I can’t help wondering, “What if?”

It is said that the universe unfolds as it should. Some sort of grand plan unfolding before our very eyes. Yikes. If this is the grand plan, maybe we need a new planner. I just can’t buy the “grand plan” theory. I believe more that the universe unfolds as it will. With lots of input from us.

Actions lead to outcomes. For all of us. Some good, some not so good. Throughout human history, someone, usually a world leader of some sort, makes a decision and then consequences occur.

For example, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and others gathered in Philadelphia and decided that “These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” The result was a Declaration of Independence and a new nation…the United States of America.

But what if John Dickinson, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, had been able to persuade a majority of the delegates to avoid war and reconcile with Great Britain. Dickinson believed in achieving colonial rights through peaceful means and was wary of outright declarations of independence. He played a key role in drafting the “Olive Branch Petition,” a last-ditch effort to reconcile with Britain, which ultimately failed.

So, if Dickinson had prevailed, no declaration, no revolution, no U.S.A.

As most readers of my column over the years know, I have been a history buff all my life. I study history and then play a game of “what if?” just for fun.

What if Stepen A. Douglas had defeated Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election. Does the South secede? Is there a Civil War? Does slavery end or continue? Obviously, we can never know the answers to those or any other “what if” questions. But I will always wonder.

Adolph Hitler was a pretty good artist. What if he had decided to stick to painting and not change German politics? No World War II? No Holocaust?

What if John F. Kennedy and Nikita Kruschev had not reached an agreement about the missiles in Cuba in October 1962? World War III? Nuclear annihilation?

Consider this one. What if the Detroit Lions had made some different moves since 1957? Not traded Bobby Layne, for instance. Would they still have missed all 59 Super Bowls?

What if your parents had never met?

But the one that I think of most is this. What if Lee Harvey Oswald had stayed in Russia and President Kennedy’s car had sailed past the Texas School Depositor Building in Dallas? He would have made his lunchtime speech, probably won re-election in 1964 and Lyndon B. Johnson would never have been President.

President Kennedy had proposed legislation for Civil Rights, tax cuts, aid to education, and even a Medicare bill. But all of those bills were languishing in Congress, opposed by powerful Southern Senate chairmen and many Republicans as well. None had passed, nor did it look like they would, by November 22, 1963.

So, the “what if” question is, how much of what became LBJ’s Great Society would have passed if JFK had lived?

LBJ, as a memorial to JFK and because of his legislative genius, was able to pass the tax reduction bill, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Aid to Education, Medicare and Medicaid, highway safety, beautification, clean air and water, Public Broadcasting, Housing and Urban Development Department, and many, many others. A total of more than 200 laws. Most of which are still on the books today.

On the other hand, President Johnson committed the United States to an all-out war in Vietnam, fought by American troops with more than 58,000 dying. Would JFK have done that?

Personally, I wish Kennedy had lived and believe that some of the other stuff would have passed. But we will never know.

I live just outside of Washington, D.C. and have a ring-side seat to all the chaos and turmoil going on here every day. Every time I hear of a decision made by the government, I automatically ask myself, “What if?” What if, indeed.

Contact Rick at tct@pageone-inc.com