What if American history turned out different? What if America had control of Canada just after independence? What if America owned Australia? All these & more were voted upon by my Discord server!
Despite the many challenges President Carter faced, he made the 1980's were a time of comparative Peace & Prosperity. He went to Red China to finally normalize relations, which had not been done since President Castro in 1962. But now, Carter's time was up as President, and he had to choose a successor. As Vice President Walter Mondale wasn't too interested in becoming President himself, many potential successors contacted Carter at various points in time, to try to convince him that they were the best choice, and that they should get his endorsement. First, Jesse Jackson, a well-known minister. He'd be the second Black man to be nominated by a major party, unless you don't count the Liberal Republican Party to be a major party, then Jackson would indeed be the first. But most American People considered Jackson too liberal. Secondly was Al Gore, a Senator from Tennessee. As a fellow Southerner, Carter was interested in giving Gore his endorsement, but he was a wooden speaker, and not very convincing. Then there was Gary Hart of Colorado, who was a serious contender, but he got in a huge sex scandal, so he was out of the race. Finally, there was Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts. He managed to convince Carter to endorse him, and he soon secured the nomination for President from the Labor Party, becoming the first Greek-American to do so. He chose long-time Laborite & Party Boss, Joe Biden, to be his running-mate.
Meanwhile, on the Conservative side, George H.W. Bush grabbed the nomination by very comfortable margins. He considered running in 1984, but he didn't want to be steamrolled by President Carter, so he let that poor rich boy Quayle get mauled, and waited until 1988. He chose Jack Kemp to be his running-mate.
In the Election, Dukakis mostly kept on rolling with Carter's great popularity and containing Biden's gaffes. Bush, on the other hand, positioned himself as a Conservative Carter, but Carter was already pretty conservative. For the most part, Dukakis & Bush agreed on all but one thing: How to deal with the rising crime rate. Bush supported the death penalty, while Dukakis didn't. He also supported more gun legislation. Most perceived that Dukakis lost the Presidential Debate due to the moderator asking an unfair question about what if Dukakis' daughter had been raped, if he would then support the death penalty for the man who did it. Dukakis was forced to stumble through an answer. But despite all that, Dukakis won the 1988 Election in a landslide.
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Just as he had promised, Dukakis continued Carter's popular policies. But he did institute a controversial freeze on the death penalty, which made his popularity take a hit. But despite all that, he carried on.
In 1990, Iraq, governed by its President, Saddam Hussein, invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait & occupied it. Allegedly, Hussein invaded Kuwait because they were stealing oil from their oil fields, and they apparently had a lot of debt owed to Iraq. The invasion was immediately met with international condemnation, and the United States formed a coalition of 42 nations to re-take Kuwait from the Iraqi menace. This became known as the Gulf War. It only took Dukakis and his allies about a year to take back Kuwait and march into Baghdad. And when the boys rolled into Baghdad, they captured President Hussein & sent him to the International Court of Justice, where he was found guilty of many Human Rights violations, and was sentenced to life in prison in an Imperial Russian prison in Siberia.
