What if Abraham Lincoln didn't win the election of 1860?

1 year ago
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It's Mr. Beat's first alternate history video he's ever made. What if Stephen Douglas won the presidential election of 1860 instead of Abraham Lincoln? Eh?

Don't forget that this is a trilogy!
@AlternateHistoryHub 's video:
@EmperorTigerstar 's video:

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The real election of 1860: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vna0ile2ogg
Ranked choice voting, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2zwQp8AlYQ

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Here's an annotated script with footnotes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19lYvKTLqVnD8v2bLvRwca0-HJD9webnXDQUpZLnkoHI/edit?usp=sharing

Sources/further reading:
Defender of the Union by Gerald M. Capers
Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3iHDQod
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/novemberdecember/feature/the-man-who-came-in-second
https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2013/09/could-lincoln-have-been-defeated-in-1860/
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/herschel-johnson-1812-1880/
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2134&context=gradschool_dissertations

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#politicalscience #politicalhistory #ushistory

What if Abraham Lincoln didn't win the election of 1860?

Instead, let’s say Lincoln’s old debating buddy, the Illinois U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas, won the election. It’s not that wild of an idea, actually. See all those blue counties? He won those, but in A LOT of those green, yellow, and red counties, I’d argue he was the second choice. In fact, while he finished fourth in the electoral college, getting just 12 electoral votes, he finished second in the popular vote. Now, while we don’t have definitive evidence that Douglas was the second choice of a lot of voters in 1860, I can certainly infer based on that and other evidence that he would have been a lot of people’s second choice. Now I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting…if you don’t know how ranked choice voting works, I did make a video about it, which I’ve linked below. But…simply put, it’s a way to rank ALL the candidates so you don’t just have a say on ONE candidate but ALL OF THEM. With ranked choice voting, I think there’s a GOOD chance Douglas would have won. He was likely the second choice to most Breckenridge and Bell supporters.

So let’s do this, partner.

Mr. Beat presents…

Alternate American History

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