How Would You Have Voted In the Past Redux

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

Since I’m bored I’ll do one for British Parliamentery Elections starting with after the Reform Act of 1832.

1832: Earl Grey (Whig)
1835: The Viscount Melbourne (Whig)
1837: The Viscount Melbourne (Whig)
1841: The Viscount Melbourne (Whig)
1847: Lord John Russell (Whig)
1852: Lord John Russell (Whig)
1857: The Earl of Derby (Conservative) [1]
1859: The Earl of Derby (Conservative) [1]
1865: The Earl of Derby (Conservative) [1]
1868: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
1874: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
1880: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
1885: Lord Salisbury (Conservative) [2]
1886: Lord Salisbury (Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
1892: Lord Salisbury (Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
1895: Lord Salisbury (Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
1900: Lord Salisbury (Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
1906: Arthur Balfour (Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
1910 (February): Arthur Balfour (Conservative)
1910 (December): Arthur Balfour (Conservative)
1918: Andrew Bonar Law (Coalition Conservative)
1922: Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative)
1923: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
1924: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
1929: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
1931: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
1935: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
1945: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1950: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1951: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1955: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1959: Harold Macmillan (Conservative)
1964: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)
1966: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1974 (February): Edward Heath (Conservative)
1974 (October): Edward Heath (Conservative)
1979: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1983: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1987: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1992: John Major (Conservative)
1997: Tony Blair (Labour) [3]
2001: Tony Blair (Labour) [3]
2005: Tony Blair (Labour) [3]
2010: David Cameron (Conservative)

Notes:

[1] I can’t support Lord Palmerston’s pro-Confederate stance at all.
[2] I am a Unionist and am opposed to Irish Home Rule.
[3] I supported Tony Blair’s pro-American foreign policy

[Bryan_Ekers]

Were I American, and the same age:

1988 - Bush
1992 - Clinton
1996 - Clinton
2000 - Gore, cheerfully
2004 - Kerry, reluctantly
2008 - Obama, though I would have preferred Clinton

[UltraVires]

It seems as if many picks are based on hindsight. To be fair, you should only use information that would have been available to you at the time of the election. For example, in 1928, you can’t say that Al Smith couldn’t have prevented the Depression either. In 1928, you wouldn’t have known about a Depression. Same with 2000, you didn’t know that 9/11 would happen, so you can’t talk about Iraq, North Korea, etc.

[RickJay]

@pseudotriton_ruber_ruber

Some of your choices, Curtis, look silly, while others are illogical or reprehensible. You credit Lincoln with saving the union in 1860, but of course he had done nothing of the kind yet. I would bet a lot of money that if you had the option in 1860 you would have seen him as a wild-eyed radical, proposing controversial stuff. I’ll give you credit for having the balls to admit that, even knowing what you know now, you would still have voted for Nixon three times.“Gotta go for the man who commits impeachable offenses, yup.”

Nixon was an underrated President, and I say that as a guy who by U.S. standards is very liberal.

Yes, he was a crook. Hell, they all are, he just got caught in a time when people cared (I don’t think they do anymore, though.) Nixon accomplished big things, though. I’m said it before and will again; detente with China was the greatest foreign policy coup in American history and might well have prevented World War III.

[Derleth]

@RickJay

@pseudotriton_ruber_ruber

Some of your choices, Curtis, look silly, while others are illogical or reprehensible. You credit Lincoln with saving the union in 1860, but of course he had done nothing of the kind yet. I would bet a lot of money that if you had the option in 1860 you would have seen him as a wild-eyed radical, proposing controversial stuff. I’ll give you credit for having the balls to admit that, even knowing what you know now, you would still have voted for Nixon three times.“Gotta go for the man who commits impeachable offenses, yup.”

Nixon was an underrated President, and I say that as a guy who by U.S. standards is very liberal.

Right. Nixon was an Establishment Conservative, perhaps the last Establishment Conservative to hold that much power before the Movement Conservatives swept in under the auspices of Amon-Reagan the Holy and Powerful. He wasn’t afraid of a certain degree of social progress, he wasn’t completely opposed to non-military government spending, and, most shockingly, he was willing to end a war.

Get a Nixon in office now and Fox News would tar him as a Communistic Socialist hard-core Liberal. Hell, even Chomsky thinks he was liberal!

Yes, he was a crook. Hell, they all are, he just got caught in a time when people cared

This is just lazy thinking at best, unfalsifiable conspiracy thinking at worst.

(I don’t think they do anymore, though.)

They still care. They even still demonstrate. Don’t you watch the news?

Nixon accomplished big things, though.

Him and Johnson will forever be redeemed, to the extent they can be, by the fact they made decisive, meaningful progress on the issue of Civil Rights.

I’m said it before and will again; detente with China was the greatest foreign policy coup in American history and might well have prevented World War III.

Defend this statement, please.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Curtis LeMay

Since I’m bored I’ll do one for British Parliamentery Elections starting with after the Reform Act of 1832.

I’d be too busy plotting against the monarchy to vote in elections. Can you rephrase the question to “Which of these people would you not try to poison?”

[2] I am a Unionist and am opposed to Irish Home Rule.

Because…? What haven’t the Irish the right to rule themselves?

[gonzomax]

@Curtis LeMay

@gonzomax

We know the kid is a republican ,but his defenses are weak.
My first campaign was for Stevenson. He was an extremely intelligent and articulate man. The press called him an egghead. He was badly treated by the TV and newspapers who as always want the repub.

Through most of the recent years the major papers have taken a centre-left position. Nothing like MSNBC liberalism but still in general support liberal policies and endorse Democrats (for instance the Times of LA endorsed voting against Prop 8).

They are corporate arms. They are unabashedly pro war and pro big, big business.Just go to “whoownswhat” to find out that huge conglomerates own the new and TV now.
I took a college course in journalism that focused on the Stevenson /Ike race. It showed news pictures from front pages that made Adlai look awkward . It showed Ike with a big confident ,fatherly grin. They had many examples of press slant. It has always been a problem. But that does not mean that righies won’t make the claim that it is a liberal media. It is just not true.

[gonzomax]

Nixon also brought us Spiro Agnew who took bribes ,in the White House ,while in office as Vice President.

[RickJay]

@Derleth

Defend this statement, please.

If I find time, I’ll do so in detail, but really, Google’s your friend. The change in tone in US-Soviet and US-China relations, as well as the impact on the Vietnam War, is not a hard thing to find on your own. It’ll take me at least an hour to put together a good post on it, so maybe I’ll get back to this.

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer;13009726
Because…? What haven’t the Irish the right to rule themselves?[/QUOTE]

The Liberals at that time wanted Home Rule for Ulster too.

@gonzomax

@Curtis LeMay

Through most of the recent years the major papers have taken a centre-left position. Nothing like MSNBC liberalism but still in general support liberal policies and endorse Democrats (for instance the Times of LA endorsed voting against Prop 8).

They are corporate arms. They are unabashedly pro war and pro big, big business.Just go to “whoownswhat” to find out that huge conglomerates own the new and TV now.
I took a college course in journalism that focused on the Stevenson /Ike race. It showed news pictures from front pages that made Adlai look awkward . It showed Ike with a big confident ,fatherly grin. They had many examples of press slant. It has always been a problem. But that does not mean that righies won’t make the claim that it is a liberal media. It is just not true.

Not too many of them supported the Iraq War (see Joe Klein’s fanatically antiwar piece on Time) although virtually everyone mainstream supports the Afghan War.

[Derleth]

@RickJay

@Derleth

Defend this statement, please.

If I find time, I’ll do so in detail, but really, Google’s your friend. The change in tone in US-Soviet and US-China relations, as well as the impact on the Vietnam War, is not a hard thing to find on your own. It’ll take me at least an hour to put together a good post on it, so maybe I’ll get back to this.

Really, I just want a good refutation to my post on this topic above, if anyone can do it.

[Frank]

@Curtis LeMay

Since I’m bored I’ll do one for British Parliamentery Elections starting with after the Reform Act of 1832.

Now starring in Short Attention Span Theatre . . .

But as long as I’m here - how would you feel about voting to elect a Member of Parliament that you personally despised, that you thought was a criminal, a moron, a dweeb, or whatever, simply because he was a member of the party whose leader you wanted to be Prime Minister?

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

@Frank

@Curtis LeMay

Since I’m bored I’ll do one for British Parliamentery Elections starting with after the Reform Act of 1832.

Now starring in Short Attention Span Theatre . . .

But as long as I’m here - how would you feel about voting to elect a Member of Parliament that you personally despised, that you thought was a criminal, a moron, a dweeb, or whatever, simply because he was a member of the party whose leader you wanted to be Prime Minister?

That’s the bad thing about a Parliamentary system but yes I would.

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

Germany this time.

1871: German Progress Party
1874: German Progress Party
1877: German Progress Party
1878: German Progress Party
1881: German Progress Party
1884: German Freeminded Party
1887: German Freeminded Party
1890: German Freeminded Party
1893: Freeminded People’s Party
1898: Freeminded People’s Party
1903: Freeminded People’s Party
1907: Freeminded People’s Party
1912: Progressive People’s Party
1919: German Democratic Party
1920: German Democratic Party
1924 (May): German Democratic Party
1924 (December): German Democratic Party
1928: German Democratic Party
1930: Social Democratic Party of Germany
1932 (July): Social Democratic Party of Germany
1932 (November): Social Democratic Party of Germany [1]
1933 (March): Social Democratic Party of Germany [1]
1933 (November): Invalid vote
1936: No
1938: No
1949: Christian Democratic Union
1953: Christian Democratic Union
1957: Christian Democratic Union
1961: Christian Democratic Union
1965: Christian Democratic Union
1969: Christian Democratic Union
1972: Christian Democratic Union
1976: Christian Democratic Union
1980: Christian Democratic Union
1983: Christian Democratic Union
1987: Christian Democratic Union
1990: Christian Democratic Union
1994: Christian Democratic Union
1998: Christian Democratic Union
2002: Christian Democratic Union
2005: Christian Democratic Union
2009: Christian Democratic Union

[1] Best bet against Nazis or Communists

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

Presidential Elections of Germany

1925 (First round): Willy Hellpach (German Democratic Party)
1925 (Second round): Wilhelm Marx (Zentrum)
1932 (First round): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (write-in)
1932 (Second round): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (write-in)

[Fear_Itself]

Klingon Chancellors of the High Council I would have assassinated:

[ul]
[li]Chancellor Mow’ga (2nd Empire - approximate Earth dates not known)[/li][li]Chancellor Mereck (c. 2154)[/li][li]Chancellor Gorkon (? - 2293) - Began the peace process with the Federation after the explosion of Praxis. Assassinated by Federation and Klingon officials opposed to the peace process.[/li][li]Chancellor Azetbur (2293 - ?) - The daughter of Gorkon, named Chancellor after Gorkon’s assassination.[/li][li]Chancellor K’mpec (? - 2367) - The longest serving Chancellor.[/li][li]Chancellor Gowron (2367-2375) - Killed in a duel by Worf. The council members wanted him to become Chancellor, but Worf proclaimed Martok the new Chancellor.[/li][li]Chancellor Martok (beginning 2375)*[/li][/ul]*still alive, but just on general principles.

[SteveG1]

@pkbites

I think this thread asks an excellent question. One which I don’t think I, nor any of us can honestly or objectively answer.

After all, how can any of us judge the candidates from an era that we didn’t live in? …

Grant me eternal life and a time machine and I could honestly answer the OP’s question.

Further, does this first original question assume that we do, or don’t know what we know now, and how accurate is our own knowledge of history as it really happened vs how much was just written by the victors.

the only answer I can come up with is “hell if I know”.

[Sampiro]

@Frank

• how would you feel about voting to elect a Member of Parliament that you personally despised, that you thought was a criminal, a moron, a dweeb, or whatever, simply because he was a member of the party whose leader you wanted to be Prime Minister?

With a bit of political terminology tweaking that’s exactly what I did in 2000 with Gore and 2004 with Kerry.

[BobLibDem]

The suspense is killing me! Would Curtis have supported Charlemagne? What would have been his historical picks for Chile?

[Freddy_the_Pig]

@Sampiro

Plus in most southern states (Lincoln) wasn’t even on the ballot and write-in votes were largely disregarded (not that he got many- in Virginia, where he was on the ballot, he got only 1% of the vote).

Nitpick–nobody was on the ballot in 1860. There were no ballots. The parties printed and circulated electoral tickets which voters dropped in ballot boxes.

In the ten deep South states, nobody bothered to nominate Republican electors or print or circulate Republican tickets, which besides being an exercise in futility, might well have been unsafe.