User:Kernel1944/1988 Presidential Election (191)

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The 1988 United States presidential election was the 51st quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988. The Democratic nominee, incumbent President Joseph Kennedy Jr., defeated the Socialist nominee Michael Gravel, Senator of Roosevelt, as well as the Republican nominee Noam Chomsky and Liberty Party nominee Clarence Thomas.

Kennedy had angered many conservatives within his party, especially African Americans, by participating in the Southern Peace Process, but was able to defeat former New Africa governor Clarence Thomas for the nomination. Thomas then ran as the nominee for the far right Liberty Party. Gravel, the leader of the moderate Linconist wing of the Socialist Party, won several victories in the Socialist primaries. He defeated Governor of Illinois Lyndon LaRouche and former Dakota Senator Walter Mondale for the nomination. Anti-war activist and leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky was chosen as the nominee for the Republican Party, emphasizing his idea for "New Socialism" and an end to "American imperialism".

Kennedy emphasized economic growth during his presidency as well as his administration's signing of the Blair House agreement with Southern paramilitary groups, which he portrayed as a path towards peace in the South. Gravel's camapign portrayed the Kennedy administration as corrupt and plutocratic, highlighting measures such as the limitation of labor union powers and privatization of state-owned industries. Chomsky ran on a platform of greater racial justice for minorities such as Hispanics and Asian Americans, decriminalization of same-sex relationships, as well as ending "American imperialism" by giving the Confederate States full independence. Thomas criticized the Blair House Declaration and advocated for reinstating the Morgenthau Plan in the South.

Kennedy went on to win a plurality in the popular vote, carrying states on the West Coast, Great Plains, and mid-Atlantic. Gravel only carried ten states, the lowest number of any Socialist canidate in modern history, only achieving victories in the Midwest, the Maritimes, as well as the Pacific Northwest. Gravel's defeat would accelerate the decline of the Lincolnist faction of the Socialist Party in favor of the more extreme LaRouche faction.

Chomsky won 18.9% of the popular vote, the most successful Republican performance since 1964. His broad coalition of Southerners, minorities, and low-income voters would help the Republican Party cement itself as the political choice of the revolutionary left. In addition, his victories in Southern states would foretell the vote for independence in the South three years later.

The election has been viewed by historians as the American public's vindication of the Southern Peace Process, as well as for Kennedy's free market policies.