Can you imagine what the last few years would have been like had McCain/Palin won?

[nolabear]

I may have an unnatural fascination for Game Change, but it certainly got me thinking. What would the US be like today had the current economic and social climate been under the guidance of John McCain? Would he have survived it? Would the midterms have resulted in McCain/Palin?Boehner in power? What would that have looked like?

It makes my blood run cold, I must say. Any thoughts?

[baldguy]

1. How would it have been before Palin had McCain assassinated?

3 weeks? 5?

[lunasun]

6. or the ""powers that be"" did it

& said "this old soldier has one more thing to give to his country"
so they could have Palin literally as a puppet president

[Ter]

18. The Shadow Government would never trust Palin

They weren't even 100% on McCain. They love Bush's though.

[niyad]

8. that was my first thought.

[Ter]

17. If Poppy Bush couldn't do it to Reagan in 1981

Palin sure as Hell couldn't pull it off.

[tanyev]

21. Naw, not a real assassination. Definitely a character assassination.

I can see her trying to take her case directly to the "rill American people". I can also see McCain giving the Wasilla hillbillies a one-way trip back to Alaska and putting Lieberman in. That would have been an interesting Republican civil war.

[hifiguy]

27. Maybe six months at the most

before McGrump got the Trotsky treatment.

[RZM]

33. I see no evidence at all that this would ever happen

What are you basing this on? That she's ambitious and mean? She's not the first politician to be that way. And who would she use to pull it off? Who would her con-conspirators be? How would they keep this all secret?

There are other ways to say 'I don't like Sarah Palin' than to concoct fanciful scenarios with no basis in her past behavior. She has more than enough actual faults to go around without having to make up any.

[baldguy]

34. Please don't tell me that you think this is beyond the relm of possibility.

There have been many, many instances in history where a titular leader who is inconveniently in the way of a megalomaniac has found himself conveniently dead. Too many to contemplate, in fact. And the RW extremists who support Palin are more than capable of carrying out such a deed, especially if they're given support within a major political party.

Don't delude yourself into believing America is immune to such devious intrigue. The appointment of Bush the Lesser during the coup d'état of 2000 should have convinced you otherwise.

[RZM]

37. I meant she would never do it

Not that it couldn't happen. I realize it could and maybe will someday. But Palin? That would be a straight up 'keystone koup.' I highly doubt she would be interested or it would even occur to her. And even if it did, she couldn't pull it off.

[lovemydog]

2. I think we'd still be in the Iraq War

And McCain and Palin would be leading us in to war with Iran, and maybe a few other places too.

I think Palin would have been the worst VP in history, with the possible exception of Dick Cheney.

I think the climate wouldn't be a lot different than now, except that we'd be facing higher unemployment, and the scorn of our allies.

[russspeakeasy]

3. One of the most memorable scenes was when johnny the coward

didn't want to ask her to "get informed", because he was afraid she "would turn on him"...What a couple of fuckin cowardly cretins...

[lunasun]

4. Iranian War would be on it's 2nd or 3rd year by now!!!

member bomb bomb Iran?

[veganlush]

5. I think bin Laden would still be making videos

after all, McCain said during the debates that it was "naive" for Obama to suggest going into sovereign Afghanistan for bin Laden. Or maybe he would have followed military advice, which Obama didn't and just blew the place up instead of sending the Seal Team in. That would have meant that we wouldn't have gotten all that computer data we got, and it would have meant never really knowing if we got bush's Arbusto investor's brother in the bombing raid or not.

[Johonny]

7. I did live through Bush/Cheney

so I can't imagine it worse than that. I'm having a hard time imagining Romney and a republican house that doesn't produce as bad a result as Bush/Cheney. I know McCain and Romney think they are way smarter than Bush and Bushes failures would never happen to them but... I can't see how their rethug ideas are different than his.

[Vogon_Glory]

9. We'd Be In A Full-Blown Depression

Considering how the Congressional Rethuglies acted after President Obama was inaugurated, I'd say that the US would be in a full-blown economic depression. There would have been no housing bailouts, no stimulus spending, the US auto industry would have gone down the tubes, and the Republicans would have let the big-money speculators set the US citizen-taxpayer on another downward fright-ride on the economic roller-coaster.

I have come to believe that anyone who thinks that today's crop of GOPsters can be trusted to handle national or state economic policy is either seriously misinformed or seriously delusional.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. I'd be logging onto DU from Canada or elsewhere, likely.

[nolabear]

11. Do y'all think the social issues would be in the forefront the way they are now?

Or would there be a tacit understanding about those kinds of things...gays don't ask or tell, abortion rights are not quite so hot because they're not so useful, same sex marriage isn't even on the table, etc?

[nolabear]

12. Btw "y'all" is my native tongue. LOL!

[NBachers]

13. Any formerly public property or assets would've been given away in sweetheart deals

We'd have sold everything off for X number of dollars to help pay off the debt or reduce cost of government or whatever.

Then we'd be leasing it all back from the new owners for 2.5 times what we sold it for.

[gateley]

14. ...

[2ndAmForComputers]

15. For one thing, McCain wouldn't have reached age 73.

He dodged a bullet. Maybe literally.

[woo me with science]

16. We must not limit our imagination.

Last edited Tue Mar 13, 2012, 02:47 AM - Edit history (7)

?uuid=JeAx_BBqEeGEZV6eLLi4GA

https://whyweprotest.net/asset-proxy/ffe6cb97d0c9b4dfa5713288f243bae2e38904ce/687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f79314c38612e6a7067/






I'm sure it would have been worse. And thinking about how it would have been worse almost makes what we have experienced over the past three years seem acceptable, doesn't it? Or I guess we're supposed to feel that way, anyway. That's the beauty of buying two parties.

I'm sure a Republican President would have signed NDAA, allowing indefinite detention, and a Republican President would have claimed the right to assassinate American citizens without trial. Guantanamo Bay would still be open, and the Patriot Act would not have been fixed. We would have seen our wars expand into several new countries, and we would be hearing a renewed and solemn support for the concept of preemptive war. We would be looking forward to the proliferation of military drones in our skies. A Republican President would have fought all the way to the Supreme Court for increased power to surveil Americans without a warrant, and a Republican President would be pursuing a nationwide Internet ID and overseeing a Homeland Security Department that gropes and naked scans Americans and seeks to blanket New York City with 24/7 surveillance cameras. Police departments under a Republican President would be militarized, medical marijuana clinics would be under assault, and cops on the street would look like storm troopers and taze nine-year-old boys. The budget for prisons would be skyrocketing for next year. And a Republican President would definitely have fought for settlements for corrupt banks and supported a bipartisan vote in Congress to gut more financial regulations. We would have seen passionate speeches and press conferences on the importance of austerity for Americans, while the Bush tax cuts were extended for billionaires. We would see supply side tax policies and new free trade agreements. And lobbyists would have sustained or even greater influence to prevent government regulation of corporations.

We would have seen all this, and doubtless, a lot, lot more. And it's the "more" that counts, because it makes all of this seem almost acceptable. Almost.

[font color=brown]"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
Noam Chomsky[/font color]

What we're living almost seems acceptable compared to the alternative. That is what they want you to feel, the one percent who now live in both of our parties. They understand what Noam Chomsky does, that there is great benefit to putting only two choices in front of people, because they will then forget the world of other possibilities that they can and should be fighting for.

Don't just imagine how things could be worse. Imagine how they must be better. It is imperative that they be better.

Occupy. This is not a game anymore, and this is especially not a simple red versus blue game anymore. We are in serious, serious trouble in this country. Corporations have no conscience, no empathy, and no loyalties except to the bottom line. We need to realize how dangerous it truly is to cede our government to the one percent, because that is what is happening, in both parties. We need to realize what is being done to us and our children, and get the corporate money out of our political system before it is too late for us.

[Mojorabbit]

35. I wish I could recommend this post a kabillion times. nt

[geardaddy]

38. Here's a T-shirt you might want

I have one.

http://contempl8.net/we-are-your-government.htm

[Bonobo]

19. Well for one thing...

If they had won, DU would still be against:

Warrantless wiretaps
The Drug War
The Drone War
The Afghan war
Assassination programs
The eradication of Habeus Corpus

[Zalatix]

20. Nailed it. Solidly. +1,000! n/t

[woo me with science]

24. +10000

[Upton]

25. + another 10000

[ProSense]

29. DU

hasn't changed, and I don't think an echo chamber is a good trade off for watching the Bush years on steroids with teabaggery thrown into the mix.

In fact, the claim you make is a generalization and insulting to DU.

I mean, if you long for a perceived time when DU was in complete agreement, you can have it again by hoping a Republican clown wins.

[Nye Bevan]

32. Perhaps with the common enemy of McCain/Palin to unite against,

the DU Great Feminist Forum Hosting Wars would never have happened.

Alternate history can be fascinating.......

[HopeHoops]

22. Unfortunately yes.

[truebrit71]

23. They would have been spent enjoying life back home in England...

...drinking proper beer and watching cricket as I gazed back across the Pond at my former home as it rapidly collapsed in on itself as unions were abolished, the 40-hour week removed, SS and welfare stripped bare, and women sent back into their kitchens from their workplaces...when they weren't busy breeding...Iran would have been bombed, we'd still be in Iraq en masse, and we'd be working on McCain's 'Hundred Year' presence in the ME...oh, and fittingly Ronald Reagan would be on the $100 bill

[RZM]

26. It would be different, but not radically so

Probably McCain and his team would have come to some sort of an arrangement with Palin early on. She keeps quiet and doesn't embarass him and they will back her in future endeavors after they leave office.

I do believe that we would have pulled out of Iraq on time, but McCain probably would have pushed for escalating the Afghan War. You probably would have seen tougher rhetoric on Iran and Syria, along with a faster and more aggressive Libya intervention.

Domestically, I'm not really sure. Different supreme court justices of course, but probably not somebody as far to the right as Scalia or Alito. No health care law and no stimulus either. My guess is McCain would have focused on foreign policy and would be paying a price for it right about now at the polls. He might have even pulled and LBJ and refused to run again.

[Johnny Rico]

31. Thank you for a rational post on this subject.

Unlike so many others on this thread...

[LanternWaste]

28. The spice would flow...

The spice would flow...

(sorry-- been listening to the audio book this morning, and it seemed a bit apropos)

[Nye Bevan]

30. Bomb bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,

Bomb bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,.........

[Xyzse]

36. Realistically?

I am not sure.

It is my deep conviction, that Obama saved McCain's life by winning the Presidency. McCain was showing his age during the campaign with his erratic behavior. He just did not seem to have the ability to handle stress, particularly with all the problems that was going to suddenly fall on his lap.

Sure, there may have been an early agreement with Palin not to create a flap during his term, but I would have given McCain 6 months to a year of life before he either suffered a stress related issue, leaving us with Palin or something worse than an addled Alzheimer ridden puppet. Either of which are just not nice things to even consider.

It is why I voted for Obama even if I don't like him, and I will vote again the same way to keep such crazies out.

Saying that, the war effort would be the same, perhaps a little worse. This is because the situation and policies are reactive and deals with the ground situation. Why I say worse, is just because, by virtue of who and what Obama is, he has soothed the diplomatic relationships world wide. I just don't see McCain as being able to do the same thing. Obama has merely done what any Republican would do on the military any how. The "war" would not be much different.

The economy, might be a little better with McCain. Obama, from the beginning went to the middle without considering the bartering position, which ended up with policies much further to the right than what a Democratic President like Clinton could have gotten. In doing so, he has allowed the Right to move even further off to the cliff, and demand even more. If McCain had won, we would not have as much of the dumb wall blocks to progress that the Republicans have put up. Much of what Obama has tried to pass were ideas from the Right. Even if they were bad as is, it just got shittier since the Right has demanded even more.

Of course this is a 50/50 thing. It is a function of the balance of getting the ability to pass things more promptly and effectively, and how effectively bad or damaging what they come up with would be. Either way, corporations would be doing much more positively and the funneling of wealth, and the wealth gap would probably accelerate. Though Obama's methods are not that much better. Republicans are notorious in concentrating on the wrong thing.

Environment and conservation would be much much worse. Obama is no good with this as is, and it would just be worse with them. I tended to favor Nixon for his environmental stances. The current incarnation of the Republican party is mostly greed based and they glory in it with little or no thoughts on conservation or infrastructure.

Lastly, if they go forwards to their "religious"/"morality" based governance, we could see ourselves turning in to a Theocratic state. I am definitely not in favor of such a thing.