A second Carter administration

[mullauna]

What would a second term of Jimmy have looked like?

How does he handle the streak of insta-dead senile Soviet leaders, for a start?

[stevep]

Mar 22, 2019 6:26:12 GMT mullauna said:

What would a second term of Jimmy have looked like?

How does he handle the streak of insta-dead senile Soviet leaders, for a start?

  It might depend on how he got a 2nd term.  For instance did the hostage rescue attempt work, which would give him a big boost in the polls. 

  He had already ordered a fairly substantial arms build up in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, IIRC pretty much most of what Reagan ordered in his 1st years.  You probably wouldn't get the same belligerence in language and some of of symbols of Reganism, such as the 'Star Wars' programme or the 600 ship fleet. 

  Economically you almost certainly won't get such large tax cuts for the wealthy so the economy could be in somewhat better off.  Also he's likely to continue investment on alternative energy so less support for older, carbon based ones.  Which if it worked could make the ME a lot less important economically, especially as other powers would be far more likely to take the same path.  Would probably also help in terms of global warming which most people were still largely unaware of at the time. 

  You could see less development in the southern US if as a result of less deregulation and less hostility towards industrial [especially] unions industrial power stays more in the north.

  Of course the other point would be what happens in 1984?  Would Carter be seen as such a success that another Democrat wins and carries on his policies or even a moderate Republican follows a basically similar path?  [IIRC it was really with Reagan that the party conflict started getting divisive, albeit not as bitter as it did in more recent decades.]  Or would there be a reaction which means an alternative right wing Republican follows Reagan like policies?

 

[James G]

His second term events would depend upon his relationship with Congress. Carter, who run as and won as a DC outsider, had a terrible relationship with the House and the Senate, each of which were in Democratic hands. This was part - part not all - of the reason why Kennedy ran an unsuccessful primary campaign against him.
Circumstances of the 1980 presidential election would matter as to the new Congress. Reagan's coattails saw the Senate fall into Republican hands along with gains in the House. Take Reagan out of the race or have him run a bad race and that changes.
It was a hostile Congress which acted against Carter's attempts to withdraw US forces from South Korea. I imagine they limited many more things which I am not aware of too. In a Carter two-term scenario, unless he suddenly made friends here, he'd be having a difficult time getting anything done to his desires.

[insect]

There would likely be no talk of a s.d.i program. cold war would end same time as it did in real life. dole would likely succeed carter in 84.