Subject: AH Challenge: Green Religious Right Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 20:46:14 -0400 From: Logan Ferree Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create an America in which the same party that houses the Religious Right in America is also the strongest defender of the environment. And this Religious Right, instead of having a sometimes strained relation with the environmentalists (like the Religious Right and Big Business sometimes uptime), has a very peaceful and very strong alliance. Evengicalist Preachers defend the environment in this AH as strong as they may condemn abortion in OTL. Oh, and you cannot have this Religious Right be Wiccans or something. They have to be Christian. And to make sure you don't do things too strange, the POD has to be after 1900. That gives you more than enough time, IMHO. Go get it. Logan Ferree Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Green Religious Right Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 01:33:32 GMT From: Alfred Hailey Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 > Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create an America > in which the same party that houses the Religious Right in America is > also the strongest defender of the environment. And this Religious > Right, instead of having a sometimes strained relation with the > environmentalists (like the Religious Right and Big Business sometimes > uptime), has a very peaceful and very strong alliance. Evengicalist > Preachers defend the environment in this AH as strong as they may > condemn abortion in OTL. Oh, and you cannot have this Religious Right > be Wiccans or something. They have to be Christian. And to make sure > you don't do things too strange, the POD has to be after 1900. That > gives you more than enough time, IMHO. Go get it. (Not entirely serious, but...) Hmm. Religious conservatives take the 'stewards of creation' concept to mean they'll be held accountable come judgement day for the state of said creation (Earth). Suddenly, environmentalism is a core component of saving their souls, and off they go on a pro-ecological crusade. If you want to fracture the party's relation with business further, simply go to a bit of an extreme and suggest that big business thus tries to challenge environmental regulations as a 'violation of the separation between church and state'. That ought to get many religious conservatives furious with business on two counts in one fell swoop. -- | Neutronium Dragon | Dragon Code: DC2.D* Gm L+++ W T+++! Phfwlt Sks | | neutroniumdragon@ | Cwh^ Bpl A+++! Fr+++ N^ M--- O/ H+++! $---! | | home.com | Fo--- R+ Ac+++ J+ S+ U! I-- V+++! Q--- Tc+ | |--------------------------------------------------------------------| | Quoth the necromancer: How dare you infringe upon my wights! | Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Green Religious Right Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 07:24:13 -0500 From: Robert Shimmin Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Logan Ferree wrote: > Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create an America > in which the same party that houses the Religious Right in America is > also the strongest defender of the environment. This isn't too hard. FDR's coalition of northern liberals and southern racists was more bizarre by far. Try these on for size. POD 1912: Roosevelt's victories in Republican primaries are actually honored by party leadership and he wins the party nomination. He wins 1912 election, easily. In 1914, US enters the Great War almost immediately, on the Allied side. Depending on the length of the war, the extent of US casualties, and what territory Teddy tries to wrangle for the US in the war's aftermath, this probably butterflies out most of the 20th century. Still, I predict the addition term of Teddy having the Presidential bully pulpit, coupled with possibly additional presidencies by his ideological successors may result in the survival of the grass-roots conservation movement of the early 1900's, which would share a far closer support base with the Christian right than the modern version of the environmental movement birthed by 1960's academics. You could probably effect the same thing with a two-term WJB presidency. OR: POD 1973: Roe loses her case against Wade. Supreme Court says state and local laws regarding the practice of medicine are none of the Federal government's business. Abortion is still a hotly debated issue in some parts of the country, but fails to become one of the single most polarizing topics in national politics. The (not insubtantial) fraction of Evangelicals who reluctantly vote for the Republicans year after year despite being vaguely ashamed of all but one or two planks of the party platform simply don't exist. Whether this puts a majority of the mainline Evangelical vote into the Democratic camp or just evens things out a bit is up to debate, but IMO it's plausible. OR: POD 2000: Nader looks in the mirror one morning, loses his misplaced optimism, and realizes the only way he'll carry 5% of the vote is to court every disaffected faction in US politics like mad. The Green platform is a blatant attempt to draw protest votes from environmentalists who feel the Democrats have been overrun by Big Business, blacks who are tired of being the Democrats' errand boys, and religious fundies who are tired of being ignored by Republican leadership. (Amusing exercise: try to write this platform yourself.) Various factions so drawn are so shocked that a political party is actually paying attention to them that they momentarily forget assorted differences, and since they won't win the election anyway, actually having to forge policy won't expose these differences. Nonetheless, Nader pulls 5%, all involved call it a victory, and he has the momentum to continue drawing said factions together for another four years. --RS Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Green Religious Right Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 20:58:50 -0400 From: "C. Montgomery Burns" Organization: Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 Logan Ferree wrote: > > Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create an America > in which the same party that houses the Religious Right in America is > also the strongest defender of the environment. And this Religious > Right, instead of having a sometimes strained relation with the > environmentalists (like the Religious Right and Big Business sometimes > uptime), has a very peaceful and very strong alliance. Evengicalist > Preachers defend the environment in this AH as strong as they may > condemn abortion in OTL. Oh, and you cannot have this Religious Right > be Wiccans or something. They have to be Christian. And to make sure > you don't do things too strange, the POD has to be after 1900. That > gives you more than enough time, IMHO. Go get it. 1900: A faction of the moribund Populist movement holds a meeting at a prayer revival. Their party platform can be boiled down to these parts: (1) Industrialism is ruining God's world and destroying American democracy. (2) The only way to preserve American democracy and preserve God's world are to combine Jeffersonian ideals about the agrarian republic and fundamentalist Christian mores. (either way, cities are bad) They choose to call the new party the Holy Earth party. What happens now? I suppose that Holy Earth would gain ground at Democratic expense in the South. However, the Northern wing of the party, lead by the city machines, would probably gain control 30-40 years before they did. As for the Republicans, they would be hurt in swing states in the North and West. Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Green Religious Right Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 03:02:23 GMT From: "Dennis Brennan" Organization: AT&T Worldnet Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 "Logan Ferree" wrote in message news:3AEA12D6.A8DB33F8@roanoke.infi.net... > Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create an America > in which the same party that houses the Religious Right in America is > also the strongest defender of the environment. In Lithuania, the party most commonly identified as championing pro-environment causes is the right wing party. -Dennis