• Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    You could make the argument that if it was solely down to the popular vote, the last Republican president would have been George Bush in 1988.

    The only Republican since then to win the popular vote was Bush II for his second term in 2004, but it’s arguable that since Gore would have been the incumbent he might not have won that one. Plus there are a lot of hypotheticals like whether 9/11 could have been prevented under Gore, or if it had happened if the response was less aggressive, or if Bush II would have even run again after losing the first time etc. So it’s impossible to say but certainly conceivable that Gore would have gone for two terms IMO.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I wonder who would have been the opponent in 2004 if Gore had won? This was back when losers didn’t try running for election again, so not Dubya. Maybe McCain since he did in 2008?

      • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Yeah I think McCain would be a likely candidate, he was the runner-up in the primaries in 2000 against Bush II so he was definitely thinking about it back then.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Maybe Mitt Romney? He was pretty popular for a while iirc. I think if 9/11 still happened in that timeline though, it probably would be McCain due to his military proximity. Hard to say if Gore’s presidency would have caught/prevented 9/11 or not. It’s possible flying alone would have been impacted by the climate portion of his platform.

    • littlewonder@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I could make an argument that the conservatives could still be competitive in this alternate timeline, and would not necessarily need to fear the popular vote pact.

      All they would need to do is change up their platform to capture more votes from outside their current demographic. But that might require them to stop being cartoon villains, and I’m not sure they’re capable of taking their party back from the Trump ideology.