- Location
- Op een dag, Nederland.
- Pronouns
- she/her & ne/nem
Nothing to do with comedians, I'm sorry to say. It's basically just major politicians from another place dominated by conservative politics.
-
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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State
- Thread starter Mumby
- Start date
- Location
- Teignmouth, Devon
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You've been on a journey, for sure
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Tamaki Makaurau
Chairs of the People's Movement Against the EU
1979-1985: Barbara Castle [1]
1985-2001: Tony Benn [2]
2001-2004: Dave Nellist [3]
2004-2010: George Galloway [4]
2010-present: Kate Hoey [5]
[1] - The Labour Party learned two things from their landslide defeat in the election of February 1979. The first was that cold weather kept Labour voters away from the polls. The second was that it really wasn't advisable to remain divided on Europe. Four years after the EEC referendum which had divided even the Cabinet, Labour had gone into a poll they hadn't expected for several months with a manifesto that favoured staying in the EEC. Word on the ground was that this had cost them a large number of votes. As such, a plan was hatched by the Labour Eurosceptics to build a non-party movement to contest the first European election that June, thus using the new system of Proportional Representation to allow the voters to decide between a Europhile Labour Party and a Eurosceptic People's Movement.
The failure of the People's Movement to displace Labour on a European level is well-documented, but can largely be traced back to the actions of its first Chair (they didn't have a Leader because that would make it seem like a Party and encourage Labour to expel the members), Barbara Castle, who had given decades of valuable service to the Commons before being unseated in 1979. The first issue was that the PM only stood in the England constituency, leaving the Eurosceptics of the other nations to vote for Plaid Cymru, the SNP, or one of several Northern Irish parties. The feeling that the PM wasn't a serious national party has remained ever since, even after the nationalist parties moved towards Europhilia and away from the electoral alliance. Another failing was that Castle - against her better judgement - sought to broaden the Movement beyond a narrow base of disaffected Labourites by bringing in the Communist Party (who supplied Gordon McLennan and Robert Wyatt as MEPs in the first term, although the latter was only a moderate Eurosceptic and didn't enjoy his tenure due to the lack of wheelchair access to various buildings and his residual feelings of stage fright) but steadfastly opposing the involvement of the National Front, who won almost as many MEP seats as the PM and prevented them from selling themselves as the main force of Euroscepticism. Another issue was that all the Labour-derived MEPs were just MPs who had lost their seats in the General Election and therefore looked like careerists.
[2] - While Barbara Castle led her heterogenous band in Brussels, the Labour Party in Westminster remained steadfastly centrist and pro-Europe, despite strong challenges by Michael Foot for Leader and Tony Benn for Deputy. In fact, Benn was made so unwelcome by the majority faction that, when he lost his own seat in the 1983 election, he made no attempt to get back into the House of Commons he had loved so much. Instead, he agreed to stand in the European election of 1984 - retaining his Labour Party membership, of course. Castle was growing increasingly tired, and happily resigned in his favour as soon as he'd got his feet under the table. Benn's major project was to modernise the PM: as the CPGB descended into faction-fighting, he expelled it from the PM and simply invited individual Communists to join the Continuity Communist Party of Great Britain as part of the People's Movement. The was how Scottish shipbuilder Jimmy Reid entered the European Parliament in 1989 in place of the previous Party apparatchiks. In the same election, young Ulsterwoman Kate Hoey replaced Castle, leaving just Benn and Bryan Gould in place from previous Parliaments.
Benn's leadership was the closest the PM came to challenging Labour on the European scene - he simultaneously frightened Middle England by his very existence, and relieved them by leaving Westminster politics largely alone. By the time he retired from the Chairmanship of the PM in 2001, he was virtually a national treasure, having increased the seat tally to 7 in 1999, including representatives from the Liberals (Michael Meadowcroft and Paul Keetch), Militant Labour (Dave Nellist) and the Socialist Labour Party (Ricky Tomlinson).
[3] - Nellist's brief, capable leadership was one of high drama on the national level, as Britain decided to go into Iraq on the basis of trumped-up intelligence. This, together with the years of 'New' Labour rhetoric pushed by Owen and Blair, forced many disappointed Labourites to flirt with the People's Movement as a basically harmless way of sticking it to Blair - much more harmless than wasting a vote on the Liberals, anyway. That party was getting onto a death spiral, to be largely replaced by the Greens from the late 80s. However, Nellist lacked the charisma necessary to win over huge numbers, and merely presided over the replacement of his retiring supporters with attention-seeking demagogues in 2004.
[4] - The most prominent of these, of course, was George Galloway (who ran in England instead of Scotland because the PM still couldn't depend on the support of people it had previously told to vote SNP), who immediately launched a leadership campaign against Nellist as soon as he was elected. After his victory, he torched many of the sacred cows of the People's Movement, specifically in moving towards using the PM label in Westminster elections. He and many others from Labour, the Liberals, Greens and the member parties of the PM stood for Parliament. All failed (Galloway only by 256 votes) and all the major party members who had backed the PM in their quixotic quest were - needless to say - finally expelled from their previous affiliations. Subsequent forays into national politics by the People's Movement have been much more limited, due to the reduced salience of the Iraq War issue, but the major parties retain their bans on joint membership.
After 2005, support for Galloway melted away, and the Greens and BNP became the main anti-Establishment forces. Tortured relations with member parties, links with unpleasant groups, and - above all - Galloway's appearance on Celebrity Lord of the Flies combined to reduce the People's Movement to just four seats in 2009, being overtaken by not only the Greens and the BNP, but also the Liberals.
[5] - Soon afterwards, the veteran MEP Kate Hoey finally launched a coup against Galloway. She had been a Labour-PM double member until the Parliamentary Turn of 2005, and had been expelled at that point. She had subsequently begun to back the Progressive Unionist Party and even been lined up as an Assembly candidate, but the double-jobbing rules of 2007 put paid to that. Now, her only political hopes lay with the People's Movement - and they have been repeatedly fulfilled over the last nine years. In the 2014 European elections, she recruited Michael Lavalette, Alan Sked and Benjamin Zephaniah to join herself, Tommy Sheridan and Steve Radford in Brussels, and has seen off leadership challenges from both the liberal and the perjurer wings.
In 2016, Michael Howard's Conservative Government held a referendum on Europe - with pro-Europe Tories voting for the referendum due to being emboldened by the BNP's decline down to just 3 MEP seats in 2014 and their continued slide in the General Election. However, aided by the PM and particularly by Kate Hoey (who proved to be surprisingly recognisable domestically), the No campaign run by Nigel Farage won the fight with 52% of the vote on a high turnout.
It seems very likely, as we move towards Brecession Day, that the unemployment rate among People's Movement MEPs will rise even faster than among the rest of us.
1979-1985: Barbara Castle [1]
1985-2001: Tony Benn [2]
2001-2004: Dave Nellist [3]
2004-2010: George Galloway [4]
2010-present: Kate Hoey [5]
[1] - The Labour Party learned two things from their landslide defeat in the election of February 1979. The first was that cold weather kept Labour voters away from the polls. The second was that it really wasn't advisable to remain divided on Europe. Four years after the EEC referendum which had divided even the Cabinet, Labour had gone into a poll they hadn't expected for several months with a manifesto that favoured staying in the EEC. Word on the ground was that this had cost them a large number of votes. As such, a plan was hatched by the Labour Eurosceptics to build a non-party movement to contest the first European election that June, thus using the new system of Proportional Representation to allow the voters to decide between a Europhile Labour Party and a Eurosceptic People's Movement.
The failure of the People's Movement to displace Labour on a European level is well-documented, but can largely be traced back to the actions of its first Chair (they didn't have a Leader because that would make it seem like a Party and encourage Labour to expel the members), Barbara Castle, who had given decades of valuable service to the Commons before being unseated in 1979. The first issue was that the PM only stood in the England constituency, leaving the Eurosceptics of the other nations to vote for Plaid Cymru, the SNP, or one of several Northern Irish parties. The feeling that the PM wasn't a serious national party has remained ever since, even after the nationalist parties moved towards Europhilia and away from the electoral alliance. Another failing was that Castle - against her better judgement - sought to broaden the Movement beyond a narrow base of disaffected Labourites by bringing in the Communist Party (who supplied Gordon McLennan and Robert Wyatt as MEPs in the first term, although the latter was only a moderate Eurosceptic and didn't enjoy his tenure due to the lack of wheelchair access to various buildings and his residual feelings of stage fright) but steadfastly opposing the involvement of the National Front, who won almost as many MEP seats as the PM and prevented them from selling themselves as the main force of Euroscepticism. Another issue was that all the Labour-derived MEPs were just MPs who had lost their seats in the General Election and therefore looked like careerists.
[2] - While Barbara Castle led her heterogenous band in Brussels, the Labour Party in Westminster remained steadfastly centrist and pro-Europe, despite strong challenges by Michael Foot for Leader and Tony Benn for Deputy. In fact, Benn was made so unwelcome by the majority faction that, when he lost his own seat in the 1983 election, he made no attempt to get back into the House of Commons he had loved so much. Instead, he agreed to stand in the European election of 1984 - retaining his Labour Party membership, of course. Castle was growing increasingly tired, and happily resigned in his favour as soon as he'd got his feet under the table. Benn's major project was to modernise the PM: as the CPGB descended into faction-fighting, he expelled it from the PM and simply invited individual Communists to join the Continuity Communist Party of Great Britain as part of the People's Movement. The was how Scottish shipbuilder Jimmy Reid entered the European Parliament in 1989 in place of the previous Party apparatchiks. In the same election, young Ulsterwoman Kate Hoey replaced Castle, leaving just Benn and Bryan Gould in place from previous Parliaments.
Benn's leadership was the closest the PM came to challenging Labour on the European scene - he simultaneously frightened Middle England by his very existence, and relieved them by leaving Westminster politics largely alone. By the time he retired from the Chairmanship of the PM in 2001, he was virtually a national treasure, having increased the seat tally to 7 in 1999, including representatives from the Liberals (Michael Meadowcroft and Paul Keetch), Militant Labour (Dave Nellist) and the Socialist Labour Party (Ricky Tomlinson).
[3] - Nellist's brief, capable leadership was one of high drama on the national level, as Britain decided to go into Iraq on the basis of trumped-up intelligence. This, together with the years of 'New' Labour rhetoric pushed by Owen and Blair, forced many disappointed Labourites to flirt with the People's Movement as a basically harmless way of sticking it to Blair - much more harmless than wasting a vote on the Liberals, anyway. That party was getting onto a death spiral, to be largely replaced by the Greens from the late 80s. However, Nellist lacked the charisma necessary to win over huge numbers, and merely presided over the replacement of his retiring supporters with attention-seeking demagogues in 2004.
[4] - The most prominent of these, of course, was George Galloway (who ran in England instead of Scotland because the PM still couldn't depend on the support of people it had previously told to vote SNP), who immediately launched a leadership campaign against Nellist as soon as he was elected. After his victory, he torched many of the sacred cows of the People's Movement, specifically in moving towards using the PM label in Westminster elections. He and many others from Labour, the Liberals, Greens and the member parties of the PM stood for Parliament. All failed (Galloway only by 256 votes) and all the major party members who had backed the PM in their quixotic quest were - needless to say - finally expelled from their previous affiliations. Subsequent forays into national politics by the People's Movement have been much more limited, due to the reduced salience of the Iraq War issue, but the major parties retain their bans on joint membership.
After 2005, support for Galloway melted away, and the Greens and BNP became the main anti-Establishment forces. Tortured relations with member parties, links with unpleasant groups, and - above all - Galloway's appearance on Celebrity Lord of the Flies combined to reduce the People's Movement to just four seats in 2009, being overtaken by not only the Greens and the BNP, but also the Liberals.
[5] - Soon afterwards, the veteran MEP Kate Hoey finally launched a coup against Galloway. She had been a Labour-PM double member until the Parliamentary Turn of 2005, and had been expelled at that point. She had subsequently begun to back the Progressive Unionist Party and even been lined up as an Assembly candidate, but the double-jobbing rules of 2007 put paid to that. Now, her only political hopes lay with the People's Movement - and they have been repeatedly fulfilled over the last nine years. In the 2014 European elections, she recruited Michael Lavalette, Alan Sked and Benjamin Zephaniah to join herself, Tommy Sheridan and Steve Radford in Brussels, and has seen off leadership challenges from both the liberal and the perjurer wings.
In 2016, Michael Howard's Conservative Government held a referendum on Europe - with pro-Europe Tories voting for the referendum due to being emboldened by the BNP's decline down to just 3 MEP seats in 2014 and their continued slide in the General Election. However, aided by the PM and particularly by Kate Hoey (who proved to be surprisingly recognisable domestically), the No campaign run by Nigel Farage won the fight with 52% of the vote on a high turnout.
It seems very likely, as we move towards Brecession Day, that the unemployment rate among People's Movement MEPs will rise even faster than among the rest of us.
Last edited:
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Electoral History of Bernie Sanders
1972: Liberty Union, candidate for Senator for Vermont
1972 defeated by; Robert Stafford (Republican), Randolph T. Major (Democratic)
1972: Liberty Union, candidate for Governor of Vermont
1972 defeated by; Thomas P. Salmon (Democratic & Independent Vermonters), Luther F. Hackett (Republican)
1974: Liberty Union, candidate for Senator for Vermont
1974 defeated by; Patrick Leahy (Democratic), Richard W. Mallary (Republican)
1976: Liberty Union, candidate for Governor of Vermont
1976 defeated by; Richard A. Snelling (Republican & Bi-Partisan Vermonters), Stella B. Hackel (Democratic & Independent Vermonters)
1981-1987: Independent, Mayor of Burlington
1981 def. Gordon Paquette (Democratic), Richard Bove (Independent), Joe McGrath (Independent)
1983 def. Judy Stephany (Democratic), James Gilson (Republican)
1985 def. Brian D. Burns (Democratic), Diane Gallagher (Independent)
1987-1988: Independent, Governor of Vermont
1986 def. Peter Smith (Republican), Madeleine M. Kunin (Democratic)
1988-1991: Liberty Union & Progressive, Governor of Vermont
1988 def. Michael Bernhardt (Republican), Howard Dean (Democratic)
1990: Democratic, candidate in primary for Representative of Vermont
1990 defeated by; Dolores Sandoval
1991-1994: Independent, Representative of Vermont
1990 def. Peter Plympton Smith (Republican), Dolores Sandoval (Democratic)
1992 def. Tim Philbin (Republican), Lewis E. Young (Democratic), John Dewey (Natural Law), Douglas M. Miller (Freedom for LaRouche)
1994: Democratic, candidate in primary for Representative of Vermont
1994 def. John Carroll
1994-1996: Independent & Democratic, Representative of Vermont
1994 def. John Carroll (Republican), Carole Banus (Natural Law), Jack Rogers (Grassroots)
1996-1997: Independent & Reform, Representative of Vermont
1996: Democratic, candidate in primary for President of the United States of America
1996 defeated by; Joe Lieberman
1996: Reform, candidate in primary for President of the United States of America
1996 def. Ross Perot, Dick Lamm
1997-2001: Reform, President of the United States of America
1996 (with Dick Lamm) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Joe Lieberman (Democratic), Ross Perot (United We Stand)
1974-1977: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1977-1981: Mo Udall (Democratic)
1976 (with Henry M. Jackson) def. Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1981-1989: George H.W. Bush (Republican)
1980 (with John B. Anderson) def. Mo Udall (Democratic)
1984 (with Jeane Kirkpatrick) def. Henry M. Jackson (Democratic)
1989-1993: Jeane Kirkpatrick (Republican)
1988 (with Paul Laxalt) def. Jim Traficant (Democratic)
1993-1995: Paul Tsongas (Democratic)
1992 (with Joe Lieberman) def. Jeane Kirkpatrick (Republican), Ross Perot (Independent)
1995-1997: Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
1997-2001: Bernie Sanders (Reform)
1996 (with Dick Lamm) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Joe Lieberman (Democratic), Ross Perot (United We Stand)
So I'm rolling the butterflies very softly here.
The idea is that Reagan successfully primaries Ford, while Carter doesn't manage his breakthrough and the Democratic establishment wins. The usual problems of the 76 term happens, and Bush becomes the President of the 80s. Meanwhile, the Democrats become listless with the failure of their establishment and without a real alternative breaking through. Dissatisfaction grows on the left at the Democrats' capitulation to the Republican's consensus of hawkish foreign policy and economic monetarism (which is less obviously brutal under Bush than it was under Reagan, but amounts to pretty much the same thing).
This dissatisfaction means that in 1986, Bernie triumphs at the Vermont gubernatorial election and emerges into the national limelight some years before he did IOTL. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, he consolidates his progressive movement in Vermont, with the Democrats becoming so increasingly irrelevant they end up being just an endorsement for either him or the Republicans to chase.
By 1992, the same problems with Bush IOTL are endured by Kirkpatrick, and Paul Tsongas narrowly wins out. Ross Perot actually wins a couple of states ITTL due to the parlous state of engagement with the Big Two. Tsongas dies in 1995, his illness exacerbated by the stress of office. Joe Lieberman faces an uphill struggle, enduring Sanders' impassioned challenge in the primaries. In fact all of the major party primaries are contentious, with Bernie taking his defeat in the Democratic primary and going to Reform where after much wrangling he convinces Dick Lamm to stand aside and in return he makes Lamm his VP nominee. The Republicans lurch rightwards under Buchanan, and a frustrated Perot sets off on his own once more, thinking he can win over less iconoclastic Republicans.
The right is essentially divided three ways and Sanders becomes President in 1997. As the millennium approaches, everyone Can Feel The Bern.
1972: Liberty Union, candidate for Senator for Vermont
1972 defeated by; Robert Stafford (Republican), Randolph T. Major (Democratic)
1972: Liberty Union, candidate for Governor of Vermont
1972 defeated by; Thomas P. Salmon (Democratic & Independent Vermonters), Luther F. Hackett (Republican)
1974: Liberty Union, candidate for Senator for Vermont
1974 defeated by; Patrick Leahy (Democratic), Richard W. Mallary (Republican)
1976: Liberty Union, candidate for Governor of Vermont
1976 defeated by; Richard A. Snelling (Republican & Bi-Partisan Vermonters), Stella B. Hackel (Democratic & Independent Vermonters)
1981-1987: Independent, Mayor of Burlington
1981 def. Gordon Paquette (Democratic), Richard Bove (Independent), Joe McGrath (Independent)
1983 def. Judy Stephany (Democratic), James Gilson (Republican)
1985 def. Brian D. Burns (Democratic), Diane Gallagher (Independent)
1987-1988: Independent, Governor of Vermont
1986 def. Peter Smith (Republican), Madeleine M. Kunin (Democratic)
1988-1991: Liberty Union & Progressive, Governor of Vermont
1988 def. Michael Bernhardt (Republican), Howard Dean (Democratic)
1990: Democratic, candidate in primary for Representative of Vermont
1990 defeated by; Dolores Sandoval
1991-1994: Independent, Representative of Vermont
1990 def. Peter Plympton Smith (Republican), Dolores Sandoval (Democratic)
1992 def. Tim Philbin (Republican), Lewis E. Young (Democratic), John Dewey (Natural Law), Douglas M. Miller (Freedom for LaRouche)
1994: Democratic, candidate in primary for Representative of Vermont
1994 def. John Carroll
1994-1996: Independent & Democratic, Representative of Vermont
1994 def. John Carroll (Republican), Carole Banus (Natural Law), Jack Rogers (Grassroots)
1996-1997: Independent & Reform, Representative of Vermont
1996: Democratic, candidate in primary for President of the United States of America
1996 defeated by; Joe Lieberman
1996: Reform, candidate in primary for President of the United States of America
1996 def. Ross Perot, Dick Lamm
1997-2001: Reform, President of the United States of America
1996 (with Dick Lamm) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Joe Lieberman (Democratic), Ross Perot (United We Stand)
1974-1977: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1977-1981: Mo Udall (Democratic)
1976 (with Henry M. Jackson) def. Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1981-1989: George H.W. Bush (Republican)
1980 (with John B. Anderson) def. Mo Udall (Democratic)
1984 (with Jeane Kirkpatrick) def. Henry M. Jackson (Democratic)
1989-1993: Jeane Kirkpatrick (Republican)
1988 (with Paul Laxalt) def. Jim Traficant (Democratic)
1993-1995: Paul Tsongas (Democratic)
1992 (with Joe Lieberman) def. Jeane Kirkpatrick (Republican), Ross Perot (Independent)
1995-1997: Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
1997-2001: Bernie Sanders (Reform)
1996 (with Dick Lamm) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Joe Lieberman (Democratic), Ross Perot (United We Stand)
So I'm rolling the butterflies very softly here.
The idea is that Reagan successfully primaries Ford, while Carter doesn't manage his breakthrough and the Democratic establishment wins. The usual problems of the 76 term happens, and Bush becomes the President of the 80s. Meanwhile, the Democrats become listless with the failure of their establishment and without a real alternative breaking through. Dissatisfaction grows on the left at the Democrats' capitulation to the Republican's consensus of hawkish foreign policy and economic monetarism (which is less obviously brutal under Bush than it was under Reagan, but amounts to pretty much the same thing).
This dissatisfaction means that in 1986, Bernie triumphs at the Vermont gubernatorial election and emerges into the national limelight some years before he did IOTL. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, he consolidates his progressive movement in Vermont, with the Democrats becoming so increasingly irrelevant they end up being just an endorsement for either him or the Republicans to chase.
By 1992, the same problems with Bush IOTL are endured by Kirkpatrick, and Paul Tsongas narrowly wins out. Ross Perot actually wins a couple of states ITTL due to the parlous state of engagement with the Big Two. Tsongas dies in 1995, his illness exacerbated by the stress of office. Joe Lieberman faces an uphill struggle, enduring Sanders' impassioned challenge in the primaries. In fact all of the major party primaries are contentious, with Bernie taking his defeat in the Democratic primary and going to Reform where after much wrangling he convinces Dick Lamm to stand aside and in return he makes Lamm his VP nominee. The Republicans lurch rightwards under Buchanan, and a frustrated Perot sets off on his own once more, thinking he can win over less iconoclastic Republicans.
The right is essentially divided three ways and Sanders becomes President in 1997. As the millennium approaches, everyone Can Feel The Bern.
napoleon IV
Sheer Animal Cunning of the Groundhog
- Location
- Washington, Douglass Commonwealth
- Pronouns
- he/him
Presidents of Mexico
1884-1909: Porfirio Diaz (National Reelectionist)
1909-1910: Ramon Corral (National Reelectionist)
1910-1912: Jose Yves Limantour (National Reelectionist)
1912-1925: Bernardo Reyes (Constitutionalist)
1925-1926: Francisco Carvajal (Constitutionalist)
1926-1928: Felix Diaz (Independent)
1928-1934: Juan Andreu Almazan (Liberal)
On October 16th, 1912 Porfirio Diaz met with American President William Howard Taft in El Paso, Texas. During the procession a man opened fire with his palm pistol. Taft was badly wounded but survived (although do to complications from his wound he decided not to run again in 1912), while Diaz was struck in the neck and killed. Vice President Ramon Corral assumed power, although everyone recognized that he was a placeholder. In the election of 1910 Jose Yves Limantour (who many expected would be Diaz's successor) used fraud to defeat both General Bernardo Reyes and Francisco Madero. Rather than accept the defeat Madero decided to rebel, and within a short time Reyes also organized a rebellion. The two men temporarily put aside their differences and in 1912 Limantour admitted defeat and fled to France.
At this point Reyes turned against Madero, and paid of Maderista commander Pascual Orozco to arrest him. In the resulting shootout between Orozquista and Maderista forces Madero was killed. Although this cleared the way for Reyes to become President he faced resistance on three fronts. The first was ex-Maderistas, led by Pancho Villa, who swore to get revenge for their leader's death and bring real democracy to Mexico. The second was the Zapatistas in the south, and the third was the Cientificos and other conservatives (who disliked Reyes's moderate reformism). This led to a bloody civil war that lasted until 1919. Reyes took the wind out of the conservatives' sails by making deals with the powerful Terrazas clan in Chihuahua (the main financiers of that faction), and appealing to their fear of the radicalism of Zapata and Villa. He managed to get the US to recognize him and to impose an arms embargo on the Maderistas, which crippled them (and in 1916 Villa was killed in action and the Maderistas collapsed). The Zapatistas were taken out in a slow, steady grind, and by the end of the decade Reyes's power was secure. For the rest of his reign he walked a fine line between reformers and conservatives, giving enough concessions to keep the lower classes from revolting while not going so far as to alienate the establishment. He died at the age of 75 in 1925, shortly after starting his third term in office.
Reyes's biggest mistake was that he had not named anyone to be his successor. His Vice President, Francisco Carvajal, reigned for a short period, but was removed in a coup by Felix Diaz. Diaz set about rescinding the modest reforms of Reyes, which along with popular anger at the coup sparked another round of revolts. Although the Reyistas initially dominated the movement they were eventually sidelined by more radical members. As a number of the leaders of the revolt were killed command eventually fell to General Juan Andreu Almazan. The 1927 stock market crash and the resulting depression hit Mexico hard and saw the last supporters of President Diaz desert him. In October 1928 Andreu Almazan's's forces entered Mexico City, and Diaz was shot. A new constitution was put into place, which limited the President to a single term, and major land reform was carried out. Andreu Almazan also proved to be the first Mexican President in a long time that accepted the end of his presidency, and made no effort to hold power when his term ended.
1884-1909: Porfirio Diaz (National Reelectionist)
1909-1910: Ramon Corral (National Reelectionist)
1910-1912: Jose Yves Limantour (National Reelectionist)
1912-1925: Bernardo Reyes (Constitutionalist)
1925-1926: Francisco Carvajal (Constitutionalist)
1926-1928: Felix Diaz (Independent)
1928-1934: Juan Andreu Almazan (Liberal)
On October 16th, 1912 Porfirio Diaz met with American President William Howard Taft in El Paso, Texas. During the procession a man opened fire with his palm pistol. Taft was badly wounded but survived (although do to complications from his wound he decided not to run again in 1912), while Diaz was struck in the neck and killed. Vice President Ramon Corral assumed power, although everyone recognized that he was a placeholder. In the election of 1910 Jose Yves Limantour (who many expected would be Diaz's successor) used fraud to defeat both General Bernardo Reyes and Francisco Madero. Rather than accept the defeat Madero decided to rebel, and within a short time Reyes also organized a rebellion. The two men temporarily put aside their differences and in 1912 Limantour admitted defeat and fled to France.
At this point Reyes turned against Madero, and paid of Maderista commander Pascual Orozco to arrest him. In the resulting shootout between Orozquista and Maderista forces Madero was killed. Although this cleared the way for Reyes to become President he faced resistance on three fronts. The first was ex-Maderistas, led by Pancho Villa, who swore to get revenge for their leader's death and bring real democracy to Mexico. The second was the Zapatistas in the south, and the third was the Cientificos and other conservatives (who disliked Reyes's moderate reformism). This led to a bloody civil war that lasted until 1919. Reyes took the wind out of the conservatives' sails by making deals with the powerful Terrazas clan in Chihuahua (the main financiers of that faction), and appealing to their fear of the radicalism of Zapata and Villa. He managed to get the US to recognize him and to impose an arms embargo on the Maderistas, which crippled them (and in 1916 Villa was killed in action and the Maderistas collapsed). The Zapatistas were taken out in a slow, steady grind, and by the end of the decade Reyes's power was secure. For the rest of his reign he walked a fine line between reformers and conservatives, giving enough concessions to keep the lower classes from revolting while not going so far as to alienate the establishment. He died at the age of 75 in 1925, shortly after starting his third term in office.
Reyes's biggest mistake was that he had not named anyone to be his successor. His Vice President, Francisco Carvajal, reigned for a short period, but was removed in a coup by Felix Diaz. Diaz set about rescinding the modest reforms of Reyes, which along with popular anger at the coup sparked another round of revolts. Although the Reyistas initially dominated the movement they were eventually sidelined by more radical members. As a number of the leaders of the revolt were killed command eventually fell to General Juan Andreu Almazan. The 1927 stock market crash and the resulting depression hit Mexico hard and saw the last supporters of President Diaz desert him. In October 1928 Andreu Almazan's's forces entered Mexico City, and Diaz was shot. A new constitution was put into place, which limited the President to a single term, and major land reform was carried out. Andreu Almazan also proved to be the first Mexican President in a long time that accepted the end of his presidency, and made no effort to hold power when his term ended.
- Location
- Das Böse ist immer und überall
- Pronouns
- he/him
I see someone’s been listening to Mike Duncan?
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@moth @Callan
based on Y(P)M chat last night.
1940-1945: Edward Wood (Conservative leading National Government with Labour, Liberal Nationals, Liberals, and National Labour)
1945-1950: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1945 (Majority) def. Edward Wood (National Government - Conservatives, National Liberals), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), C.A. Smith (Common Wealth)
1950-1952: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1950 (Minority, with Liberal confidence and supply) def. Clement Attlee (Labour), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Tom Wintringham (Popular Front - Common Wealth, Communists, Independent Labour)
1952-1956: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1952 (Majority) def. Anthony Eden (Conservative), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Konni Zilliacus (Independent Socialist Group)
1956-1964: Evan Durbin (Labour)
1957 (Majority) def. Rab Butler (Conservative), Donald Johnson (Liberal)
1962 (Majority) def. Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Donald Johnson (Liberal)
1964-1972: Jim Callaghan (Labour)
1967 (Majority) def. Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Peter Thorneycroft (Liberal)
1972-1974: Bobbety Gascoyne-Cecil (Conservative)
1972 (Minority, with Liberal confidence and supply) def. Jim Callaghan (Labour), Peter Thorneycroft (Liberal)
1974-1980: Tony Benn (Labour)
1974 (Majority) def. Keith Joseph (Liberal), Bobbety Gascoyne-Cecil (Conservative)
1979 (Majority) def. Keith Joseph (Liberal), Ian Gilmour (Conservative)
1980-1985: Keith Joseph (Liberal)
1980 (Majority) def. Tony Benn (Labour), Ian Gilmour (Conservative)
My rationale here is that Wood never gains the mythic status that Churchill enjoys IOTL in WW2, and his lack of wide popularity means that Labour is comfortable waiting until Japan is defeated to go to an election. This allows Common Wealth to get a bit more of a march ahead of the election, and the Liberals get more of a benefit from having participated in the wartime election. Labour gets a smaller majority, which means that they outright lose to the Tories in 1950, but Eden doesn't manage to break through himself. A snap election after the King's death leads to a new Labour majority.
Labour goes on to enjoy the benefits of the post-war boom, but this leads to ideological ossification and a steady march to the centre. Common Wealth enjoyed its peak of influence in the early to mid 1950s, via its Popular Front with the Communists and the ILP and then the foundation of the Independent Socialist Group. This collapses in 1955/56 over something like the Hungarian Revolution and its members either lose their seats or defect to Labour. This means that despite Labour dominance there is a major contingent of critical leftists in the party who are arguably even more radical than IOTL. The Tories meanwhile rot under a series of patrician and moderately corrupt leaders who nod through Labour's economic plans, only raising issues with foreign and colonial policy whilst remaining socially reactionary and concerned with socialist centralisation.
Their last gasp of relevance is in the early 70s as Britain's involvement in the Vietnam War leads to an anti-American backlash that mostly rewards the Tories as their ancient message of remembering what it was like when you ruled a quarter of the planet strikes a chord. BGC's replacement of a bloody war in Southeast Asia with a bloody war in Central Africa leads to the collapse of his government, and the ascendancy of a Labour Party in political turmoil. This is a different Benn to OTL, more of the 50s/60s self ideologically but he goes through his OTL political transition while as Prime Minister causing a rather grim backlash, the explosion of the Labour Left onto the political scene especially in local government, and only the most narrow of majorities in 1979, which thanks to angry noises from the right of the party forces him to the polls in 1980 which sees the Liberal Party gain the premiership for the first time since Lloyd George.
EDIT: The reason I have the Common Wealth, Labour Left, Benn Premiership stuff is so we have an explanation for 'left wing councils' being an issue in the series.
based on Y(P)M chat last night.
1940-1945: Edward Wood (Conservative leading National Government with Labour, Liberal Nationals, Liberals, and National Labour)
1945-1950: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1945 (Majority) def. Edward Wood (National Government - Conservatives, National Liberals), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), C.A. Smith (Common Wealth)
1950-1952: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1950 (Minority, with Liberal confidence and supply) def. Clement Attlee (Labour), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Tom Wintringham (Popular Front - Common Wealth, Communists, Independent Labour)
1952-1956: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1952 (Majority) def. Anthony Eden (Conservative), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Konni Zilliacus (Independent Socialist Group)
1956-1964: Evan Durbin (Labour)
1957 (Majority) def. Rab Butler (Conservative), Donald Johnson (Liberal)
1962 (Majority) def. Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Donald Johnson (Liberal)
1964-1972: Jim Callaghan (Labour)
1967 (Majority) def. Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Peter Thorneycroft (Liberal)
1972-1974: Bobbety Gascoyne-Cecil (Conservative)
1972 (Minority, with Liberal confidence and supply) def. Jim Callaghan (Labour), Peter Thorneycroft (Liberal)
1974-1980: Tony Benn (Labour)
1974 (Majority) def. Keith Joseph (Liberal), Bobbety Gascoyne-Cecil (Conservative)
1979 (Majority) def. Keith Joseph (Liberal), Ian Gilmour (Conservative)
1980-1985: Keith Joseph (Liberal)
1980 (Majority) def. Tony Benn (Labour), Ian Gilmour (Conservative)
My rationale here is that Wood never gains the mythic status that Churchill enjoys IOTL in WW2, and his lack of wide popularity means that Labour is comfortable waiting until Japan is defeated to go to an election. This allows Common Wealth to get a bit more of a march ahead of the election, and the Liberals get more of a benefit from having participated in the wartime election. Labour gets a smaller majority, which means that they outright lose to the Tories in 1950, but Eden doesn't manage to break through himself. A snap election after the King's death leads to a new Labour majority.
Labour goes on to enjoy the benefits of the post-war boom, but this leads to ideological ossification and a steady march to the centre. Common Wealth enjoyed its peak of influence in the early to mid 1950s, via its Popular Front with the Communists and the ILP and then the foundation of the Independent Socialist Group. This collapses in 1955/56 over something like the Hungarian Revolution and its members either lose their seats or defect to Labour. This means that despite Labour dominance there is a major contingent of critical leftists in the party who are arguably even more radical than IOTL. The Tories meanwhile rot under a series of patrician and moderately corrupt leaders who nod through Labour's economic plans, only raising issues with foreign and colonial policy whilst remaining socially reactionary and concerned with socialist centralisation.
Their last gasp of relevance is in the early 70s as Britain's involvement in the Vietnam War leads to an anti-American backlash that mostly rewards the Tories as their ancient message of remembering what it was like when you ruled a quarter of the planet strikes a chord. BGC's replacement of a bloody war in Southeast Asia with a bloody war in Central Africa leads to the collapse of his government, and the ascendancy of a Labour Party in political turmoil. This is a different Benn to OTL, more of the 50s/60s self ideologically but he goes through his OTL political transition while as Prime Minister causing a rather grim backlash, the explosion of the Labour Left onto the political scene especially in local government, and only the most narrow of majorities in 1979, which thanks to angry noises from the right of the party forces him to the polls in 1980 which sees the Liberal Party gain the premiership for the first time since Lloyd George.
EDIT: The reason I have the Common Wealth, Labour Left, Benn Premiership stuff is so we have an explanation for 'left wing councils' being an issue in the series.
Last edited:
Beata Beatrix
Camille Paglia on Judge Dredd
- Location
- Portland, OR
- Pronouns
- she/her/hers
PM Durbin is something I always like to see.
- Location
- Teignmouth, Devon
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
that just reminded me that ed gave me a copy of The Proletarian, the newspaper of the CPGB-ML, thats was pressed into their hands when they went to sheffield a few weeks ago
I'm presuming this means Communism fell as OTL, but it is quite amusing to envision Brown strutting around with his aristocratic wife, proclaiming the glories of the Genius of the Carpathians.
- Location
- Op een dag, Nederland.
- Pronouns
- she/her & ne/nem
Being John Mahalchik
Or: TAC's answer to Rumsfeldia?
36: Richard Nixon (Republican) 1969-1973
1968: def. George Wallace (Populist) and Eugene McCarthy (Democratic)
--: John Connally (Republican) 1973-1974
1972 (no EC majority): Walter Reuther (Democratic), Richard Nixon (Republican), George Wallace (Populist)
The 1972 election was a mess. The first one without a majority in a long time, with Reuther narrowly leading in the EC and Nixon in the popular vote. Balloting after balloting went on, with Reuther, Nixon and Wallace refusing to budge. In the end, time ran out and John Connally [only re-elected due to the unpopularity of Senator Ted Kennedy in the South].
The China Crisis was still bubbling, and Connally was a sheer opportunist. Never a loyal Nixon man, he wished to get the Senate to ensure that he would be the proper President. With Nixon being shot and killed in mid-1974, Connally argued that it was time to restore stability. With Wallace's feud against Nixon over, he withdrew and Populists voted for a dead Nixon, hence immediately handing over to Vice-President Connally who became the President.
37: John Connally (Republican) 1974-1975
Of course, this was not popular with the public. People felt like Connally "couped" his way into the Presidency and took advantage of a death to do it. Also whiffing around was financial scandals from his days as Texan Governor that ended up shaking a nation and fatally undermining his presidency, leading Republicans to pressure him into resigning in disgrace.
38: Jamie L. Whitten (Populist) 1975-1977
Jamie Whitten cut a controversial figure. Once a die-hard segregationist who condemned his party's passing civil rights and even sat as an "independent" back in 1965, but by 1975, he was Speaker of a flimsy Populist-Republican coalition and given Connally's choice for vice-president failed to get through the Senate, became president. While president, the crimes of Connally revealed themselves more, much to the Republicans' harm. Democrats clamboured for more trials but Whitten decided to appease his coalition partners by declaring the case "closed". This led to people deciding that Washington was merely looking after its own.
39: Bronson La Follette (Progressive/Democratic) 1977-1979*
1976 (no EC majority): def. Dale Bumpers (Populist), Linwood Holton (Republican) and James Dobson (Christian Voice)
Bronson La Follette entered office on a road paved with good intentions. With the Republicans scrambling for a sacrifical candidate and the Populists firmly going 'left' with Dale Bumpers, the Christian Voice Coalition led by James Dobson rose in the polls especially in the more evangelical dominated South. New Jersey's Governor John Mahalchik, elected in 1975, declared that Bumpers was "a rat who would sell America to the Russians" and refused to endorse him. This would lead his national profile to rise higher and higher.
The 1976 election was like the 1972 one with no electoral college majority. But La Follette's running mate, Senator Jerry Brown, would prove unpalatable to several Democrats of the more neoconservative tendency and with persuasion from Holton's running mate, got some faithless electors to push him into second place in the electoral college tally for vice-president.
While the House ended up electing La Follette, the Senate elected Donald Rumsfeld. The liberal dynast and the blinkered technocrat. They never got on well. As the world turned more chaotic, with China collapsing into revolution, President La Follette (of the Democrats, always the most pro-China party) authorised an intervention to bail out the Kuomintang government and put down the rebels. However, this split the party as the more New Left element formed Ecologist Citizens Overcome!, aka ECO!. This led to a shellacking downballot in 1978 for the Democrats as the Populists and Christian Voice gained.
With the Second Chinese War starting to go sour, President La Follette turned to Europe and to the CoN for his salvation. A plane was called for Geneva, the President got on board, and it never landed in Geneva.
40: Donald Rumsfeld (Republican) 1979-1981
Some would call Donald Rumsfeld "soulless". Certainly, he was a technocrat through and through and utterly failed to handle the rising anger Americans had towards their government. The "boys" were being killed for China's government, not for America's. A feeling that things were out of control only increased drastically once the economy burst. The President's badly-worded statement that "there are recessions and then there are depressions" did not help matters. With both the Dems and GOP badly hurt, the people once more turned to the third choice, the Populists, and their really electrifying candidate from New Jersey...
41: John Mahalchik (Populist) 1981-1987*
1980: def. Donald Rumsfeld (Republican), Daniel Inouye (Democratic), Paul Weyrich (Christian Voice) and Stephen Gaskin (ECO!)
1984: def. Charles Mathias (National Union), Bruce Babbitt (Independent Populist-ECO!) and Jerry Falwell (Christian Voice)
Mahalchik's statements that "everyone who supported this war is a rat" and his rallies screaming "kill all socialists" would have been unthinkable barely four years ago. But people were angry and they certainly was willing to vote for Mahalchik, thank you very much.
Although it was only with 39%, it was still a mandate by the American people. The Populists under Mahalchik would be relentless. Everyone were a scapegoat. Big business, the wealthy, the political establishment, those who voted for the war, especially the socialists. Mahalchik had a very low opinion of the Democratic Party and blamed it for ruining America.
Hence why the "Second McCarthyist Era" started. Populist newspapers and media fed Mahalchik's attempts to scapegoat socialists, social 'degenerates', big business, you name it, it was blamed. Many Democrats were accused of ties with the USSR, especially with the Communist Party endorsing them on the Soviets' orders. In the end, the Democrats failed to survive this assault, with many of their politicians ending up in jail and the rump voting to ally with liberal Republicans as a renewed "National Union Party".
ECO! fared little better, and by 1984 was dependent on Bruce Babbitt, the only ECO! ally who had a safe base, namely Arizona which he governed. The economy bizarrely enough recovered slightly despite capital flight to Europe. Populist states set up "Loyalty Bonds" which fuelled the economy through some long and complicated process, but it ultimately made Americans feel "in this together".
Charles Mathias had to walk a thin line. On one side was the "McCarthyists" keeping a close eye on him, on another side was the more pro-business Republicans, and on a third side was the rump Democrats. Ultimately, this wasn't 1940 and "National Union" never really worked in the era of Mahalchik. With too much voters willing to vote for Babbitt, Falwell or even Mahalchik, Mathias never stood a chance.
The second term of John Mahalchik started auspiciously with the execution of former President Donald Rumsfeld, who was tarred with every crime under the book, from high crimes and misdemeanours all the way to alleged social 'degeneracy'. But ultimately, he was executed because the President deemed him a "rat" unfit for life. Many others, including a lot of Democrats and ECO!sts faced this fate.
His second term would see the Populists aligning more and more with Christian Voice, shoring up the social conservative base they both shared. With Vice-President Jimmy Carter "tragically disappeared", Christian Voice managed to get their man into the Vice-Presidency. Richard Viguerie was head of the Second McCarthyist Scare and was someone elected to the House on a joint Populist-CV alliance. His party affiliation was officially Populist, but everyone knew he had more loyalty to CV.
With Mahalchik's Populists growing more strong-fisted, more 'liberal' states left America. Hawai'i, California, etc. Alaska under its Alaska First Governor Frank Murkowski even successfully joined the USSR as the Alaskan SSR. All of this served to weaken the opposition to Mahalchik's regime inside the remaining USA. With National Union falling into infighting and the IndPop-ECO! alliance officially dead with its people in prison, the midterms were gains for the GOP and CV.
The economy collapsed in early 1987, leading to Mahalchik declaring that "we must be free from rats" and announcing a "Great Cleansing". Everyone declared "communist" by the House Committee would be "disposed of". This led several states to openly declare Mahalchik to be obviously mentally ill and refuse to enforce his orders. In the end, Mahalchik, in perhaps one of the most anticlimatic endings ever to a destructive presidency, died of natural causes.
42: Richard Viguerie (Populist/Christian Voice) 1987-
With Mahalchik's death, Richard Viguerie and Christian Voice seized control of the government and absent Mahalchik's remnant libertarianism, turned it into a firm religious organisation. It was apparently a "sin" to be communist and camps were set up to "re-educate" 'degenerates', communists, independent-thinking women, those of different religions, anyone essentially seen as un-Christian according to the narrow definition of Christian values by die-hard evangelical theocrats.
This led to a schism between the more Mahalchik Populists unwilling to subscribe to the religious fanaticism and the Viguerie loyalists which certainly were, and opened the first shots in the Second American Civil War, a bloody affair that would last for years.
Or: TAC's answer to Rumsfeldia?
36: Richard Nixon (Republican) 1969-1973
1968: def. George Wallace (Populist) and Eugene McCarthy (Democratic)
--: John Connally (Republican) 1973-1974
1972 (no EC majority): Walter Reuther (Democratic), Richard Nixon (Republican), George Wallace (Populist)
The 1972 election was a mess. The first one without a majority in a long time, with Reuther narrowly leading in the EC and Nixon in the popular vote. Balloting after balloting went on, with Reuther, Nixon and Wallace refusing to budge. In the end, time ran out and John Connally [only re-elected due to the unpopularity of Senator Ted Kennedy in the South].
The China Crisis was still bubbling, and Connally was a sheer opportunist. Never a loyal Nixon man, he wished to get the Senate to ensure that he would be the proper President. With Nixon being shot and killed in mid-1974, Connally argued that it was time to restore stability. With Wallace's feud against Nixon over, he withdrew and Populists voted for a dead Nixon, hence immediately handing over to Vice-President Connally who became the President.
37: John Connally (Republican) 1974-1975
Of course, this was not popular with the public. People felt like Connally "couped" his way into the Presidency and took advantage of a death to do it. Also whiffing around was financial scandals from his days as Texan Governor that ended up shaking a nation and fatally undermining his presidency, leading Republicans to pressure him into resigning in disgrace.
38: Jamie L. Whitten (Populist) 1975-1977
Jamie Whitten cut a controversial figure. Once a die-hard segregationist who condemned his party's passing civil rights and even sat as an "independent" back in 1965, but by 1975, he was Speaker of a flimsy Populist-Republican coalition and given Connally's choice for vice-president failed to get through the Senate, became president. While president, the crimes of Connally revealed themselves more, much to the Republicans' harm. Democrats clamboured for more trials but Whitten decided to appease his coalition partners by declaring the case "closed". This led to people deciding that Washington was merely looking after its own.
39: Bronson La Follette (Progressive/Democratic) 1977-1979*
1976 (no EC majority): def. Dale Bumpers (Populist), Linwood Holton (Republican) and James Dobson (Christian Voice)
Bronson La Follette entered office on a road paved with good intentions. With the Republicans scrambling for a sacrifical candidate and the Populists firmly going 'left' with Dale Bumpers, the Christian Voice Coalition led by James Dobson rose in the polls especially in the more evangelical dominated South. New Jersey's Governor John Mahalchik, elected in 1975, declared that Bumpers was "a rat who would sell America to the Russians" and refused to endorse him. This would lead his national profile to rise higher and higher.
The 1976 election was like the 1972 one with no electoral college majority. But La Follette's running mate, Senator Jerry Brown, would prove unpalatable to several Democrats of the more neoconservative tendency and with persuasion from Holton's running mate, got some faithless electors to push him into second place in the electoral college tally for vice-president.
While the House ended up electing La Follette, the Senate elected Donald Rumsfeld. The liberal dynast and the blinkered technocrat. They never got on well. As the world turned more chaotic, with China collapsing into revolution, President La Follette (of the Democrats, always the most pro-China party) authorised an intervention to bail out the Kuomintang government and put down the rebels. However, this split the party as the more New Left element formed Ecologist Citizens Overcome!, aka ECO!. This led to a shellacking downballot in 1978 for the Democrats as the Populists and Christian Voice gained.
With the Second Chinese War starting to go sour, President La Follette turned to Europe and to the CoN for his salvation. A plane was called for Geneva, the President got on board, and it never landed in Geneva.
40: Donald Rumsfeld (Republican) 1979-1981
Some would call Donald Rumsfeld "soulless". Certainly, he was a technocrat through and through and utterly failed to handle the rising anger Americans had towards their government. The "boys" were being killed for China's government, not for America's. A feeling that things were out of control only increased drastically once the economy burst. The President's badly-worded statement that "there are recessions and then there are depressions" did not help matters. With both the Dems and GOP badly hurt, the people once more turned to the third choice, the Populists, and their really electrifying candidate from New Jersey...
41: John Mahalchik (Populist) 1981-1987*
1980: def. Donald Rumsfeld (Republican), Daniel Inouye (Democratic), Paul Weyrich (Christian Voice) and Stephen Gaskin (ECO!)
1984: def. Charles Mathias (National Union), Bruce Babbitt (Independent Populist-ECO!) and Jerry Falwell (Christian Voice)
Mahalchik's statements that "everyone who supported this war is a rat" and his rallies screaming "kill all socialists" would have been unthinkable barely four years ago. But people were angry and they certainly was willing to vote for Mahalchik, thank you very much.
Although it was only with 39%, it was still a mandate by the American people. The Populists under Mahalchik would be relentless. Everyone were a scapegoat. Big business, the wealthy, the political establishment, those who voted for the war, especially the socialists. Mahalchik had a very low opinion of the Democratic Party and blamed it for ruining America.
Hence why the "Second McCarthyist Era" started. Populist newspapers and media fed Mahalchik's attempts to scapegoat socialists, social 'degenerates', big business, you name it, it was blamed. Many Democrats were accused of ties with the USSR, especially with the Communist Party endorsing them on the Soviets' orders. In the end, the Democrats failed to survive this assault, with many of their politicians ending up in jail and the rump voting to ally with liberal Republicans as a renewed "National Union Party".
ECO! fared little better, and by 1984 was dependent on Bruce Babbitt, the only ECO! ally who had a safe base, namely Arizona which he governed. The economy bizarrely enough recovered slightly despite capital flight to Europe. Populist states set up "Loyalty Bonds" which fuelled the economy through some long and complicated process, but it ultimately made Americans feel "in this together".
Charles Mathias had to walk a thin line. On one side was the "McCarthyists" keeping a close eye on him, on another side was the more pro-business Republicans, and on a third side was the rump Democrats. Ultimately, this wasn't 1940 and "National Union" never really worked in the era of Mahalchik. With too much voters willing to vote for Babbitt, Falwell or even Mahalchik, Mathias never stood a chance.
The second term of John Mahalchik started auspiciously with the execution of former President Donald Rumsfeld, who was tarred with every crime under the book, from high crimes and misdemeanours all the way to alleged social 'degeneracy'. But ultimately, he was executed because the President deemed him a "rat" unfit for life. Many others, including a lot of Democrats and ECO!sts faced this fate.
His second term would see the Populists aligning more and more with Christian Voice, shoring up the social conservative base they both shared. With Vice-President Jimmy Carter "tragically disappeared", Christian Voice managed to get their man into the Vice-Presidency. Richard Viguerie was head of the Second McCarthyist Scare and was someone elected to the House on a joint Populist-CV alliance. His party affiliation was officially Populist, but everyone knew he had more loyalty to CV.
With Mahalchik's Populists growing more strong-fisted, more 'liberal' states left America. Hawai'i, California, etc. Alaska under its Alaska First Governor Frank Murkowski even successfully joined the USSR as the Alaskan SSR. All of this served to weaken the opposition to Mahalchik's regime inside the remaining USA. With National Union falling into infighting and the IndPop-ECO! alliance officially dead with its people in prison, the midterms were gains for the GOP and CV.
The economy collapsed in early 1987, leading to Mahalchik declaring that "we must be free from rats" and announcing a "Great Cleansing". Everyone declared "communist" by the House Committee would be "disposed of". This led several states to openly declare Mahalchik to be obviously mentally ill and refuse to enforce his orders. In the end, Mahalchik, in perhaps one of the most anticlimatic endings ever to a destructive presidency, died of natural causes.
42: Richard Viguerie (Populist/Christian Voice) 1987-
With Mahalchik's death, Richard Viguerie and Christian Voice seized control of the government and absent Mahalchik's remnant libertarianism, turned it into a firm religious organisation. It was apparently a "sin" to be communist and camps were set up to "re-educate" 'degenerates', communists, independent-thinking women, those of different religions, anyone essentially seen as un-Christian according to the narrow definition of Christian values by die-hard evangelical theocrats.
This led to a schism between the more Mahalchik Populists unwilling to subscribe to the religious fanaticism and the Viguerie loyalists which certainly were, and opened the first shots in the Second American Civil War, a bloody affair that would last for years.
Last edited:
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Danse Atomic
'[...] could extend the Cold War for another forty years'
1989-1993: George Bush (Republican)
1988 (with Dan Quayle) def. Michael Dukakis (Democratic)
1993-1997: Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
1992 (with Bill Clinton) def. George Bush (Republican), Pat Buchanan (Independent)
1997-1999: Newt Gingrich (Republican)
1996 (with Richard Shelby) def. Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
1999-2001: Richard Shelby (Republican)
2001-2005: Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
2000 (with Joe Lieberman) def. John McCain (Republican), Ralph Nader (Green)
2005-2009: Joe Lieberman (Democratic / National Unity)
2004 (with Colin Powell) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Ralph Nader (Green)
2009-2011: Colin Powell (National Unity)
2008 (with Hillary Rodham) def. Ron Paul (Republican), Cynthia McKinney (Green)
2011-2017: Colin Powell (Republican)
2012 (with Joe Scarborough) def. Hillary Rodham (Democratic), Sarah Palin (Gadsden Movement), Roseanne Barr (Green)
2017-2025: Donald Trump (Democratic)
2016 (with Jim Webb) def. Joe Scarborough (Republican), Bernie Sanders (Green)
2020 (with Jim Webb) def. Mitt Romney (Republican), Bernie Sanders (Green-Democratic Socialist Alliance)
2025-2029: Eric Greitens (Democratic)
2024 (with Jim Justice) def. Richard Ojeda (United Left), Doug Jones (Republican)
I watched Atomic Blonde last night, and there was a line in it that stuck with me, and led to this...
So in this world, the Cold War does not end in 1989. Instead that year is more of a second 1956 or 1968, a brief flowering of hopes for a new world that were suddenly snuffed out. Gorbachev clings to power briefly before being shuffled aside. Subsequent successors of his continue his liberalising economic policy whilst maintaining political repression, leading to an economic boom in the Eastern Bloc.
Meanwhile in the US, Bush goes into 1992 in a considerably weaker state. Cuomo runs for President and wins but is faced with an even worse Republican Revolution in 1994 due to his more liberal positions than OTL Clinton that turns Newt Gingrich into a credible Presidential candidate virtually overnight. Gingrich's time in the sun proves short-lived, brought down by his own malfeasance, and Cuomo returns in 2000 facing off against a GOP on the defensive and easily triumphing over the insurgent Green Party.
There is a detente of sorts in the early 2000s between the USA and the USSR as Islamic terrorism rears its head, cutting across the traditional Cold War blocs from Uyghuristan to Morocco. When Cuomo stands down, Joe Lieberman takes an unusual tack to this, seeking and getting Colin Powell onto his ticket and presenting his campaign as one of National Unity. This is helped by the Republicans lurch to the right under Buchanan who warns of the Soviets being a fairweather friend. While Lieberman/Powell win in a landslide, the Greens win electoral college votes.
Lieberman feels unsteady enough in 2008 to hand over to Powell, as relations between East and West cool considerably. The age of cyberwarfare has begun, and a new generation in the Kremlin feel the USSR has drifted from its true path. The Sino-Soviet rift is healed, seemingly for good, and while the newborn Shanghai Pact makes efforts to restore worker control of the means of production, that remains to be through the benificence of the Party. Powell keeps his ticket balanced with Hillary Rodham, but this sees many liberal Democrats follow Cynthia McKinney to the loving embrace of the Greens.
Later that year, economic crisis strikes and Powell and Clinton found one another at each other's throats. At the 2010 midterms, the National Unity ticket split with Powell presenting himself as a Republican - espousing common sense centrism. Rodham won the Democratic nomination easily but her technocratic message barely cut through and Powell won handily though many noted that this came with an unprecedented appearance of four parties winning electoral college votes with the populist Palin cutting through in the South.
The disaster for the Democrats and the newfound confidence of the Republicans on the centre ground led to the terrifying turnaround of 2016. Trump and Webb essentially absorbed the Gadsden Movement, turning the South blue for the first time in decades. Joe Scarborough's liberalism cut no mustard, when the Greens were in ascendance. This only accentuated over the years, with the Democrats bleeding their liberal voters to the newborn United Left but compensating with ruthless voting restriction laws. Both the 2020 and 2024 elections were questioned by international observers as the presidential victor lost the popular vote but achieved victory in an increasingly unbalanced electoral college.
Back in the USSR, cyber-communism seemed to be showing a new path forwards. The trade agreement between the Western European Union and COMECON intensified, and e-conomic planning spread westwards. Political ossification finally came to an end in the East, as other political parties were legalised and voting privacy restored. But the Eastern Boom led to Communist victories in the vast majority of the Shanghai Pact's member states, and the spread of its particular brand of socialism to what was considered the western world.
The 2028 election was a disaster from the moment the year began. Greitens saw which way the wind was blowing, but there were only so many polling places to close, only so many ways to deny someone's signature, and the Left was bigger and more organised than ever before. The courts may have been politically compromised but the Democrats found themselves tied up in knots under a never ending barrage of lawsuits. At the election itself, the Electoral College was hung despite a landslide victory for United Left in the popular vote. Greitens attempted to call a National Emergency and in the ensuing mess, the United Nations intervened. In 2029, the Cold War finally came to an end.
'[...] could extend the Cold War for another forty years'
1989-1993: George Bush (Republican)
1988 (with Dan Quayle) def. Michael Dukakis (Democratic)
1993-1997: Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
1992 (with Bill Clinton) def. George Bush (Republican), Pat Buchanan (Independent)
1997-1999: Newt Gingrich (Republican)
1996 (with Richard Shelby) def. Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
1999-2001: Richard Shelby (Republican)
2001-2005: Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
2000 (with Joe Lieberman) def. John McCain (Republican), Ralph Nader (Green)
2005-2009: Joe Lieberman (Democratic / National Unity)
2004 (with Colin Powell) def. Pat Buchanan (Republican), Ralph Nader (Green)
2009-2011: Colin Powell (National Unity)
2008 (with Hillary Rodham) def. Ron Paul (Republican), Cynthia McKinney (Green)
2011-2017: Colin Powell (Republican)
2012 (with Joe Scarborough) def. Hillary Rodham (Democratic), Sarah Palin (Gadsden Movement), Roseanne Barr (Green)
2017-2025: Donald Trump (Democratic)
2016 (with Jim Webb) def. Joe Scarborough (Republican), Bernie Sanders (Green)
2020 (with Jim Webb) def. Mitt Romney (Republican), Bernie Sanders (Green-Democratic Socialist Alliance)
2025-2029: Eric Greitens (Democratic)
2024 (with Jim Justice) def. Richard Ojeda (United Left), Doug Jones (Republican)
I watched Atomic Blonde last night, and there was a line in it that stuck with me, and led to this...
So in this world, the Cold War does not end in 1989. Instead that year is more of a second 1956 or 1968, a brief flowering of hopes for a new world that were suddenly snuffed out. Gorbachev clings to power briefly before being shuffled aside. Subsequent successors of his continue his liberalising economic policy whilst maintaining political repression, leading to an economic boom in the Eastern Bloc.
Meanwhile in the US, Bush goes into 1992 in a considerably weaker state. Cuomo runs for President and wins but is faced with an even worse Republican Revolution in 1994 due to his more liberal positions than OTL Clinton that turns Newt Gingrich into a credible Presidential candidate virtually overnight. Gingrich's time in the sun proves short-lived, brought down by his own malfeasance, and Cuomo returns in 2000 facing off against a GOP on the defensive and easily triumphing over the insurgent Green Party.
There is a detente of sorts in the early 2000s between the USA and the USSR as Islamic terrorism rears its head, cutting across the traditional Cold War blocs from Uyghuristan to Morocco. When Cuomo stands down, Joe Lieberman takes an unusual tack to this, seeking and getting Colin Powell onto his ticket and presenting his campaign as one of National Unity. This is helped by the Republicans lurch to the right under Buchanan who warns of the Soviets being a fairweather friend. While Lieberman/Powell win in a landslide, the Greens win electoral college votes.
Lieberman feels unsteady enough in 2008 to hand over to Powell, as relations between East and West cool considerably. The age of cyberwarfare has begun, and a new generation in the Kremlin feel the USSR has drifted from its true path. The Sino-Soviet rift is healed, seemingly for good, and while the newborn Shanghai Pact makes efforts to restore worker control of the means of production, that remains to be through the benificence of the Party. Powell keeps his ticket balanced with Hillary Rodham, but this sees many liberal Democrats follow Cynthia McKinney to the loving embrace of the Greens.
Later that year, economic crisis strikes and Powell and Clinton found one another at each other's throats. At the 2010 midterms, the National Unity ticket split with Powell presenting himself as a Republican - espousing common sense centrism. Rodham won the Democratic nomination easily but her technocratic message barely cut through and Powell won handily though many noted that this came with an unprecedented appearance of four parties winning electoral college votes with the populist Palin cutting through in the South.
The disaster for the Democrats and the newfound confidence of the Republicans on the centre ground led to the terrifying turnaround of 2016. Trump and Webb essentially absorbed the Gadsden Movement, turning the South blue for the first time in decades. Joe Scarborough's liberalism cut no mustard, when the Greens were in ascendance. This only accentuated over the years, with the Democrats bleeding their liberal voters to the newborn United Left but compensating with ruthless voting restriction laws. Both the 2020 and 2024 elections were questioned by international observers as the presidential victor lost the popular vote but achieved victory in an increasingly unbalanced electoral college.
Back in the USSR, cyber-communism seemed to be showing a new path forwards. The trade agreement between the Western European Union and COMECON intensified, and e-conomic planning spread westwards. Political ossification finally came to an end in the East, as other political parties were legalised and voting privacy restored. But the Eastern Boom led to Communist victories in the vast majority of the Shanghai Pact's member states, and the spread of its particular brand of socialism to what was considered the western world.
The 2028 election was a disaster from the moment the year began. Greitens saw which way the wind was blowing, but there were only so many polling places to close, only so many ways to deny someone's signature, and the Left was bigger and more organised than ever before. The courts may have been politically compromised but the Democrats found themselves tied up in knots under a never ending barrage of lawsuits. At the election itself, the Electoral College was hung despite a landslide victory for United Left in the popular vote. Greitens attempted to call a National Emergency and in the ensuing mess, the United Nations intervened. In 2029, the Cold War finally came to an end.
napoleon IV
Sheer Animal Cunning of the Groundhog
- Location
- Washington, Douglass Commonwealth
- Pronouns
- he/him
Leaders of Iraq
1979-1982: Saddam Hussein (Ba'ath)
1982-1990: Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim (SCIRI)
1990-1996: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (SCIRI)
1996-2003: Nouri al-Maliki (Dawa)
2003-2006: Ezzedine Salim (Dawa)
2006- : Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri (Military)
Historians of the Middle East often compare Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran to Hitler's decision to invade Russia. Within two years the Iranian army had not only pushed the Iraqis out, but invaded Iraq itself. The Iranians were able to encourage the Shia and Kurds to revolt against Saddam, which sealed his fate. Saddam Hussein died during the Iranian-Shia assault on Baghdad, in what was possibly a suicide. The Iranians wasted no time in declaring an Islamic Republic of Iraq, headed by Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. However, the Ba'athists were not completely finished, and with aid from the United States, the USSR, and other countries they were able to reassemble as an insurgent group in primarily Sunni Anbar province. The next 13 years saw a brutal war waged between the Sunni and Shia communities of Iraq. Two deaths would ultimately pave the road for peace: Ba'athist leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri's killing by Iranian forces in 1989 and Ayatollah Khomeini's death the same year. The new leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, desired to extricate Iran from the war, and the new leader of the Iraqi Sunnis, Ali Hassan al-Majid, was also more willing to negotiate than al-Douri was. However negotiations broke down when al-Hakim was assassinated in 1990, and didn't get on track again until 1993.
Under the final peace deal (signed in 1995) Iraq's government was secularized, with guarantees of religious rights for both Sunnis and Shia. The Kurds were given an autonomous region in the north, and under a power-sharing arrangement the President of Iraq would always be a Sunni while the Prime Minister would be a Shia (as well as a power-sharing agreement in Parliament). In the first elections the Islamic Dawa Party won and Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister. The choice of Maliki proved to be a mistake, as he would prove to be sectarian and determined to centralize power. By 2003 Sunni Muslims, angered by Maliki's policies, revolted again and he was forced out of office in favor of his colleague Ezzedine Salim. Salim proved unable to restore order however, and after a few years of civil war the military under General Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri seized power in a coup. Through a careful application of military force and reforms they were able to end the civil war in 2008. Iraq today enjoys a fragile peace, which is in part the product of repression.
1979-1982: Saddam Hussein (Ba'ath)
1982-1990: Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim (SCIRI)
1990-1996: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (SCIRI)
1996-2003: Nouri al-Maliki (Dawa)
2003-2006: Ezzedine Salim (Dawa)
2006- : Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri (Military)
Historians of the Middle East often compare Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran to Hitler's decision to invade Russia. Within two years the Iranian army had not only pushed the Iraqis out, but invaded Iraq itself. The Iranians were able to encourage the Shia and Kurds to revolt against Saddam, which sealed his fate. Saddam Hussein died during the Iranian-Shia assault on Baghdad, in what was possibly a suicide. The Iranians wasted no time in declaring an Islamic Republic of Iraq, headed by Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. However, the Ba'athists were not completely finished, and with aid from the United States, the USSR, and other countries they were able to reassemble as an insurgent group in primarily Sunni Anbar province. The next 13 years saw a brutal war waged between the Sunni and Shia communities of Iraq. Two deaths would ultimately pave the road for peace: Ba'athist leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri's killing by Iranian forces in 1989 and Ayatollah Khomeini's death the same year. The new leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, desired to extricate Iran from the war, and the new leader of the Iraqi Sunnis, Ali Hassan al-Majid, was also more willing to negotiate than al-Douri was. However negotiations broke down when al-Hakim was assassinated in 1990, and didn't get on track again until 1993.
Under the final peace deal (signed in 1995) Iraq's government was secularized, with guarantees of religious rights for both Sunnis and Shia. The Kurds were given an autonomous region in the north, and under a power-sharing arrangement the President of Iraq would always be a Sunni while the Prime Minister would be a Shia (as well as a power-sharing agreement in Parliament). In the first elections the Islamic Dawa Party won and Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister. The choice of Maliki proved to be a mistake, as he would prove to be sectarian and determined to centralize power. By 2003 Sunni Muslims, angered by Maliki's policies, revolted again and he was forced out of office in favor of his colleague Ezzedine Salim. Salim proved unable to restore order however, and after a few years of civil war the military under General Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri seized power in a coup. Through a careful application of military force and reforms they were able to end the civil war in 2008. Iraq today enjoys a fragile peace, which is in part the product of repression.
What if Gordon Banks Had Played?
List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom (1964-1995)
1964-1973: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1964 (Majority): Alex Douglas-Home (Conservative) , Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1966 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative) , Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1970 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative) , Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1973-1974: Harold Wilson (Labour coalition with Liberal)
1974-1974: Harold Wilson (Labour-led National Government with National Conservative)
1974-1980: Enoch Powell (Conservative)
1974 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour) , Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal) , Edward Heath (National Conservative) , William Wolfe (SNP)
1977 (Majority): Christopher Soames/Roy Jenkins/Jeremy Thorpe/Ian Gilmour (National Party - Labour[National], Liberal, National Conservative) , Tony Benn (Labour[Benn])
1980-1980: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative) (as leader of Transitional Authority)
1980-1984: Merlyn Rees (Labour)
1980 (Coalition with Liberal, Conservative): Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , David Steel (Liberal) , William Whitelaw (Conservative)
1984-1990: Roy Jenkins (Social Democrat)
1984 (Majority): Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Jim Prior (One Nation) , David Steel (Liberal) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
1989 (Coalition with Liberal): Michael Heseltine (One Nation) , Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , David Icke (Green) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
1990-0000: Neil Kinnock (Social Democrat)
1990 (Coalition with Liberal): Michael Heseltine (One Nation) , Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , David Icke (Green) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative)
1995 (Majority): Michael Portillo (One Nation) , John Prescott (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , Jean Lambert (Green) , Alex Salmond (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
1964-1973: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1964 (Majority): Alex Douglas-Home (Conservative) , Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1966 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative) , Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1970 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative) , Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1973-1974: Harold Wilson (Labour coalition with Liberal)
1974-1974: Harold Wilson (Labour-led National Government with National Conservative)
1974-1980: Enoch Powell (Conservative)
1974 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour) , Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal) , Edward Heath (National Conservative) , William Wolfe (SNP)
1977 (Majority): Christopher Soames/Roy Jenkins/Jeremy Thorpe/Ian Gilmour (National Party - Labour[National], Liberal, National Conservative) , Tony Benn (Labour[Benn])
1980-1980: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative) (as leader of Transitional Authority)
1980-1984: Merlyn Rees (Labour)
1980 (Coalition with Liberal, Conservative): Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , David Steel (Liberal) , William Whitelaw (Conservative)
1984-1990: Roy Jenkins (Social Democrat)
1984 (Majority): Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Jim Prior (One Nation) , David Steel (Liberal) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
1989 (Coalition with Liberal): Michael Heseltine (One Nation) , Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , David Icke (Green) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
1990-0000: Neil Kinnock (Social Democrat)
1990 (Coalition with Liberal): Michael Heseltine (One Nation) , Tony Benn (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , David Icke (Green) , Gordon Wilson (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru) , Nicholas Winterton (Conservative)
1995 (Majority): Michael Portillo (One Nation) , John Prescott (Socialist Labour) , Paddy Ashdown (Liberal) , Neil Hamilton (Reform) , Jean Lambert (Green) , Alex Salmond (SNP) , Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru)
I thought that it was really good overall and I liked the feel it had as it began to wound up and the total impact of all of the unpleasant plausibilities really hit. Anthony Wells was able to create a world that seemed both grim and realistic and was able to build up to less believable parts (Ex. Thatcher and Clark ordering the army to gun down innocent civilians) over time and through strenuous circumstances. My biggest complaint would have to be, and I know that I'll likely be in the minority on this one, the featuring and latter focus of MI5 as some sort of conspiracy organization that was behind much of the changes. In my opinion, that drew away from what felt like a lot of more natural buildup towards the events of the story and what I perceived as a general motif of how far must an anti-terrorism measure or a government go when fighting terror. That being said, despite my complaints I greatly enjoyed it and understand why it's considered such a classic of early internet Alternate History.
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
i dont know if this is even constitutionally allowed
but it was fun
2009-2017: Barack Obama (Democratic)
2008 (with Joe Biden) def. John McCain (Republican)
2012 (with Joe Biden) def. Mitt Romney (Republican)
2017-2019: Donald Trump (Republican)
2016 (with Mike Pence) def. Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
2019-2021: Mike Pence (Republican)
2021-2025: Beto O'Rourke (Democratic)
2020 (with Joe Biden) def. Mike Pence (Republican)
2025-2029: Mitt Romney (National Unity)
2024 (with Joe Biden) def. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democratic Socialist), Steve King (Republican)
2029-2033: Lee Carter (Democratic Socialist)
2028 (with Joe Biden) def. Mitt Romney (National Unity), Alex Jones (Alternative For America)
2033-2037: Lee Carter (United Front)
2032 (with Joe Biden) def. Richard Spencer (National Alternative)
Trump is impeached in the spring of 2019, and Pence is the last gasp of a united Republican party before it goes off the rails entirely. With Democratic victory tied on before 2020 has even begun, a contentious primary campaign ensues which ultimately aligns around the 'Unity Ticket' of Beto O'Rourke and Joe Biden. O'Rourke proves to be a disappointment to the increasingly radical progressive generation who saw in him their hopes and dreams and he is primaried in 2024, in a result that ultimately splits the Democratic Party. Steve King's nomination sees the Republicans slide into white nationalism, and the moderates of both big parties coalesce behind the Romney/Biden National Unity ticket.
Exhaustion and frustration at the same way of doing things leads to a hung electoral college in 2028, as the Republicans vanish off the map entirely, displaced by the nakedly alt-right and conspiracist Alternative for America. Lee Carter wins in the DSA majority House but Biden is able to triumph in the Senate, leading to an uncomfortable 'cohabitation in the White House.
America further polarises into the 2030s, with National Unity fragmenting and AFA absorbing other hard-right elementsy. Carter and Biden set aside their differences in the face of the fascist threat and the world breathes a sigh of relief as their United Front wins with ease against the National Alternative.
but it was fun
2009-2017: Barack Obama (Democratic)
2008 (with Joe Biden) def. John McCain (Republican)
2012 (with Joe Biden) def. Mitt Romney (Republican)
2017-2019: Donald Trump (Republican)
2016 (with Mike Pence) def. Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
2019-2021: Mike Pence (Republican)
2021-2025: Beto O'Rourke (Democratic)
2020 (with Joe Biden) def. Mike Pence (Republican)
2025-2029: Mitt Romney (National Unity)
2024 (with Joe Biden) def. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democratic Socialist), Steve King (Republican)
2029-2033: Lee Carter (Democratic Socialist)
2028 (with Joe Biden) def. Mitt Romney (National Unity), Alex Jones (Alternative For America)
2033-2037: Lee Carter (United Front)
2032 (with Joe Biden) def. Richard Spencer (National Alternative)
Trump is impeached in the spring of 2019, and Pence is the last gasp of a united Republican party before it goes off the rails entirely. With Democratic victory tied on before 2020 has even begun, a contentious primary campaign ensues which ultimately aligns around the 'Unity Ticket' of Beto O'Rourke and Joe Biden. O'Rourke proves to be a disappointment to the increasingly radical progressive generation who saw in him their hopes and dreams and he is primaried in 2024, in a result that ultimately splits the Democratic Party. Steve King's nomination sees the Republicans slide into white nationalism, and the moderates of both big parties coalesce behind the Romney/Biden National Unity ticket.
Exhaustion and frustration at the same way of doing things leads to a hung electoral college in 2028, as the Republicans vanish off the map entirely, displaced by the nakedly alt-right and conspiracist Alternative for America. Lee Carter wins in the DSA majority House but Biden is able to triumph in the Senate, leading to an uncomfortable 'cohabitation in the White House.
America further polarises into the 2030s, with National Unity fragmenting and AFA absorbing other hard-right elementsy. Carter and Biden set aside their differences in the face of the fascist threat and the world breathes a sigh of relief as their United Front wins with ease against the National Alternative.
OHC
deep green blue collar rainbow
- Location
- Little Beirut
- Pronouns
- they/she
As a dishonorable tribute to the late Lyndon LaRouche, here's a List for that vignette I did a while back.
1969-1977: Hubert Humphrey / Ed Muskie (Democratic)
1968 def. Richard Nixon / Spiro Agnew (Republican), George Wallace / Curtis LeMay (American Independent)
1972 def. Ronald Reagan / Bill Brock (Republican), George Wallace / Meldrim Thomson (American Independent), Robert Drinan / Shirley Chisholm (Peace and Freedom)
1977-1983: Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1976 def. Ronald Reagan / George Bush (Republican), Tom McCall / Pat Lucey (Independent)
1980 def. Jeremiah Denton / Bob Dornan (American Independent), Ralph Nader / William O. Douglas (Citizens), Ed Clark / Jack Kemp [replacing Dan Crane] (Republican)
1983: Walter Mondale / vacant
1983-1985: Walter Mondale / Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Democratic)
1984 def. Ralph Nader / LaDonna Harris (Citizens), Trent Lott / Tim LaHaye (American Independent), Ron Paul / Jim Buckley (Republican), Joe Vogler / none (Alaskan Independence)
1985-1986: Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Democratic) / vacant
1986-1993: Jeanne Kirkpatrick / David Boren (Democratic)
1988 [Results disputed] def. Edward Abbey / Donald Hodel (Western Alliance), Trent Lott / Steve Symms (United Conservative), Jesse Jackson / Dudley Dudley [replacing Elizabeth Holtzman] (Citizens)
1993-2001: David Boren / Bob Casey, Jr. (Democratic)
1992 def. minor candidates
1996 def. minor candidates
2001-2009: Bob Casey, Jr. / Theo Mitchell (Democratic)
2000 def. Ted Turner / regional (Turner 2000)
2005 def. Ted Turner / regional (Independent)
2009-2013: Ted Turner / Stanley McChrystal (Independent)
2009 def. Theo Mitchell / Andrew Cuomo (Democratic), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
2013-0000: Kesha Rogers / Michael Flynn (Democratic)
2012 def. Pat Tillman / Kyrsten Sinema (American Progress), Ted Turner / Stanley McChrystal (Independent), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
2016 def. Pat Tillman / Richard Ojeda (American Progress), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
The United States is a dominant-party state, having been governed by the Democratic Party with few interruptions since 1932. The last major period of close competition was in the 1950s and 1960s, when the party was divided between northern and southern factions over the question of segregation and fought several narrowly contested elections with the Republicans under Richard Nixon. The partial resolution of the segregation issue, and the splintering of the independent right between supporters and opponents of Ronald Reagan's personality cult, allowed the Democrats to regain their dominant position. The political violence of the 1970s and 1980s both tarnished their political opponents and gave successive Democratic Presidents the political leeway to establish a so-called soft authoritarian system, and the party enjoyed almost unchecked power from the Humphrey Dam bombing of 1985 until the suspension of the McCarran Act in 2000.
The Democratic Party describes itself as a "big-tent party" of "progressive patriots." It has traditionally taken a statist and centralist position. While the Boren administration undertook several liberal economic reforms the party is still considered relatively interventionist, with a heavy emphasis on public works, private-public cooperation, and Keynesian management of business cycles. Since the 1980s the party has become predominantly socially conservative and its foreign policy more stridently unilateral and militaristic. Lyndonomics, a nationalist ideology first articulated by economist, philosopher, and Jackson and Mondale administration official Lyndon Marcus, is "the spiritual credo of contemporary Democrats," and sitting president Kesha Rogers has written extensively on behalf of Marcus's think tank, the National Democratic Policy Committee. The Democratic party platform explicitly identifies China and the European Union as geopolitical rivals.
There have historically been three broad currents of opposition to the Democratic Party: left-wing, right-wing, and localist/separatist.
The left opposition once included socialists and independent labor unions, but many of these small parties were either deliberately crushed or faded into irrelevance during the early Cold War, while the left-leaning CIO was subsumed by the conservative AFL and eventually became an arm of the Democratic Party. During the 1960s, a new left grew from civil rights and pacifist organizations, finally organizing itself around the Citizens Party, which for a time proved a potent electoral rival to the Democrats. However, this coalition was always fragile - as witnessed by the grim collapse of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1988 - and was easily scattered by minimal Democratic "ratfucking" during the McCarran Period.
The right opposition was traditionally based in the Republican Party, the old vehicle of big business and bourgeois conservatism, which excoriated Democratic taxation and spending while occasionally running to their left on civil liberties. The Grand Old Party had been a dominant force itself in the late nineteenth century, and was still in many respects a nineteenth-century institution; it never fully recovered from the shock of 1932 and by the 1970s was already in terminal decline. After its hijacking by the messianic former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan, the GOP was eclipsed by the American Independent Party - a gaggle of quasi-fascist ex-Democratic Southern refuseniks. The AIP was in turn foredoomed by its insistence on limiting its constituency (witness its 1984 vice-presidential nominee, who trumpeted an anti-Catholic bigotry already unfashionable a century earlier), and its voters soon realized that a Democrat willing to ban abortion and bomb the separatists was good enough for them.
Which brings us to the third category. The Western Insurgency was a syncretic affair, with militant organizations of the environmentalist left and libertarian right - and every shade of golden green between - loosely united in opposition to political centralism and destructive, federally subsidized economic development. The Civil War had left separatism a taboo subject in American politics, so apart from the sui generis Alaskan Independence Party this new political tendency rarely entered into electoral politics and was rarely even spoken aloud. However, militants from the Alaska Liberation Front to the Warriors of Mother Earth to the Texas Irregulars saw covert support from tens of thousands of aboveground supporters. The activation of the McCarran Act in 1982 and the waves of repression after the Humphrey Dam bombing were aimed at breaking this informal network; instead, they legitimized it. In 1988, the "Western Alliance" nominated a somewhat schizophrenic ticket of brash anarchist writer Edward Abbey and Christian conservationist Don Hodel - less out of a desire to win and more to drum up enough political unrest to make the continuing crackdown untenable. In the end, President Kirkpatrick was elected to a full term in the "most obviously rigged election in American history," ushering in the high McCarran Period.
Political opposition was so shattered during the 1990s that a strong new current has yet to emerge. The vaguely liberal and sharply eccentric media mogul Ted Turner, who made his name fighting censorship in the courts, briefly dominated the opposition as a kind of popular strongman-in-waiting. Turner actually made history by winning the Presidency in 2008, but he was so boxed in by the Democratic domination of other branches of government that he could not even completely withdraw from the foreign wars he had opposed on the campaign trail. His displacement by the left-populist, macho-pacifist movement of Nigerian War hero Pat Tillman has brought youth, but not yet institutional staying power, to American opposition politics.
The separatist movement has recently resurfaced through legal political channels. The symbolic candidacy of incarcerated terrorist and presidential assassin Sarah Louise Heath has won Alaska in the past three presidential elections. Despite Constitutional uncertainty, successive Democratic Congresses have certified Heath's electoral votes, likely out of a belief that having such a despised figure as the face of Western separatism can only be good for the status quo.
1969-1977: Hubert Humphrey / Ed Muskie (Democratic)
1968 def. Richard Nixon / Spiro Agnew (Republican), George Wallace / Curtis LeMay (American Independent)
1972 def. Ronald Reagan / Bill Brock (Republican), George Wallace / Meldrim Thomson (American Independent), Robert Drinan / Shirley Chisholm (Peace and Freedom)
1977-1983: Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1976 def. Ronald Reagan / George Bush (Republican), Tom McCall / Pat Lucey (Independent)
1980 def. Jeremiah Denton / Bob Dornan (American Independent), Ralph Nader / William O. Douglas (Citizens), Ed Clark / Jack Kemp [replacing Dan Crane] (Republican)
1983: Walter Mondale / vacant
1983-1985: Walter Mondale / Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Democratic)
1984 def. Ralph Nader / LaDonna Harris (Citizens), Trent Lott / Tim LaHaye (American Independent), Ron Paul / Jim Buckley (Republican), Joe Vogler / none (Alaskan Independence)
1985-1986: Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Democratic) / vacant
1986-1993: Jeanne Kirkpatrick / David Boren (Democratic)
1988 [Results disputed] def. Edward Abbey / Donald Hodel (Western Alliance), Trent Lott / Steve Symms (United Conservative), Jesse Jackson / Dudley Dudley [replacing Elizabeth Holtzman] (Citizens)
1993-2001: David Boren / Bob Casey, Jr. (Democratic)
1992 def. minor candidates
1996 def. minor candidates
2001-2009: Bob Casey, Jr. / Theo Mitchell (Democratic)
2000 def. Ted Turner / regional (Turner 2000)
2005 def. Ted Turner / regional (Independent)
2009-2013: Ted Turner / Stanley McChrystal (Independent)
2009 def. Theo Mitchell / Andrew Cuomo (Democratic), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
2013-0000: Kesha Rogers / Michael Flynn (Democratic)
2012 def. Pat Tillman / Kyrsten Sinema (American Progress), Ted Turner / Stanley McChrystal (Independent), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
2016 def. Pat Tillman / Richard Ojeda (American Progress), Sarah Louise Heath / none (Alaskan Independence)
The United States is a dominant-party state, having been governed by the Democratic Party with few interruptions since 1932. The last major period of close competition was in the 1950s and 1960s, when the party was divided between northern and southern factions over the question of segregation and fought several narrowly contested elections with the Republicans under Richard Nixon. The partial resolution of the segregation issue, and the splintering of the independent right between supporters and opponents of Ronald Reagan's personality cult, allowed the Democrats to regain their dominant position. The political violence of the 1970s and 1980s both tarnished their political opponents and gave successive Democratic Presidents the political leeway to establish a so-called soft authoritarian system, and the party enjoyed almost unchecked power from the Humphrey Dam bombing of 1985 until the suspension of the McCarran Act in 2000.
The Democratic Party describes itself as a "big-tent party" of "progressive patriots." It has traditionally taken a statist and centralist position. While the Boren administration undertook several liberal economic reforms the party is still considered relatively interventionist, with a heavy emphasis on public works, private-public cooperation, and Keynesian management of business cycles. Since the 1980s the party has become predominantly socially conservative and its foreign policy more stridently unilateral and militaristic. Lyndonomics, a nationalist ideology first articulated by economist, philosopher, and Jackson and Mondale administration official Lyndon Marcus, is "the spiritual credo of contemporary Democrats," and sitting president Kesha Rogers has written extensively on behalf of Marcus's think tank, the National Democratic Policy Committee. The Democratic party platform explicitly identifies China and the European Union as geopolitical rivals.
There have historically been three broad currents of opposition to the Democratic Party: left-wing, right-wing, and localist/separatist.
The left opposition once included socialists and independent labor unions, but many of these small parties were either deliberately crushed or faded into irrelevance during the early Cold War, while the left-leaning CIO was subsumed by the conservative AFL and eventually became an arm of the Democratic Party. During the 1960s, a new left grew from civil rights and pacifist organizations, finally organizing itself around the Citizens Party, which for a time proved a potent electoral rival to the Democrats. However, this coalition was always fragile - as witnessed by the grim collapse of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1988 - and was easily scattered by minimal Democratic "ratfucking" during the McCarran Period.
The right opposition was traditionally based in the Republican Party, the old vehicle of big business and bourgeois conservatism, which excoriated Democratic taxation and spending while occasionally running to their left on civil liberties. The Grand Old Party had been a dominant force itself in the late nineteenth century, and was still in many respects a nineteenth-century institution; it never fully recovered from the shock of 1932 and by the 1970s was already in terminal decline. After its hijacking by the messianic former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan, the GOP was eclipsed by the American Independent Party - a gaggle of quasi-fascist ex-Democratic Southern refuseniks. The AIP was in turn foredoomed by its insistence on limiting its constituency (witness its 1984 vice-presidential nominee, who trumpeted an anti-Catholic bigotry already unfashionable a century earlier), and its voters soon realized that a Democrat willing to ban abortion and bomb the separatists was good enough for them.
Which brings us to the third category. The Western Insurgency was a syncretic affair, with militant organizations of the environmentalist left and libertarian right - and every shade of golden green between - loosely united in opposition to political centralism and destructive, federally subsidized economic development. The Civil War had left separatism a taboo subject in American politics, so apart from the sui generis Alaskan Independence Party this new political tendency rarely entered into electoral politics and was rarely even spoken aloud. However, militants from the Alaska Liberation Front to the Warriors of Mother Earth to the Texas Irregulars saw covert support from tens of thousands of aboveground supporters. The activation of the McCarran Act in 1982 and the waves of repression after the Humphrey Dam bombing were aimed at breaking this informal network; instead, they legitimized it. In 1988, the "Western Alliance" nominated a somewhat schizophrenic ticket of brash anarchist writer Edward Abbey and Christian conservationist Don Hodel - less out of a desire to win and more to drum up enough political unrest to make the continuing crackdown untenable. In the end, President Kirkpatrick was elected to a full term in the "most obviously rigged election in American history," ushering in the high McCarran Period.
Political opposition was so shattered during the 1990s that a strong new current has yet to emerge. The vaguely liberal and sharply eccentric media mogul Ted Turner, who made his name fighting censorship in the courts, briefly dominated the opposition as a kind of popular strongman-in-waiting. Turner actually made history by winning the Presidency in 2008, but he was so boxed in by the Democratic domination of other branches of government that he could not even completely withdraw from the foreign wars he had opposed on the campaign trail. His displacement by the left-populist, macho-pacifist movement of Nigerian War hero Pat Tillman has brought youth, but not yet institutional staying power, to American opposition politics.
The separatist movement has recently resurfaced through legal political channels. The symbolic candidacy of incarcerated terrorist and presidential assassin Sarah Louise Heath has won Alaska in the past three presidential elections. Despite Constitutional uncertainty, successive Democratic Congresses have certified Heath's electoral votes, likely out of a belief that having such a despised figure as the face of Western separatism can only be good for the status quo.
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