Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

[OHC]

Any reason why Cliff Finch lives longer in this universe? I just seems an odd choice that he of all people needs to survive longer than he did in real life especially given how taxing the presidency is. I also love that Harold Strassen does actually get to run for president , admittedly on a Republican splinter but still.

That's on me, not on Mumby - I just forgot he died relatively young.

 

[AndrewH]

Trying to get the hang of Kaiserreich for HoIIV and I have to say as a "establishment unity" figure I can't think of someone worse for a coupon ticket then former IWW member and radical Farmer-Labor figure Floyd B. Olsen.

Though he could work if it was an effort to unite the Socialists, F-L, and Progressive/Liberal Democrats and Republicans. I'll probably be tossing a list together about my thoughts on this in the next few days

Kaiserreich in my experience is very good for broad ideas and creative outcomes but is really fuckin stupid when it comes to cause and effect and in the nitty gritty details.

 

[Japhy]

Kaiserreich in my experience is very good for broad ideas and creative outcomes but is really fuckin stupid when it comes to cause and effect and in the nitty gritty details.

Outside of like three countries, yeah.

 

[Plumber]

What if Humphrey listened to Lyndon Johnson in 1968 when it came to choosing a running mate? Perhaps if Humphrey felt a bit more secure in his victory against a more extreme opponent, Daniel Inouye would've been picked...

For the People
1965-1969: Lyndon B. Johnson / Hubert H. Humphrey (Democratic)
1964: Barry Goldwater / William Miller (Republican)
1969-1973: Hubert H. Humphrey / Daniel K. Inouye (Democratic)
1968: Ronald Reagan / Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (Republican)
1973-1977: George C. Wallace / Lenore Romney (Republican)
1972: Hubert H. Humphrey / Daniel K. Inouye (Democratic)
1977-1985: Daniel K. Inouye / Ted Kennedy (Democratic)
1976: George C. Wallace / Lenore Romney (Republican)
1980: George Romney / Robert Finch (Republican)
1985-1987: Richard M. Nixon / Edward Brooke (Republican)
1984: Edward M. Kennedy / Don Yarborough (Democratic), Larry McDonald / John G. Schmitz (Conservative)
1987-1993: Edward W. Brooke III / Richard Lugar (Republican)
1988: Don Yarborough / Shirley Chisholm (Democratic)
1993-2001: Shirley A. Chisholm / Joe Biden (Democratic)
1992: Edward W. Brooke III / Richard Lugar (Republican)
1996: George W. Bush / Bob Dole (Republican)

 

[OHC]

i decided to do a boring presidents list cover of this

1933-1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1932 (with John Nance Garner) def. Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1936 (with John Nance Garner) def. Alf Landon (Republican)
1940 (with Henry A. Wallace) def. Wendell Willkie (Republican)
1944 (with William O. Douglas) def. Thomas E. Dewey (Republican)
1945-1953: William O. Douglas (Democratic)
1948 (with Alben W. Barkley) def. Earl Warren (Republican), Fielding L. Wright (Dixiecrat)
1953-1953: Robert A. Taft (Republican)
1952 (with Lucius D. Clay) def. William O. Douglas (Democratic), Harry F. Byrd (unpledged electors)
1953-1961: Lucius D. Clay (Republican)
1956 (with Richard Nixon) def. Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1961-1965: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1960 (with Philip Willkie) def. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (Democratic)
1965-1969: William O. Douglas (Independent)
1964 (with Sargent Shriver) def. Sam Yorty (Anti-Douglas Democrat), Richard Nixon (Republican), Margaret Chase Smith (Conscience Republican)
1969-1977: John J. Rhodes (Republican)
1968 (with Hiram Fong) def. Sargent Shriver (Independent), Sam Yorty (Dixiecrat), Bobby Kennedy (Yankeecrat)
1972 (with Hiram Fong) def. Eugene McCarthy (Independent), Adlai Stevenson III (Democratic)
1977-1985: Joe Edwards (The Movement)
1976 (with Ron Dellums) def. Charles Mathias (Republican), Reubin Askew (Democratic), John Connally (Independent)
1980 (with Ron Dellums) def. George Wallace (Democratic), John B. Anderson (Republican)
1985-1989: Cliff Finch (Democratic)
1984 (with Jeane Kirkpatrick) def. Ron Dellums (The Movement), John B. Anderson (New Republican), Harold Stassen (Old Republican)
1989-1991: LaDonna Harris (The Movement)
1988 (with Jim Jontz) def. Cliff Finch (Democratic), Pete McCloskey (New Republican)
1991: Constitutional Renovation; Abolition of the Presidency

Some more thoughts now that I have a free minute:

- I'd say this is all pretty close to "canon" till about the 70s. Republicans take over in a reaction to Douglas's radicalism and the alleged GI housing crisis. Clay is a darker and edgier Eisenhower (corruption scandals abound, McCarthyism and the labor unrest of the late 40s drag on through the decade, there is a nasty and possibly nuclear China War). The Democrats, who have rejected Douglas's legacy, find themselves unable to take advantage of the rising anti-war, anti-corruption and Civil Rights movements, and deny WOD the nomination when he uses his unique grandfathered status under the 22nd Amendment to take another tilt at the Presidency. Douglas wins over a shattered field and transforms America with the introduction of the elected regions. A divided Democratic Party then lets Rhodes into office. (Given Douglas's behavior on the SC IOTL, I'd imagine he keeps on running for re-election ITTL even if he's clearly no longer able or popular.)

- The regions become a path to power for middle-class radicals, most prominently Western Slope Regional Commissioner Joe Edwards - IOTL a Freak Power candidate alongside Hunter S. Thompson who later won local office in his own right. Edwards builds an independent coalition of yuppies, small farmers, libertarian conservatives, counterculture types, and Black nationalists. "The Movement" is not quite a party of the left; it's localist and devolutionist, NIMBY, socially liberal, and staunchly opposed to the big-government conservatism of Clay, Nixon, and Rhodes. A big tent that straddles the bottom two quadrants of the Political Compass. (I think someone like Chokwe Lumumba or Charles Evers might be a more apt VP choice for Edwards than Dellums.)

- The Democrats become identified with big-government Cold War liberalism (Jeane Kirkpatrick is an appropriate pick) and opposition to devolution. I think the Republicans probably soldier on as a third-place home for reactionaries - people like Anderson and McCloskey would be competing too much for votes with The Movement.

- I actually hadn't thought of the office of President being eliminated entirely, more just cut down to a symbolic role, but why not.

 

[OHC]

ATLF: Zodiac

1989-1993: Dick Gephardt (Democratic)
1988 (with Tom Bradley) def. George Bush (Republican)
1993-2001: George Deukmejian (Republican)
1992 (with Carroll Campbell) def. Dick Gephardt (Democratic), Howie Hawkins (Green)
1996 (with Carroll Campbell) def. Bill Bradley (Democratic)
2001-0000: Al Franken (Democratic)
2000 (with Max Cleland) def. Carroll Campbell (Republican), “Mike Bonnano” (New Millennium)

The convoluted plot of Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller, Neal Stephenson’s only good novel (if you want to fight me on this fight me in the book thread) can be boiled down to this:

Spoiler: Zodiac

Chemical company Basco has been dumping hideous toxic waste (polychlorinated biphenyls) into Boston Harbor. They genetically engineer a bacterium to eat the evidence, but their plan backfires and the bacteria end up excreting PCBs instead, turning the Harbor into a pool of deadly sludge and poisoning Southie lobstermen and Vietnamese fishmongers alike. Thankfully, the schlubby, nitrous-huffing environmental scientist Sangamon Taylor is able to solve the chemical mystery, bring Basco to justice (at least in the court of public opinion), and restore peace to Beantown.

The book was published in 1988, and Basco and its chief Alvin Pleshy – a blue-blooded Republican presidential candidate known for manufacturing defoliants during the Vietnam War – are obvious stand-ins for Du Pont and Pete S. IV, respectively. (The genetic engineer who made the waste-eating bug, a college rival of Taylor’s, ends up fatally poisoned by it himself and shoots Pleshy with a paintball gun in a final act of protest while he’s giving his New Hampshire stump speech.)

So, let’s take this comic novel seriously for a second: what if Pete Du Pont was proved culpable for one of the worst public health disasters in American history, right on the eve of the 1988 New Hampshire Primary?

The Boston Chloracne Plague of 1988 might be chiefly remembered today as the temporal setting of Martin Scorsese’s worst film, but the epic pollution scandal had its consequences for Presidential politics, too. Needless to say, it swiftly put an end to Pete Du Pont’s ambitions and landed many of the chemical heir’s friends in jail. On the Democratic side, however, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis had been rising in national polls and won a striking victory in New Hampshire just as the Du Pont story began to break. Had Dukakis’s record of lenience with industrial polluters in Boston Harbor not come into focus, he could have been a strong contender for the Democratic nomination, although his style of managerial liberalism was already on its way out in the party. Likewise, Senator Al Gore’s prior support for genetic engineering and biotechnology gradually became a political liability for the Southern conservative as details of Du Pont’s malfeasance emerged. The race swiftly narrowed to two flavors of anti-corporate populism, those espoused by Dick Gephardt and Jesse Jackson; in the event, the two were united in a wildly successful general-election campaign that inaugurated the pugilistic, common-touch New Democrat era.

Gephardt’s scrapping of the North American Free Trade Agreement and his successful prosecution of the Gulf War briefly made him one of the most popular Presidents in American history. A recession, a spate of urban riots, and his unclear positions on the growing “culture war” combined with a splinter on the left led to his narrow re-election loss, but even after two more terms of Republican rule he remains popular with the public. The Al Franken phenomenon can surely be traced back to the righteous outrage with which Gephardt and Bradley hammered the “Grand Organochloride Party” in 1988. And as crude and dangerous as Igor Vamos’s satirical campaign may have been, Vamos’s off-the-cuff pledge to either send Pete Du Pont to prison or make him Secretary of the Interior – whatever a jury of his peers decided – was yet another example of Boston Harbor’s long shadow on the national discourse…

 

[Mumby]

Fun and flattering stuff, would be interested to hear how you made some of these decisions. (None of it is too far off from what I would have done.)

Some more thoughts now that I have a free minute:

- I'd say this is all pretty close to "canon" till about the 70s. Republicans take over in a reaction to Douglas's radicalism and the alleged GI housing crisis. Clay is a darker and edgier Eisenhower (corruption scandals abound, McCarthyism and the labor unrest of the late 40s drag on through the decade, there is a nasty and possibly nuclear China War). The Democrats, who have rejected Douglas's legacy, find themselves unable to take advantage of the rising anti-war, anti-corruption and Civil Rights movements, and deny WOD the nomination when he uses his unique grandfathered status under the 22nd Amendment to take another tilt at the Presidency. Douglas wins over a shattered field and transforms America with the introduction of the elected regions. A divided Democratic Party then lets Rhodes into office. (Given Douglas's behavior on the SC IOTL, I'd imagine he keeps on running for re-election ITTL even if he's clearly no longer able or popular.)

- The regions become a path to power for middle-class radicals, most prominently Western Slope Regional Commissioner Joe Edwards - IOTL a Freak Power candidate alongside Hunter S. Thompson who later won local office in his own right. Edwards builds an independent coalition of yuppies, small farmers, libertarian conservatives, counterculture types, and Black nationalists. "The Movement" is not quite a party of the left; it's localist and devolutionist, NIMBY, socially liberal, and staunchly opposed to the big-government conservatism of Clay, Nixon, and Rhodes. A big tent that straddles the bottom two quadrants of the Political Compass. (I think someone like Chokwe Lumumba or Charles Evers might be a more apt VP choice for Edwards than Dellums.)

- The Democrats become identified with big-government Cold War liberalism (Jeane Kirkpatrick is an appropriate pick) and opposition to devolution. I think the Republicans probably soldier on as a third-place home for reactionaries - people like Anderson and McCloskey would be competing too much for votes with The Movement.

- I actually hadn't thought of the office of President being eliminated entirely, more just cut down to a symbolic role, but why not.

I was *this* close to making Bobby Seale the VP to Joe Edwards.

My idea with the Republicans is that they seemed to have become electorally irrelevant after the 1970s - no room for 'states rights' when you've got the devolutionist Movement, and the Democrats are just Better At Centralism. And my idea was the Republicans basically split over how much they are willing to accept the direction of travel - the 'New Republicans' are basically trying to steal The Movement's clothes while presenting a more 'responsible' image. I imagined them calling back to figures like Horace Greeley or other utopian founders of the GOP while struggling with the superstructure of the actual party they were for most of their history.

 

[Nyvis]

I was *this* close to making Bobby Seale the VP to Joe Edwards.

My idea with the Republicans is that they seemed to have become electorally irrelevant after the 1970s - no room for 'states rights' when you've got the devolutionist Movement, and the Democrats are just Better At Centralism. And my idea was the Republicans basically split over how much they are willing to accept the direction of travel - the 'New Republicans' are basically trying to steal The Movement's clothes while presenting a more 'responsible' image. I imagined them calling back to figures like Horace Greeley or other utopian founders of the GOP while struggling with the superstructure of the actual party they were for most of their history.

Wouldn't they split over trying to be the right wing of centralism and trying to be the right wing of devolution maybe?

 

[Mumby]

Levitation

1953-1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
1952 (with Richard Nixon) def. Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1956-1965: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1956 (with John Foster Dulles) def. Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1960 (with Walter Judd) def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic)
1965-1967: Allen Dulles (Republican)
1964 (with Gerald Ford) def. Jack Kennedy (Democratic)
1967-1968: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1968-1968: Earle Wheeler (Joint Chiefs of Staff 'The Five Minute Junta')
1968-1969: collective (Revolutionary Internationalist Psionic Army 'The New Dawn')
1969-0000: Norman Mailer (Nonpartisan, leading Provisional Government)

very dumb idea which is basically 'wi when allen ginsburg and the yippies tried to "levitate" the pentagon in 1967, it worked?' and then back-rationalising it with a version of MK-ULTRA with no brakes that actually produces results, though the feds fail to notice the fact that LSD can make psychic super-soldiers but only if they collectivise their power.

 

[Skaven]

Levitation

1953-1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
1952 (with Richard Nixon) def. Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1956-1965: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1956 (with John Foster Dulles) def. Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1960 (with Walter Judd) def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic)
1965-1967: Allen Dulles (Republican)
1964 (with Gerald Ford) def. Jack Kennedy (Democratic)
1967-1968: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1968-1968: Earle Wheeler (Joint Chiefs of Staff 'The Five Minute Junta')
1968-1969: collective (Revolutionary Internationalist Psionic Army 'The New Dawn')
1969-0000: Norman Mailer (Nonpartisan, leading Provisional Government)

very dumb idea which is basically 'wi when allen ginsburg and the yippies tried to "levitate" the pentagon in 1967, it worked?' and then back-rationalising it with a version of MK-ULTRA with no brakes that actually produces results, though the feds fail to notice the fact that LSD can make psychic super-soldiers but only if they collectivise their power.

Dangerously high levels of based.

 

[OHC]

Levitation

1953-1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
1952 (with Richard Nixon) def. Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1956-1965: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1956 (with John Foster Dulles) def. Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1960 (with Walter Judd) def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic)
1965-1967: Allen Dulles (Republican)
1964 (with Gerald Ford) def. Jack Kennedy (Democratic)
1967-1968: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1968-1968: Earle Wheeler (Joint Chiefs of Staff 'The Five Minute Junta')
1968-1969: collective (Revolutionary Internationalist Psionic Army 'The New Dawn')
1969-0000: Norman Mailer (Nonpartisan, leading Provisional Government)

very dumb idea which is basically 'wi when allen ginsburg and the yippies tried to "levitate" the pentagon in 1967, it worked?' and then back-rationalising it with a version of MK-ULTRA with no brakes that actually produces results, though the feds fail to notice the fact that LSD can make psychic super-soldiers but only if they collectivise their power.

This one's worth a short story at least

 

[Mumby]

This one's worth a short story at least

it is a *little* bit close to x-men but i have been thinking about this a lot, so maybe once ive got this month's edition of chasing shadows out of the way, i'll knuckle down and do something with this

 

[Japhy]

What if Humphrey listened to Lyndon Johnson in 1968 when it came to choosing a running mate? Perhaps if Humphrey felt a bit more secure in his victory against a more extreme opponent, Daniel Inouye would've been picked...

For the People

1973-1977: George C. Wallace / Lenore Romney (Republican)

Fresh, Cynical and Darkly Brilliant ticket

 

[Plumber]

Fresh, Cynical and Darkly Brilliant ticket

Thanks. It was a fun one. Tried to give it a happy ending.

Here is one inspired by your own "Cannot Be Won and Must Never Be Fought" with original POD of nuclear abolition at the Reagan-Gorbachev Reykjavik Summit being changed slightly. Here Iran-Contra is worse and so Ronald Reagan follows Nancy's TTL advice to pin Iran-Contra on Bush, which seems to work at first. But the nomination of Robert Bork to replace Lewis Powell on the Supreme Court ends up being viewed as obstruction into Congress' continuing investigation.

President Howard Baker withdraws Bork's name and nominates David Souter, prompting criticism from the party base. Baker makes history by appointing Lynn Morley Martin the first woman Vice President and by refusing to pardon his predecessor. He is able to get the 1987 Disarmament Treaty and 1988 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement through the Senate, but he comes third in the Republican primaries behind a billionaire usurper who says he can make "better deals" and the televangelist Pat Robertson decrying Baker's "godless [something-or-other.]" Baker would himself vote for the Democratic nominee, Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, though most Republicans, including one Arnold Schwarzeneggar, would end up voting for the independent candidate Ross Perot.

With a 63-seat Senate majority (with CA, FL, MN, MS, MT, RI, WA, and WY switched from OTL) and a sizable majority in the House (although Minority Leader Trent Lott would prove an obstinate leader of the opposition due to a number of conservative Southern Democrats), President Mario Cuomo was able to quickly pass landmark bills such as the Medicare Act of 1989, Emergency Chinese Immigration Relief Act of 1989, Civil Rights Act of 1989, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1989, and Clean Air Act of 1990. But most important was the end of the Cold War with the Second Marshall Plan and the end of the Eastern Bloc. However, this plus the whiff corruption around VP Martha Layne Collins' husband only further radicalized the Republican Party. In the end, the election would be consumed largely by the trial of Ronald Reagan. A secondary theme was the question of whether or not Arnold Schwarzeneggar was eligible for the vice presidency, a successful gambit by Perot to increase attention to his candidacy. Unlike the first, Perot's second candidacy would come in third place (many said his VP pick was unserious) but in the years to come would lead to the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution, which eliminated age limits for the presidency and abolished the electoral college in favor of a popular vote.

Cuomo's second term would see the reunification of China and Korea into federations as well as the slow shrinking of the Soviet Union to a Slavic and Turkic base. Domestically it would be defined by the Education Act of 1993, which gave equal funding to every public school, and the ultimately successful struggle to ratify the 1994 Climate Change Treaty which included enactment of a carbon tax. In a surprise to everyone (especially Wyoming Senator-elect Dick Cheney, previously House Minority Whip), the Republican Party would nearly win the House in the 1994 midterms due largely to backlash over the Supreme Court's abolition of the death penalty. Cuomo personally believed successes in foreign policy contributed to the Democrats maintaining power (it was likelier the Supreme Court ending Taft-Hartley's restrictions on unions.)

In 1996 the charismatic Vice President Ann Richards was elected the first woman President of the United States in a landslide. With a strong experienced ticket of former Southern Governors-turned-Cabinet Members, they were able to easily dispatch Senator Dole who was seen as too inexperienced and ambitious. The GOP's 1992 runner-up candidate would run as a third party candidate, decrying the "feminazi takeover" of the established parties. Richards’ most significant accomplishment was the Public Corporate Democratization Act of 1997, which forced democratization amongst public companies (over the furious dissents of Supreme Court Justices Rehnquist, O’Connor and Scalia.) The first major debate in these newly democratic companies was whether to support Richards' promotion of Free Trade Agreements with Mexico and Brazil, whose success salvaged the Democratic Party's relations with big business. Even more contentious was the Immigration Reform Act of 1998, which made citizenship and immigration easier to attain. A backlash ensued, leading to the Republican Party taking the House in 1998 and the presidency in 2000. It should also be noted the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment as the 29th Amendment was largely due to the personal efforts of the President.

Richards was as happy as one could be to lose the presidency, given it was a close loss to a woman: former VP Lynn Morley Martin. Martin continued Richards' work towards a Free Trade Agreement with Japan, which would be followed up with FTAs with the European and Soviet Unions. Martin confessed she felt closer to Democratic Leader Pelosi than Speaker Lott, and was privately delighted by his 2003 resignation after he praised Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist run. This turned to frustration due to Speaker John Boehner's incompetence. Party infighting broke out after Morley Martin largely accepted the Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex marriage, which weakened the party enough for Richards to make a comeback in 2004. Richards nearly had run for Governor of Texas in 2002, but bowed out at the last minute, leading to Democrat Rick Perry to lose in the general election to Republican Carole Keeton Strayhorn. However she would resign due to terminal cancer in 2006, leaving the presidency to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Keeton Strayhorn and Rodham Clinton would both copy Richards' comeback precedent, though only Rodham Clinton would be successful. Nevertheless Richards' legacy included the political mantra only a woman could defeat a woman president, a political rule of thumb which was only broken in 2020. However in 2024 a corollary of this law would prove true.

A Woman's Place is in the White House
1981-1987: Ronald W. Reagan / George Bush (Republican)
1980: James E. Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic), John B. Anderson / Patrick J. Lucey (Independent)
1984: Walter Mondale / Geraldine Ferraro (Democratic)
1987: Ronald W. Reagan / Howard H. Baker, Jr. (Republican)
1987-1989: Howard H. Baker, Jr. / Lynn Morley Martin (Republican)
1989-1993: Mario M. Cuomo / Martha Layne Collins (Democratic)
1988: Ross Perot / John B. Anderson (Independent), Donald Trump / Bob Dole (Republican)
1993-1997: Mario M. Cuomo / Ann Richards (Democratic)
1992: Newt Gingrich / Rudy Boschwitz (Republican), Ross Perot / Arnold Schwarzeneggar (Reform)
1997-2001: Ann Richards / Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democratic)*
1996: Elizabeth Dole / Donald Rumsfeld (Republican), Patrick Buchanan / Ezola Foster (Reform)
2001-2005: Lynn Morley Martin / Orrin Hatch (Republican)
2000: Ann Richards / Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democratic)
2004-2006: Ann Richards / Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democratic)
2004: Lynn Morley Martin / Orrin Hatch (Republican)
2006-2009: Hillary Rodham Clinton / Jerry Brown (Democratic)
2009-2013: Carole Keeton Strayhorn / Orrin Hatch (Republican)
2008: Hillary Rodham Clinton / Jerry Brown (Democratic)
2013-2017: Hillary Rodham Clinton / Kathleen Brown (Democratic)
2012: Carole Keeton Strayhorn / Arnold Schwarzeneggar (Republican)
2017-2019: Kathleen Brown / Bernie Sanders (Democratic)
2016: Carole Keeton Strayhorn / Arnold Schwarzeneggar (Republican)
2019-2021: Kathleen Brown / Russ Feingold (Democratic)
2021-2025: Rocky De La Fuente / Mitt Romney (Republican)
2020: Kathleen Brown / Russ Feingold (Democratic)
2025-20??: Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez / Jason Carter (Democratic)

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

ATLF: How The Lib Dems Could Seize Power

2019-2020: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat leading Government of National Unity with Social Democrats and Independent Conservatives)
def 2019: (Minority with SNP confidence and supply) Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Boris Johnson (Conservative), Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Rory Stewart (Independent Conservative), Arlene Foster (DUP), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Fein) [abstained], Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Jonathan Bartley & Sîan Berry (Green)
2020 Brexit Referendum: REMAIN 57%, LEAVE 43%
2020-XXXX: Jo Swinson (United Democratic)
def 2020: (Coalition with SNP) Nigel Farage, then Dominic Raab (Conservative), Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Arlene Foster (DUP), Jonathan Bartley & Sîan Berry (Green), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Fein) [abstained], Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Naomi Long (Alliance)
2022 Scottish Independence Referendum: STAY 53%, LEAVE 47%
def 2025: (Coalition with Alliance and Plaid Cymru) Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour), Mark Francois (Conservative), Alyn Smith (Independence for Scotland), Rosemary Sexton & Tom Pashby (Green), Naomi Long (Alliance), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Ian Paisley Jr. (DUP), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Fein) [abstained], Shahrar Ali (Socialist Alternative)
def 2030: (Majority) Zara Sultana & Chandler Wilson (Labour-Green Alliance4Action), Alyn Smith (IfS), Carl Benjamin (Conservative), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Fein) [abstained], Steven Saxby (ALTERNATIVE), Ben Bradley (Democratic Conservative)

The seismic election of Jo Swinson changed British politics forever. The old two-party system, torn apart by its own extremes, was vanquished by a coalition of the sensible centre civic-mindedly coming together to save Britain. As the votes were tallied and Britain returned to the EU, something great began. The National Unity Government might be over, but Jo Swinson was just getting started.

Welding her supporters together into a new political party was no mean feat--the group only blocked Tom Watson's vote of no confidence by hiding in one of the lobby rooms in order to prevent the House having enough members for the resolution to be binding. However, the new party received an overwhelming vote of confidence from the nation. How could it not? Against a pair of out-of-date ideological zealots, one of whom even died on the campaign trail from heart failure after seeing a particularly vicious United Democratic attack ad, the new party could represent a forward-looking Britain. However, the new voting system meant that the government still had to seek compromise for a governmental majority. Sturgeon demanded an independence referendum, and cut an agreement with Swinson that would make it more likely. The government would have to campaign for Scottish independence, but if the SNP lost, the party would dissolve into the government. Once again, Swinson gambled and won--although some have questioned the sudden increase in Labour and the Conservatives' ad budgets around that time.

2025 was another success for Swinson--with the economy recovering from the Brexit Shock quickly, people were broadly satisfied with the common-sense policies of the government. The Conservatives continued their spiral into madness, and the Left remained divided, a radical Labour competing with both the Greens and Shahrar Ali's surprisingly well-funded movement. Swinson's decision to give Alliance MPs prominent places on the front bench was also praised, with the PM herself famously saying "I know what it feels like to have your party used as a servant, not an equal partner.". This paid off--the Alliance MPs developed a strong enough working relationship with the rest of the government that Stephen Farry (replacing Naomi Long after her tragic car crash) agreed to make the party the United Democratic affiliate in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, the other, more extreme, parties continued to suffer upheavals. Labour's alliance with the Greens led to Steven Saxby's well-publicised split over claims that this represented "a focus on globalist social justice rhetoric instead of real anti-capitalism", and the remaining moderate Tories left over a video of the new leader giving the Hitler salute at his friend's birthday party. Given this less-than-stellar competition, it should come as no surprise that the United Democrats were able to win the first majority of the new voting system in 2025.

As Swinson returned once more to No10, she found herself with even more hard choices to make. Climate change continued to escalate, with flooding driving thousands out of their homes in the North, heatwaves causing mass death across the South, and refugees causing social havoc all through Europe. Eventually, on the 24th of May, 2031, a group of top national leaders--civil servants and businessmen, well-qualified academics, diplomats from Strasbourg--came to Swinson with a proposal. Britain needed strong leadership, now more than ever, and neither the erratic activists of the Alliance4Action nor the fascistic Tories could provide. What Britain needed was strength and continuity, to weather the weather ahead.

Who can say what Jo Swinson felt, leading the vote for the Enabling Act?

Trepidation?

Cautious pride?

A sense of accomplishment?

Whichever way she felt, the conclusion was the same.

British democracy was--for the time being--over.

But Jo Swinson, the new Lord Protector, was just getting started...

--Robert Archer, The Life of Jo, National Information Dispensory, 5th February 2080​

 

[Sideways]

ATLF: How The Lib Dems Could Seize Power

oh fuck that's a big mood

 

[Qaz_plm]

From a project I'm working on
1929-1933:Hiram Johnson/Charlie Curtis(Republican)
1933-1941:Quinton Roosevelt/John Nance Garner(Democratic)
1941-1949:Henry Wallace/Huey Long(Democratic)
1949-1957:Earl Warren/Harold Stassen(Republican)
1957-1961:Adlai Stevenson II/Estes Kefauver(Democratic)
1961-1963:John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson(Democratic)
1963-1971:Lyndon Johnson/Eugene McCarthy(Democratic)
1971-1973:Eugene McCarthy/John Connolly(Democratic)
1973-1977:Paul Laxalt/Ronald Reagan(Republican)
1977-1981:George Wallace/Birch Bayh(Democratic)
1981-1989:Ronald Reagan/Bob Dole(Republican)
1989-1997:Gerry Ferraro/Gary Hart(Democratic)
1997-2001:Ross Perot/Dick Lamm(Union of Independents)
2001-2009:Trent Lott/Donald Rumsfeld(Republican)
2009-2017:Jesse Jackson Jr./Sam Nunn(Democratic)
2017-2025:John McAfee/Ted Cruz(Republican)
2025-2033:Rashida Tlaib/Andrew Beshar (People's Alliance)

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

oh fuck that's a big mood

Not entirely sure what that means in this context, but (thanks for your positive feedback, that means a lot, I've always enjoyed your lists/ you see it all makes perfect sense if you read the TL with a braincell in your head I bet you don't even know who Chukka Ummuna is you idiot you fu) (delete as appropriate).

 

[Time Enough]

“By 1933, the Democratic Party, seemingly ascendent due to the ‘Crash of 31’, was split between three factions, the ‘Bryanite’ far left wing, lead by Christian Socialists, such as governor Norman Thomas of New York, the ‘Watsonite’ wing, that shared many of the same beliefs on economics as the Bryanists but who harbor intensely conservative racial and religious beliefs, lead by Rhode Island representative HP Lovecraft, and the ‘Old Guard’ Democrats, largely southern and northeastern conservatives who weren’t entirely shaken out by Bryan’s nominations in 1896, 1900, and 1904 and the rising left wing in the party, this wing was lead by William McAdoo....”

1897-1905: William McKinley (Republican)
1896 (With Garret Hobart) def: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic-People's), Joshua Levering (Prohibition)
1900 (With Theodore Roosevelt) def: George Dewey (Democratic), Eugene V.Debs (Social Democratic)
1905-1913: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1904 (With Edward C. Wall) def: Charles W. Fairbanks (Republican), Eugene V. Debs (Labor)
1908 (With Edward C. Wall) def: Joseph B. Foraker (Republican), Eugene V. Debs (Labor)
1913-1921: Charles Evan Hughes (Republican)
1912 (With Elihu Root) def: William Sulzer (Democratic), Eugene V. Debs (Labor)
1916 (With Leonard Wood) def: Woodrow Wilson (Democratic), Bill Haywood (Labor), David C. Coates (National)
1921-1925: Leonard Wood (Republican)
1920 (With Calvin Coolidge) def: Albert Ritchie (Democratic), William Green (Labor)
1925-1929: Burton K.Wheeler (Democratic)
1924 (With Jimmy Walker) def: Calvin Coolidge (Republican), Robert LaFollette (Progressive-Labor), Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (CommonWealth)
1929-1933: James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. (Republican)
1928 (With Gifford Pinchot) def: Burton K. Wheeler (Democratic), Robert M. La Follette Jr. (Progressive-Labor), William Z. Foster (CommonWealth)
1933-: Norman Thomas (Democratic-Progressive)
1932 (With Henry A. Wallace) def: James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. (Republican), Earl Browder (CommonWealth), William Murray (Dixiecrat)

 

[Uhura's Mazda]

The economic contraction caused by coronavirus varied in intensity from country to country, but one of the worst hit in terms of GDP was the United Kingdom. The recovery was slow, and the tight margins demanded by several decades of increased 'efficiency' meant that firms were lucky to remain solvent. This had impacts on tax take, and the British Government - although initially taking an expansionist course - had to make significant savings. The problem was that (due to forty years of neoliberal state management and retreat from social obligations) there were no functions of the state that could be pared back to the extent required. Even fresh elections couldn't bring any new ideas to the table - the Lib Dems managed to get the monarchy abolished (crowning King George was seen as tantamount to child abuse, anyhow) and introduce Proportional Representation - but PR only applied to the new head of state, who was now elected from a party list. The second person on the list became Vice-Protector.

The Conservative-Liberal coalition had only one option to keep the state's cashflow steady - a massive programme of privatisation, not only of individual state assets (like school buildings) and functions (like healthcare), but of people. Or rather, of the state's relationship with the people.

The state formerly accepted the responsibility to provide, say, medical care, and could reject that responsibility if it couldn't afford it - but the UK was the first country to privatise the entire notion of bilateral obligations and benefits between individuals and the state. The people algorithmically chosen to be privatised (who, for unexplained reasons, tended to be poor or to belong to certain minority groups) were now free from the responsibility to pay taxes to the British Government, or to obey its laws. Equally, they no longer benefited from state pensions, benefits, education, bin lorries or the protection of the police or the armed forces. These bilateral relationships were now entered into with the individuals and corporations who had purchased the 'assets'.

In layman's terms, some former citizens were now dependent on private entities for their wellbeing, while also being entirely, completely responsible to those entities in every way. The press took up a slight hue and cry over the treatment of 'non-sovereign citizens' by 'non-states' like Sports Direct, whose citizens were not given the right to earn money or own property, and were made to reside in the warehouses where they now worked 28-hour shifts. But this was the price we had to pay for the continuation of state services towards us ourselves, which were funded by the profits from these sell-offs.

In fact, it was literally the price we had to pay, because whomst among us hadn't Backed Britain by buying a helper to cook and clean for us? We didn't want to be disloyal. Far easier to chalk it up to the New Normal.

The only misgivings that I had, personally, were around the new constitutional alterations, which gave 'non-states' a voting weight equal to the number of 'people' on their books (so I, for instance, had two votes: one for me and one for - what was her name? - Ameera or something). But yes, this gave me pause for thought, because surely if these assets were no longer part of the UK they shouldn't get the vote, even by proxy. It must have been to sweeten the deal for Sports Direct, I suppose. A lot of people were annoyed about this example of the Tories' flagrant disrespect for democracy, actually, and it was probably the main thing that decimated the prestige of human politicians. We couldn't have non-UK citizens deciding our laws, it was crazy. This was why we'd voted Leave.

After all, we didn't have much to thank the politicians for - but we had the Algorithm to thank for our freedom.

List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
2019-2021: Boris Johnson (Conservative)
2021: Rishi Sunak (Conservative)
2021-2022: Priti Patel (Conservative)
2022: Matt Hancock (Conservative)
2022-2023: Matt Hancock (Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition)
2022 def: Keir Starmer (Labour), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats)

List of Lords Protector of the United Kingdom
2023-2027: Matt Hancock/Lee Anderson (Conservative with Liberal Democrat endorsement)
2023 def: Keir Starmer/Jess Phillips (Labour), Umaar Kazmi/Maxine Peake (Solidarity)
2027-0000: Adobe Premier/Vacant (Technocratic)
2027 def: Keir Starmer/Amber Rudd (Democratic List)