Reply #5: That was my first thought.

[Jackpine Radical]

But then the thought occurred--how much change are we allowed to make in this hypothetical? Can I un-assassinate Bobby Kennedy in '68 and let him win that year instead of watching Hubert go down in flames against Nixon? Or maybe Gene McCarthy winning against Nixon?

Or maybe just let George McGovern win in '72.

In any case, it seems to me that we missed some kind of critical moment in the years around 1970. The civil rights movement was reinvigorated, hippies were in bloom, the winds of change were blowing. Then the flame got snuffed. Reagan may have destroyed the New Deal spirit, but it was already badly wounded by then.

Then another thought comes intruding: Do electoral politics really matter? Isn't the CIA, abetted by the international corporations, just going to run things their way anyhow?