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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Yeah.
Also a valid point.
Although I can see an aggressively Welsh-speaking Welsh not allowing you to register separate surnames, only the option of having a patronymic or matronymic surname. Oh wait, I just realised that if it was still around, we would probably have some non-binary people trying a non-binary version

Plentyn?
 
Although I can see an aggressively Welsh-speaking Welsh not allowing you to register separate surnames, only the option of having a patronymic or matronymic surname. Oh wait, I just realised that if it was still around, we would probably have some non-binary people trying a non-binary version

Plentyn?
We probably would have that as an issue, but again I'm basing this on Iceland, where sadly rn even non-binary forenames are flat out illegal.
That would probably be the obvious one, yeah. Maybe abbreviated somehow.
 
Up Over
Ramsay MacDonald (Labour minority, then National Government: National Labour) 1931-1935
1929: def. Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) and David Lloyd George (Liberal)
1931: def. Arthur Henderson (Labour)
Stanley Baldwin (National Government: Conservative) 1935-1937
1935: def. Clement Attlee (Labour)
Neville Chamberlain (National Government: Conservative) 1937-1940
Archibald Sinclair (National Government: Liberal) 1940-1945
Clement Attlee (Labour) 1945-1950
1945: def. Archibald Sinclair (National Government: Liberal) and Winston Churchill (Constitution)
Archibald Sinclair (National Coupon: Liberal) 1950-1963
1950: def. Clement Attlee (Labour), James Maxton (Independent Labour) and Megan Lloyd George (Cymru Rydd)
1954: def. Clement Attlee (Labour Alliance: Labour)
1957: def. Aneurin Bevan (Labour Alliance: Labour) and Megan Lloyd George (Cymru Rydd)
1961: def. Richard Crossman (Labour)
Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home (National Coupon: Scottish Unionist) 1963-1969
1964: def. Harold Wilson (Labour)
Edward Heath (National Coupon: Liberal) 1969-1973*
1969: def. James Callaghan (Labour)
Enoch Powell (National Coupon: Conservative, then Conservative minority) 1973-1974
Roy Jenkins (Labour) 1974-1979
1974: def. Harold Macmillan (Liberal), Enoch Powell (Conservative) and William Whitelaw (Scottish Unionist)
1978: def. Michael Heseltine (National Alliance: Liberal)
Michael Heseltine (
National Alliance: Liberal) 1979-1990
1979: def. Roy Jenkins (Labour) and Gwynfor Evans (Cymru Rydd)
1982: def. Roy Jenkins (Labour)
1986: def. David Owen (Labour)
David Owen (Labour) 1990-1998

1990: def. Michael Heseltine (National Alliance: Liberal) and Teddy Taylor (Taylor for PM: Scottish Unionist)
1994: def. John Major (National Alliance: Liberal)
John Major (
National Alliance: Liberal) 1998-2002
1998: def. David Owen (Labour)
Vince Cable (Labour) 2002-2009

2002: def. John Major (National Alliance: Liberal) and Paddy Ashdown (Democratic)
2006: def. David Cameron (National Alliance: Liberal)
Cherie Booth (Labour, then minority supported by Greens) 2009-2014
2010: def. David Cameron (National Alliance: Liberal) and Jeremy Corbyn (Radical Change: Green)
David Miliband (Labour minority) 2014
David Cameron (National Alliance: Liberal) 2014-2017
2014: def. David Miliband (Labour) and Jeremy Corbyn (Green)
Tim Farron (National Alliance: Liberal, then minority) 2017-
2018: def. Ed Miliband (Labour) and Caroline Lucas (Green)

As the controversial firmly-religious Tim Farron reels from almost losing control to Labour led by the rather uninspiring brother of their last Prime Minister, many in the Liberal Party wonder if it's time to change him with perhaps Cameron or Cameron's ally Nick Clegg, while there is a small part that wonder that perhaps in their lust for power, that they lost what made them Liberal, hollowed the party out to become one of power
Oh my
 
The Progressive Bull Moose Goes On and On and On

Presidents of the United States (1901-)
1897-1901: William McKinley, Jr. (Republican)
1900: VP Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (Republican); def. William Jennings Bryan (Democrat)
1901-1917: Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (Republican)
1901: succ. William McKinley, Jr. (Republican)
1904: VP Charles Warren Fairbanks (Republican); def. Alton Brooks Parker (Democrat)
1908: VP Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (Republican); def. William Jennings Bryan (Democrat)
1912: VP Philander Chase Knox (Republican); def. James Beauchamp Clark (Democrat)

1917-1925: Eugene Noble Foss (Democrat)
1916: VP Oscar Underwood (Democrat); def. Elihu Root (Republican)
1920: VP Carter Glass (Democrat); def. William Dudley Haywood (Socialist), Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (Republican)

1925-1929: John William Davis (Democrat)
1924: VP Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat); def. William Dudley Haywood (Socialist), Frank Orren Lowden (Republican), William Cameron Sproul (Progressive)
1929-1930: Oscar Wilder Underwood (Progressive Labor)
1928: VP Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (Progressive Labor); def. John William Davis (Democrat), Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (Republican)
1930-1937: Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (Progressive Labor)
1930: succ. Oscar Wilder Underwood (Progressive Labor)
1932: VP Alfred Emanuel Smith (Progressive Labor); def. John James Blaine (Republican), John Nance Garner III (Democrat)

1937-1941: William Franklin Knox (Progressive Labor)
1936: VP Daniel Webster Hoan (Progressive Labor); def. Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. (Democrat), Robert Alphonso Taft, Sr. (Republican)
1941-1949: Alfred Mossman Landon (Republican)
1940: VP Joseph Lister Hill (Democrat); def. William Franklin Knox (Progressive Labor)
1944: VP Joseph Lister Hill (Republican); def. Benjamin Travis Laney, Jr. (Democrat), Norman Mattoon Thomas (Labor)

1949-1957: John Llewellyn Lewis (Labor)
1948: VP Harry S Truman (Labor); def. Thomas Edmund Dewey (Republican), James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (Democrat)
1952: VP Harry S Truman (Labor); def. James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (States' Rights Democrat), Earl Warren (Republican)

1957-1965: Henry Cabot Lodge II (Republican)
1956: VP Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat); def. Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (Labor), James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (States' Rights Democrat)
1960: VP Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat); def. Walter Philip Reuther (Labor), James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (States' Rights Democrat)

1965-1973: Harold Everett Hughes (Republican)
1964: VP Richard Milhous Nixon (Republican); def. Eugene Joseph McCarthy (Labor), James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (States' Rights Democrat)
1968: VP Richard Milhous Nixon (Republican); def. Walter Philip Reuther (Labor), James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (States' Rights Democrat)

1973-0000: Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (Labor)
1972: VP Walter Philip Reuther (Labor); def. William Warren Scranton (Republican)



I may come up with detailed footnotes for this later, but, for now, I'll leave it as is. Mostly it's a thought experiment about a Theodore Roosevelt who decides not to step down in 1908, and goes for as many terms as his distant cousin did in OTL, which leads to a much stronger Progressive wing in the Republican Party, that becomes alienated by the conservatives and ultimately splits off as the anti-Roosevelt wing of the party become ascendant after Roosevelt's quixotic attempt to return to the presidency in 1920; simultaneously, the Democrats in the north take a fatal turn toward anti-union activity, which strengthens the leftist movement and socialists. The United States doesn't go into the general European war that never quite makes world war status in the 1910s, also averting the rise of the Bolsheviks, both of which weaken the anti-leftism in the United States.

Ultimately, the Republican Progressive splitters (also taking on some of the leftover Populists in the Democratic Party in the south, who could never take on the label "Republican" in their era) and more moderate Labor activists and socialists, combine their efforts into the Progressive Labor Party, which guts the Northern Democrats and overtakes the Republicans in the aftermath of the beginning of the Great Recession; the overtly Socialist Upton Sinclair becomes president when the Progressive former-Democrat Oscar Underwood dies in 1930, and forms the basis of the modern American welfare state as part of relief for the Great Recession; he alienates many business progressives, who end up back in the Republican Party, but he forms a solid base among the hanging-on populists and old midwestern agricultural progressives, in addition to his natural base among the unions.

The Republicans and Democrats ultimately combine their efforts to take back power in 1940, but President Landon's overt progressivism, particularly on racial issues, alienates many Southern Democrats, though he manages to keep power despite the Democrats running a separate ticket against him. From 1952, progressives and populists left over in the Democratic Party take control of the party apparatus, and the Democrats slowly become the Republican In Everything But Name party organization in the south; more conservative Democrats consistently rail against this, and run against them again and again, but by the 1960s, the rump Democratic Party consists only of these die-hards; the others have become Republicans. And so, by the 1970s, the country has returned to an effective duopoly, dominated by the Labor Movement and their Farmer Movement allies and Southern populists on the one hand, and the Rooseveltite/Landonite-dominated Republican Party with their resentful conservative allies on the other.
 
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The Perfect Storm: Nader Pulls It Off

1993-1998: Bill Clinton (Democratic)
1992 (with Al Gore) def. George Bush (Republican)
1996 (with Al Gore) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Lowell Weicker (Reform)

1998-2001: Al Gore (Democratic)
2001-2005: Ralph Nader (Reform)
2000 (with Jesse Ventura) def. Steve Forbes (Republican), Al Gore (Democratic)
2005-2009: Mitt Romney (Republican)
2004 (with Rick Santorum) def. Ralph Nader (Reform), Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
2009-2013: Ralph Nader (Reform)
2008 (with Dennis Kucinich) def. Mitt Romney (Republican), Mike Gravel (Democratic), Donald Trump (America First)

The POD is the Reform Party managing a much more open convention, coupled with Pat Buchanan stealing a march over Bob Dole. Moderate Republicans plump for Reform, led by Weicker, and win some electoral college votes, but Clinton still wins comfortably.

The Monica Lewinsky scandal blows up in a much worse way, Clinton is Fully Impeached, and Gore is left to pick up the pieces as he is hobbled by the rise of the Congressional Reform Party. With the Democrats dogged by scandal, the Republicans up to their knees in crony capitalism, the Reform manages to bust through and win an electoral college majority.

Nader doesn't have a Congressional majority, but is able to work with allies in the other parties even as disquiet grows amongst certain ranks of Reform. His prescription of European social democracy and ecology doesn't go down too well however, and the Republicans get their house in order and retake the Presidency in 2004. Romney oversees a few years of growth but then the global financial crash happens and Nader seems to have been proved right. Reform has *ahem* reformed over the last four years, and is solidly centre-left and manage to win a Congressional majority on the back of his campaign. However that reform itself has left many of the protectionist right high and dry, and they rally to Donald Trump's America First banner who rather worryingly seem set to replicate Reform's own success in the 90s.
 
The Perfect Storm: Nader Pulls It Off

1993-1998: Bill Clinton (Democratic)
1992 (with Al Gore) def. George Bush (Republican)
1996 (with Al Gore) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Lowell Weicker (Reform)

1998-2001: Al Gore (Democratic)
2001-2005: Ralph Nader (Reform)
2000 (with Jesse Ventura) def. Steve Forbes (Republican), Al Gore (Democratic)
2005-2009: Mitt Romney (Republican)
2004 (with Rick Santorum) def. Ralph Nader (Reform), Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
2009-2013: Ralph Nader (Reform)
2008 (with Dennis Kucinich) def. Mitt Romney (Republican), Mike Gravel (Democratic), Donald Trump (America First)

The POD is the Reform Party managing a much more open convention, coupled with Pat Buchanan stealing a march over Bob Dole. Moderate Republicans plump for Reform, led by Weicker, and win some electoral college votes, but Clinton still wins comfortably.

The Monica Lewinsky scandal blows up in a much worse way, Clinton is Fully Impeached, and Gore is left to pick up the pieces as he is hobbled by the rise of the Congressional Reform Party. With the Democrats dogged by scandal, the Republicans up to their knees in crony capitalism, the Reform manages to bust through and win an electoral college majority.

Nader doesn't have a Congressional majority, but is able to work with allies in the other parties even as disquiet grows amongst certain ranks of Reform. His prescription of European social democracy and ecology doesn't go down too well however, and the Republicans get their house in order and retake the Presidency in 2004. Romney oversees a few years of growth but then the global financial crash happens and Nader seems to have been proved right. Reform has *ahem* reformed over the last four years, and is solidly centre-left and manage to win a Congressional majority on the back of his campaign. However that reform itself has left many of the protectionist right high and dry, and they rally to Donald Trump's America First banner who rather worryingly seem set to replicate Reform's own success in the 90s.
This seems a bit early for Romney, unless he successfully unseated Ted Kennedy in '94. OTL Romney didn't win his one and only election until 2002.

Also is Perot meant to be missed off in '92 or is that just a typo?
 
This seems a bit early for Romney, unless he successfully unseated Ted Kennedy in '94. OTL Romney didn't win his one and only election until 2002.

Also is Perot meant to be missed off in '92 or is that just a typo?

Didn't he run for President in 2004?

I only put people who won electoral college votes in these lists, so while he got a lot in the popular vote because that is OTL, he didn't get anything in the electoral vote so I didn't count him.
 
Didn't he run for President in 2004?

I only put people who won electoral college votes in these lists, so while he got a lot in the popular vote because that is OTL, he didn't get anything in the electoral vote so I didn't count him.
2008, what with Bush being an incumbent unopposed for renomination in 2004.
Though I imagine TTL 1998 was another Republican wave rather than the OTL slight Democratic uptick with the different Lewinsky scandal, so you could justify it that way.
 
Here's my attempt at a vaguely Halloween-esque list. Loose adaptation of a decent book and mediocre film.

1979-1987: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979: James Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1983: Michael Foot (Labour), Roy Jenkins and David Steel (SDP-Liberal Alliance)

1987-1993: Cecil Parkinson (Conservative)
1987: Peter Shore (Labour), Shirley Williams and David Steel (SDP-Liberal Alliance)
1991: Tony Benn (Labour), David Penhaligon (Social and Liberal Democrats)

1993-1996: Norman Lamont (Conservative)
1996-2001: Ken Livingstone (Labour)

1996: Norman Lamont (Conservative), David Penhaligon (SLD)
2001-2002: Francis Maude (Conservative)
2001: Ken Livingstone (Labour), Malcolm Bruce (SLD), John Tyndall (National Front)
2002-2005: Francis Maude (Conservative leading Emergency Government)
2005-2013: Henry Bolton (One Nation)

2006: Jack Straw (Labour), Ken Clarke (Alliance)

All the left needed was a bit of patience, ultimately. The Long Crisis of the seventies and eighties never truly went away; and while the strikes were eventually put down by force and statutes, unemployment remained high and the Soviets remained tense. Crime and inequality skyrocketed, but enough of the middle classes were happy and voting the right way so that's all that mattered. It was more exhaustion that drove the Tories narrowly from office than a definitive backlash against the corrupt, unequal, authoritarian reality they'd created.

The hope Livingstone represented didn't last long, and his confrontational manner could could only have exacerbated the "culture wars" that had come to be imported from the US. It's hard to say whether Labour's hardline attitudes where symptoms or causes of the forces that empowered extremism; more sympathetic historians would suggest that it was the unstable social and economic settlements that the Tories left behind when the left office. That's not to say that Livingstone didn't get a great deal done, but the Tories' long economic bubble burst soon into his term, and ultimately his largest legacy turned out to be unilateral nuclear disarmament. The Tories squeaked in five seats short of a majority, nowhere near the mandate they needed to sort out the chaos of the Livingstone years. That turned out to be the least of Maude's concerns.

Early into his term, a Swedish Rocket and a jittery General Secretary finally put his weapons of mass destruction to use, and while Alexander Lebed's decrepit technology was quickly outmatched by American weaponry, it was too late for much of the world. Law and order never completely broke down but with economic collapse, famine, refugee crises and more, by 2005 Maude was governing more in theory than in practice. His Emergency Government quickly came to be dominated by the "One Nation" forces; an increasingly formalised collection of right-wing hardliners, military and business leaders who had come to the conclusion that what the British people really needed was a smack of firm government.

In the midst of the third annual set of food riots, Norsefire, the paramilitary wing of the One Nation Movement, marched on London and the youthful Home Secretary Henry Bolton was appointed Prime Minister by King Andrew. Firm government is what the people got, and much of it merely involved harnessing the powers that were already there. The borders were closed (properly, this time), de-facto martial law was declared and lists of "subversives" were swiftly rounded up. Not just political subversives, mind, a whole ream of demographics swiftly became institutionally persecuted, an violent undoing of most of the social progress fought for over the past sixty years. The 2006 elections weren't fair by any reasonable standards, but who was there to administer them? And One Nation would've romped home either way. Taking bureaucratic power away from the "rootless cosmopolitans" of the civil service and in favour of cold, objective was another masterstroke. Just ask what happened to the Sir Humphreys who objected.

It's 2013, and while Bolton retains a low profile, he is apparently as popular as ever. Radiation levels over much of the north are finally receding, rations are being increased, and a transatlantic trade deal is to be signed with President Webb. The anniversary celebrations of the new regime has been marred slightly by the emergency demolition of the disused Palace of Westminster- that's the official explanation anyway...
 
Here's my attempt at a vaguely Halloween-esque list. Loose adaptation of a decent book and mediocre film.

1979-1987: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979: James Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1983: Michael Foot (Labour), Roy Jenkins and David Steel (SDP-Liberal Alliance)

1987-1993: Cecil Parkinson (Conservative)
1987: Peter Shore (Labour), Shirley Williams and David Steel (SDP-Liberal Alliance)
1991: Tony Benn (Labour), David Penhaligon (Social and Liberal Democrats)

1993-1996: Norman Lamont (Conservative)
1996-2001: Ken Livingstone (Labour)

1996: Norman Lamont (Conservative), David Penhaligon (SLD)
2001-2002: Francis Maude (Conservative)
2001: Ken Livingstone (Labour), Malcolm Bruce (SLD), John Tyndall (National Front)
2002-2005: Francis Maude (Conservative leading Emergency Government)
2005-2013: Henry Bolton (One Nation)

2006: Jack Straw (Labour), Ken Clarke (Alliance)

All the left needed was a bit of patience, ultimately. The Long Crisis of the seventies and eighties never truly went away; and while the strikes were eventually put down by force and statutes, unemployment remained high and the Soviets remained tense. Crime and inequality skyrocketed, but enough of the middle classes were happy and voting the right way so that's all that mattered. It was more exhaustion that drove the Tories narrowly from office than a definitive backlash against the corrupt, unequal, authoritarian reality they'd created.

The hope Livingstone represented didn't last long, and his confrontational manner could could only have exacerbated the "culture wars" that had come to be imported from the US. It's hard to say whether Labour's hardline attitudes where symptoms or causes of the forces that empowered extremism; more sympathetic historians would suggest that it was the unstable social and economic settlements that the Tories left behind when the left office. That's not to say that Livingstone didn't get a great deal done, but the Tories' long economic bubble burst soon into his term, and ultimately his largest legacy turned out to be unilateral nuclear disarmament. The Tories squeaked in five seats short of a majority, nowhere near the mandate they needed to sort out the chaos of the Livingstone years. That turned out to be the least of Maude's concerns.

Early into his term, a Swedish Rocket and a jittery General Secretary finally put his weapons of mass destruction to use, and while Alexander Lebed's decrepit technology was quickly outmatched by American weaponry, it was too late for much of the world. Law and order never completely broke down but with economic collapse, famine, refugee crises and more, by 2005 Maude was governing more in theory than in practice. His Emergency Government quickly came to be dominated by the "One Nation" forces; an increasingly formalised collection of right-wing hardliners, military and business leaders who had come to the conclusion that what the British people really needed was a smack of firm government.

In the midst of the third annual set of food riots, Norsefire, the paramilitary wing of the One Nation Movement, marched on London and the youthful Home Secretary Henry Bolton was appointed Prime Minister by King Andrew. Firm government is what the people got, and much of it merely involved harnessing the powers that were already there. The borders were closed (properly, this time), de-facto martial law was declared and lists of "subversives" were swiftly rounded up. Not just political subversives, mind, a whole ream of demographics swiftly became institutionally persecuted, an violent undoing of most of the social progress fought for over the past sixty years. The 2006 elections weren't fair by any reasonable standards, but who was there to administer them? And One Nation would've romped home either way. Taking bureaucratic power away from the "rootless cosmopolitans" of the civil service and in favour of cold, objective was another masterstroke. Just ask what happened to the Sir Humphreys who objected.

It's 2013, and while Bolton retains a low profile, he is apparently as popular as ever. Radiation levels over much of the north are finally receding, rations are being increased, and a transatlantic trade deal is to be signed with President Webb. The anniversary celebrations of the new regime has been marred slightly by the emergency demolition of the disused Palace of Westminster- that's the official explanation anyway...

I really like this :)
 
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: A Modest Fellow

1940-1941: Winston Churchill (Conservative leading War Government with Labour, Liberal Nationals, Liberals and National Labour)
1941-1945: Jan Smuts (Independent leading War Government with Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Nationals, Liberals and National Labour)
1945-1953: Frederick Marquis, 1st Baron Woolton (Conservative)
1945 (National Alliance minority, with Liberal confidence and supply) def. Aneurin Bevan (Labour), Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal)
1950 (Anti-Socialist Alliance with Liberals) def. Tom Wintringham (Labour), Herbert Morrison (Independent 'Anti-Communist' Labour), Megan Lloyd George (Radical)

1953-1958: Rab Butler (Union)
1953 (Majority) def. Tom Wintringham (Labour), Herbert Morrison (Social Democratic), Megan Lloyd George (Radical)
1957 (Minority) def. Tom Wintringham (Labour), Herbert Morrison (Radical-Social Democratic Alliance)

1958-1962: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury (Union minority with SDP confidence and supply)
1962-1966: Richard Law (Union)
1962 (Majority) def. Harold Macmillian (Radical-New Democratic-'Continuity' Social Democratic Alliance), Michael Foot [replacing Tom Wintringham] (Labour)
1966-1968: Harold Macmillan (Democratic Alliance)
1966 (Coalition with 'Reform' Labour) def. Richard Law (Union), Hugh Gaitskell ('Reform' Labour), Fenner Brockway ('Wintringhamite' Labour)
1968-1977: Richard Law (Union)
1968 (Majority) def. Fenner Brockway ('Wintringhamite' Labour), Harold Macmillan (Democratic Alliance), disputed ('Reform' Labour)
1972 (Majority) def. Edmund Dell (Democratic Alliance), Barbara Castle (Labour)

1977-0000: Edmund Dell (Democratic Alliance)
1977 (Grand Coalition with Union) def. Teddy Taylor (Union), Tony Benn (Labour)

A simple concept here, the post-war consensus never happens as Churchill and certain other significant Parliamentarians are killed in an explosion during the Blitz. While Smuts' Premiership was OK and the war ended roughly as IOTL, things get tense post-war. Bevan's flavour of radicalism is a bit too extreme for some tastes, and while Anthony Eden's scandal ridden private life prevents the Conservatives from achieving a majority as well as keeping him from the premiership, Woolton is able to lay the seeds for the Union Party.

Under Marquis, parliamentary malapportionment becomes the norm, and cities are made proportional, further weakening Labour. Wintringham's attempts to unite the left by reaching out to his old comrades instead repulse many in the right, and the left is splintered. A moment of weakness emerges as Butler struggles to keep control of the British Middle East, but the reactionary Salisbury is able to win round enough decrepit old Imperialists on the left to keep in power. Wintringham's death during the 1962 campaign leaves Labour weak and divided, something that allows Macmillan's Alliance to balloon.

The division in Labour proves near permanent, as the Alliance now formalised win the support of moderates. However, the combination of their own fragile majority, the emergence of a popular student movement, and the death of Gaitskell in 1968 leads to the government's collapse. In the 1970s, the Union Party abandons the final pretences of a 'social contract', seeking to return Britain to a forgotten age of private enterprise, and the Democrats are eager to follow this example. With Labour reuniting and gaining momentum once more, the Democrats and Union close ranks in 1977.
 
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: A Modest Fellow

EDIT: Internationally this world reflects the failure to match up to what was promised during the war as much as it does in this list. America has withdrawn to its own Hemisphere, and has a worrying tendency to elect Generals since the war. The colonial empires are decaying but still exist, partially because the anti-colonial superpowers of OTL are either disinterested or were destroyed by a nuclear conflict in the 1950s. A sort of global 'New Force' exists, led notionally by India but this is a world of Great Powers teetering in a balancing act.
 
TwitterPunk!: A Future of America

Michael Avenatti/Tammy Baldwin (Democratic) 2021-2029
2020: def. Donald Trump/Mike Pence (Republican) and John Kasich/Phil Bredesen (Moderate)
2024: def. Kristi Noem/Dan Patrick (Republican)
"Fight Fire With Fire"
In 2020, the Democrats were just too angry. Joe Biden tried to harness a working-class-based moderate course, but it proved for naught. The surprise winner of the 2020 primary was Californian laywer Michael Avenatti, widely seen as "the Dems' answer to Trump". First emerging as the lawyer of Stormy Daniels, a porn star, in her suit against President Trump, Avenatti successfully harnessed this media attention to increase his fame, even as he became more divisive in the process. In the end, despite Kamala Harris endorsing Biden and condemning Avenatti's "vain attention-seeking populism", Avenatti won. Picking Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin to increase his appeal in the Midwest, he went on his "crusade" against Trump and the GOP

Fully abandoning Obama and Clinton's "moderate course", Avenatti embodied the progressive movement's seething anger ever since Occupy happened all the way back in 2011. Unrepentantly radical, Avenatti promised a "whole new world in birth" [which got Republicans in a tizzy and FOX News pointing out that it sounded like a Marxist song] and thanks to Trump's record unpopularity, he won a firm landslide. "Trumpists" would blame John Kasich and Phil Bredesen's "Moderate Party" for splitting their votes but the statistics would disagree

Unlike his predecessor, Avenatti was willing to work with the Democratic establishment. As long as his progressive policies were followed. There was less clash between him and the party, so to speak. Everyone was all united behind the need to say "#basta!" to Trump and the GOP. Many of Trump's executive orders were revoked by President Avenatti in his first few weeks while "Avenatticare" [later just "Medicare 2"] were being written up by the legislators with Avenatti ready to sign it. On green policy, he arguably was the most radical on that issue, rallying up countries to agree to a new Agreement, this time in Toronto. The Toronto Agreement would be historic, and it was, as according to global climate scientists decades down the line

But what made President Avenatti so controversial was that, like Trump, he insisted on using Twitter spontaneously. Many Dems were caught flat-footed by some tweet their President made at a random hour of the day. By 2026, spontaneous social media activity was becoming "normalised" as people increasingly felt that their politicians had to be "authentic", just like their Presidents. This, of course, would make politics much much more unpredictable, but it was something the American people approved of. Avenatti would shift from the declining Twitter, later made bankrupt, to the rising Worda, where he was just as spontaneous as before. In 2024, Avenatti faced a firm challenge in Republican nominee Governor Kristi Noem. Noem was everything Avenatti wasn't. Composed where Avenatti was bombastic. Folksy and rural where Avenatti was straight-talking and urban. A woman from a Republican state where Avenatti was a man from a Democratic state. Avenatti was in trouble

For while his four years has been quite successful, the Democratic Party's base was still mainly powered by women, and if Avenatti was seen to be too loud towards the second female candidate for President, it could jeopardise his chance of victory. His campaign team prepared strong criticism of the Republican Party, but studiously avoided their candidate. Noem was to be criticised by what party she belonged to. This was how a campaign of a loud-mouthed man sought to convince many women of all colours to not vote for the first female Republican candidate for the Presidency

And it worked. Avenatti pulled it off, although a slim one with Noem making gains in suburban areas while the Midwest kept the faith and cast their votes for the President. With a new mandate in his belt, the President went towards his second term with a fiery passion

His second term would be one as controversial as he was. With Medicare 2 implemented, there was a lot of... "teething problems". The Supreme Court was still conservative even after Avenatti nominated a new judge in 2023, and the court was determined to undermine the President at anything. In the end, Avenatti exploded after the Court declared that Medicare 2 was illegal. "Then let him enforce it!". The Dems, already somewhat embittered by the nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh back in Trump's time, was more inclined to see the Court as fundamentally broken. So when Avenatti announced several new nominations, enlarging the court to 11, there was a rallying of the Democrats. But they lost independents and Republicans also rallied. The nominations of Justices Kamala Harris and Barack Obama faced much obstacles, including Obamna not wishing it at first, but in the end, Avenatti and the Dems shoved it through

And they lost the midterms in a red wave. While Avenatti did manage to have the new court decide that Medicare 2 was actually legal, it cost the Democrats many political capital and both houses of Congress. But would President Michael Avenatti back down? Hell no!

Declaring that "he would not let the Republican Congress dictate", he increasingly used executive orders, even as Speaker Mike Bishop condemned the acts as "that of the president being a dictator". Intensely controversial, President Avenatti would leave office with a 47-47 approval rate

Knute Buehler/Justin Amash (Republican) 2029-2037
2028: def. Tammy Baldwin/Gavin Newsom (Democratic)
2032: def. Andrew Gillum/Kyrsten Sinema (Democratic)
"The Great Moderate Hope"
It took them decades, but finally the "moderates" had their say. With the religious right and nationalists discredited by first Bush then Trump, it was time for an alliance of moderates and libertarians to take over the party. And the man who would lead them was Governor Knute Buehler of Oregon. Known as the "Comeback Kid" for turning a close loss to Kate Brown in 2018 to win it in 2022 in much more favourable climates. Buehler was charismatic, funny, and unlike past Republicans, talked about solving poverty issues. Here, they hoped, was their Bill Clinton

But sometimes voters can have long memories, and in 2028 it was only eight years since Donald Trump. Buehler had to sell his "new Republican Party" to the masses. Running on "America Can Do Better" and with a familiar endwave on Worda - "I would be honored with your vote" - he and his running mate Senator Justin Amash of Michigan ran a campaign wholly divorced from Republican orthodoxy. No campaigning on social issues, no fearmongering about "the gays", just independent values and protection of civic liberties while firmly condemning Avenatti's "dictatorial" take on the court.

Against this, the Democratic campaign was laughably stuck in the past. With Baldwin and Newsom campaigning like Buehler was a far-right zealot, people noticed the stark contrast between the fascist boogerman the Dems portrayed and the smiling moderate on TV and at rallies, and of course, his utterly charming wordwaves on Worda. In the end, the Democrats ran a campaign based on the past, while Buehler had one of the future

Winning states like Washington, Oregon and surprisingly, New Jersey, Buehler made gains with educated middle-class voters while losing working-class voters to Baldwin and the Democrats. The long re-alignment was starting to complete itself. Sworn in as president, he made it clear that his first aim was not to destroy Medicare 2 like many of the Republican base desired, but to reform it. Buehler's reforms were something the libertarians and conservatives massively disagreed with him on, and even his moderates had doubts, but together with moderate and liberal Democrats, he formed a "Centre Coalition" and voted it through. Medicare 2 [by 2030 increasingly just "Medicare" or bizarrely "Twocare"] was reformed. Some tried calling it "Medicare 3" but nobody wanted to call it that

Vice-President Justin Amash was a consistent libertarian, a rarity in his party, but increasingly a presence with younger Republicans. While Buehler pushed for reforms to Medicare 2, Amash consistently called for "not just reform, but ending it". The President and VP however, reconciled on matters of individual liberties. They campaigned on that and attacked Avenatti's "statist" dictatorship after all. In the end, they managed to hammer out a compromise on funding welfare programs. Buehler was adamantly against cuts, Amash wanted to slash it, so in the end, slight cuts were implemented while Universal Basic Income was tested in some communities to see if it can be a "permanent solution" to welfare

On environmental matters, subsidies were increasingly replaced with tax benefits, something Amash saw as less "state-involved", and something the conservatives begrudgingly voted for while Buehler's Centre Coalition fell apart on this issue as liberals and moderate Democrats rallied against it

In 2032, the Republicans, despite many conservatives muttering that Buehler was "betraying the party", was united and behind their President. The Democrats, however, did not know what they would back. Gillum, Booker, Sutton, Ocasio-Cortez, Ojeda, the list went on, every candidate had their day, and in the end one emerged. Governor Andrew Gillum of Florida, serving his third term in office. A subtle compromise between the party's progressives and socialists, and the still rather liberal and moderate establishment, he sought to unite the party and bring the battle to Buehler

The problem that Gillum ran head first in, was that the problems he brought up against Buehler, sounded rather low level compared to past Democratic criticism of Republicans. And the president was popular. 2032 was not the Democrats' year. Gillum hoped that he could turn it around and like Bill Clinton in 1992, turn a surefire Republican win into a Democratic one. But he didn't

As President Buehler was sworn in a second term in office, the Democrats seethed. Clearly the President needed to be stopped. But how? The DSA offered a path. That of firm economic criticism and adopting much more radical ideas. As "Avenatti Democrats" increasingly turned to democratic socialism, the establishment panicked. The party was increasingly going away from them. Sure, Avenatti was a problem, but at least he wasn't a socialist. In the end, some intraparty conflict happened, and the party entered the 2034 midterms much more radical than before

And they won. Because by 2034, the shine was off President Buehler. The economy, on a good hill since 2023, was increasingly sputtering and slowing down. Stock markets increasingly got gloomier. People talked of the Long Boom ending. With Republicans choosing to stay home and Democrats, energised by DSA and working-class fuelled populism [although the two did at times clash], the Democrats regained the House and made gains in the Senate. Unlike Avenatti, Buehler pledged to work with the Democrats to "chart an united path" for the country

With liberals and moderate Democrats still willing to work with Buehler, his Centre Coalition still maintained, even if it had to lean on the left or the right at times. Vice-President Amash stormed out of the Oval Office after arguments with President Buehler about the economic recovery bills he and his Centre Coalition cooked up to "boost the economy" back to fighting fit. Amash was increasingly impatient and wished to do things His Way. Not Buehler's. And so came 2036, an open election where things would be interesting for all

Rashida Tlaib/Jared Polis (Democratic) 2037-
2036: def. Justin Amash/Moore Capito (Republican)
"History Made"
The person who won the 2036 election would break so much glass ceilings it was quipped that "in America, we don't just break one glass ceiling. We break them all at the same time". Rashida Tlaib was a woman, a Muslim, a Palestinian-American, a democratic socialist. In short, she was historic. But in 2036, she had to convince the Democrats that she could win. The Dems by 2036 was entering a period of pessimism, with many saying "Buehler has built a permanent Republican majority" and seeing Amash as inevitably the victor. Not Tlaib. She refused that thinking

She shared quite a few things in common with the Vice-President. Both Palestinian-Americans from Michigan, both served as Senators from their state [concurrently for two years] and both were seen as representing in a sense, a new generation. While Buehler was popular for his cross-political appeal, Amash appealed to younger Republicans yearning for genuine libertarianism and "freedom in all things". Meanwhile, Tlaib stood with young radical students and was their candidate in 2036, beating out more "elder" politicians to seize the crown

But on actual policies, the two diverged sharply. Amash believed in consistent libertarianism, standing for less government involvement, standing for civic liberties and against a surveillance state, and was known to criticise Buehler on several "moderate" bills Buehler signed through. Meanwhile Tlaib was a firm and unrepentant democratic socialist, arguing for empowerment of the working-class and standing with them against "Big Business" which she argued Amash's election would enable. Amash fired back arguing that Tlaib's radicalism was like that of Avenatti's and that she would threaten the constitutional system in order to further her own agenda. The arguments on Worda were epic

Debates were organised , but they were increasingly seen as inorganic compared to the spontaneous debates the two often started on social media, which appealed strongly to people wishing for less "fakeness" and more "authenicity". Such was politics in 2036

In the end, with Alaska going Democratic thanks to vice-presidential candidate Senator Jared Polis visiting the state, Tlaib won and made history. Amash waved his response over Worda instead of a phone-call, another first in American history
 
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