One of the distinguishing features of an independent Midwest in this timeline is its sometimes wild fluctuations between left and right. Consider that Wisconsin alone has sent a hack like Ron Johnson, a hysteria-monger like Joe McCarthy, a reformer like Bob LaFollette, a civil libertarian like Russ Feingold, a fiscal hawk like William Proxmire, an environmentalist like Gaylord Nelson, and a progressive lesbian like Tammy Baldwin to the Senate within a century’s time. Given some early, and highly explosive, decisions regarding labor unions, this teeter-tottering between extremes on the political spectrum becomes the new normal in the Algonquin League.
That’s our batch for this round…in our timeline they were a Klansman (Jackson) and, a socialist who got a million votes in an election and was thrown in jail by the man who defeated him (Debs, of course). Lenroot could very easily have become president in our timeline…he was the favorite for the vice-presidency in 1920 as a progressive-lite balance to Warren Harding, but the delegates made a last minute and almost spontaneous move to Coolidge. Finally, Nicholas Longworth was a key Republican of the 1920s, and was rendered a cuckold by William Borah.
This makes our presidents of the Algonquin League, so far:
- Zachariah Chandler (Michigan, Old Whig, 1876-1879)
- William T. Sherman (Ohio, Old Whig, 1879-1887)
- James Birdseye McPherson (Ohio, Old Whig, 1887-1890)
- William Windom (Minnesota, Old Whig, 1890-1891)
- John Hay (Illinois, Old Whig, 1891-1895)
- Adlai Stevenson (Illinois, Democratic, 1895-1899)
- Marshall Field (Illinois, Old Whig, 1899-1903)
- Russell Alger (Michigan, Old Whig, 1903-1907)
- Eugene V. Debs (Indiana, Farmer-Labor, 1907-1911)
- Nicholas Longworth (Ohio, Old Whig, 1911-1919)
- Irvine Lenroot (Wisconsin, Old Whig, 1919-1927)
- Edward Jackson (Indiana, Old Whig, 1927-1931)
The Northumbrian Countdown 