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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

The Camel and the Ass
The Fourth Party System

1885-1893: Grover Cleveland (Democratic)
1884 (with Thomas A. Hendricks): James G. Blaine (Republican)
1888 (with Allen G. Thurman): Benjamin Harrison (Republican), Clinton B. Fisk (Prohibition)

1893-1897: John M. Palmer (Democratic)
1892 (with Simon B. Buckner): James G. Blaine (Republican), Leonidas L. Polk (Fusion: People's, Farmer's Alliance, Prohibition, National Reform)
1897-1905: William McKinley (Republican)
1896 (with Cushman Kellogg Davis): John M. Palmer (Democratic), William Jennings Bryan (People's/Prohibition), Louis Hughes ('Narrow-Gauge' Prohibition)
1900 (with Cushman Kellogg Davis): William Jennings Bryan (Democratic/People's), John St. John (Prohibition)
1905-1913: Mark Hanna (Republican)
1904 (with Charles Fairbanks): William Randolph Hearst (Democratic), Nelson A. Miles (Prohibition)
1908 (with Charles Fairbanks): William Randolph Hearst (Democratic), Frank Hanly (Prohibition)

1913-1921: Oscar Underwood (Democratic)
1912 (with Judson Harmon): Charles Fairbanks (Republican), Frank Hanly (Prohibition), Bill Haywood (Socialist)
1916 (with Judson Harmon): John W. Weeks (Republican), William Jennings Bryan (Prohibition)

1921-1929: Herbert Hoover (Democratic)
1920 (with Franklin D. Roosevelt): William Jennings Bryan (Prohibition), Leonard Wood (Republican), Hiram Johnson (Independent Republican)
1924 (with Franklin D. Roosevelt): Charles H. Randall (Prohibition), Warren G. Harding (Republican), Hiram Johnson (Independent Republican)

1929-1933: Al Smith (Democratic)
1928 (with Alben W. Barkley): Sidney J. Catts (Prohibition), Frank O. Lowden (Republican), William Borah (Independent)
1933-0000: William H. Murray (Prohibition)
1932 (with Edward L. Jackson): Al Smith (Democratic), John Brinkley (Independent)

Since Clinton B. Fisk's spoiler campaign in 1888 and the Fusion campaign of 1892, the Prohibition Party has been seen as a credible national political vessel. Although the party would split between the fusionist "broad-gauges" who supported popular candidates like William Jennings Bryan and more puritan "narrow-gauges" who wished to run isolated campaigns it would be reunited before the turn-of-the-century. From there, the party would thrive in the face of William Randolph Hearst, the Democrats' standardbearer's, controversies and the growing failure of "Hannanomics."

In 1916, as President Oscar Underwood readied the country to join the war in Europe, the Prohibition Party reached a breakthrough. Underwood waffled on war while the declining GOP generally supported it. This was in contrast to public opinion being against American intervention. In one move, Prohibition Party leaders resurrected the political career of William Jennings Bryan and the party's fortunes in the modern era. Although he would only finish in third, Bryan ran an energetic campaign - and one with the extra bitterness of a man who narrowly finished second to both Hearst and Underwood.

The postwar environment of Underwood's final years in office degraded his national standing and the Democratic Party was forced to look to a popular nonpartisan figure to carry their party to victory. They paired Herbert Hoover with a young scion of a Bourbon family and sent him against a GOP that was cannibalizing itself. They, alongside the rest of the country, would be surprised to find that Hoover's biggest opponent was not a Republican but was actually William Jennings Bryan.

The GOP continued their decline while the Prohibition Party fully embraced the expanding Klansman "Invisible Empire." And although former President Underwood took to the radio to condemn the 1924 PNC for its "lawlessness" not many cared - Underwood was very unpopular anyway. President Hoover, tying himself to the decade's economic prosperity, still won by a decent margin.

The nomination of Al Smith, the Catholic Governor of New York, by the Democrats fundamentally shifted the nation's political landscape. Already unhappy with the Understanding of 1913 (an agreement between President Underwood and temperance leaders that national prohibition was out of the picture but local prohibition would be encouraged) Prohibitionists saw a Wet President - and a Catholic Wet President at that - as the end of any chance for serious national prohibition. The pale blue South would become solidly purple and Smith would pull off a narrow victory against an enraged Prohibition opposition.

This would be to his detriment. The Stock Market Crash of August, 1930 would set off the Lean Years. Massive Prohibition gains in the 1930 midterms would finally destroy the dying Republicans, whose members either jumped ship for Smith's Democrats or the Prohibitionists. As the Lean Years got leaner and election season rolled around, the inevitable and expected result occurred.

America had a new President now.

One that was going to create a Pure Society.
 
America had a new President now.

One that was going to create a Pure Society
Oh no, I saw trouble for America. William H. And the Invisible Empire don’t seem like a recipe for stability.
John Brinkley (Independent)
I guess he ran on a platform of “Goat Glands for All and Give Me Back My Licence You Fucks”
 
Oh no, I saw trouble for America. William H. And the Invisible Empire don’t seem like a recipe for stability.

I guess he ran on a platform of “Goat Glands for All and Give Me Back My Licence You Fucks”
It probably have been a Fascist ticket considering who Goatballs let on his radio station besides the Carter Family.
 
The Post War Continued Bumbling or D’Hondt This Motherfucker

1945-1950† Clement Attlee (Labour Majority,Labour Minority after the 1950 General Election)
1945:Clement Attlee-Labour[400],Winston Churchill-Conservative[192],Archibald Sinclair-Liberal[16],Ernest Brown-National Liberal[14],Richard Acland-Common Wealth[2],Harry Pollitt-Communist[2],Guy Aldred-United Socialist[1]
1950:Clement Attlee-Labour[308],Winston Churchill-Conservative[280],Clement Davies-Liberal[20],Ernest Brown-National Liberal[14],Richard Acland-Common Wealth[2],Harry Pollitt-Communist[2],Guy Aldred-United Socialist[1]


1950-1951Ernest Bevin (Labour Minority)

1951-1952† Stanford Cripps (Labour Minority,Labour Majority after the 1951 General Election)
1951:Stanford Cripps-Labour[368],Winston Churchill-Conservative[189],Clement Davies-Liberal[47],Gwilym Lloyd George-National Liberal[18],Richard Acland-Common Wealth[1],Harry Pollitt-Communist[1],Guy Aldred-United Socialist[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]

1952-1956 John Strachey (Labour Majority)
1956:John Strachey-Labour[352],Anthony Eden-Conservative[204],Clement Davies-Liberal[47],Gwilym Lloyd George-National Liberal[18],Richard Acland-Common Wealth[1],Harry Pollitt-Communist[1],Guy Aldred-United Socialist[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]

1956-1961 Harold Wilson (Labour Majority,Labour Minority after 1961)

1961-1961 Herbert Morrison (Labour Minority)

1961-1964 Rab Butler (Conservative Minority,Conservative-National Liberal Coalition after the 1962 General Election)
1961:Rab Butler-Conservative[301],Herbert Morrison-Labour[241],Jo Grimond-Liberal[56],Gwilym Lloyd George-National Liberal[18],Gwynfor Evans-Plaid Cymru[1],Ronald Mallone-Fellowship[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]
1962:Rab Butler-Conservative[318],Herbert Morrison-Labour[220],Jo Grimond-Liberal[60],Gwilym Lloyd George-National Liberal[18],Gwynfor Evans-Plaid Cymru[1],Ronald Mallone-Fellowship[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]

1964-1965 Reginald Maudling (Conservative-National Liberal Coalition)

1965-1967 Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative-National Liberal Coalition,Conservative Minority by 1966)

1967-1972 George Brown (Labour-Liberal Coalition,Labour Minority with SNP and Plaid Cymru support after 18 October 1971)
1967:George Brown-Labour[320],Peter Thorneycroft-Conservative[217],Jeremy Thorpe-Liberal[83],Gwynfor Evans-Plaid Cymru[2],Arthur Donaldson-SNP[2], Ronald Mallone-Fellowship[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]
1972 Scottish and Welsh Assembly Referendums:53,86% Yes for a Scottish Assembly,67,12% No for a Welsh Assembly

1972-1973Iain Macleod (Conservative Majority)
1972:Iain Macleod-Conservative[350],George Brown[243],William Wolfe-SNP[6],Eric Lubbock-Liberal[4],Gwynfor Evans-Plaid Cymru[3],John Gollan-Communist[1],John O'Brien-National Front[1],Eddie Bray-National Democrat[1],Ronald Mallone-Fellowship[1],Richard Law-Freedom[1]

1973-1975 Anthony Barber (Conservative Majority)

1975-1977 Keith Joseph (Conservative Majority,Conservative-Ulster Unionist Coalition by 1976)

1977-1980 Michael Foot (Labour Majority,Labour Minority supported by SNP after 19 December 1979)
1977:Michael Foot-Labour[365],Keith Joseph-Conservative[189],William Wolfe-SNP[35],Dick Taverne-SDP[10],Eric Lubbock-Liberal[7],Gwynfor Evans-Plaid Cymru[7],John Tyndall-National Front[6],John Gollan-Communist[4]
1980 Scottish Assembly Enlargement of Power Referendum:55,89% For

1980-1981Denis Healey (Labour Minority supported by SNP,Labour Minority after 28 October 1981)
1981 Scottish Independence Referendum:53% Yes

1981-1982 Roy Hattersley (Labour led National Unity Government)

1982-1985 William Whitelaw (Conservative Majority,Conservative Minority after 15 January 1985)
1982:William Whitelaw-Conservative[314],Roy Hattersley-Labour[190],Roy Jenkins/Dick Taverne-SDP/Liberal Alliance[23],John Tyndall-BNP[7],Dafydd Wigley-Plaid Cymru[7],Andrew Brons-National Front[6],Gordon McLennan-Communist[6]

1985-1987 Peter Walker (Conservative-Ulster Unionist Coalition)

1987-19xx Norman St John-Stevas (Conservative led National Unity Government)
 
@Yokai Man 's thing is lovely, but I've often wondered how to do a more accurate PR mapping - one problem I think often exists with the methodology is setting up regions of like 10 changes the game a lot - also, there's candidacy numbers - say the Greens only stood in 325 seats in the election you're mapping - do you double their number because twice as many people could have voted for them - or presume they mostly would havestood in their better areass so weight it, and how do you deicde who would have voted for them so wouldn't have voted for someone else? It's a rabbit hole
 
Premiers of the New Afrikan Republic:

1997 - 2009: John Lewis (National Workers’ Party)
1999: (Majority) Clarence Thomas (Brown Movement Party), Independents
2004: (Majority) Clarence Thomas (Brown Movement Party), Jesse Jackson (League of Independent Socialists)
2007: (Majority) Clarence Thomas (Brown Movement Party), Jesse Jackson (League of Independent Socialists)

2009 - 2012: Chokwe Lumumba (National Workers’ Party)
2012 - 2014: Hussein Obama (Yes We Can!)

2012: (Coalition with Brown Movement and League of Independent Socialists) Chokwe Lumumba (National Workers’ Party), Herman Cain (Brown Movement Party), Alexander Green (League of Independent Socialist)
2014 - 2015: Cory Booker (Yes We Can!)
2015 - 2021: James Clyburn (National Workers’ Party)
2015: (Majority) Herman Cain (Brown Movement Party), Alexander Green (League of Independent Socialists), Cory Booker (Yes We Can!), Benjamin Carson (Christian Liberation)
2020: (Coalition with Brown Movement Party) William Barber II (League of Independent Socialist), Stacey Abrams (Yes We Can!), Tim Scott (Black Movement Party), Benjamin Carson (Christian Liberation)

2021 - 2021: William E. Ward (Brown Army)
2021 - 2021: Collin Powell (Independent)
2021 - 2022: Cedric Richmond (‘New’ National Workers’ Party)
(Coalition with Yes We Can!)

Polling for the 2022 New Afrikan General Election:

Ayanna Pressley (League of Independent Socialists) 38,6%
Kanye West (Christian Liberation) 27,5%
Cedric Richmond (‘New’ National Workers’ Party) 16,7%
Stacey Abrams (Yes We Can!) 12,1%
Michael Steele (Brown Movement Party) 6,6%


When Premier Evers announced John Lewis as his successor in 1997 it was considered by many to be a continuation of the political liberalization that had been kicked into action following the end of the Anglo-Soviet Shadow War.

This did not mean that Lewis’ premiership would be the abandonment of socialism as some in New Afrika hoped or feared. Lewis was the first premier not to have fought in the Liberation War (1942-46). Instead he was a veteran of the Great American War (1969-1972) where he lost half his family. Lewis’ premiership not only saw the amount of skirmishes with the Miami government significantly decrease, but also an increase of living standards just like most countries of the Comintern. Furthermore he made it easier for political opposition to rally as the country went from a dominant party system to something resembling a hybrid regime.

His premiership was also embroiled in controversy. From his almost dictatorial grip on the premiership to the numerous corruption scandals that were reported on by newly formed opposition newspapers. Lewis also refused to establish relations with non-Comintern Communist nations and mostly followed the Soviet Union and the American Workers’ Republic.

Nevertheless his death came as a shock to many in North America. His successors mismanagement of the economy during the recession of 2010 only improved Lewis’ image as he is now considered the third greatest premier of New Africa after founding father Benjamin O. Davis and fourth premier Malcolm Little.

Lumumba, Lewis’ successor, in many ways fell victim to his predecessor’s succes. Political liberalization saw the formation of new parties like the Titoist Independent Socialists and the strengthening of the Chauvinistic Brown Movement. It would however not be either of those two that would defeat Lumumba. Instead it was Hussein Obama’s movement built on the anger of the newly formed middle class of New Afrika. Obama managed to get more votes than Lumumba, but not more mp’s as the districts were heavily gerrymandered in the National Workers’ Party’s favor. Obama ultimately managed to secure Cain and Green’s support and became the first Premier not to be a member of the National Workers’ Party or it’s predecessor.

Obama’s main aim was to make New Afrika more connected to the rest of the world. He obviously knew that going to London or Paris would be political suicide, but he nonetheless did manage to form trade relations with the Western Imperialist Power’s. This along with granting voting rights to the small population of Northern Whites (Southern Whites having been expelled following the Great American War) almost saw him impeached by the House of Representatives. He did however remain popular with the regular people. When he shook hands with President Tom Hayden (Sacramento) following his regimes official approval of the independence of the New African Republic Obama’s popularity skyrocketed. A few months later he managed to establish official relations with the Omaha government following a meeting with President Greg Orman in San Juan. This would unfortunately be the last ever meeting Premier Obama held as the following night his plane crashed somewhere over the Western Atlantic.

This plane crash itself caused another border skirmish between New Afrika and the Miami government. Cory Booker however failed to be the leader that Obama was. Not that he didn’t try. Booker personally traveled to Miami and shared a very awkward handshake with President Dennis Baxley. This move fastened his fall from power. Just 2 weeks after the handshake in Miami president Booker was announced as persona non granta in the American Workers Republic by Secretary-General Biden and the rest of the American Soviet.

The Brown Movement pulled back from the coalition and early elections were held. The National Workers’ Party returned to a majority government under Clyburn despite only winning 44% of the vote. Clyburn did not get rid of all of Obama’s reforms, but he did move the country closer to the Soviet sphere again. The problem was that the Communist bloc entered its own period of change. Independents managed to wrestle power away from Communist parties in Germany and Hungary and the establishment of the Fifth International by Socialist and Anti-Soviet Communists nations like Italy, Yugoslavia, India, Brazil, Kenya, China and the Sacramento government only further spelled the end of the Soviet hegemony. Even in North America change was on the rise. Moderate Secretary-General Biden was replaced by Bernie Sanders who had the backing of progressive communists, non-Communist party communists and members of the few official opposition parties. Clyburn however was an old-school man. He truly believed that the interests of New Afrika were aligned with those of the Soviet Union. He refused to attend the first North American Confernece. He refused to condone the Egyptian invasion of Palestine and he even refused to condone Soviet troops firing on Romanian protesters.

Clyburn somehow managed to remain Premier after forming a coalition with the Brown movement. The 2020 InterWeb leaks ultimately spelled the end for Clyburn and much of his party as it leaked that pretty much the entire Old Guard of the National Workers’ party were embroiled in one political scandal or the other. Weeks of protests followed and when it finally looked like Clyburn would resign the Brown army interfered. General Ward, himself involved in multiple corruption scandals, attempted a coup and held onto power for 6 days before being deposed by a counter-coup led by former General and war hero Collin Powell. ‘The Lion’ only acted as premier for a few months and removed any member of the majlis who had any involvement with a major corruption scandal. Younger National Worker’s Party formed a new party and a coalition with former premier Obama’s party. Neither party look particularly likely to win the election of 2020 though. Instead it is former school teacher Ayanna Pressley of the League of Independent Socialists who is polling in first place. Her party having largely abandoned Titoism for EPICism as they look at the success of Chesa Boudin who became the first President of the newly unified Sacramento-Omaha government.
 
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The Brown Movement pulled back from the coalition and early elections were held. The National Workers’ Party returned to a majority government under Clyburn despite only winning 44% of the vote. Clyburn did not get rid of all of Obama’s reforms, but he did move the country closer to the Soviet sphere again. The problem was that the Communist bloc entered its own period of change. Independents managed to wrestle power away from Communist parties in Germany and Hungary and the establishment of the Fifth International by Socialist and Anti-Soviet Communists nations like Italy, Yugoslavia, India, Brazil, Kenya, China and the Sacramento government only further spelled the end of the Soviet hegemony. Even in North America change was on the rise. Moderate Secretary-General Biden was replaced by Bernie Sanders who had the backing of progressive communists, non-Communist party communists and members of the few official opposition parties. Clyburn however was an old-school man. He truly believed that the interests of New Afrika were aligned with those of the Soviet Union. He refused to attend the first North American Confernece. He refused to condone the Egyptian invasion of Palestine and he even refused to condone Soviet troops firing on Romanian protesters.

Shouldn't that be condemn considering he's all in on the soviets?

Anyway, I really like this! I wonder how Obama ended up there considering his own origins don't really map, but it's pretty well done.

What's up with the US? It looks like a progressive western government and a worker one in the north east, plus a rump southern one in Miami?
 
Posting this all together so readers wouldn't have to go through multiple pages to get the full story.

Things Fall Apart

2021-2022: [vacant]/Kamala Harris

defeated Donald Trump/Mike Pence, Joe Biden/Kamala Harris, others

When a whole bunch of raunchy escapades put a real weight on Biden, and Trump was caught literally with his pants down in the Oval, the prophesied TIED ELECTORAL COLLEGE ended up a reality. If that wasn't enough, the Democrats keep their gains in the House, as well as enough Senate seats to force a tiebreaker stalemate, even with Pence trying his best to flaunt what little time he had left in the Oval. As the Senate appoints Harris as VP, the House remains staunch in refusing to do their job they were elected to do. Republicans wouldn't budge, neither would Democrats. Weeks turned into months and one deadline rolled over to the next.

2022-2023: Kamala Harris†/Tulsi Gabbard
defeated Donald Trump/Mike Pence, Joe Biden/Kamala Harris, others

Following the absolutely disappointing result of the Democratic primaries, Hawaiian senator and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard lost her incumbent House seat to challenger Kai Kahele. Surprisingly, tho, she was called back to congress a little more than a month after limping back to her home state, after the gridlocked House begrudgingly decided she'd be the perfect fit for Veep. The fact the Republicans put her name up for consideration at all was enough to mark her as a permanent person of interest when it came to accusations of Russian meddling. What was an already increasingly unpopular and controversial was made a bit worse when Gabbard announced she would be changing her party affiliation to Independent, following several rowdy confrontations with the Democratic party ordering her off the ticket come 2024.

2023-2025: Tulsi Gabbard/[vacant]

Harris was assassinated whilst doing a listening tour of Camden, New Jersey. Almost immediately a nineteen year old came forward claiming responsibility, insisting he was put up to the task as a gang initiation ('for clout'). The subsequent investigation by intelligence services quickly found that while the youth had indeed intended to 'disrupt the President's visit in some manner', he was later found to have no actual affiliation with local gangs (subsequent revaluation by contemporary historians theorise the youth was suffering from undiagnosed histrionic personality disorder). The actual shooter, found less than a week later attempting to gain entry to Canada, was a fifty-something former coal miner and disenfranchised veteran. What really got people going was the sheer amount of alt-right stuff that was found on his internet history. Gabbard used that as fuel for rolling out Patriot Act III.

2025-2029: Sarah Palin/Nikki Haley
defeated Tulsi Gabbard/Sabrina Shrader (Independent), Pete Buttegig/Gretchen Whitmer, others

When the President refused to appoint a new Veep until she's officially elected "because reasons", Republican anger came roaring back, or, as Palin called it, "Apple Pie Populism" or "Redneck Reganomics" or whatever you wanted to call it to avoid using "Trumpism". The actual inventor of his own signature populism brand, Mr. Trump, had just been found guilty by the New York court, which quickly became one of Palin's campaign planks; federal entities should be above the power of the law. Except if it was President Gabbard, of course, she was apparently guilty of as many crimes as they cared to list. And her platform of protecting the government, fiscal sanctity of businesses, privilege of religious groups and illusion of privilege to First Amendmentites would've been enough to crush any completion even if the incumbent wasn't heir to one of the most controversial elections in recent history, who chose to instead run on her own right when the Democrats forbade her from running in their primary, instead nominating safe, reliable, Lockheed-Martin-friendly Buttegig. People were talking about two major tickets having all-female rosters, and one having the first openly gay nominee, when they should've been talking about the heavily guarded camps popping up on the border, or the blight that was spreading across crops, or the last big conglomerate buying up the other. Shocker.

2029-2037: Lee Carter/Joseph Stallcop
defeated Sarah Palin/Nikki Haley, others
defeated Ariana Rowlands/Greg Hafen, others


If Palin gotten in a term earlier, or Trump had kept his hands above the table, then they might've been a bit more lucky. Because shortly after entering office the poor attempt the GOP had made at a nationalist economy came crashing down. It wasn't just a recession, oh no, it was a 'jump out the window of the stock market' situation. Jobs puffed into smoke, so did crops, and supermarket shelves, and civility, or what would be left of it by now. Membership applications for extremist groups on both sides of the spectrum quintupled overnight - by election day, one out of every ten Americans were affiliated with some form of militia. You know those Reddit posts you see sometimes where Proud Boys get owned by ANTIFA mobs or vice versa? Picture that in the thousands, across every state. Palin wasn't prepared for this in the slightest. Solution? Haemorrhage American assets, suspend social security payments indefinitely and de-automate all American factories via Executive Order. If workers didn't get the chance to beat up car-assembly machines in the middle of abandoned fields a la "Office Space" en-masse, there would have been guillotines on the White House lawns by sunrise. This was the perfect atmosphere for Carter, a pro-gun socialist from Coal Country, to clean house.

Despite winning a second term, Carter inherited the poisoned chalice that had become the American political system. His Second Constitutional Convention was quashed before it even convened, the Supreme Court was virtually empty - save for an incredibly bored Chief Justice Engel - and his own party was playing hardball with him. Any attempt to micro-manage tax rates were forestalled by Congressional Republicans, who’d taken to simply getting up and walking out when someone was so much as rude to them - garnering them the common moniker of “Party of Karens”. It was difficult to make sure the country didn’t go bankrupt when the House and Senate acted like spoilt children. So he bailed out the banks. If he did what his heart told him, to demolish Wall Street with bulldozers, he'd never survive. And with this bailout went his base, who now seethed that he was nothing more than “another bastich liberal shillkill”, whatever that meant. He never led the country to civil war, nothing of the sort, but there were assholes all the same, always occupying federal land and refusing to pay parking fines or taxes or the missing nine dollars for their gas-station coffee. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

2037-2039: Josh Hawley/Dane Eagle
defeated Geo Saba/Liz Bruenig, others

After progress there comes spewing fourth from the false sense of security a belief in vanity. That’s why the Dems nominated the wholesome farm boy baseball-star-turned congressman Saba, picture perfect and squeaky clean, more than happy to play ball with the party, unlike Carter, who’d burned all bridges by the time he left office. Hawley used to be a wholesome farm boy, too, enough to be taken under the wing of then-President Palin. But he had gotten old. And bitter. And outright murky in his allegiances. He now stalked D.C. with the assistance of a cane, which rumours suggest was carved from the ivory of one of the last remaining elephants. When voters saw the debate streams, where Hawley grumbled, growled and snapped at his opponent, they didn’t see him for the cantankerous bastard he was; New York is sinking into the ocean? Fuck you! What about my 401(k)?!

Then everyone’s 401(k)’s vanished. The Week of Open Windows happened in the blink of an eye for many, tho the history books make it seem like it took years. Global Banks that were “too big to fail” failed, shares in multinationals became instantly worthless, the fake money market was no more. This would’ve been more than enough to cripple the States, but this was a global issue. Overnight the oil magnates retreated into bunkers and refused all exports. Farmland was raided by civilians who attempted to gnaw on the underripe cobs and bushels of wheat. Pure, unadulterated chaos. Chomsky would’ve been grinning from ear to ear if he knew how right he was.

Of course, things proceeded to get far worse. When you've reached the bottom of the barrel that is human decency, who says you have to stop digging?

2039-20?? Odessa Oldham/[vacant]
[fmr. Secretary of Agriculture elected via Contingency of Govt.]

It was unthinkable to believe the President, the cabinet and a sizeable chunk of congress could be wiped out in an instant, perhaps even bordering on the realm of crude fiction. When that horrible act is carried out by a rightwing terrorist faction, it becomes even more farcical. But sometimes life imitates art in the worst way possible. Suddenly the angry sovereign citizens screaming about gun rights weren’t on congressional laptops opened up to YouTube — they were tearing down the doors of the capital building. For government-haters they did love bringing up that one part in the Declaration of Independence as justification for their actions, something about it being their right, no, duty, to throw off the government. Luckily for Secretary Oldham, the former Conservative head of the Future Farmers of America, she was back home attending a funeral. She would, unluckily, be attending a lot more within the span of a month, by the end of which she was sat in the newly-repaired Oval Office and administered her oath.

2039-2042: Oldessa Oldham/Daniel Zolnikov
[elections suspended]

With American per-capita credit virtually nonexistent and the dollar note more useful as toilet paper, Oldham announced that domestic trade would be transitioned to a “temporary” barter-based system. In theory, this was just convoluted. In practice, it fell apart far too quickly. Folks with desirable supplies set up impossible and highly personal trade equivalents, only to then be stormed by hordes of ravenous have-nots. Warlords came a dime a dozen, lording over boroughs and inlets and demanding tribute for protection - the government never counted on violence being one of the resources up for barter. They also didn’t count on them organising raids on military bases and police stations. Civilian-piloted tanks did roll through Pennsylvania, but that wasn’t the reason D.C was evacuated.

2042-20??: [debated]
Andrew Andrzejewski (Speaker of the House of Representatives)
Cpo. Eddie Gallagher (Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Cpl. Shoshana Johnson (Assistant Secretary of the Army Civil Works)
Sino-American Administrative Caretaker Assembly
Committee of the Common People
various other smaller factions, warlords


Remember, the Week of Open Windows was an international issue. Ever since the Saudi oil fields were set on fire, they never stopped. The EU lay in tatters, India and Pakistan launched nukes at each other (who fired first is still up for debate), Japan had locked down its borders and were shooting down overhead aircraft, and Russia attempted to breeze through Eastern Europe, only to meet the horrors of the Cannibal Kings firsthand. In this chaos was opportunity, said the new Chairman of the CPP, younger than all others had been, with a glint in his eye. If the Peoples Republic wasn’t yet to call in its national debt, they probably wouldn’t get another chance.

Of course, America was nowhere near the condition it’d have to be in to hand over the full $3.01 trillion it had accrued. That was fine, said the Chairman, we will take your land as collateral. They didn’t wait for an answer, but let’s be frank, they weren’t going to get one. As shocked as they were when civilians wielding military-grade firearms took pot shots at them from the coast, they were more taken aback by not being able to get a straight answer on who the president was. Some nervous man with greasy hair who hid in the Rocky Mountains claimed it was him, only for a military man drinking corn chowder from a halved skull to say it was him. So too said the weary but still grizzled woman who never left her Aircraft Carrier stationed off the Texas coast, and a jumbled and haggard group of twelve different representatives of something called the Committee of the Common People, who insisted their Autonomous Zones were far superior to what came before. It would seem that within this chaos, there was even more maddening lunacy than first thought.
 
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I know I probably shouldn't be that worried about plausibility on a TL that has Tulsi Gabbard initiating "Patriot Act III" only to be succeeded by Sarah Palin in 2024, but that is not how a hung Electoral College, a vice president acting as president, or even how party primaries work.

If there is no majority in the Electoral College, the House (by state delegation) picks the president from the top three electoral vote getters while the Senate picks the vice president from the two vice presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. If no person qualifies as president, but there is a vice president-elect, that person becomes acting president at the start of a new term in addition to their role as vice president.

Finally, in the US, parties can't deny a candidate the right to run in their primary. Bernie Sanders famously spent his entire political career before 2015 as an independent or third-party candidate but faced no legal hurdles running in the Democratic presidential primary. He has also won the Democratic nomination for the Senate three times despite not being a registered Democrat when he ran in any of his Senate races.
 
The ⅓ Force // The Fourth Force

1967-1975: Tom McCall (Republican)
1966 def. Bob Straub (Democratic)
1970 def. Bob Straub (Democratic)

1975-1979: Bob Straub (Democratic)
1974 def. Vic Atiyeh (Republican)
1979-1982: Tom McCall (Independent) †
1978 def. Roger Martin (Republican), Bob Straub (Democratic)
1982-1983: Norma Paulus (Republican)
1983-1987: Frank Ivancie (Democratic)

1982 def. Norma Paulus (Republican)
1987-0000: Ralph Friedman (Independent)
1986 def. Denny Smith (Republican), Frank Ivancie (Democratic), PJ “Prem Niren” Toelkes (Love)

Tom McCall did not know when to fold ‘em.

His surprise return to the governorship after four years flirting with national ambitions should have been an unmitigated triumph, but even the successful campaign of ‘78 showed the warning signs of what was to come. McCall offered no big ideas for his Third Force. The radical innovation that had made him a living legend was gone; he instead leant on nostalgia for his greatest hits, pledged to finish his tax reforms that had already been rejected by the voters, and stomped Bob Straub for fumbling his legacy. In the end, he only barely snuck back in over a square, suburban conservative who represented the antithesis of everything he stood for. His troubled family life, his brush with cancer, and his drinking habit had taken their toll, and the nasty temper he usually kept private began to shine through his public humor and charm.

It was unsurprising that the roster of McCall’s third-term achievements ended up looking thin. He saved his beloved land-use system, he made some tweaks to property taxes, and he passed an open-primary law over the heads of both political parties by sending it to the voters for approval. That last cost him most of his remaining stature in Salem. Not that there was much to lose at that point.

The timber depression that began as he took office was a tragedy years in the making. Private lumber companies had denuded their holdings recklessly and unsustainably in the decades after the Second World War, mowing down millions of acres of old-growth forest faster than even their monocultural tree plantations could replace them. This was of no concern to timber barons like the Wheeler family, who had already invested heavily in the Southern yellow pine belt: if they ran out of trees in Oregon, they could just harvest in Georgia, with the added bonus of a compliant non-union workforce. The disaster for timber country was compounded by outsourcing, as the remaining cut was shipped to Japan for processing rather than milled at home.

Mills were idled and workers laid off everywhere. The state lost population at a steady clip. And everyone blamed Tom McCall. While the governor had been as enthusiastic a shill for the timber industry as any Northwest politician, his opposition to unchecked economic growth had always drawn the hatred of those Republicans and Democrats who reveled in being “business-friendly.” Now they claimed that years of “Visit, but don’t stay” had given Oregon a poor reputation among investors. Surely these unemployed loggers and millworkers could have found other jobs, if only McCall hadn’t poisoned the well and driven all the potential factories and office parks away.

The governor was still personally popular, and there was an outpouring of sympathy when his cancer returned in 1981, but his era of dominance was over. Business hated him, the party regulars on both sides hated him, timber country hated him, and even the middle-class radicals who’d once swooned for his environmental record were now perturbed by his opposition to Forest Service roadless rules and his support for the Trojan nuclear plant in Rainier. McCall died having secured his legacy in law – but Oregonians were no longer certain they were proud of that legacy.

His interim successor was Secretary of State Norma Paulus, one of the last remaining liberal Republicans now that Senator Hatfield was toeing the party line in DC. In the unusual coalitions created by the new open primaries – in which voters could choose both parties’ nominees – she beat a double handful of conservatives while the Democrats selected a full-throated Reaganite, Portland Mayor Frank Ivancie. (McCall aide Phil Keisling had split the liberal vote with anti-nuclear activist Lloyd Marbet.) The cigar-chomping Slovenian made himself the bring-back-business candidate and won in a walk.

Over the next four years, though, Morning in America didn’t extend much further than the edge of Silicon Forest. The high-tech and sportswear companies in Beaverton boomed, catered to with tax cuts and land-use exemptions, but Reaganomics couldn’t regrow the trees and free markets only encouraged more lumber companies to decamp to the right-to-work South or to East Asia. For most of Oregon, the national slump of the seventies never ended. It didn’t take long for Ivancie’s approach to seem a dismal failure, and there were even murmurings of nostalgia for McCall’s optimism.

The late governor’s proteges were scattered between both parties and were all on the political outs. With a primary challenge to Ivancie sounding difficult and a victory in the increasingly right-wing ORGOP even more so, a few of the more idealistic throwbacks proposed an independent campaign. But it would have to be a personalist campaign in order to cut through, like McCall’s had been, and who among the governor’s yuppie progeny had that kind of charisma?

Only one name from the old administration came to mind: Ralph Friedman. The septuagenarian travel writer and folk historian had been a personal friend of Tom McCall, who had appointed him to lead the state tourism commission in 1979. The irony of one anti-development populist telling another to promote tourism was rich, and the political cartoonists had a field day depicting Friedman hiding behind park benches with a rifle, ready to snipe incoming Californians. It was good-natured humor, though – Oregonians enjoyed Friedman’s mix of practicality and purple prose, and his self-published books appeared on most shelves in the state. He would be just the man to lead a Third Force renaissance.

The one thing the Third Force yuppies hadn’t reckoned with was Friedman’s politics.

Where McCall came from old money and had come by his radical ideas through a patrician liberal’s concern for quality of life, Friedman had been born into poverty as the son of immigrants in Chicago. He had first visited Oregon as a rail-hopping hobo during the Depression, and had returned again and again, entranced equally by the landscape and by the fascinating stories of pioneer grit he found everywhere he looked. After moving to the state for good, he’d become a beloved, apolitical public figure, taking a vocal stand only on issues of conservation and development – but he’d always found time to attend peace vigils and anti-nuclear protests, and he was far more radical than was understood.

The contrast became obvious when he squared off against Ivancie and conservative Representative Denny Smith. Friedman combined a Third Force concern for aesthetics and quality of life with a populist defense of the working poor and the vanishing livelihoods of Oregon’s loggers, small farmers, and other sons of the soil. Unlike the other candidates, he argued that the state’s problem was not just the unemployment rate – which could, after all, be numerically reduced by importing people to work at Intel and Tektronix – but the loss of communities’ entire purpose for existing. He placed the blame squarely on corporate irresponsibility and outsourcing. This wasn’t a centrist: this was a candidate of the Old Left.

Opponents were quick to note that his wife Phoebe hosted a weekly radio program on Marxist theory, and that the couple had met at a demonstration in the late 1940s – while Ralph was walking a picket line with the Communist-dominated Marine Cooks and Stewards Union. It was difficult to argue that Friedman hadn’t been, at the very least, a fellow-traveler. But this was the very tail end of the Cold War, and there were more serious identity questions at stake: Ivancie was a *spit* Portlander and Smith had spent the past decade in DC. Friedman had friends all across the state, from the cities to the most remote rural hamlets; when a heckler called him a member of the Portland elite, Friedman quipped that his dog had been to every county. Polls showed that even those who planned to vote against the folklorist liked his attitude.

Of course, with Friedman pulling the left and the timber-country populists away from the Democrats, Denny Smith was still consolidating the suburbanites and the rural right. The son of a previous state governor and one of Capitol Hill’s loudest tough-on-crime rabble-rousers, Smith looked like he’d walk through the middle with no trouble – until he walked into one of America’s strangest political scandals instead. One of Smith’s Congressional advisers, an ex-Air Force arms designer named Robert Dilger, was arrested in Arlington shortly before the election when a homemade anti-tank gun strapped into his truck misfired and destroyed a gas station.

While Smith quickly fired and disavowed the “mad inventor,” the fallout was entertaining enough to overshadow the entire last month of the campaign – during which Friedman crisscrossed the state on those highways he knew like the back of his hand, alternating between sentimental Third Force speeches about beauty, and hard-headed ideas about an industrial transition towards responsibly-harvested finished wood products. Furniture. Chopsticks. It all worked much better than even Friedman himself had suspected. The upset victory rang in a new era of McCallism: a harder-edged, more militant defense of home and community and quality of life, but ultimately one that would restore unity and pride to Oregon...

The first tree-spiking action took place only a month after Friedman was sworn in.

This is a little self-indulgent, I admit, but then the original Third Force scenario I worked on a while back was pretty self-indulgent too. McCall did indeed run a tired, uninspired comeback campaign in 1978 IOTL, and later claimed his biggest mistake was sticking with the Republicans rather than going Independent. I don’t imagine a third term would have gone well.

I am a big fan of Friedman’s books, which are half practical highway travel guides and half folklore collections, full of wildly overwrought description. Doing a little more digging on him recently, I found out that he had a fascinating early life and surprisingly radical politics, so I had to pick him for the more-populist-Third-Force revival here. Would not recommend as a plausible hipster candidate, though – as far as I can tell the only office he ever sought or held was on a county parks board.

If the timber wars escalate in the same way they did IOTL, Friedman’s probably fucked in the long run, but at least there was a bright spot of hope!
 
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Yes, I know. Thats why Kamala became President. I DID get the order wrong tho, thanks for pointing that out.
Finally, in the US, parties can't deny a candidate the right to run in their primary.
This was my way of saying that the party made machinations via endorsements, attack ads, et al. against candidates they didn't like. Look at the sheer amount of anti-Bernie hit pieces put out in the primaries. Biden was coming Solid 4th in every state primary RIGHT UP UNTIL Jim Clyburn gave him the endorsement he needed in South Carolina, then every single news source was full of "BERNIE MIGHT AS WELL DROP OUT NOW" articles. It might not be outright, but it happens.
 
Yes, I know. Thats why Kamala became President.

No, she would become Acting President. She couldn't appoint Gabbard (lol) as vice president because she herself would still be occupying that role.

This was my way of saying that the party made machinations via endorsements, attack ads, et al. against candidates they didn't like.

Then you should have said that, because nobody else defines a party "forbidding" someone to run in their primary that way.

Look at the sheer amount of anti-Bernie hit pieces put out in the primaries. Biden was coming Solid 4th in every state primary RIGHT UP UNTIL Jim Clyburn gave him the endorsement he needed in South Carolina, then every single news source was full of "BERNIE MIGHT AS WELL DROP OUT NOW" articles. It might not be outright, but it happens.

It's honestly endearing how powerful and competent you seem to think the DNC is.
 
Shouldn't that be condemn considering he's all in on the soviets?

Anyway, I really like this! I wonder how Obama ended up there considering his own origins don't really map, but it's pretty well done.

What's up with the US? It looks like a progressive western government and a worker one in the north east, plus a rump southern one in Miami?
Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t really put too much thought into that. I just kind of tried to map the ideological differences of African-Americans.

There is a Communist America in the north backed by the Soviets. A progressive government out west that is a bit like Mexico with a dominant party that enjoys the support of most labor unions. Their main allies are other anti-Soviet socialist and communist states. Than there is the Omaha government which is mainly in the plains and backed by the British and French. They’re probably the most democratic, but also really right-wing. There’s also a rump racist Dixie America in Florida and a Japanese occupied Hawaii and Alaska which is dominated by the military who are puppets of the Japanese navy.
 
No, she would become Acting President. She couldn't appoint Gabbard (lol) as vice president because she herself would still be occupying that role.
Ah yes, I see you too have watched that new CPGrey video.
Lets say, in this example, Harris has been acting president for two whole months while congress is deadlocked. IIRC there's a stipulation that after a 21-day retaining period, they can be officially made President, barring any sort of interruption.
Also to consider; look at what's happened to America in the last four years. Look at how the pillars of law have eroded through sheer incompetency. Any expectation for things to follow the system have been stamped out and buried behind the shed.
Then you should have said that, because nobody else defines a party "forbidding" someone to run in their primary that way.
That I should.
It's honestly endearing how powerful and competent you seem to think the DNC is.
TBH I just find them transparently prehistoric and corrupt. They are politicians, after all.
 
IIRC there's a stipulation that after a 21-day retaining period, they can be officially made President, barring any sort of interruption.
There is no such provision. You may be thinking of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president to maintain the Acting Presidency if the vice president and cabinet invoke the amendment and Congress votes to continue the acting presidency within 21 days.
 
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Bringing the Democracy (As Indicated By The Name): Prime Ministers of Japan:

2008-2009: Tarō Asō (Liberal Democratic Party)
2009-2013: Ichirō Ozawa (Democratic Party of Japan)
2009 (Majority) def: Tarō Asō (Liberal Democratic Party), Akihiro Ota (Komeito), Kazuo Shii (Japanese Communist Party), Mizuho Fukushima (Japanese Social Democratic Party), Yoshimi Watanabe (Your Party)
2013-2015: Shigeru Ishiba (LDP)
2013 (Majority) def: Ichirō Ozawa (Democratic Party of Japan), Yuko Mori (Tomorrow Party), Akihiro Ota (Komeito),Shintaro Ishihara (Restoration), Kazuo Shii (JCP), Mizuho Fukushima (JSDP), Yoshimi Watanabe (Your Party)
2015-2016: Yasutoshi Nishimura (LDP)
2016-2018: Akira Nagatsuma (DPJ)
2016 (Coalition with Tomorrow Party of Japan) def: Yasutoshi Nishimura (LDP), Yuko Mori-Tarō Yamamoto (Tomorrow Party),Natsuo Yamaguchi (Komeito), Yuriko Koike (Kibō no Tō), Kazuo Shii (JCP), Kenji Eda-Tōru Hashimoto (Japan Innovation Party), Seiji Maehara (People's Democratic Party)
2018-2019: Kiyomi Tsujimoto (DPJ)
2019-: Yukio Edano (DPJ)

2019 (Majority) def: Fumio Kishida (LDP), Tarō Yamamoto-Ayako Fuchigami (Tomorrow Party), Natsuo Yamaguchi (Komeito), Yuriko Koike-Masaru Wakasa (Kibō no Tō), Kazuo Shii (JCP), Tōru Hashimoto (Japan Innovation Party), Seiji Maehara (People's Democratic Party)

"Yukio Edano has finally done it, he's won the DPJ a Second Term on a message of Centre-Left reform and Revival after the semi-chaotic four years of the coalition years. Meanwhile the Tomorrow Party can celebrate still being relevant with it's Green, Progressive, Left Wing Populist Message it's managed to smash the awkward remains of the JSDP and managed to secure it's place on the Left alongside the JCP. Meanwhile the LDP licks it's wounds as the moderate stance of Fumio Kishida got smashed to pieces by the Right Wing Populism of Kibō no Tō and the JIP, whilst the Centre-Right vote gravitated towards the PDP. Time will tell yet if Japan enjoys it's new two party system or if it decides that the DPJ is what they truly want..."
 
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Behind every fascism there is a failed revolution.

2009 - 2017: Barack H. Obama / Joseph ‘Joe’ R. Biden Jr. (Democrat)
2008: John S. McCain III / Sarah L. Palin (Republican)
2012: W. Mitt Romney / Paul D. Ryan (Republican)
2017 - 2021: Donald J. Trump / Michael ‘Mike’ R. Pence (Republican)
2016: Hillary D. Rodham Clinton / Timothy ‘Tim’ M. Kaine (Democrat)

2021 - 2025: Joseph ‘Joe’ R. Biden Jr. / Kamala D. Harris (Democrat)
2020: Donald J. Trump / Michael ‘Mike’ R. Pence (Republican)
2025 - 2033: Tucker S. M. Carlson / Joshua ‘Josh’ D. Hawley (Republican)
2024: JosephJoe’ R. Biden Jr. / Kamala D. Harris (Democrat)

2028: Kamala D. Harris / Mark Kelly (Democrat), Mark Ruffalo / Lee J. Carter (Independent)
2033 - 20##: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / Chokwe Antar Lumumba (Democrat)

2032: Joshua ‘Josh’ D. Hawley / Matthew ‘Matt’ T. Shea (Republican)
Or
2033 - 20##: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / Timothy ‘Tim’ R. Ashe (Democrat)
2032: Joshua ‘Josh’ D. Hawley / Matthew ‘Matt’ T. Shea (Republican)
 
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