder did all the right things. And yet the vote was still close. With a different candidate Ross Perot would have gotten more of the vote, but he also would have probably not been seen so easily as having cost Bush the election. Although whether he did is really up in the air.
What mattered was that, was just over 300 electoral votes, Governor Wilder had won the presidency.
He promised in his inaugural address to bring America together. There were quite a few moderates and even some conservatives who were genuinely happy to see that America had a black president. Rush Limbaugh would change the first initial L and call him Frederick Douglass Wilder, but he still said that it sounded like Wilder had some genuinely conservative ideas and that, with news about Whitewater coming out, he was "better than Clinton would have been." It was felt by many that this meant A hAmerica d totally arrived as a land of equality.
America would find itself at peace and feel good. The next few years would be rocky for the world, though.
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(1) OTL one of two rather shocking things he said was that he thought Clarence Thomas would be beholden to the pope, which was bad enough but was made worse by the fact Thomas was in episcopalian. Here it can be laughed off a little more because focus can be put on the idea that any Catholics would be moderated by being in America, which can help him with Catholic voters who are not extreme on following the pope.
The other thing he said was that America should have just killed Saddam Hussein. That, especially in the interests of evening things out a little, will come back to bite him.
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2. Out of the frying pan.. Foreign policy in Wilder's 1st term
One of Wilder's first orders of business was to meet with NATO allies to discuss not only ways in which they could expand NATO and the burgeoning European Union but also ways in which they could learn to develop their own military so America did not have to spend so much of its Budget on them.
This was something of a surprise to America's allies, but they did begin to work on an agreement wherein they would start providing more and more of their own support and budget. There were quite a few that didn't think they needed a budget for the military, but this in turn was helping American liberals and soothing them a little after they had been frustrated by how moderate the Democratic ticket had been.
When nations such as Poland complained, it was used as a hook to get Poland and others to join NATO. They would also eventually become members of the European Union. It would take some time but despite Russian opposition Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic would join near the end of Wilder's first term, with ongoing negotiations to try to get Russia to join although that was opposed by quite a few.(1)
Wilder wasn't sure what to do about the troops helping the United Nations in Somalia. It was definitely a problem. On the other hand, was it a problem that America needed to be fighting?
His answer was made for him in early April, soon after a historic picture taken by the president with five former presidents, the most ever living at once.
Governor Wilder, in 1991, had said that they should have just killed Saddam Hussein. When former President Bush went to visit Kuwait, the son of Iraq's top agents attempted to assassinate him. While the plot would have been discovered normally, they developed a plan B because they were so intent on it, given that the current Administration also seemed to want Saddam Hussein to die.
The assassination of the former president was seen as Wilder's version of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Would he back down?
He decided he would not. However, instead of invading again, he pulled troops out of Somalia - keeping them from suffering at the battle of Mogadishu and leading some to speculate that he did not want to have his own troops fighting Africans - and instead developed a crack unit which would topple Hussein and put someone else in power other than him and his two diabolical sons.
There was just one problem with this plan. Hussein Kamil was found to do this but while he took charge, a civil war soon broke out in the south of iraq. Worse, it was a three-way Civil War. There was the Iraqi government led by Kamil, there was the Iranian government which wanted to annex the area in a renewal of the Iran Iraq war, and there were the Southern Iraqis who while beingz Shiite did not want to be governed by iran.
The only good thing was that this appeared sellable to some Muslim nations as an honor killing. A tit for tat thing. Hussain Kamil was married to one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, which President Wilder had thought would mean that it would be a smooth transition. He figured it would be just like a European monarch who is replaced by his daughter as Queen and her husband is king.
This led to Rush Limbaugh making jokes about Wilder thinking that Hussein Kamil and his wife were the William and Mary of Iraq, referring to the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689.
Wilder had made it American policy to let the Muslims argue It out among themselves. This led in the following years to massacres in a couple of countries of nearly every Al-Qaeda leader and member as radicals tried to take over places like Afghanistan and iraq.(2) Of course, the radicals were also killing a lot of moderates but President Wilder said that he had more important things to deal with.
When United Nations troops were roundly defeated at Mogadishu, the international body was seen as being totally inadequate. President Wilder admitted that there were a lot of evil nations in the world, but that this was why America had to stand strong and not try to fight everyone but simply to invite in those that wanted freedom while helping those who wanted to make their countries free lands. He was doubling down on his concept that America bred moderation.
"Some," Wilder said in another move that earned him some praise among conservatives, "incorrectly say that Islam means peace in Arabic. The confusion is that Islam stands for submission, but the word for submission in Arabic and the word for peace come from the same root word." He then invited any Muslims who wanted to escape the violence to come, but said he especially hoped that many women who wished to flee the tyranny of their abuse of husbands would come and bring their children.
This would lead to a famous case of a mother who had to fight to keep her children from being taken back to Saudi Arabia when she and they sought asylum. Cases like that of Elian gonzalez, who is allowed to stay with his mother in Miami when they were rescued by watchful United States Navy officers, were used to support the finding that the children could stay with their mother.(3)
When it came to NAFTA, in a compromise with his vice president, President Wilder tied any agreement with Mexico to their ability to prevent drugs from being smuggled across the United States and Mexican border. He volunteered to provide any help that was needed, and some speculated that this might mean that US troops would have to be sent there or even to one of the countries hosting drug kingpins in South America.
That was top secret, however, because he knew they had to meet with foreign representatives to see how to do that. He did not want America to be seen as intervening in a situation like they had so often in the first half of the 20th century in Latin America and the Caribbean. Has he famously said in one speech, "We made some horrible decisions in creating banana republics a century ago, and we are not going to create digital republics now."
Kurdistan was another problem. The Kurds wanted independence, and part of the agreement with Hussein Kamil had been that he would give the Kurds a good deal of autonomy. They had this now, but it was mostly since the government was taking so much time in the southern part of Iraq that it was almost like Kurdistan was its own country. "We have not seen your government officials in this area in months. We like it like that," one Kurd stated.
President Wilder kept begging other Muslim countries to take the many refugees coming out of the Southern third of Iraq. He also suggested that Turkey could even absorb Kurdistan if they were willing to give the Kurds autonomy since they themselves had a large Kurdish population. However, it seemed as though these clever ideas were consistently falling on deaf ears. Indeed, rumors had Turkey expelling the Kurds from their own territory and sending them to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Pat Robertson's prediction that Wilder would be another Jimmy Carter was not totally correct, however, when it came to foreign policy and was certainly not true with domestic policy.
Wilder had some foreign policy victories in his first few years. Backing away from Europe allowed him to spend more money on the homefront and also save money to lower the budget deficit, though that partly was because of the booming economy. He also was able to put one of his pet projects into effect which he felt would nullify any bad feelings if American and Colombian or Bolivian or whoever's forces should have to stage a large strike against one of the drug kingpins in South America.
Wilder knew that China was opening up to trade. He knew that they were a large economy. He also reminded everyone that they were still a communist country. He deplored their human rights abuses just as he did those of Muslim countries. This meant that he wanted to find another partner for American jobs which would not be communist.
Brazil was filled with good resources. They also had a problem, that being that they were destroying their own rainforest. Wilder asked himself: What if Brazilian jobs were made in the tech industry? Then, more people would come to the cities to work in Tech Industries and they would not feel the need to burn more of the rain forest to build land to farm.
President Wilder moved his focus onto building up Latin America by helping them to build their own jobs. Itmet with a little concern by Latin American countries. However, he showed that he clearly wanted to help Latin American countries to help themselves. He promised that Apple, Microsoft and others would not be dominating the Brazilians.
All In all, President Wilder's foreign policy was seen as mixed his first few years, with liberals both praising his backing away from foreign involvement and cutting of the budget but at the same time decrying his lack of support for less wealthy nations. It became more of a success, though with some worrying about such digital republics, as his 1st term wound down. His policies were seen as somewhat keeping Mexico afloat, and despite growing rumors that this would lead to a union between Canada, Mexico, and the United States, he was still seen as fairly good in the foreign area with a popular domestic agenda.
That, however, was due to not only a booming economy, but also two other barely related factors. The First Lady by committee. The president's use of Grassroots support in unusual areas. And, the fact that the strange bedfellows these 2 things created even through 1995 had led to unexpectedly positive developments in certain areas dealing with crime.
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(1) OTL it was a couple years later, in 1999. Since this is a simple timeline and a day that focuses on the United States and how it's actions impact others, I don't get into specifics. But I would think two and a half to three years early would be doable.
(2) So no Taliban in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda is mostly ruined.
(3) You will see later why, in this time line, a greater United States presence at the right place allows his mother to survive. The incident involving the Muslim family replaces that as a major news story in 2000.
3. "Unite with anyone to do right and no one to do wrong" - Domestic policy in Wilder's first term
Rush Limbaugh had to admit later that he was incredibly surprised by the caller in the spring of 1995. But, it was at the same time very welcome.
The First Lady by committee, consisting of Vice President Gephardt's wife, who handled formal functions, Secretary of State Glenn's wife - and then the wife of the man who succeeded him when he left in 1997 after Wilder's first term - and one of President Wilder's daughters, tackled numerous issues during President Wilder's time as president.
In an effort to take the focus away from abortion, which Wilder had tried to downplay since he was so liberal about it and he wanted to draw more conservative votes, these ladies focused even more on basic rights of females everywhere. They spoke out some at first about the problems of Muslim countries, but this became much more of a focus once former President Bush was assassinated.
Liberals supporting the group try to encourage them to be more inclusive of Muslims, but they stuck to the party line that women were denied basic rights such as even the right to drive let alone to vote, and that they were treated as second class citizens in Muslim countries, something which needed to stop.
This drew applause from some areas, even as others hastily try to defend islam. Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for instance, tried to emphasize that it was a religion of peace. This led to moderates and conservatives voicing the fact that their statements "proved that America moderated people" and that their choice of faith had not been the cause of their peace, America and the freedom that it provided had been the cause of their peace and that their choices, freely made, were simply the effect
While it was not the main reason for Wilder to be backing away from the Middle East and trying to make America independent of foreign oil and other energy sources - domestic oil production shut up in agreements between him and conservatives in exchange for them supporting other programs - it certainly came into play at times. Although some of those times were because those Middle East allies were upset that they were being criticized and also that there was a civil war going on in southern Iraq still.
Wilder was being very clever politically in talking like this. He knew that the attempt to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 had jarred Americans. He also knew that there were racial divisions in his own country that still needed healed - why not focus on how much better America was and how it was taking the lead? Finally, he knew that female voters needed to be drawn for the 1994 midterms. What better way than to focus on all fundamental rights of women and not just one of them?
Where this got tricky was when the Committee begin to openly attack many other forms of misogyny, including sexual harassment and worse. Here, whites began to squirm and some began to break with the president, where they had agreed with him in his first year or so, when he was just going after Middle Eastern countries and China. One common refrain was, "we don't mind if you attack crime in the inner city, just don't come after us and what we do in our relationships."
Fighting crime, however, was one of the hallmarks of President Wilder's policy. He didn't speak out against such things as loudly as the women did, but it was certainly tied to him since he had put this committee together.
Hillary Clinton saw little chance for her own political career - unless she tried to run for Congress or something from Arkansas - after Governor Clinton became more and more engrossed in scandal and looked very likely to lose reelection, which he would in 94. She actively latched onto the bandwagon that the First Lady by committee had begun by soundly declaring "me too" in reference to how Governor Clinton had treated so much on her. Other more famous celebrities began to carry this banner, which would become her main claim to fame as she attempted to possibly run for her own seat in Congress, even if the Senate seemed unlikely. But, if not from Arkansas maybe somewhere else.
President Wilder welcomed the "me too!" Internet frenzy that seemed to be erupting during his second year in office. He referred to it as "one way in which America is fighting crime," just as he said it would in his campaign.
He was a little concerned, however, when his attempts to court Bill Cosby as a famous black celebrity who would support his anti-crime agenda were quickly hushed up by fast thinking aides during his first few months in office. They informed the president that they had "spotted something concerning" which raised enough red flags that they thought that he should distance himself from Cosby. These red flags, early in 1994, led to networks coming up with contingency plans to rebrand reruns of The Cosby show, which were extremely popular at the time, as "The Huxtables." The show would remain the same except that the opening would have that as the series name.(1)
The movement against sexual abuses also spread to athletics, where rumors about the defensive coordinator for Penn State began to mount until the distractions led to a close loss by three points at Michigan during the 1994 season prevented the Nittany Lions from being undefeated going into Bowl season.(2) Everyone said Nebraska was clearly the top team anyway, but now there was no doubt. When Penn State's head coach refused to look into the matter during the season, one player reportedly took matters into his own hands by deliberately smashing into the coordinator and, when attempting to get off, putting a cleat in his… well, down there. Jokes abounded for months about the player joining the baseball team because of his ability to crush the ball. Replays were inconclusive however as to whether it was on purpose, and a link wasn't reported till many years later between the player and a member of the Theater Department - a link which had led to that player practicing for days on how to step a certain way to make it look like he was stumbling as he tried to get up. And, that player also learned how to talk under his breath so while he said he was saying excuse moi - excuse me in French - to lighten the mood, the coordinator thought he had said something about boys. Penn State would go on to lose to Illinois in the following game because of the distraction over that incident.
Some whites had begun to use this part of the tough on crime agenda to spout more ferver against those of other races. This led to Rush Limbaugh making a number of comments decrying the violence because conservatism didn't mean that one shut groups out of the party.
Eventually, one hate group actually spray painted a swastika on Limbaugh's office door because Limbaugh would not support them in their fight. Limbaugh courageously declared that he would make sure the people who had to done that were hunted down and prosecuted.
This led to the famous phone call. His producer, of course, let him know who it was. And, while his was a talk show and not an interview show, he gladly took the call.
"This is President Frederick Douglass Wilder," President Wilder said jokingly.
"Mr President. It is an honor to have you call. I assume you understand that this is not an interview show," Limbaugh said calmly, trying to figure out what was going on.
"I understand that, Mr Limbaugh. First, I want to thank you for using the name Frederick Douglass. You know, Mr Douglass once said that he would Unite with anyone to do right, and with no one to do wrong. I am glad that I have your support against the most radical factions in both parties," the president said.
"Oh, of course, Mr. President. Obviously, our political views differ widely in a few areas. But as I have said on this show a number of times as these racial incidents mounted, you are far better than former Governor Clinton would have been." He decided he may as well dare to ask. "Do you listen to my show? What's on your mind?"
Wilder chuckled. "No, but I do have aides who listen to every variety of talk show host when it comes to politics. I'm sorry to hear about what some vandals did to you. I can assure you that I face the same thing at the start of my career, I nearly ran against someone as an independent because they were supported by the racist Harry Bird organization."
Which is of course an organization of democrats. The Republican party was the party of civil rights for a long time. Whereas Lyndon Johnson, while he finally pushed it, he blatantly said that he would do whatever he could to get votes. That's the only reason he did it."
"And then the southern strategy in 1968 by President Nixon caused the tables to be turned for good."
"It doesn't have to be the last word. Mr. President, we have black people running for office in the Republican party. There are black conservatives, you said so yourself when you were campaigning and saw how detrimental liberal policies have been to the black community. You yourself said that crime had to be defeated."
Wilder grinned. "And, as part of my Grassroots campaigns, I have said that we need to support more businesses in the African-American community, more startups, there is no reason why a black entrepreneur can't do something in this great wide Frontier known as the internet," the president said. "That's why I want the help of you and your dittoheads."
"Meaning what?" Limbaugh asked evenly.
"I want this to be a bipartisan situation. If black people start businesses, if they are encouraged to be the backbone of a growing middle classes, while only the richest 1%, the multi multi-millionaires, are taxed-"
"Let's not get into the tax argument Mr President. That is for an entirely different segment." Although privately Limbaugh relished the idea of debating the president, he also wanted to avoid the turning into the kind of show that simply had interviews and debates.
"You're right, that's fair. I'm trying to present my whole proposal. But what I really want from conservatives is for them to realize that the solution to crime in the inner cities, or at least a major part of the solution, is to ensure that a black middle class rises in these inner cities, that the poor do not attack them but instead that these entrepreneurs are praised. That means that whites do not attack but that they support entrepreneurs regardless of race. So, I would hope that we would not have anyone refusing to support it because it helps minorities. My proposals will help everyone in the inner cities. It is not putting one race above the other."
Limbaugh and the president talked for a few more minutes, during which his ratings went through the roof as many people tuned in just to hear him chat with the president. It was a bit heated at times, and Wilder managed to draw him into the debate that Limbaugh really hadn't wanted to have, but overall it was entertaining at least.
When the call was over, Lindbergh admitted that he had not expected this but that he had a lot of respect for the president. He did, after all, give him the nickname Frederick Douglass. And, while he might disagree with some of the president's stances on things, he had to admit that President Wilder had a point. His proposals did help people of every race. And, there were probably liberals who hated it because he was willing to work with conservatives. From there, Limbaugh went back to his regularly scheduled show trying to emphasize how conservatives really were the ones to truly support African-Americans.
There were of course still some who were quite upset at the fact that the president was black. The tensions seemed to have died down for a while. However the rhetoric of the internet did fuel some problems, and led to a very scary situation in which the president was shot at during a March campaign rally in 1996 as he ran for reelection.
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(1) at the height of its popularity, the networks will not totally drop a show like that. They will, however, slowly distance themselves from Cosby. Note, too, that while this early "Me too!" wave does gain steam, it doesn't have quite the effect without social media. It is, however, seen as the first big sign that the internet can have an impact. So, Cosby himself may not be charged till the late 90s with it taking that long for women to come forward.
(2) Possible, they only won by a touchdown. It's an unintended consequence of his strategy to avoid conflicts about race by pointing out thigns all can agree on.
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4. Shots, Re-elections, Environments
President Wilder had an idea. He would invite some of the stars of The Dukes of Hazzard to join him in a very early re-election campaign in February. He planned to go to Georgia, and he thought it would be a good way to show that he was a president of all the people, even those with very conservative views.
What wound up happening was described as another Waco. Instead of an abusive cult however, the president and several of the actors were entering an area in part of Georgia where the neighborhood did not want black people, period.(1)
The president was warned by Secret Service agents not to get out of the car. He agreed, but John Schneider and Tom Wopat, driving a replica of the General Lee, were braver. Wilder used a version of the limo that President Kennedy had used, but with a bulletproof top around it so he could be seen and, through a microphone, speak to people but if he was shot at the bullets would not penetrate.
Some accused him of political grandstanding. When he began to speak to the people, one man, upset at the president intruding on them and the Secret Service having scoured through everything, brought a gun out and fired it into the air. This led to the actors jumping back into their car and all the cars zooming away while the Secret Service tackled the guy even though he claimed that he was not going to actually try to shoot the president. However, his comments that he was only trying to show that certain people were not welcome made him look really bad anyway.
Whether the Dukes reunion show would have anything about such an incident was put on the back burner a few weeks later, when actual shots were fired at the president during a campaign rally in virginia.
There was some embarrassment because one network automatically assumed that it was a white supremacist. Worse, the reporter was saying this as the image was shown of a radical Muslim who instantly was seen on camera shouting "death to the infidel."(2)
This in turn led to interrogation of the suspect to see whether he had acted alone or whether there was a broader conspiracy. It seemed as though he had acted alone, but he had been encouraged by listening to radical clerics. Immigration suddenly became a very hot topic, especially because someone could get into Mexico or Canada now and then cross the border from there into the US.
This led, in turn, to greater attempts at cooperation between the countries. Even as conservatives praised the government for insisting upon Mexican cooperation, and also praised Mexico for having an airtight border with Guatemala, they also criticized the continuing closer growth between the United states, Canada, and Mexico. In fact, Internet rumors grew even more than before that eventually there could be a North American union. To this, some liberals remark that if the only border that had to be guarded was between Mexico and Guatemala - and a touch of Belize - that would be a lot better.
In reality, though, there was not going to be a North American Union in the same way that the European nations were growing closer together. American and Mexican militaries were cooperating quite a bit to destroy the drug gangs which were such a part of Mexico, a by-product of the United States withdrawing some of their military from the eastern hemisphere. But the nations were still very far apart, and the traditions and cultures would take so much time to meld, much more so than West Germany and East germany, which were still far apart even though they were now one nation.
Still, this put Republican nominee Bob dole, who, it was said, it was just his turn, in a predicament. He was a lackluster campaigner anyway, and it was really felt that the Republicans didn't have much chance. In return for passing some of his legislation, Wilder had actually been working with Republicans to achieve some of their goals, such as with health insurance. This, of course, was because of Vice President Gephardt, whose excellent reputation on Capitol Hill and the many friends he had made allowed him to work well even when so many newcomers came in in the Republican wins of 1994. Wins which were probably 20 to 30 house members less than they would have been under Clinton.
The attempt on President Wilder's life brought even more sympathy for him. The bipartisan work which Wilder was trying to create, as well as the Grassroots support, led to him getting a very comfortable victory in the November General election.
However, there were storm clouds on the horizon. America faced some criticism for not engaging more against the genocide which had been attempted in the Balkans. The newest members of the NATO alliance were pleased to be able to develop their military too counter such problems, but even they were a little squeamish as it appeared that Germany might step up to take the lead as far as the ranking NATO member and also largest member of the new European Union which was developing.
In turn, in one of his last acts as Secretary of state, John Glenn worked to broker agreements for a rotating head of the EU and also for Britain and France to bear more of the burden. He noted that it was much like in the days before World War 1, when France and Germany were the big powers and Britain would maintain the balance of power.
Other storm clouds rose when the environment was discussed. President Wilder agreed that it was good to work toward developing cleaner, more efficient and renewable fuels such as nuclear and solar power. However, he insisted that the United States could not do it alone and tried to lead the international bodies in charge of such things to condemn China for its human rights violations and to tie any sort of help to China improving human rights.
The transfer of Hong Kong back to China from Britain would become a major factor here. Britain did not want to risk war, that was for sure. However, they actually tried to bring an international court case arguing that the China that they promised to return Hong Kong to did not exist anymore.
This was a laughable argument, obviously, because it was clearly the same successor state. However, led by Wilder, the Chinese were slowly forced to give in in a number of areas, promising to go straight from pre-industrial to post industrial. Although, whether they would keep those promises remained to be seen.
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(1) There was a conviction some months back of someone who had shot a black person in Georgia for just being in the neighborhood. This would be a very similar situation, and in fact I am thinking it could have been in the same neighborhood.
(2) Whether it is simply a really dumb guess before knowing the facts, or whether someone is trying to stir up trouble, I leave it to the reader to decide. As I said before, and in the thread where a President Wilder was talked about, things were not as divisive as they were by the time President Obama came into office. There would be divisions and loudmouths as I showed, but I'm not sure there would quite be the presumption that it was a white supremacist in 1996 as there would have been 15 to 20 years later.
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5. Rounding third and heading for home, the situation in 2001.
As president Wilder left office, to be replaced by his vice president, America had grown more isolated in some ways even as the internet made things much more global.
This had struck a cord with a lot of people. While he did not get done as much as he had hoped as far as infrastructure, he had done a fair amount, and he had balanced the budget for a few years.
He had campaigned for his vice president, but Gephardt did well on his own, especially with George W. Bush seeming to care a little too much about foreign policy for some people's tastes. Weather intentionally or not, some in the media got him talking about Iraq and how maybe America should go in and fix things, and that got enough people concerned that there could be a new war over there that Gephardt won with a little over 300 electoral votes.
It was understandable of course. He had lost his father, the only former president ever to be assassinated. The fact that he had lost meant that some felt that the Republicans needed to find new, fresh blood. Of course, the way the economy had problems every 20 years or so, it was also possible that Gephardt would simply win reelection in 2004 and the Democrats would lose huge in 2008.
Iraq was a bit of a mess, though the Shiite Nation which had formed in the south of Iraq was now independent, having beaten back Iran with the help of the Iraqi government. The tensions were still somewhat high, but now as Israel grew economically some of the very moderate Arab countries such as Jordan considered even stronger ties with them.
Closer to home, Brazil was getting help with some of the technology firms and other businesses which had moved down there. While Spanish was still the most popular second language in the United States, Portuguese was becoming popular also. Very few high schools had even offered it in 1993, but by the year 2001 it was growing quite rapidly as a language for students to take as a second language.
This didn't totally eliminate the burning of the rainforest of course. However, Senator Al Gore, who still had some presidential aspirations but had lost out in the primaries in 2000, said that the efforts being made were still very commendable. It was sometimes wondered how he would have been as president had he chosen to run in 1992, something which almost surely would have prevented Wilder from winning. Many said that he probably would have done about the same things as Wilder did. After all, they were both rather moderate members of the democratic party.
Jobs did seem to be rushing out of the United States, but the jobs created rebuilding infrastructure, even though they weren't as massive as had been hoped, were helping, as were president Wilder's efforts to clean up the inner cities and create a better middle class. It was said by critics that this middle class was just replacing the ones that were becoming poorer because of the job losses in the rust belt. However, that hadn't been a big enough problem to defeat Gephardt, especially since he could say that he was one of few people who hadn't supported NAFTA in 1992.
There was no North American union, and even discussion about a common currency was very, very low level. It was just in the theoretical stages. However, the military cooperation among the United States, Canada, and Mexico was seen as problematic by some, who pointed out that European countries were cooperating in the same way before the European Union was founded. However, rumors that a North American Union was only 5 years away would exist for at least 25 years since they first began in the mid-90s.
The United States had made a number of major raids against drug lords in South america. In fact, some of the successes there or what had helped Gephardt to get over the top in the fight for the nomination in 2000.
Another thing came in 1999, in the lead up to the celebration of the millennium - even though it wouldn't begin till 2001 of course. The highlighting of women's issues in the Middle East and other Muslim countries had led to massive protests in some regions of the middle east. The Saudis actually permitted women to drive because of this. Everyone held the new year as the beginning of the century of the woman.
This led some to wonder, when would a woman be president of the United States. Many felt that it would happen in much the same way as President Wilder had become president - iat seemingly Unstoppable incumbent who wound up stumbling a lot in the last year or so of his presidency, and a woman who was a good leader but who really just relied on Grassroots support.
It would not be Hillary Clinton. She felt that she could become president but the odds were stacked against her, even after she won a congressional seat in the year 2000. She was seen more as an activist, with one newspaper referring to her as "a poor man's Eleanor Roosevelt." She would have a decent career in Congress but would not have any major presidential runs in her, though she would try a couple of times. A lot like Gephardt would have in a different timeline.
And so, as Douglas Wilder left office, he was seen as a good president - Pat Robertson admitted that he had been pretty far off in his thoughts that Wilder would be another Jimmy Carter. America was doing well, although some felt she should be much more active on the world stage.
Because America was not as active on the world stage, Russia seemed to be a little more menacing and China was not listening as well as people thought it would to demands on it too reduce carbon emissions, though they were doing so - partly because their economy was starting to flounder because countries were pouring their support into Brazil instead. In fact, the Olympics that China thought they would get in 2008 wound up being awarded to Rio De Janeiro, with Brazil seeming to finally be ready to emerge on the world stage as a power. China and Russia were trying to create their own economic bloc, which worried a lot of people.
However, while the world was a little worse off because America had backed off of the world stage and was focused more on itself, Americans tended to see that as a good thing. Sure, it was becoming much more of a service economy that it had been in decades past, but America was still the land of freedom. And, while a decade earlier it hadn't seemed possible, they had achieved something great by having a black president.
I'll note at the start I was torn on the LImbaugh thing, Wilder was big into grass roote and talking to common people but I don't know if he'd go this far - I did it for story effect, but I do think Limbaugh would face what he does here because he would support conservative values regardless of who pushed them - yet some would be bothered by it.
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- His Accidently
It may have come a little further back than that. As he was doing what governors do, he happened to visit a school with a Christian club that met after school. One of these students encouraged him by telling him that he could be President someday. When he downplayed the idea, she replied that America was "a land of moderation." And that he could get votes for crossing the divide between whites and blacks given his mixed race.
He thanked her for that and other things, and thought to himself that this was what the Bible said about always building others up, edifying one another. Her comment about the very fact of American freedom moderating those who came led him to make a comment that which might otherwise have come out as much more divisive.
It was during the Clarence Thomas hearings. He would have normally made a somewhat scathing remark about Thomas supposedly being Catholic, following the Pope in everything including abortion decisions. Instead, he thought of what this student had said and remarked that he knew that Clarence Thomas would not adhere to the dictates of the Pope because America was a land of moderation and that he knew that Catholics in America were much different than those in Latin America or Europe. That was because they did not follow the pope on everything. He praised John Paul II on his great political leadership in helping to end the Cold War but said that he knew that not everyone believed everything that the pope said when it came to religion.(1)
This allowed Clarence Thomas to laugh off the comment and point out that he was Episcopalian so he certainly would not be abiding by any of the Pope's dictates. Instead of Governor Doug Wilder appearing to be too harsh and hurting the Catholic vote, this was seen as a feather in his cap.
At the same time, President Bush was at his highest approval rating. He had won the Gulf War and now appeared unbeatable. Some Democratic leaders began to push Governor Wilder of Virginia to run for president. They figured that if they were going to have a sacrificial candidate, they may as well do what Mondale did with Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and make a statement about their party being all inclusive, thereby implying the Republicans were not.
Wilder considered it, but Clinton was still there. Wouldn't Bill Clinton be better?
Something else happened that caused Governor Wilder to go up in the polls and Clinton to go down. He was asked if - during a hypothetical run for the presidency - he thought his divorce would cause a problem. He said that President Reagan had been divorced and it had not been an issue, and that - while marriage had not been for him - it was still an important institution and he would stand by anyone who was a victim of anything like domestic violence. It was part of his desire to be tough on any type of crime. He also said that, during the hypothetical Presidency, he would have a task force which would encourage people to come forward and help victims. Perhaps a first lady by committee would help to consider different women's rights issues, he considered out loud.
This made him sound like a candidate all right, but at the same time, it encouraged one person in particular to come forward and say something had happened to her during encounters with Bill Clinton.
Wilder had decided to announce his candidacy but not try really hard right away, just as a trial balloon in early fall of 1991. Suddenly, he found himself getting more support. Although Paul Tsongas was seen as the early leader, there wasn't one clear favorite. Votes were scattered among several candidates. While he began to rise in the polls and win primaries that Clinton might otherwise have - Clinton dropped out in early April just after Wilder won a couple of big primaries and after a big News expose in February about Whitewater - Wilder wasn't the clear favorite until those early April victories.
Some conspiracy theorists said that Jerry Brown remained in the race until the convention because the Democrats were now desperate for someone who was not black to win. After all, the economy was starting to get worse and it was now apparent that the Democrats had a chance. However, it is more likely that he remained in to become vice president.
Instead, Wilder chose Dick Gephardt of Missouri. He knew he would need someone very experienced in Washington DC government. Gephardt was against Nafta, which would allow them to draw quite a few Perot voters. He felt like he had more of a shot to win California anyway, whereas someone from an industrial state was necessary to capture those votes. Finally, the congressman was much more conservative in the abortion area which could also help him to draw some Republican voters.
He painted himself as a person of moderation who would bring everyone together, including those of different races. He continually emphasized the Statue of Liberty and the freedom that she promised to everyone who came. In fact, right after the convention, his first campaign stop the next day was a speech with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
He made some announcements for his cabinet before the election was even held. He discussed John Glenn, who would become Secretary of state, and Sam Ninn, who would become Secretary of Defense. These men very actively campaigned for him and were crucial in winning certain states. And yet, he could share how he himself was a Washington outsider.
His America First policy was one where his promise to balance the budget and to be tough on crime made him seem more like a conservative. Sure, there would be Federal incentives for programs which reduced drugs. But with the Cold War over he proclaimed that America must work together with her allies to help them to protect themselves, and make sure that America's inner cities were safe for her own people.
Another thing he did which drew some conservative votes was to highlight President Bush and his "new world order" talk. He not only attacked the economy and said it was the main problem, he implied that President Bush was trying to make America more involved overseas with global politics when in fact it should be less involved while saying no to foreign dictators.
This even earned him some plaudits from Pat Robertson, who nevertheless stated on the 700 Club that Wilder seemed to be "a nice man but unfortunately some of his personality and knowledge of government make me worry that he will just be another Jimmy Carter, an honest man who may well know Jesus personally as Savior but who will just be overwhelmed by the responsibility of the office." Indeed, Wilder had responded truthfully to a question by a 700 Club reporter that he had made a profession of faith several months earlier after talking with that same student who he went back to see and talk with about the Gospel. He said he preferred doing that in secret rather than allowing any single major evangelists to get credit. He was trying to reach down to Grassroots support by doing this.
Governor Wilder did all the right things. And yet the vote was still close. With a different candidate Ross Perot would have gotten more of the vote, but he also would have probably not been seen so easily as having cost Bush the election. Although whether he did is really up in the air.
What mattered was that, was just over 300 electoral votes, Governor Wilder had won the presidency.
He promised in his inaugural address to bring America together. There were quite a few moderates and even some conservatives who were genuinely happy to see that America had a black president. Rush Limbaugh would change the first initial L and call him Frederick Douglass Wilder, but he still said that it sounded like Wilder had some genuinely conservative ideas and that, with news about Whitewater coming out, he was "better than Clinton would have been." It was felt by many that this meant A hAmerica d totally arrived as a land of equality.
America would find itself at peace and feel good. The next few years would be rocky for the world, though.
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(1) OTL one of two rather shocking things he said was that he thought Clarence Thomas would be beholden to the pope, which was bad enough but was made worse by the fact Thomas was in episcopalian. Here it can be laughed off a little more because focus can be put on the idea that any Catholics would be moderated by being in America, which can help him with Catholic voters who are not extreme on following the pope.
The other thing he said was that America should have just killed Saddam Hussein. That, especially in the interests of evening things out a little, will come back to bite him.
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2. Out of the frying pan.. Foreign policy in Wilder's 1st term
One of Wilder's first orders of business was to meet with NATO allies to discuss not only ways in which they could expand NATO and the burgeoning European Union but also ways in which they could learn to develop their own military so America did not have to spend so much of its Budget on them.
This was something of a surprise to America's allies, but they did begin to work on an agreement wherein they would start providing more and more of their own support and budget. There were quite a few that didn't think they needed a budget for the military, but this in turn was helping American liberals and soothing them a little after they had been frustrated by how moderate the Democratic ticket had been.
When nations such as Poland complained, it was used as a hook to get Poland and others to join NATO. They would also eventually become members of the European Union. It would take some time but despite Russian opposition Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic would join near the end of Wilder's first term, with ongoing negotiations to try to get Russia to join although that was opposed by quite a few.(1)
Wilder wasn't sure what to do about the troops helping the United Nations in Somalia. It was definitely a problem. On the other hand, was it a problem that America needed to be fighting?
His answer was made for him in early April, soon after a historic picture taken by the president with five former presidents, the most ever living at once.
Governor Wilder, in 1991, had said that they should have just killed Saddam Hussein. When former President Bush went to visit Kuwait, the son of Iraq's top agents attempted to assassinate him. While the plot would have been discovered normally, they developed a plan B because they were so intent on it, given that the current Administration also seemed to want Saddam Hussein to die.
The assassination of the former president was seen as Wilder's version of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Would he back down?
He decided he would not. However, instead of invading again, he pulled troops out of Somalia - keeping them from suffering at the battle of Mogadishu and leading some to speculate that he did not want to have his own troops fighting Africans - and instead developed a crack unit which would topple Hussein and put someone else in power other than him and his two diabolical sons.
There was just one problem with this plan. Hussein Kamil was found to do this but while he took charge, a civil war soon broke out in the south of iraq. Worse, it was a three-way Civil War. There was the Iraqi government led by Kamil, there was the Iranian government which wanted to annex the area in a renewal of the Iran Iraq war, and there were the Southern Iraqis who while beingz Shiite did not want to be governed by iran.
The only good thing was that this appeared sellable to some Muslim nations as an honor killing. A tit for tat thing. Hussain Kamil was married to one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, which President Wilder had thought would mean that it would be a smooth transition. He figured it would be just like a European monarch who is replaced by his daughter as Queen and her husband is king.
This led to Rush Limbaugh making jokes about Wilder thinking that Hussein Kamil and his wife were the William and Mary of Iraq, referring to the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689.
Wilder had made it American policy to let the Muslims argue It out among themselves. This led in the following years to massacres in a couple of countries of nearly every Al-Qaeda leader and member as radicals tried to take over places like Afghanistan and iraq.(2) Of course, the radicals were also killing a lot of moderates but President Wilder said that he had more important things to deal with.
When United Nations troops were roundly defeated at Mogadishu, the international body was seen as being totally inadequate. President Wilder admitted that there were a lot of evil nations in the world, but that this was why America had to stand strong and not try to fight everyone but simply to invite in those that wanted freedom while helping those who wanted to make their countries free lands. He was doubling down on his concept that America bred moderation.
"Some," Wilder said in another move that earned him some praise among conservatives, "incorrectly say that Islam means peace in Arabic. The confusion is that Islam stands for submission, but the word for submission in Arabic and the word for peace come from the same root word." He then invited any Muslims who wanted to escape the violence to come, but said he especially hoped that many women who wished to flee the tyranny of their abuse of husbands would come and bring their children.
This would lead to a famous case of a mother who had to fight to keep her children from being taken back to Saudi Arabia when she and they sought asylum. Cases like that of Elian gonzalez, who is allowed to stay with his mother in Miami when they were rescued by watchful United States Navy officers, were used to support the finding that the children could stay with their mother.(3)
When it came to NAFTA, in a compromise with his vice president, President Wilder tied any agreement with Mexico to their ability to prevent drugs from being smuggled across the United States and Mexican border. He volunteered to provide any help that was needed, and some speculated that this might mean that US troops would have to be sent there or even to one of the countries hosting drug kingpins in South America.
That was top secret, however, because he knew they had to meet with foreign representatives to see how to do that. He did not want America to be seen as intervening in a situation like they had so often in the first half of the 20th century in Latin America and the Caribbean. Has he famously said in one speech, "We made some horrible decisions in creating banana republics a century ago, and we are not going to create digital republics now."
Kurdistan was another problem. The Kurds wanted independence, and part of the agreement with Hussein Kamil had been that he would give the Kurds a good deal of autonomy. They had this now, but it was mostly since the government was taking so much time in the southern part of Iraq that it was almost like Kurdistan was its own country. "We have not seen your government officials in this area in months. We like it like that," one Kurd stated.
President Wilder kept begging other Muslim countries to take the many refugees coming out of the Southern third of Iraq. He also suggested that Turkey could even absorb Kurdistan if they were willing to give the Kurds autonomy since they themselves had a large Kurdish population. However, it seemed as though these clever ideas were consistently falling on deaf ears. Indeed, rumors had Turkey expelling the Kurds from their own territory and sending them to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Pat Robertson's prediction that Wilder would be another Jimmy Carter was not totally correct, however, when it came to foreign policy and was certainly not true with domestic policy.
Wilder had some foreign policy victories in his first few years. Backing away from Europe allowed him to spend more money on the homefront and also save money to lower the budget deficit, though that partly was because of the booming economy. He also was able to put one of his pet projects into effect which he felt would nullify any bad feelings if American and Colombian or Bolivian or whoever's forces should have to stage a large strike against one of the drug kingpins in South America.
Wilder knew that China was opening up to trade. He knew that they were a large economy. He also reminded everyone that they were still a communist country. He deplored their human rights abuses just as he did those of Muslim countries. This meant that he wanted to find another partner for American jobs which would not be communist.
Brazil was filled with good resources. They also had a problem, that being that they were destroying their own rainforest. Wilder asked himself: What if Brazilian jobs were made in the tech industry? Then, more people would come to the cities to work in Tech Industries and they would not feel the need to burn more of the rain forest to build land to farm.
President Wilder moved his focus onto building up Latin America by helping them to build their own jobs. Itmet with a little concern by Latin American countries. However, he showed that he clearly wanted to help Latin American countries to help themselves. He promised that Apple, Microsoft and others would not be dominating the Brazilians.
All In all, President Wilder's foreign policy was seen as mixed his first few years, with liberals both praising his backing away from foreign involvement and cutting of the budget but at the same time decrying his lack of support for less wealthy nations. It became more of a success, though with some worrying about such digital republics, as his 1st term wound down. His policies were seen as somewhat keeping Mexico afloat, and despite growing rumors that this would lead to a union between Canada, Mexico, and the United States, he was still seen as fairly good in the foreign area with a popular domestic agenda.
That, however, was due to not only a booming economy, but also two other barely related factors. The First Lady by committee. The president's use of Grassroots support in unusual areas. And, the fact that the strange bedfellows these 2 things created even through 1995 had led to unexpectedly positive developments in certain areas dealing with crime.
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(1) OTL it was a couple years later, in 1999. Since this is a simple timeline and a day that focuses on the United States and how it's actions impact others, I don't get into specifics. But I would think two and a half to three years early would be doable.
(2) So no Taliban in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda is mostly ruined.
(3) You will see later why, in this time line, a greater United States presence at the right place allows his mother to survive. The incident involving the Muslim family replaces that as a major news story in 2000.
3. "Unite with anyone to do right and no one to do wrong" - Domestic policy in Wilder's first term
Rush Limbaugh had to admit later that he was incredibly surprised by the caller in the spring of 1995. But, it was at the same time very welcome.
The First Lady by committee, consisting of Vice President Gephardt's wife, who handled formal functions, Secretary of State Glenn's wife - and then the wife of the man who succeeded him when he left in 1997 after Wilder's first term - and one of President Wilder's daughters, tackled numerous issues during President Wilder's time as president.
In an effort to take the focus away from abortion, which Wilder had tried to downplay since he was so liberal about it and he wanted to draw more conservative votes, these ladies focused even more on basic rights of females everywhere. They spoke out some at first about the problems of Muslim countries, but this became much more of a focus once former President Bush was assassinated.
Liberals supporting the group try to encourage them to be more inclusive of Muslims, but they stuck to the party line that women were denied basic rights such as even the right to drive let alone to vote, and that they were treated as second class citizens in Muslim countries, something which needed to stop.
This drew applause from some areas, even as others hastily try to defend islam. Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for instance, tried to emphasize that it was a religion of peace. This led to moderates and conservatives voicing the fact that their statements "proved that America moderated people" and that their choice of faith had not been the cause of their peace, America and the freedom that it provided had been the cause of their peace and that their choices, freely made, were simply the effect
While it was not the main reason for Wilder to be backing away from the Middle East and trying to make America independent of foreign oil and other energy sources - domestic oil production shut up in agreements between him and conservatives in exchange for them supporting other programs - it certainly came into play at times. Although some of those times were because those Middle East allies were upset that they were being criticized and also that there was a civil war going on in southern Iraq still.
Wilder was being very clever politically in talking like this. He knew that the attempt to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 had jarred Americans. He also knew that there were racial divisions in his own country that still needed healed - why not focus on how much better America was and how it was taking the lead? Finally, he knew that female voters needed to be drawn for the 1994 midterms. What better way than to focus on all fundamental rights of women and not just one of them?
Where this got tricky was when the Committee begin to openly attack many other forms of misogyny, including sexual harassment and worse. Here, whites began to squirm and some began to break with the president, where they had agreed with him in his first year or so, when he was just going after Middle Eastern countries and China. One common refrain was, "we don't mind if you attack crime in the inner city, just don't come after us and what we do in our relationships."
Fighting crime, however, was one of the hallmarks of President Wilder's policy. He didn't speak out against such things as loudly as the women did, but it was certainly tied to him since he had put this committee together.
Hillary Clinton saw little chance for her own political career - unless she tried to run for Congress or something from Arkansas - after Governor Clinton became more and more engrossed in scandal and looked very likely to lose reelection, which he would in 94. She actively latched onto the bandwagon that the First Lady by committee had begun by soundly declaring "me too" in reference to how Governor Clinton had treated so much on her. Other more famous celebrities began to carry this banner, which would become her main claim to fame as she attempted to possibly run for her own seat in Congress, even if the Senate seemed unlikely. But, if not from Arkansas maybe somewhere else.
President Wilder welcomed the "me too!" Internet frenzy that seemed to be erupting during his second year in office. He referred to it as "one way in which America is fighting crime," just as he said it would in his campaign.
He was a little concerned, however, when his attempts to court Bill Cosby as a famous black celebrity who would support his anti-crime agenda were quickly hushed up by fast thinking aides during his first few months in office. They informed the president that they had "spotted something concerning" which raised enough red flags that they thought that he should distance himself from Cosby. These red flags, early in 1994, led to networks coming up with contingency plans to rebrand reruns of The Cosby show, which were extremely popular at the time, as "The Huxtables." The show would remain the same except that the opening would have that as the series name.(1)
The movement against sexual abuses also spread to athletics, where rumors about the defensive coordinator for Penn State began to mount until the distractions led to a close loss by three points at Michigan during the 1994 season prevented the Nittany Lions from being undefeated going into Bowl season.(2) Everyone said Nebraska was clearly the top team anyway, but now there was no doubt. When Penn State's head coach refused to look into the matter during the season, one player reportedly took matters into his own hands by deliberately smashing into the coordinator and, when attempting to get off, putting a cleat in his… well, down there. Jokes abounded for months about the player joining the baseball team because of his ability to crush the ball. Replays were inconclusive however as to whether it was on purpose, and a link wasn't reported till many years later between the player and a member of the Theater Department - a link which had led to that player practicing for days on how to step a certain way to make it look like he was stumbling as he tried to get up. And, that player also learned how to talk under his breath so while he said he was saying excuse moi - excuse me in French - to lighten the mood, the coordinator thought he had said something about boys. Penn State would go on to lose to Illinois in the following game because of the distraction over that incident.
Some whites had begun to use this part of the tough on crime agenda to spout more ferver against those of other races. This led to Rush Limbaugh making a number of comments decrying the violence because conservatism didn't mean that one shut groups out of the party.
Eventually, one hate group actually spray painted a swastika on Limbaugh's office door because Limbaugh would not support them in their fight. Limbaugh courageously declared that he would make sure the people who had to done that were hunted down and prosecuted.
This led to the famous phone call. His producer, of course, let him know who it was. And, while his was a talk show and not an interview show, he gladly took the call.
"This is President Frederick Douglass Wilder," President Wilder said jokingly.
"Mr President. It is an honor to have you call. I assume you understand that this is not an interview show," Limbaugh said calmly, trying to figure out what was going on.
"I understand that, Mr Limbaugh. First, I want to thank you for using the name Frederick Douglass. You know, Mr Douglass once said that he would Unite with anyone to do right, and with no one to do wrong. I am glad that I have your support against the most radical factions in both parties," the president said.
"Oh, of course, Mr. President. Obviously, our political views differ widely in a few areas. But as I have said on this show a number of times as these racial incidents mounted, you are far better than former Governor Clinton would have been." He decided he may as well dare to ask. "Do you listen to my show? What's on your mind?"
Wilder chuckled. "No, but I do have aides who listen to every variety of talk show host when it comes to politics. I'm sorry to hear about what some vandals did to you. I can assure you that I face the same thing at the start of my career, I nearly ran against someone as an independent because they were supported by the racist Harry Bird organization."
Which is of course an organization of democrats. The Republican party was the party of civil rights for a long time. Whereas Lyndon Johnson, while he finally pushed it, he blatantly said that he would do whatever he could to get votes. That's the only reason he did it."
"And then the southern strategy in 1968 by President Nixon caused the tables to be turned for good."
"It doesn't have to be the last word. Mr. President, we have black people running for office in the Republican party. There are black conservatives, you said so yourself when you were campaigning and saw how detrimental liberal policies have been to the black community. You yourself said that crime had to be defeated."
Wilder grinned. "And, as part of my Grassroots campaigns, I have said that we need to support more businesses in the African-American community, more startups, there is no reason why a black entrepreneur can't do something in this great wide Frontier known as the internet," the president said. "That's why I want the help of you and your dittoheads."
"Meaning what?" Limbaugh asked evenly.
"I want this to be a bipartisan situation. If black people start businesses, if they are encouraged to be the backbone of a growing middle classes, while only the richest 1%, the multi multi-millionaires, are taxed-"
"Let's not get into the tax argument Mr President. That is for an entirely different segment." Although privately Limbaugh relished the idea of debating the president, he also wanted to avoid the turning into the kind of show that simply had interviews and debates.
"You're right, that's fair. I'm trying to present my whole proposal. But what I really want from conservatives is for them to realize that the solution to crime in the inner cities, or at least a major part of the solution, is to ensure that a black middle class rises in these inner cities, that the poor do not attack them but instead that these entrepreneurs are praised. That means that whites do not attack but that they support entrepreneurs regardless of race. So, I would hope that we would not have anyone refusing to support it because it helps minorities. My proposals will help everyone in the inner cities. It is not putting one race above the other."
Limbaugh and the president talked for a few more minutes, during which his ratings went through the roof as many people tuned in just to hear him chat with the president. It was a bit heated at times, and Wilder managed to draw him into the debate that Limbaugh really hadn't wanted to have, but overall it was entertaining at least.
When the call was over, Lindbergh admitted that he had not expected this but that he had a lot of respect for the president. He did, after all, give him the nickname Frederick Douglass. And, while he might disagree with some of the president's stances on things, he had to admit that President Wilder had a point. His proposals did help people of every race. And, there were probably liberals who hated it because he was willing to work with conservatives. From there, Limbaugh went back to his regularly scheduled show trying to emphasize how conservatives really were the ones to truly support African-Americans.
There were of course still some who were quite upset at the fact that the president was black. The tensions seemed to have died down for a while. However the rhetoric of the internet did fuel some problems, and led to a very scary situation in which the president was shot at during a March campaign rally in 1996 as he ran for reelection.
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(1) at the height of its popularity, the networks will not totally drop a show like that. They will, however, slowly distance themselves from Cosby. Note, too, that while this early "Me too!" wave does gain steam, it doesn't have quite the effect without social media. It is, however, seen as the first big sign that the internet can have an impact. So, Cosby himself may not be charged till the late 90s with it taking that long for women to come forward.
(2) Possible, they only won by a touchdown. It's an unintended consequence of his strategy to avoid conflicts about race by pointing out thigns all can agree on.
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4. Shots, Re-elections, Environments
President Wilder had an idea. He would invite some of the stars of The Dukes of Hazzard to join him in a very early re-election campaign in February. He planned to go to Georgia, and he thought it would be a good way to show that he was a president of all the people, even those with very conservative views.
What wound up happening was described as another Waco. Instead of an abusive cult however, the president and several of the actors were entering an area in part of Georgia where the neighborhood did not want black people, period.(1)
The president was warned by Secret Service agents not to get out of the car. He agreed, but John Schneider and Tom Wopat, driving a replica of the General Lee, were braver. Wilder used a version of the limo that President Kennedy had used, but with a bulletproof top around it so he could be seen and, through a microphone, speak to people but if he was shot at the bullets would not penetrate.
Some accused him of political grandstanding. When he began to speak to the people, one man, upset at the president intruding on them and the Secret Service having scoured through everything, brought a gun out and fired it into the air. This led to the actors jumping back into their car and all the cars zooming away while the Secret Service tackled the guy even though he claimed that he was not going to actually try to shoot the president. However, his comments that he was only trying to show that certain people were not welcome made him look really bad anyway.
Whether the Dukes reunion show would have anything about such an incident was put on the back burner a few weeks later, when actual shots were fired at the president during a campaign rally in virginia.
There was some embarrassment because one network automatically assumed that it was a white supremacist. Worse, the reporter was saying this as the image was shown of a radical Muslim who instantly was seen on camera shouting "death to the infidel."(2)
This in turn led to interrogation of the suspect to see whether he had acted alone or whether there was a broader conspiracy. It seemed as though he had acted alone, but he had been encouraged by listening to radical clerics. Immigration suddenly became a very hot topic, especially because someone could get into Mexico or Canada now and then cross the border from there into the US.
This led, in turn, to greater attempts at cooperation between the countries. Even as conservatives praised the government for insisting upon Mexican cooperation, and also praised Mexico for having an airtight border with Guatemala, they also criticized the continuing closer growth between the United states, Canada, and Mexico. In fact, Internet rumors grew even more than before that eventually there could be a North American union. To this, some liberals remark that if the only border that had to be guarded was between Mexico and Guatemala - and a touch of Belize - that would be a lot better.
In reality, though, there was not going to be a North American Union in the same way that the European nations were growing closer together. American and Mexican militaries were cooperating quite a bit to destroy the drug gangs which were such a part of Mexico, a by-product of the United States withdrawing some of their military from the eastern hemisphere. But the nations were still very far apart, and the traditions and cultures would take so much time to meld, much more so than West Germany and East germany, which were still far apart even though they were now one nation.
Still, this put Republican nominee Bob dole, who, it was said, it was just his turn, in a predicament. He was a lackluster campaigner anyway, and it was really felt that the Republicans didn't have much chance. In return for passing some of his legislation, Wilder had actually been working with Republicans to achieve some of their goals, such as with health insurance. This, of course, was because of Vice President Gephardt, whose excellent reputation on Capitol Hill and the many friends he had made allowed him to work well even when so many newcomers came in in the Republican wins of 1994. Wins which were probably 20 to 30 house members less than they would have been under Clinton.
The attempt on President Wilder's life brought even more sympathy for him. The bipartisan work which Wilder was trying to create, as well as the Grassroots support, led to him getting a very comfortable victory in the November General election.
However, there were storm clouds on the horizon. America faced some criticism for not engaging more against the genocide which had been attempted in the Balkans. The newest members of the NATO alliance were pleased to be able to develop their military too counter such problems, but even they were a little squeamish as it appeared that Germany might step up to take the lead as far as the ranking NATO member and also largest member of the new European Union which was developing.
In turn, in one of his last acts as Secretary of state, John Glenn worked to broker agreements for a rotating head of the EU and also for Britain and France to bear more of the burden. He noted that it was much like in the days before World War 1, when France and Germany were the big powers and Britain would maintain the balance of power.
Other storm clouds rose when the environment was discussed. President Wilder agreed that it was good to work toward developing cleaner, more efficient and renewable fuels such as nuclear and solar power. However, he insisted that the United States could not do it alone and tried to lead the international bodies in charge of such things to condemn China for its human rights violations and to tie any sort of help to China improving human rights.
The transfer of Hong Kong back to China from Britain would become a major factor here. Britain did not want to risk war, that was for sure. However, they actually tried to bring an international court case arguing that the China that they promised to return Hong Kong to did not exist anymore.
This was a laughable argument, obviously, because it was clearly the same successor state. However, led by Wilder, the Chinese were slowly forced to give in in a number of areas, promising to go straight from pre-industrial to post industrial. Although, whether they would keep those promises remained to be seen.
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(1) There was a conviction some months back of someone who had shot a black person in Georgia for just being in the neighborhood. This would be a very similar situation, and in fact I am thinking it could have been in the same neighborhood.
(2) Whether it is simply a really dumb guess before knowing the facts, or whether someone is trying to stir up trouble, I leave it to the reader to decide. As I said before, and in the thread where a President Wilder was talked about, things were not as divisive as they were by the time President Obama came into office. There would be divisions and loudmouths as I showed, but I'm not sure there would quite be the presumption that it was a white supremacist in 1996 as there would have been 15 to 20 years later.
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5. Rounding third and heading for home, the situation in 2001.
As president Wilder left office, to be replaced by his vice president, America had grown more isolated in some ways even as the internet made things much more global.
This had struck a cord with a lot of people. While he did not get done as much as he had hoped as far as infrastructure, he had done a fair amount, and he had balanced the budget for a few years.
He had campaigned for his vice president, but Gephardt did well on his own, especially with George W. Bush seeming to care a little too much about foreign policy for some people's tastes. Weather intentionally or not, some in the media got him talking about Iraq and how maybe America should go in and fix things, and that got enough people concerned that there could be a new war over there that Gephardt won with a little over 300 electoral votes.
It was understandable of course. He had lost his father, the only former president ever to be assassinated. The fact that he had lost meant that some felt that the Republicans needed to find new, fresh blood. Of course, the way the economy had problems every 20 years or so, it was also possible that Gephardt would simply win reelection in 2004 and the Democrats would lose huge in 2008.
Iraq was a bit of a mess, though the Shiite Nation which had formed in the south of Iraq was now independent, having beaten back Iran with the help of the Iraqi government. The tensions were still somewhat high, but now as Israel grew economically some of the very moderate Arab countries such as Jordan considered even stronger ties with them.
Closer to home, Brazil was getting help with some of the technology firms and other businesses which had moved down there. While Spanish was still the most popular second language in the United States, Portuguese was becoming popular also. Very few high schools had even offered it in 1993, but by the year 2001 it was growing quite rapidly as a language for students to take as a second language.
This didn't totally eliminate the burning of the rainforest of course. However, Senator Al Gore, who still had some presidential aspirations but had lost out in the primaries in 2000, said that the efforts being made were still very commendable. It was sometimes wondered how he would have been as president had he chosen to run in 1992, something which almost surely would have prevented Wilder from winning. Many said that he probably would have done about the same things as Wilder did. After all, they were both rather moderate members of the democratic party.
Jobs did seem to be rushing out of the United States, but the jobs created rebuilding infrastructure, even though they weren't as massive as had been hoped, were helping, as were president Wilder's efforts to clean up the inner cities and create a better middle class. It was said by critics that this middle class was just replacing the ones that were becoming poorer because of the job losses in the rust belt. However, that hadn't been a big enough problem to defeat Gephardt, especially since he could say that he was one of few people who hadn't supported NAFTA in 1992.
There was no North American union, and even discussion about a common currency was very, very low level. It was just in the theoretical stages. However, the military cooperation among the United States, Canada, and Mexico was seen as problematic by some, who pointed out that European countries were cooperating in the same way before the European Union was founded. However, rumors that a North American Union was only 5 years away would exist for at least 25 years since they first began in the mid-90s.
The United States had made a number of major raids against drug lords in South america. In fact, some of the successes there or what had helped Gephardt to get over the top in the fight for the nomination in 2000.
Another thing came in 1999, in the lead up to the celebration of the millennium - even though it wouldn't begin till 2001 of course. The highlighting of women's issues in the Middle East and other Muslim countries had led to massive protests in some regions of the middle east. The Saudis actually permitted women to drive because of this. Everyone held the new year as the beginning of the century of the woman.
This led some to wonder, when would a woman be president of the United States. Many felt that it would happen in much the same way as President Wilder had become president - iat seemingly Unstoppable incumbent who wound up stumbling a lot in the last year or so of his presidency, and a woman who was a good leader but who really just relied on Grassroots support.
It would not be Hillary Clinton. She felt that she could become president but the odds were stacked against her, even after she won a congressional seat in the year 2000. She was seen more as an activist, with one newspaper referring to her as "a poor man's Eleanor Roosevelt." She would have a decent career in Congress but would not have any major presidential runs in her, though she would try a couple of times. A lot like Gephardt would have in a different timeline.
And so, as Douglas Wilder left office, he was seen as a good president - Pat Robertson admitted that he had been pretty far off in his thoughts that Wilder would be another Jimmy Carter. America was doing well, although some felt she should be much more active on the world stage.
Because America was not as active on the world stage, Russia seemed to be a little more menacing and China was not listening as well as people thought it would to demands on it too reduce carbon emissions, though they were doing so - partly because their economy was starting to flounder because countries were pouring their support into Brazil instead. In fact, the Olympics that China thought they would get in 2008 wound up being awarded to Rio De Janeiro, with Brazil seeming to finally be ready to emerge on the world stage as a power. China and Russia were trying to create their own economic bloc, which worried a lot of people.
However, while the world was a little worse off because America had backed off of the world stage and was focused more on itself, Americans tended to see that as a good thing. Sure, it was becoming much more of a service economy that it had been in decades past, but America was still the land of freedom. And, while a decade earlier it hadn't seemed possible, they had achieved something great by having a black president.
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