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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Venocara said:
A very interesting scenario. Do you have any lore for this list?
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Johnson gets assassinated along with Lincoln, and Grant wins the 1865 special election. Reconstruction is a lot more radical than OTL, though it still ends after O’Brien gets elected as an alt-Tilden. His term doesn’t go very well, and Grant comes back for one last dance. Over the next four decades the Republicans dominate the presidency, and the Gilded Age is a bit more progressive than OTL. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina remain black majority, and are controlled by the black and tan faction. By the 1890s the failing Democrats and the Greens (alt name for the Greenbacks) merge in order to combat Republican supremacy, though never really find succes and the former cannibalize the latter.

Wilson is the first non-Republican to win in 36 years, and that comes as a result of Black Republicans abandoning the party after New York Senator Roosevelt, who they helped to beat incumbent McKinley to get the nomination, fucks them over about pensions or something, and they run together with Debs’ socialists. This cooperation becomes cemented in the years after as the black bourgeois and American socialist movement find common ground in opposing Roosevelt-led American intervention in colonial wars.

The 20s are a period of hegemony for the Democratic Party, as the Republicans become associated with the war, and the Radicals are unable to hang on outside of their three strongholds as a result of state persecution. There’s a economic crash like OTL (butterflies, I know), and Republican Dyer is elected as a progressive Republican. He quickly realizes his party’s conservative members won’t aid him in realizing his ambitious plans, and he forms a coalition with the Radicals and other left-wing parties.

For the 1937 election he picks Louisiana Senator Huey Long as his VP, who ITTL was one of the Radical Young Turks that unseated the Republican establishment. His whiteness in a black state like Louisiana only aids him in his rise to the Vice Presidency, and Presidency after Dyer’s death due to health reasons. Long slowly grows more dictatorial, but it’s a based kind of dictatorship, and he eventually hands over power to the first female president, while Southern states like Florida are dealing with more and more political violence by white supremacists against the socialist-adjacent government.
 
Share Our Wealth: The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic

32. Al Smith 1933-1935 (Democratic)
(With Huey Long) Def: Herbert Hoover/Charles Curtis (Republican) Norman Thomas/Jacob Coxey (Socialist)
33. Huey Long 1935-1955 (Patriotic Front) ✞
(With Wendell Wilkie) Def: John Nance Garnder/George Peek (Democratic) Hamilton Fish III/Frederick Hale (Republican)
(With Smedley Butler) Def: Wendell Wilkie/William Bankhead (Moderate)
(With Leonidas Dyer) Def: Harold Stassen/William Donovan (Moderate)
(With Leonidas Dyer) Def: Curtis LeMay/Brent Bozell Sr (Conservative)
(With Bronson Cutting) Def: Archibald Roosevelt/Ezra Taft Benson (Conservative)
34. Bronson M. Cutting 1955-1957 (Patriotic Front)
35. Russell Long 1957-1961 (Radical)
(With Tallulah Bankhead) Def: Floyd Olson/Esther White Deer (Labor) Henry Luce/Bourke Hickenlooper (Conservative)
36. O. Eugene Faubus 1961-1969 (Labor)
(With Buckshot Hoffner) Def: Russell Long/Tallulah Bankhead (Radical) Bourke Hickenlooper/Carl Curtis (Conservative)
(With Buckshot Hoffner) Def: Frank Lausche/Lyndon Johnson (Radical) Eugene Siler/George Mahoney (Conservative)
37. Henry M. Jackson 1969-1975 (Radical)
(With Cord Meyer) Def: Sam Yorty/George McGovern (Labor) Barry Goldwater/Mario Biaggi (Conservative)
(With Cord Meyer) Def: Ronald Reagan/Bronson La Follette (Labor) Robert Wagner Jr/John Bell Williams (Conservative)
38. Cord Meyer 1975-1977 (Radical)
39. Tom Turnipseed 1977-1981 (Labor)
(With Abraham Ribicoff) Def: Roger MacBride/L.B Bozell (Conservative) Russell Long/Charles Goodell (Radical) Hyman Minsky/Lee Dreyfus (Anti-Consumerist)
40. Joseph Sobran 1981- (Conservative)
(With Gordon Liddy) Def: Tom Turnipseed/Abraham Ribicoff (Labor) Roy Cohn/William Dorn (Radical) Gore Vidal/Ralph Nader (Anti-Consumerist)

If you ask a child who's the greatest American President, they'd answer Huey Long. However, where do we begin? Back in 1932 Al Smith defeated Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination and easily defeated Hoover in the general despite his Catholicism. However, his term would be equally as terrible as Hoover, with Smith's austerity and refusal to use the government to give the populace work angered tens of millions. By 1934, it became evident that Smith was just another politician who was more concerned about the size of the government than work. The Second Bonus Army led by Smedley Butler cemented this as once again Smith sent soldiers to deal with the hungry masses from his ivory mansion in D.C. The military once again showed up to break up the Bonus Army and this time the Bonus Army had backup. Led by Jacob S. Coxey, one-hundred thousand jobless men descended on Washington to demand action against the Great Depression. Of course, the army was mobilized, and dozens died that day as D.C was engulfed in flames. Smith's days were numbered, and he'd be lucky not to be killed by the starving masses.

Long had been picked in 1932 as an olive branch to liberal wing of the Democratic Party. However, it became quicky evident that Long had no intention of kneeling before Smith. As the Great Depression worsened Long became the loudest critic of Smith and the D.C Massacre was the opportunity he needed to safe the US from Smith and unfettered capitalism. The next day, Long took to the radio to denounce Smith and called for his impeachment. Smith would fight on until the midterms, denouncing Long as a traitor but when the anti-Smith factions of the Democratic Party won a majority, Smith began to negotiate with Long. Long promised Smith a pardon if he resigned which Smith agreed too. Of course, Long knew a pardon would destroy his presidency, so he simply didn't pardon Smith, instead prosecuting him for the D.C Massacre.

As soon as Long was inaugurated he got to work. First, he fired most of Smith's old cabinet, appointing Smedley Butler as Secretary of War, Sherman Minton as Secretary of the Treasury, Franklin D. Roosvelt as Secretary of State, Henry Wallace as Secretary of Labor, and Alger Hiss as Attorney General. Furthermore, in the Senate George Norris was made Majority Leader and, in the House Fiorella, LaGuardia was made Speaker of the House. From the onset, Long sought to appeal to both the right and left, using the aesthetic of socialist parties such as the SPD and Popular Front by adopting the three arrows symbol and the right by making moderate businessman Wendell Wilkie as Vice President in 1936 and emphasizing patriotism. The success of Longism cannot be understated. In his first month, Long allocated fifty-billion dollars in direct aid and set up numerous electrification projects across the US. With the Tennessee Valley Authority, Mississippi River Authority, and Great Plains Authority being set up under the Department of Energy in 1935 under Rexford Tugwell. To get Americans back to work, Long would set up the National Reconstruction Corps and National Work Authority that both gave millions of Americans jobs. Furthermore, the Long Administration was the most pro-labor administration in history, with the Wagner Act being enthusiastically supported by Long and unionization by the CIO and AFL being encouraged by Secretary Wallace and Attorney General Hiss. When southern businessmen opposed unionization, Long made sure to punish those who did not back down, setting up primary challenges.

However, the forces of reaction attempted to dismantle these reforms. Notably, Henry Ford, George Van Mosely, and Hamilton Fish III viewed Long as a communist and autocrat (to be fair they were certainly right on the latter). Within the Democratic Party, John Nance Gardner despised Long and along with the conservative wing saw him as a threat to their power. Despite Long's popularity amongst the American people, the DNC bosses in New York City denied Long's re-nomination. In response, Long ran as an independent under the Patriotic Front, merging the liberal Republican wing, the left Democrats, independent socialists such as Upton Sinclair, Nonpartisan League, Farmer-Labor Party, and Wisconsin Progressive Party. Nicknamed the "triumvirate" by its opponents, Smedley Butler, Huey Long, and Wendell Wilkie officially inaugurated the Patriotic Front in 1936 in Minneapolis. Come November the Republicans and Democrats were crushed, with Long losing only SC, MS, VT, and ME. Unfortunately, on Inauguration Day George van Mosely launched the March of 10,000, in which 10,000 veterans and soldiers assaulted D.C in a coup attempt. Fortunately, Smedley Butler and Dwight D. Eisenhower easily defeated the coup, with Mosely being swiftly executed in 1938 for high treason.

His second term would be easily the most radical in US history. With Long abolishing the poll tax in 1937, redistributing billions in wealth to the poor, and passing the Housing Act of 1937 made 1,000,000 affordable housing units in an effort to abolish homelessness. Furthermore, Secretary of Commerce Upton Sinclair allocated millions to support worker co-ops in places such as Arkansas and Mississippi, which Long believed to be crucial in dismantling the Democratic machine in those states. When the Supreme Court struck down the AAA in 1938, Long responded by packing the courts, appointing Alger Hiss, Franklin Roosevelt, Sherman Minton, William Douglas, and Paul Douglas to the court. Despite opposition from those such as Hiram Johnson and even Wendell Wilkie, Long's popularity only waned slightly. Now with the courts and Congress on his side, he capped personal wealth at $50 million and instituting a thirty-hour work week. Of course, his greatest accomplishments were social security and the National Healthcare Authority, which gave free healthcare to all Americans. By 1940, the US had recovered from the Great Depression.

On the issue of foreign policy, Long vocally opposed the rise of fascism and communism, embargoing the Sanjurjo regime in Spain and funding opposition groups such as the Mazzini Society, making Carlos Sforza Ambassador to Italy. Furthermore, he encouraged the formation of the Stafford Cripps led National Government in Britain and denounced the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Despite opposition from those such as Gerald Smith and William Borah, Long openly supported the Allies in 1939 and 1940 before joining the war in 1941.

On the issue of the Soviet Union, Long despised Stalin and ordered FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to keep tabs on the CPUSA along with the American First Committee. Furthermore, the House Committee on Un-American Activities targeted opponents of aid to Britain and prosecuted those such as William Z. Foster on trumped up charges. Furthermore, congressional opponents such as Rush Holt and Bob Taft were consistently attacked as unpatriotic and investigated for fascist sympathizes. Others such as John Bernard and Hugh De Lacy were expelled from the House for alleged CPUSA membership. Reactionaries such as Theodore Bilbo and Pat McCarran were ousted, with Bilbo being expelled for corruption and McCarran for connections to the Sanjurjo regime with both being convicted in 1941. Even before WWII Long made anti-fascism and anti-communism a key component of the Patriotic Front.

In 1941, Japan would attack Pearl Harbor on December 9th, 1941, causing the US to join the Second World War. In the Pacific, Walter Bedell Smith led American forces while Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded American forces in Africa and Italy. During this time, Long was at the climax of his power, with Long having complete control over the nation. Unfortunately, Long would open internment camps for Japanese civilians on the coast in his most disgraceful abuse of power.

Come 1945, the war would end with Berlin being hit by a sun bomb, with Hitler and Goering being killed in the blast. On May 2nd, Kyoto was hit by a sun bomb and Japan surrendered. In the aftermath of the war, Benito Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito being executed on charges of crimes against humanity. Post war, Long’s power decreased domestically and increased internationally. In 1946 the Concordant of Nations (CN) was created, with Paul-Henri Spaak being made Secretary General. Furthermore, Long implemented the Marshall Plan that rebuilt non-communist Europe. In order to oppose the encroachment of Communism Long would form the International Defense and Security Organization (IDSO). Long would ally with members of the democratic left those such as Prime Ministers Giuseppe Saragat, Stafford, Cripps, and Einer Gerhardsen.

The WWII world was incredibly unstable and without a doubt Long was responsible for part of its instability. The execution of Hirohito and the establishment of the Republic of Japan would see clashes between the far right and left in Japan with sporadic riots being a monthly occurrence until the 50s. Furthermore, the US intervention in Greece would inflame tensions with the USSR. However, Long did manage to prevent the fall of China to communism and successfully isolated North Korea, preventing a war on the Korean Peninsula.

On the domestic front, Long would run into his first major opposition since SCOTUS. In 1950 he attempted to outlaw segregation in the US which ended up splitting the Patriotic Front as those such as Harry Byrd and Burnet R. Maybank opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1950. While the Civil Rights Act of 1950 would pass, the Conservative Party would receive a massive boost in popularity, nominating war hero Archibald Roosevelt. Despite efforts by the FBI to smear Roosevelt as a Nazi sympathizer, Roosevelt managed to break Longist domination of the US political system, with the Conservatives successfully capturing numerous senate seats and governorships. Still, Long was popular, and Roosevelt had done as well as he could have. Long's final term would see him suffer from increasing paranoia as he suffered from stomach cancer. Despite efforts by doctors, Long refused to resign, and his condition worsened. By 1954, Long's administration was deadlocked between competing factions who sought to seize power in 1956. On one side was the revolutionaries led by Claude Pepper and Alger Hiss who wanted to turn the Patriotic Front into a socialist party with Longist characteristics while the moderate radical faction led by Russell Long and Kermit Roosevelt Jr sought a turn to the right, wanting a party similar to Saragat's PSI. The Tetrarchy would continue their fight for power when Long died in 1955, with his funeral becoming a rallying point for the radicals and revolutionaries. In 1956, Russell Long would narrowly win over Floyd Olson and Henry Luce.

Unfortunately for Long, the Panic of 1958 (caused by the fall of Malya and Syria to communism) would allow the Labor Party to win the 1958 midterms. Come 1960, socialist Arkansas Senator Eugene Faubus easily won over Long on a platform of nuclear energy, railroad nationalization, and proportional representation for the House of Representatives. Faubus's "Fair Contract" would fail in the end as Conservatives rallied against statism and the Radicals criticized the Fair Contract as an attack on the founding fathers (including Long). Faubus would successfully push through his proposed nuclear energy plan, but his railroad nationalization and proportional representation failed. Still, he would win re-election in 1964, benefiting from his admission of Alaska into the union and the Timbuktu Treaty with Patrice Lumumba, which successfully secured Congo neutrality and the denouncement of the Malenkov regime by Lumumba. However, the Timbuktu Treaty would come back to haunt the Labor Party as Henry Jackson of Washington made the treaty a key component of his campaign, claiming the treaty had given up a crucial ally in the fight against global communism, allowing him to easily defeat Governor Sam Yorty.

Jackson would abuse the sprawling state apparatus created by Long to implement his agenda. A follower of Checkerboard Theory, he believed the fight against communism was a chess game which the US needed to checkmate the USSR. Thus, in 1971 he intervened in the Indonesian Civil War on the behalf of President Suharto. The war was brutal, with the ecological and human death toll stunning the world as chemical warfare was normalized. By 1975, Jackson's presidency was on the brink of collapse as it was exposed Jackson used the FBI and CIA to intimidate and wiretap anti-war activists. The flagrant abuse of power ignited mass protests led by Conservatives such as Roger MacBride and Laborites such as Claude Pepper and Bronson La Follette. The Humphrey Commission would be set up to investigate the matter and what the commission found terrified the US. Jackson had spied and slandered anti-war congressmen, even wiretapping former President Faubus. The commission recommended the removal of Jackson and soon Jackson resigned in disgrace. His successor would be a lame duck for two years, being somehow less popular than Jackson when he decided to pardon him.

In 1976, Tom Turnipseed, an anti-Longist socialist from South Carolina won over Roger MacBride and Russell Long. His tenure would be tumultuous as he clashed with the intelligence agencies, Longist political machines, and the Panic of 1977. Distrust under Turnipseed's Administration had reached a fever pitch by 1980. Young Americans especially distrusted the colossal monster of the deep state that exploited Longist institutions to sabotage opponents of the government. Furthermore, the Panic of 1977 plunged millions into poverty, with 13% of the working population being unemployed. Statist solutions had failed in the eyes of the American people and in 1980 they elected Michigan Governor Joseph Sobran who promised to dismantle the intelligence agencies, end the Cold War, and break the clock of Longism. Furthermore, he appealed to reactionaries with his open hatred of minorities, using dog whistles to shore up support amongst segregationists and antisemites while openly attacking homosexuals.

It's safe to say, if wasn't on the highway to hell before America was now.
 
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Presidents of the United States of America

29. Warren Harding, Republican (1921–1923)
30. Calvin Coolidge, Republican (1923-1925)
31. Robert La Follette, Progressive (1925)
32. Burton Wheeler, Progressive (1925–1933)
33. Franklin Roosevelt, Democratic (1933–1937)
34. William Lemke, Union (1937–1950)
35. Thomas O'Brien, Union (1950–1951)
36. William Borah, Union (1951–1953)
37. Harry Byrd, Democratic (1953–1961)
38. George Lincoln Rockwell, Union (1961–1967)
39. Roman Hruska, Union (1967–1969)
40. George Wallace, Democratic (1969–1972)
41. Robert Byrd, Democratic (1972–1981)
42. Larry McDonald, Democratic (1981–1983)
43. William Donald Schaefer, Democratic (1983)
[United States destroyed by nuclear war with USSR, PRC, UK, Third French Empire, Greater Baltic Federation]
 
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25. William McKinley (R), 1897-1905 "Guns And Ships"

It is said that William McKinley almost picked Theodore Roosevelt- future United Left nominee- as his running mate in 1900, and considering how close he came to dying the next year it is possible all that transpired over the next several decades could have been avoided. McKinley governed as an economic conservative, but did take some left-wing positions on civil rights and the like. Otherwise, he didn't do much of anything, and mostly endorsed the status quo, for worse or for worse.

26. Alton B. Parker (D), 1905-1909 "Abolish The Trusts, Pysch"

President Alton Parker was elected in 1904 with the votes of progressives who wanted to finally see some real change in America. Parker, however, was a letdown on that front. While he mostly upheld McKinley's civil rights reforms at least at the federal level he signed only piecemeal legislation regarding the regulation of trusts and monopolies. It was no surprise to anyone when he was pushed out of office by a wide margin, with leftist candidates combining for over 15% of the vote.

27. Joseph Foraker (R), 1909-1913 "We Need More Black People In The Strike-Breaking Field"

Of all of America's Gilded Era chief executives Joseph Foraker is undoubtedly among the best. He took the first strong legislative action on civil rights in decades, signing the National Anti-Lynching Act of 1910 into law along with the Federal Property Sovereignty Act of 1911. The latter particularly was a groundbreaking achievement that turned federal buildings in the south into polling stations come election time, allowing Black people to vote. He also presided over the legalization of women's suffrage on a federal level. However, Foraker upheld the status quo on labor and big business, sending the military to quell strikes. He narrowly lost re-election in 1912 with Eugene Debs winning three states.

28. Thomas Marshall (D), 1913-1921 "America Needs A Five Cent Cigar. I Will Not Help Them Afford It"

Thomas Marshall was a man renowned for his humor and intellect, while doing little in office. He did, to his credit, sign the Labor Standards And Child Labor Act of 1913 into law, which banned child labor and increased workplace safety standards, but otherwise balked at things like the minimum wage and upward mobility. Marshall won re-election in 1916 with left wing parties gaining a substantial portion of the vote. This included Thomas Watson, who along with Black Senator George Henry White won several states. His second term included fighting World War I and signing the International Cooperation Act of 1918, which led the US into the League of Nations.

29. Warren Harding (NU), 1921-1924 "Good Alcohol Brings Good Times"

Warren Harding was elected in 1920 on union of the conservative GOP and Democrats. Vote splitting allowed this to work even while the left got a total of 54% of the national vote. Harding presided over the beginning of the 'Roaring Twenties", where he essentially did nothing and people didn't care because they could buy everything on credit. There was no way that could backfire, of course. Harding signed the Civil Rights Act of 1922 into law, which enfranchised hundreds of thousands of Blacks, hopefully as a pro-National Union demographic. He died in office under suspicious circumstances just a few months before the 1924 convention, where he would have likely been renominated.

30. William McAdoo (NU), 1924-1926 "Will Nye The Workers Die"

A former Secretary of the Treasury, William McAdoo was picked as VP as a concession to the former Democrats. He was mostly ghosted out of the inner workings of the administration, particularly as Harding and his inner circle presided over policies toxic to the average southern white voter (knowing, of course, that the growing middle class of this demographic was held in line by fearmongering over socialism). But the electorate didn't know that, and McAdoo actually managed to keep the united leftist tickets under 50%, albeit only barely. In his second term he signed the Deregulation Act of 1925 into law, which further removed regulations on businesses and the Income Tax Act of 1926, which abolished the peacetime income tax permanently. This is what propelled the United Left Coalition (made up of the Populist, Socialist, Social Labor, Continental, Farmer-Labor, and Social Democratic parties) into a majority after the midterms. McAdoo, however, died before the new congress could be sworn in, thrusting his Vice President- again picked at the convention- into the White House.

31. Calvin Coolidge (NU), 1926-1933 "No Words No Action"

"Silent Cal" Coolidge was immediately faced with a hostile congress. A congress which passed the Kahn Anti-Trust Act of 1927 into law over his veto, in which its sponsor- Representative Florence Khan- began the decades-old tradition of liberal Jews frustrating the right wing. Luckily for big business, Coolidge's veto pen prevented several more radical actions (like food for poor) from getting passed. Still, the booming economy led to the President winning re-election by a decent margin in 1928, taking back congress in the process. Unfortunately, this is when things began to go downhill. A stock market crash in 1929 led to a massive run on the banks and an economic depression that led to unemployment rates approaching 40%. The National Union led congress refused most measures to fight the crisis, preferring tax cuts and stimulus like the Business Relief Act of 1930 to fight the depression instead. Unfortunately, this led to a massive increase in poverty, including the establishment of 'Cal-Villes' across the country. It is perhaps no surprise that Coolidge lost re-nomination to the only man internal polling showed was capable of keeping the election within stealable range.

32. Douglas MacArthur (NU), 1933-1937 "The Prelude"

And get it within stealable range MacArthur did. He won 39% of the vote to the various leftist tickets' 55% and was inaugurated with minimal issue. He signed the Pension Act of 1933 into law, establishing a bonus for soldiers in the war. He also signed the Government Funding Act of 1934, establishing a flat tax of 1.5% on all income and implemented a poll tax. This led the working class to erupt in complete and total rage, resulting in the United Left taking a comfortable majority in the midterms, rendering MacArthur a lame duck for the rest of his term.

33. Meyer London (UL) 1937-1938 "The Lost Hope"

After decades, the left finally won the White House. President Meyer London was a handsome man when he got his start in politics, yet now entered into the highest office in the land as one of the oldest to do so. His first order of business was to purge his security detail of all sympathizers to the National Unionists. Following this, London pushed for- and passed the Retirement Security Act of 1937. It finally established a system of social security for those over 65 and increased the top income tax rate to a whopping 10%. He also signed the Poll Tax Repeal Act of 1937, repealing the tax that had been the bane of the left since it had been introduced. In the lead up to the midterms the popular President London signed the Minimum Wage Act of 1938, accomplishing another liberal priority. The left won the midterms as expected, which caused the deep state to act. On November 25, 1938, the White House was stormed by hundreds of troops, who arrested and detained President Meyer London on trumped-up charges, eventually sentencing him to life in comfortable but illegal imprisonment.

34. Douglas MacArthur (NU), 1938-1958 "King Aerys II of House Targaryen. King of the Vandals and the Rich Men"

The leader of the coup, former President Douglas MacArthur quickly moved to consolidate his control. The protests from the hugely-popular Meyer's removal are nearly-unparalleled in size in terms of the percentage of the population participating, with groups that otherwise may have hated each other (such as southern working-class Whites and Blacks or basically every ethnic group in New York City) rioting. MacArthur had the loyalty of the military, and moved to crack down on all dissent. Congress confirmed him to complete the rest of the term at gunpoint.

MacArthur didn't repeal any of London's achievements, but put the brakes on additional reform. A large national security corps was established to police the population, which is itself part of the reason modern America, one of the most left-wing nations on the planet, has a remarkably low opinion of Communism and other authoritarian ideologies. MacArthur did, however, sign the Lend-Lease Act of 1940 to help the allied forces in Europe, which allowed him to again lose the election within a stealable margin. If there is anything that President MacArthur actually did competently, it was the management of World War Two. Vice President Alf Landon was announced his 'retirement' effective in the beginning of 1942, and General Benjamin O. Davis was confirmed as his replacement. The 1944 election was cancelled- for "logistics reasons" of course- allowing MacArthur an unchecked mandate. He successfully managed to get to Berlin only days after the Soviets and managing to get Japan to surrender with a nuclear detonation in Hiroshima.

Strikes after the war were mostly averted with a 4-year 'steady reintegration' that put American forces to work building things like infrastructure to reduce inflation. MacArthur was able to again narrowly win in 1948 with Robert Taft as Vice President, who would himself get suicided after disagreements with the President over NATO. But besides signing the GI Bill of 1948 the President refused to do much of anything over the next term. A strong economy shut enough of the country up, allowing the President to pursue foreign affairs with vigor. This included a victory in the Korean War that resulted in North Korea being pushed back to the 39th parallel and a negotiated peace that allowed the Republic of China to keep Hainan and Taiwan. This same strategy also allowed the President to win in 1956. However, when a recession occurred in late 1957, the dam broke. Massive protests broke out across the country, reaching nearly a million who marched on Washington D.C.

When President MacArthur ordered the military to fire at them, he was placed under arrest and removed from office. An emergency council was installed, with an election called for November of 1958. MacArthur was later sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later commuted by his successor to exile.

(-). Emergency Council, 1958-1959

The nine-member Emergency Council held power for six months until the election. Nobody was technically President during the period, although the one hundred year old Theodore Roosevelt was allowed to occupy the Oval Office for the duration. Upon the inauguration of the newly-elected President on January 31, 1959, the council ceased to exist.

35. Bayard Rustin (PFL), 1959-? "Washington Lincoln"

If you ask a conservative who their favorite President is, they'll say Bayard Rustin. If you ask a c*ntrist who their favorite President is, they'll say Bayard Rustin. If you ask a liberal who their favorite President is, they'll say Bayard Rustin. If you ask a tankie who their favorite President is, they'll say Elizabeth Holtzman, but then they'll say Bayard Rustin.

There is a reason for this. Upon assuming office- before a massive crowd of over two million- President Rustin signed a massive increase in the minimum wage. By the end of his first year, the President had also signed the Tax Reform Act of 1959- raising the top tax rate to 50%- the Labor Rights Act of 1959- fully decriminalizing unions and implementing sectoral bargaining- and the Health Care Act of 1959- expanding Social Security to cover medical benefits for the elderly as well. Much of the next year was devoted to education, which eventually culminated in the Free Tuition Act of 1960- expanding free trade schools and universities to all Americans.

The rest of the term included further investments in social programs, including eliminating hunger through the Food Stamps Act of 1961. Rustin won re-election by a 77% margin over a MacArthur official. Only time will tell what the future holds as Rustin enters his second- and final- term in office.
 
MAC161 said:
Timeline of U.S. Presidential Elections Between "Dixie Curtain" & "Dixie Curtain Sequel"

1964: Republican (i.e. liberal) Joe Kennedy, Jr. & Harold Stassen (Winner) vs. Democrat (i.e. conservative) Gov. Richard Nixon & Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. [1]

1968: Harold Stassen & Edmund Muskie (Winner) vs. Nelson Rockefeller & Gerald Ford [2]

1972: Richard Nixon & Rep. James Rhodes (Winner) vs. Harold Stassen & Edmund Muskie [3]

1976: Richard Nixon & James Rhodes (Winner) vs. Henry M. Jackson & Sargent Shriver

1980: (????) (Winner) vs. Gov. Jerry Brown & Rep. Ted Kennedy [4]

1984: Ronald Reagan & Phil Crane (Winner) vs. Rep. Ted Kennedy & Sen. Gaylord Nelson [5]

1988: Sen. Walter Mondale & (????) (Winner) vs. Ronald Reagan & CT Rep. G.H.W. Bush [6]


[1] The events of "Dixie Curtain", far from undermining JPK's reelection campaign, actually propel him to a larger-than-expected margin of victory, yet a greater number of voters are wary of his and the GOP's agenda in the aftermath.

[2] Stassen wins much more narrowly, with most of his support being based on his tenure as JPK's VP.

[3] The death of GenSec Trotsky in 1969 (age 89), and fears over both the effects of the subsequent leadership turmoil in the USSR and the increasingly stagnating/hardline CSA to the south, severely undermines the GOP all the way to 1972, leading to Nixon's victory that year.

[4] Haven't decided whether to have Nixon run for a third term, or have Reagan win as in OTL, or go with another choice; suggestions welcome!

[5] Reagan's increasingly obvious decline in health and VP Crane's more and more tiresome/overwrought fearmongering over CSA and Soviet threats leads to a severely diminished margin of victory for the Dems.

[6] Crane's fearmongering finally leads to his being dropped from the ticket in favor of Bush, yet Mondale still wins thanks to public weariness with the effectively three-sided Cold War. Still not sure whether to go with Ferraro or another female VP choice; have already decided against Feinstein. Any thoughts?
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Thinking of putting together some Electoral College maps for this timeline; does anyone out there have details on the allocated EC votes per state during the period covered, or know where they may be found?
 
Catalunya said:
The whole ‘Republican hegemony after Democrats win in 76 and black-and-tans doing better than OTL’ was copped from that one list you made years ago. If I took something from Mumby or TB it was probably unconsciously.
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I literally never posted about Black and Tan Republicans before I've done Republican hegimons before but that is hardly notable.

Mumby though brought up Black and Tan Republicans a matter of weeks ago and the Greenbacks as Greens thing is a TB invention from the other place.
 
Japhy said:
I literally never posted about Black and Tan Republicans before I've done Republican hegimons before but that is hardly notable.

Mumby though brought up Black and Tan Republicans a matter of weeks ago and the Greenbacks as Greens thing is a TB invention from the other place.
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You had a black President in the early 20th century. That’s what I alluded to.

The Greenbacks as Greens I distinctly remembered someone making before, but I couldn’t remember who did.
 
Governors-Protector of Antarctica

2028-2029 David Attenborough, United Kingdom

In 2028 the position was established under the New Antarctic Treaty, as "ceremonial supervisor" of the Director-General of Antarctica (who replaced the Executive Secretary of the old Antarctic Treaty System).

The inaugural holder only served just over a year before his death, aged 103, but Attenborough established the strong activist role that the Governor-Protector would play over the next twenty-five years.

2029-2034 Aleida Guevara, Federal Republic of Araunacia, Patagonia y Fuego

The child of soldiers, a Cuban volunteer and the hero of the Patagonian war of independence, Guevara grew up in guerrilla camps, before travelling to her mother's Cuba to train as a medical doctor. After Patagonian independence she joined the health ministry, and later oversaw the merger of various government entities with their Chilean counterparts, after the war in Araunacia and the foundation of the federal republic. These governance skills were seen as key by the Treaty states after Attenborough's death.

The second Governor-Protector, and first to serve a full term, Guevara oversaw the negotiations leading to the merger of the various national scientific missions into the Antarctic Scientific Service (ASS), as well as the establishment of the Antarctic Security Bureau (ASB), charged with the protection of Antarctica's waters and islands. Strange as it may seem now, it was considered at the time that the ASB was an unrealistic, some said impossible initiative, but Guevara drove the negotiations and supported her mosotho Director-General, Phera Ramoeli, to the hilt and the ASB became a reality.

Guevara declined a second term, due to growing concerns for her health. She spent the latter years of her life at her family farm in Patagonia, where she is remembered for the cultivation of an especially potent strain of medical marijuana, usually smoked as a cigar.

2034-2039 Josina Machel, Rozvi Kingdom

Josina Machel's relationship with the Antarctic began when her father, the guerrilla leader Samora Machel, sent her to Marion Island following the 1974 PIDE raid on Chimoio in the Rozvi Kingdom. Following Portuguese withdrawal, Josina followed her father to Sofala, rather than their homeland of Gaza, which had voted to join South East Africa, rather than the Rozvi Kingdom. A creative communicator of science, Machel was Head of the Rozvi Academy of Sciences in Naletale when the New Antarctic Treaty was signed, and worked closely with Ramoeli in establishing the ASS. When Guevara retired, Machel was nominated by the African Treaty states, alongside Yolarnie Amepou from Papua by the Pacific states. In the final vote, Machel was selected as Governor-Protector and Amepou as Director-General.

Machel took over as the ASB had to take an increasingly strong role in global affairs. Less than a year into the job, Machel had to contend with the assassination of Amepou during a visit to the United States. The Baltimore police insisted that the murderer an Indonesian nationalist radicalized by online climate change denialists and hatred of the Papuan scientist, was a lone assassin, and closed the case with the man's suicide. However the ASB detail did not accept this, and the crisis exploded with the detail (and friendly FBI agent Jess LaCroix) seeking refuge in the Rozvi embassy in Washington DC. Machel flew into Washington with Crown Prince Chengetai and negotiated a resolution of the impasse.

The ASB exposure that Amepou's murder was the project of an Australian mining firm that wished to undermine the New Antarctic Treaty and exploit metals on the white continent was Machel's greatest moment, and the Treaty states supported her ASB expansion into a defence force. However her refusal to replace Amepou, running the Antarctic secretiat herself, denied her a chance at a second term.

2039-2049 Sophie Lewis, Australia / Anzetc

A prominent climate scientist who had won national awards in her youth, Lewis has been leading Australia's climate ministry until her nomination.

The first Governor-Protector to serve two consecutive terms, Lewis benefitted from Machel's initiatives, but did so in concert with the Treaty states. She embraced Machel's ASB expansion and militarization, rapidly removing illegal "freebooter" mining operations, largely from her native Australia, from Antarctica. By the end of her first term, the trust she'd built in the Treaty states not only secured her a second term, but also the formal abolition of the Director-General post that Machel had tried unilaterally.

During her second term, Lewis deployed the ASB to protect Antarctica, but also deployed ASB rescue missions into the Indian Ocean and South Pacific to island nations falling beneath the rising tides.

Playing what was to become an increasingly global role for the Governor-Protector, Lewis agreed to facilitate the Nauru conference that lead to the union of Australia, New Zealand, East Timor and the Circum-pacific islands, formally known as Austral-Pacifica, but informally as ANZetc.

Lewis returned to Canberra after her two terms, and spent her retirement as an informal advisor to the Anzetc governments.

2049-2050 Nate McAfee, USA / Antarctica

The only "native-born" Governor-Protector, McAfee lived the first 3 years of his life at McMurdo Station. After serving 4 years as Director of FEMA in the Hunt administration, he was selected by the Treaty states as Lewis' successor. His term was curtailed when the New York Times exposed he had commissioned the forced shutdown of the last remaining coal-fired power stations in the USA and India by a shadowy hacker collective. He fled Antarctica, and was granted asylum in Bougainville, where he assisted the previously isolationist government with its negotiations to become a Treaty state.

On Bougainville's accession, McAfee's presence became problematic with the government, and he relocated to Iceland, where he was welcomed by the Pirate Party government.

Following his untimely death, McAfee's supporters raised a statue to him at Vostok. It looks out across the icefield of the coldest and remotest place on earth, brandishing a pirate flag.

2050-2054 Josina Machel, Rozvi Kingdom

McAfee had quietly (re)hired Machel as his Deputy for ASB operations, and the Treaty states reconsidered her, given that McAfee made her look diplomatic, and they'd approved under Lewis the initiatives they'd rejected her for - plus she was nearly as old as Attenborough had been.

The Treaty states were not disappointed, as Machel steadied Antarctica as a largely passive player in the southern hemisphere balance of power, protecting the white continent fiercely, but only deploying ASB missions beyond the southern Ocean for humanitarian or ecolitarian missions.

Machel started her second term with the ASS playing a growing role in eco-engineering programmes, well beyond Antarctica, as the Treaty states cooperation rapidly expanded as climate breakdown escalated. ASS lead projects managed to stall the El Nino breakdown of 2051 and reverse the Gulf Stream collapse of 2052, while ASB rescue teams provied humanitarian and ecolitarian assistance in Chile and Bolivia, and then in Canada, UK, and Iceland. It was during the last mission that Nate McAfee died, guiding an ASB team around an erupting volcano.

As 2054 dawned, the infrastructure Machel had built and enlarged from Guevara's vision was working across the planet. So it was that when the Treay states met at McMurdo to negotiate a deeper, and more permanent relationship between them, there was only one name seriously considered for the Presidency of the Treaty-Moderated Nations of Terra.

As President, Machel divided her time between TMNT headquarters in New York and her beloved Antarctica. She passed away in office in 2058 and is buried at McMurdo, next to the grave of David Attenborough.
 
Last edited:
Blackentheborg said:
Forgot I never followed through with this.

Constitution Party presidential tickets

1992: none, endorsed Ross Perot/James Stockdale (Independent) (0 EV, 18.91% PV)
1996: Pat Buchanan/Ted Gunderson (0 EV, 1.52% PV)
2000: Bob Barr/Will Dannemeyer (3 EV, 6.74% PV)
2004: Sam Brownback/Ellen Craswell (9 EV, 2.75% PV)
2008: none, endorsed Bob Barr/Roy Moore (286 EV, 50.7% PV)
2012: Roy Moore/Tom Tancredo (11 EV, 12.92% PV)
2016: Steve King/Jack Kimball (1 EV, 3.39% PV)
2020: Curtis Yarvin/Brad Parscale (4 EV, 9.1% PV)

Following a much more spectacular and bombastic impeachment trial, the moral majority in the Republican party are up in arms with letting Clinton get away with it. Barr, riding a wave of popularity after serving as House manager of the impeachment, quickly becomes the protest vote for the growing paleoconservative bible thumpers unhappy with the Republican nominee, John McCain, the moderate's moderate. No problem, chuckled the Democrats, they'd just gotten Gore over the line (a small miracle derived from keeping the boss under virtual house arrest), this is all a flash in the pan. Give it a couple of years and they'll be another Ross Perot thing.

Then 9/11 happened.

By the time the issue of changing horses mid-stream was no longer a problem, Barr came roaring back into the limelight, coalescing enough angry, increasingly phobic support to snag the Republican nomination. That should've been enough, but then his VP got ideas; specifically, ideas that Barr had betrayed his third party links that helped him over the hump. People sleeping on the streets due to the Great Recession seemed extremely apathetic to the Vice President deciding to change parties and being kicked off the ticket for renomination, but they had bigger problems to worry about, like figuring out if you could boil shoes or if that was just a cartoon stereotype.
Click to expand...
Decided to run with this "better third party" concept.

Citizens Party candidates

1968: Dick Gregory/Douglas Dowd (0 EV, 0.33% PV) (as the Peace and Freedom Party)
1972: Eugene McCarthy/Sterling Tucker (1 EV, 5.17% PV) (as the People's Party)
1976: Eugene McCarthy/Cesar Chavez (1 EV, 16.6% PV)
1980: None, endorsed Cesar Chavez/Richard Lamm (9 EV, 13.15% PV) (Independent)
1984: Barry Commoner/Tony Mazzocchi (2 EV, 6.19% PV)
1988: Gary Delgado/Richard J. Walton (0 EV, 2.01% PV)
1992: None, endorsed Tom Hayden/John Kerry (303 EV, 52.15% PV) (Democratic)
1996: None, endorsed Tom Hayden/John Kerry (293 EV, 50.03% PV) (Democratic)
2000: Winona LaDuke/Bob Kiss (0 EV, 4.01% PV)
2004: None, party reorganised into the Democratic Party
 
Warthog said:
Governors-Protector of Antarctica

2028-2029 David Attenborough, United Kingdom

In 2028 the position was established under New Antarctic Treaty, as "ceremonial supervisor" of the Director-General of Antarctica (who replaced the Executive Secretary of the old Antarctic Treaty System).

The inaugural holder only served just over a year before his death, aged 103, but Attenborough established the strong activist role that the Governor-Protector would play over the next twenty-fiveyears.

2029-2034 Aleida Guevara, Federal Republic of Araunacia, Patagonia y Fuego

The child of soldiers, a Cuban volunteer and the hero of the Patagonian war of independence, Guevara grew up in guerrilla camps, before travelling to her mother's Cuba to train as a medical doctor. After Patagonian independence she joined the health ministry, and later oversaw the merger of various government entities with their Chilean counterparts, after the war in Araunacia and the foundation of the federal republic. These governance skills were seen as key by the Treaty states after Attenborough's death.

The second Governor-Protector, and first to serve a full term, Guevara oversaw the negotiations leading to the merger of the various national scientific missions into the Antarctic Scientific Service (ASS), as well as the establishment of the Antarctic Security Bureau (ASB), charged with the protection of Antarctica's waters and islands. Strange as it may seem now, it was considered at the time that the ASB was an unrealistic, some said impossible initiative, but Guevara drove the negotiations and supported her mosotho Director-General, Phera Ramoeli, to the hilt and the ASB became a reality.

Guevara declined a second term, due to growing concerns for her health. She spent the latter years of her life at her family farm in Patagonia, where she is remembered for the cultivation of an especially potent strain of medical marijuana, usually smoked as a cigar.

2034-2039 Josina Machel, Rozvi Kingdom

Josina Machel's relationship with the Antarctic began when her father, the guerrilla leader Samora Machel, sent her to Marion Island following the 1974 PIDE raid on Chimoio in the Rozvi Kingdom. Following Portuguese withdrawal, Josina followed her father to Sofala, rather than their homeland of Gaza, which had voted to join South East Africa, rather than the Rozvi Kingdom. A creative communicator of science, Machel was Head of the Rozvi Academy of Sciences in Naletale when the New Antarctic Treaty was signed, and worked closely with Ramoeli in establishing the ASS. When Guevara retired, Machel was nominated by the African Treaty states, alongside Yolarnie Amepou from Papua by the Pacific states. In the final vote, Machel was selected as Governor-Protector and Amepou as Director-General.

Machel took over as the ASB has to take an increasingly strong role in global affairs. Less than a year into the job, Machel had to contend with the assassination of Amepou during a visit to the United States. The Baltimore police insisted that the murderer an Indonesian nationalist radicalized by online climate change denialists and hatred of the Papuan scientist, was a lone assassin, and closed the case with the man's suicide. However the ASB detail did not accept this, and the crisis exploded with the detail (and friendly FBI agent Jess LaCroix) seeking refuge in the Rozvi embassy in Washington DC. Machel flew into Washington with Crown Prince Chengetai and negotiated a resolution of the impasse.

The ASB exposure that Amepou's murder was the project of an Australian mining firm that wished to undermine the New Antarctic Treaty and exploit metals on the white continent was Machel's greatest moment, and the Treaty states supported her ASB expansion into a defence force. However her refusal to replace Amepou, running the Antarctic secretiat herself, denied her a chance at a second term.

2039-2049 Sophie Lewis, Australia / Anzetc

A prominent climate scientist who had won national awards in her youth, Lewis has been leading Australia's climate ministry until her nomination.

The first Governor-Protector to serve two consecutive terms, Lewis benefitted from Machel's initiatives, but did so in concert with the Treaty states. She embraced Machel's ASB expansion and militarization, rapidly removing illegal "freebooter" mining operations, largely from her native Australia, from Antarctica. By the end of her first term, the trust she'd built in the Treaty states not only secured her a second term, but also the formal abolition of the Director-General post that Machel had tried unilaterally.

During her second term, Lewis deployed the ASB to protect Antarctica, but also deployed ASB rescue missions into the Indian Ocean and South Pacific to island nations falling beneath the rising tides.

Playing what was to become an increasingly global role for the Governor-Protector, Lewis agreed to facilitate the Nauru conference that lead to the union of Australia, New Zealand, East Timor and the Circum-pacific islands, formally known as Austral-Pacifica, but informally as ANZetc.

Lewis returned to Canberra after her two terms, and spent her retirement as an informal advisor to the Anzetc governments.

2049-2050 Nate McAfee, USA / Antarctica

The only "native-born" Governor-Protector, McAfee lived the first 3 years of his life at McMurdo Station. After serving 4 years as Director of FEMA in the Hunt administration, he was selected by the Treaty states as Lewis' successor. His term was curtailed when the New York Times exposed he had commissioned the forced shutdown of the last remaining coal-fired power stations in the USA and India by a shadowy hacker collective. He fled Antarctica, and was granted asylum in Bougainville, where he assisted the previously isolationist government with its negotiations to become a Treaty state.

On Bougainville's accession, McAfee's presence became problematic with the government, and he relocated to Iceland, where he was welcomed by the Pirate Party government.

Following his untimely death, McAfee's supporters raised a statue to him at Vostok. It looks out across the icefield of the coldest and remotest place on earth, brandishing a pirate flag.

2050-2054 Josina Machel, Rozvi Kingdom

McAfee had quietly (re)hired Machel as his Deputy for ASB operations, and the Treaty states reconsidered her, given that McAfee made her look diplomatic, and they'd approved under Lewis the initiatives they'd rejected her for - plus she was nearly as old as Attenborough had been.

The Treaty states were not disappointed, as Machel steadied Antarctica as a largely passive player in the southern hemisphere balance of power, protecting the white continent fiercely, but only deploying ASB missions beyond the southern Ocean for humanitarian or ecolitarian missions.

Machel started her second term with the ASS playing a growing role in eco-engineering programmes, well beyond Antarctica, as the Treaty states cooperation rapidly expanded as climate breakdown escalated. ASS lead projects managed to stall the El Nino breakdown of 2051 and reverse the Gulf Stream collapse of 2052, while ASB rescue teams provied humanitarian and ecolitarian assistance in Chile and Bolivia, and then in Canada, UK, and Iceland. It was during the last mission that Nate McAfee died, guiding an ASB team around an erupting volcano.

As 2054 dawned, the infrastructure Machel had built and enlarged from Guevara's vision was working across the planet. So it was that when the Treay states met at McMurdo to negotiate a deeper, and more permanent relationship between them, there was only one name seriously considered for the Presidency of the Treaty-Moderated Nations of Terra.

As President, Machel divided her time between TMNT headquarters in New York and her beloved Antarctica. She passed away in office in 2058 and is buried at McMurdo, next to the grave of David Attenborough.
Click to expand...
ASS and ASB? Fun fun. I think this is a cool concept
 
This was my entry for last month's List Challenge. The current challenge is still ongoing, and the theme is Second Place--the link is in my sig.

Note that 1) this list contains spoilers for My Hero Academia and Talentless Nana, and 2) a longer version of this list may someday bedevil this thread.

ATLF/B: All For The Sake of a Correct Society
​
I'm a massive weeb--and what's worse, a normie weeb
Chairs of the NPSC's Special Subcommitte on Altered Individuals [1]
2051-2075: Tsuruoka Tatsumi [2]
2075-2078: Keito Nimoda [3][#]

Presidents of the Hero Public Safety Commission
2078-2108: Keito Nimoda [4]

[1] It had started off as a rumour. An urban legend. A story for the silly season. Those Chinese tabloids, desperate to fill airtime after the economic slump and the troubles in Xinjiang--look, they're making up some story about a glowing baby! How ridiculous! Deepfakes sure look realistic these days. Most people moved on with their lives, and didn't ask any more questions about the incident. Until it happened again.

A year or two later, there were 40 different children with some kind of...ability. Not counting the ones (like the boy from Jeju with a flaming monster for a head) whose abilities had killed them. These "Talented", as the press were calling them, or "metahumans" as scientists had settled on, were otherwise total mysteries. May speculated on the answer to the questions they raised. Why were they only appearing in East Asia, their numbers decreasing in density as one left Keikei City? What connected these children, if it wasn't genetics, or diet, or location? How could they defy basic biology and physics as easily as breathing?

Ten years later, as the "Talented" children finally came of age, and with more and more appearing every day, it became clear that one important question had been missed.

How could ordinary humans hope to control them?

[2] Tsururoka remains a controversial figure in Japanese history. Everyone agrees on a small core of facts--he rose through the Japanese bureaucracy through hard work and zeal, he had a close (perhaps too close) working relationship with Prime Minister Kairo, and his career was defined by his attempts to deal with the "Talented problem" by any means necessary.

He has his defenders. His defenders have plenty of arguments.

His methods, though harsh, were effective at preserving the nation. Japan might have weathered a terrorist movement or two, but a few bombings hardly compared to the Tianjin Incident or the Second Hmong War, so clearly something he did worked. Many of the tactics he pioneered would go on to be widely used in both hero training and policing--he quite literally laid the foundations for Tartarus, one of the world's most secure prisons. He was surely a man of many virtues, a patriot who lived only to save his country and humanity. The primary sources that contradict this were, after all, largely written by unsympathetic foreigners or members of the brutal terrorist movements he opposed. Why should we assume Agent Hiragi wasn't eager to dump all her own misdeeds on her conveniently dead superior, and make him a scapegoat for her actions? He couldn't have known about all the massacres in his name, and anyway, most of the death tolls were inflated. He was better than having someone like Destro in charge. He was responding to a situation where the unthinkable was necessary, and we should judge him by the standards of his time.

Those who would condemn him have one argument, but it is a very effective one.

1.4 million dead metahumans. Condemmed as "Enemies of Humanity", massacred, conscripted, imprisoned in "re-education camps", or experimented on under the guise of schooling. A death toll far higher, per capita, than any other Asian nation.

50% of the dead were below the age of 20.

[3] By the time Tsuruoka passed away, officially from a stroke (his autopsy was never released), the international situation had changed. An estimated 20% of all new births worldwide were of metahumans--or "the quirked", as many metas now preferred, a term that sounded cheerfully innocuous instead of clinical--and their adult populations were large enough to be politically vocal. Civil strife had subsided, at least in the nations wealthy enough to find civil strife unusual. Something like an international order was emerging. In this climate, the draconian methods of the Special Subcommittee could no longer be justified. Japan's economy, already devastated by the rise of the Talented and overspending on law enforcement, couldn't take the hit of international pariah status. Things had to change--or they'd fall apart.

While another chair might have acceded to a new direction, it is unlikely they would have suggested it. Unlike the rest of the Subcommitte's old guard, whose backgrounds were in law enforcement, Keito Nimoda was a politician--a former governer of Kyoto Prefecture, whose effectiveness at dealing with metacriminals had won him a place as an advisor. To him, adaptability was a virtue.

The prisons were, arguably, emptied, though many political prisoners would disagree. The occupations were lifted, even if curfews took their place. One of the camps (and a paticularly unrepresentative camp at that) was publicly disbanded; the rest were quietly buried and forgotten.

Within three years, Japan had gone from a brutal pariah state and de-facto dictatorship to a modern nation ready to join the Era of Quirks. More to the point, the Special Subcommittee and its members had gone from bigoted war criminals to reformist bureaucrats, parroting the progressive terms of activists they'd signed the death warrants of. The ideal men to police this glorious new age...

[4] There were, of course, shadows over the proceedings. Destro's ongoing political struggle was shifting to an increasingly armed form, and was soon to become the bloody coda to the Dark Age of Quirks. Most of Tokyo's outlying suburbs was still being rebuilt, and even renamed (occasionally inappropriately). The 6/6 Incident, just a few days after the signing, helpfully reminded Japan's "quirked" citizens of how little had really changed for them. Still, looking up from the crowd at the ceremonies--the fireworks and cheers and, yes, the glitzy new heroes--you could, for a moment, ignore all of that, and pretend, as Keito Nimoda signed the Rhode Island Statue, that everything was alright now.

The hero system was, on a surface level, an odd thing for the newly-rebranded Commission to embrace. After all, it was based around handing massive power to those with strong Talents, the total opposite of their former mission, and started out as a way to legalise the cosplaying vigilantes that were one of their most persistent headaches. It took someone like Keito Nimoda--with his corkscrew mind and rat's heart--to recognise the benefits to them.

The Statute's compromise around quirk regulation gave government-sanctioned heroes a monopoly on quirk usage, ostensibly to prevent a caste system developing. Attempts to accomodate those who didn't want to disclose their identity created a whole category of "underground" heroes, whose identities were sealed by law. The newly minted heroes were required to be trained in the use of their quirks, and the only facilities in Japan that could be qualified to do so were Commission training facilities.

In other words, the new heroes didn't have to be those pesky vigilantes. The Commission, after all, had never been opposed to using Talented agents even from the start--indeed, before his death, Nakajima Nanao was all-but-officially being groomed as the heir to Tsuruoka. By the end of what was now euphemistically being called "the Special Period", the Commission had a private army of heavily-trained and heavily-restricted Talented agents. Ones who could now easily continue their secret warring uninhibited, with no need to disclose their former actions, and with carte blanche to pick off the more troublesome vigilantes. Let the cosplayers prance about in the limelight for the public--real business could go on, as usual, in the shadows.

There was another, more hidden, reason why Keito Nimoda was eager to comply with the new "World Heroes Association". One related to the reason why metacrime--sorry, it was "villainy" now--had declined to such a low (not zero) level in his prefecture. One related to the sheer speed of his political rise, and the large number of people who suddenly got out of Keito Nimoda's way. One related to the disappearance of many newly-released prisoners, whose dead bodies seemingly had been defaced by bigots--there seemed to be no signs of their quirks on them.

His patron wasn't quite happy that Japan's economy was recovering, and with it, a civil society not ruled by fear. He'd had his...differences with the vigilantes, as well. Still, he thought that Keito's outreach to the Rhode Island Statute was a brilliant idea.

After all, what kind of a Demon Lord didn't have any proper heroes to fight?
 
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