Three's A Crowd
Part Four: Bridge to the 21st Century
The last one! I'm glad you all have enjoyed this weird list in which I look at the politics of an America with a stable three-party system, that of the left-wing Democratic Party, the right-wing Republican Party and the peculiar agrarian-y centrist Populist Party. This was mainly inspired by Scandinavia, and especially by Finland with its big three parties - the SDP, National Coalition and Centre Party. I vaguely recalled that someone said the Finnish Centre Party was quite soc-con in the rural areas and tends moderate in the cities or something, and since I like the idea of a three party system, I tried to come up with an American equivalent, and well, it turned out to be the Populists of Three's A Crowd. I hope you like this part too
41: Bill Clinton (Populist) 1993-2001
1992: def. Donald Trump (Independent), Tom Harkin (Democratic) and Lee Iacocca (Republican)
1996: def. Arlen Specter (Republican) and Jerry Brown (Democratic)
"I still believe in a place called Hope"
The opportunistic backstabber, the centrist boy marvel, or the bourgeois sellout, Bill Clinton is still a figure that divides America. The 1992 election was a divisive one with the already chaotic three-party system being even more upset by a fourth contester - the billionaire Donald Trump. As Trump won over workers in the Midwest who felt hard-done by NAFTA and by the whole system, the Democrats and Republicans floundered. And the young go-getter Bill Clinton increasingly appeared as the "anti-Trump". From a poor, broken, family where Trump came from a wealthy one. Internationalism with a folksy twang as contrast to Trump's insularity with a paternalistic bombastic tone. And ultimately relatable as contrast to a "messiah candidate"
Bill Clinton cleaned up on Election Night, much to President Iacocca's displeasure. But Iacocca was the past, and Bill Clinton's promised "Tomorrow Presidency" was the future. Clinton's brand of Populism was a break from Long and Johnson, and even Carter. He took his inspiration from a president way before the Big Society or Share The Wealth. He took his inspiration from Oscar Underwood and his "pragmatic progressivism". And he was the ascendance of the "Dale Bumpers" faction of the Populists - the fiscal centrist, social moderate, rural infrastructure kind of people that made the Republicans antsy. It was indeed time for a bridge to the shining light of tomorrow, like his inauguration speech declared
The first priority on President Clinton's agenda, of course, was getting America out of the recession. While Redford's Keynesianism worked for his time and Iacocca's policies were... unpopular, Clinton was minded not to blindly follow either of them. For a president who said "I feel your pain", slashing welfare recklessly like Iacocca did was not the solution, but neither was copying from the Democrats' platform. Clinton would walk a thin line as the centrist in between the GOP and Dems, and his first challenge was making sure that welfare cuts "ending welfare as we know it" would be combined with economic incentives for states to invest into infrastructure and jobs. The economy boomed by 1995
But 1994 would be known as the "Nuclear Summer" as the collapse of the Soviet Union back in the 80s led to many Soviet nuclear bombs and missiles falling into private hands and by 1994 one of those private hands carved out a fiefdom in central Russia before declaring that it had enough missiles to destroy London, Washington and Beijing. This brought the attention towards the unknown location of many nuclear missiles. There was a Nuclear Scare as many Americans panicked that nuclear missiles would be fired from unknown sources. And it was ripe fodder for a whole new genre of "cybernuke" novels, of course. The President had to defuse the crisis, and well, he did so. The documents are top classified but here's what we know - the Republic of Novgorod sent an American in to blow up the nuclear facility the Siberian State had, it was successful, everyone agreed to sign a beefed up version of President Redford's environmental treaty [much to the former President's delight] including a vow to seek and dismantle any nuclear weapons and support of nuclear energy in America died a sharp death as people rallied to the growing green energy sector instead
With the economy booming and the "Nuclear Summer" over with nobody dead, people had a very positive view of Bill Clinton. A landslide was certain. But then the Reps and Dems nominated two very good candidates and made it vaguely seem like a contest. The Republicans nominated Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, someone widely considered to be a "moderate" for the GOP and paired him up with a Western libertarian. The West has always been rather sceptical of Bill Clinton, with his victory margins being rather slim there in 1992 and Specter benefited from this and turned many Western states blue. On the other hand, the Dems nominated Governor Jerry Brown of California, someone who was widely seen as slightly eccentric but still "moderate" for the party and a firm environmentalist in the vein of Redford. The two parties were aiming solidly at the Clinton coalition and the President was on the defensive. But he was still popular, and won a comfortable victory
The second term of Bill Clinton was controversial. The economy was still good, the Internet Boom was happening as the economy increasingly became digital, but there was a deep anger within the right-wing. Clinton was a social moderate in a party that contained many hardline conservatives on social matters, and for some of them, Drastic Action would have to be made
The assassination attempt in Dallas happened on 22 November 1997 and albeit it failed, it set off a series of attacks by the "Christian State of America", a terrorist organisation based around Christian fundamentalism and American supremacism. The cry "Make America Great Again!" was used every time they attacked a school [schools were favourite targets of theirs, being particularly vulnerable] and as newspapers flooded people's senses with lurid descriptions of the CSA [everyone picked up on the abbreviation] and their horrific attacks, Clinton decided that It Was Time. Meeting with Republicans and Democrats, he negotiated a bill that would allocate funding to states that passed laws sending police to protect schools from terrorist attacks, and authorised the Armed Forces to go in and crush the CSA for good
By the dawn of 1999, the CSA was all but collapsed and their members on the run. But school shootings would still be a thing, particularly by young white radicalised men and this would be a problem that would linger in American society. Still, President Clinton could boast that he led America through two national crises and brought around a booming econo-
oh
The Internet Boom imploded spectacularly and America was now in a recession. Oh dear
42: Joe Lieberman (Republican) 2001-2009
2000: def. Al Gore (Populist) and Dennis Kucinich (Democratic)
2004: def. Bernie Sanders (Democratic) and Rick Perry (Populist)
"The Nettlesome Man from Connecticut"
Joseph Isadore Lieberman would be the first Jewish president of the United States, something making rump CSA groups go mad in fury at. But for most Americans, they now held no truck with voting for or against someone based off their religion. Lieberman was considered slightly conservative by Republican standards, certainly more to the right than Arlen Specter, but not too extreme. The 2000 election was always favoured by the Republicans, with the Populists struggling to change the narrative of "economy bad. change party" and Democrats the narrative that it was a Lieberman vs. Gore race with Kucinich as an "also-run", the third man in a two-horse race
But Al Gore and Dennis Kucinich put up spirited fights and if only it wasn't for that recount in Michigan, things would have gone to the House. Now Lieberman was president, and the Republicans now had Plans. Big Plans!
Lieberman filled his cabinet with neoconservatives including his vice-president Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz and they all had one country in mind - Nusantara. Once an American ally, it has fallen to a left-wing nationalist party led by Megawati Sukarnoputri which encouraged "Nasakom" [an alliance of nasionalisme ('nationalism'), agama ('religion'), and komunisme ('communism')] which incorporated the once-banned Communist Party into the cabinet. This set off alarm bells in the neoconservative think-tanks and once Lieberman got in, the ball was rolling for a military intervention to "protect democracy" and "stop communism" with some fig-leafs to protecting minorities in Nusantara
The Democrats decried this as needless military intervention and argued that America could instead work with Nusantara, like how President Redford worked with DPP China [by then the KMT was back in, but China's still a democracy] and Populists were cagey on the matter but when pushed to it voted to authorise Lieberman's Nusantara war. By 2002, the Nasakom regime was... well, not toppled but certainly in hiding. Turns out when you invade a jungle, you kind of have a hard time of it. But as reports of deaths in the jungle went up and up, the Democrats increasingly was viewed as right all along on Nusantara, and the Populists lost a lot of their middle-class Clinton voters to either the Democrats or Lieberman
The Republicans won a majority while the Populists fell to third. The ever-shifting American political scene was changing yet again. One of the loudest critics of the Nusantara War was Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Seen as on the left of the left-wing party, he rallied many students and promised a swift end to the war, a return to Redfordism and more spending to the beloved AHPA. As he grew higher and higher in the polls [leading one dodgy newspaper to splash their front page with "JEW VS JEW?" and for some anti-Semites to declare that this was the final step before the Great Replacement], the Populist candidate Rick Perry floundered. While a firm enemy of the CSA and authorised one of the country's most harsh laws against terrorism. he was quite socially conservative and intensely religious, which turned him off from the increasingly secular Northern middle-class suburban areas. In the end, while the people liked Bernie's honesty, they decided Lieberman was doing fine as is and re-elected him
Lieberman's second term would be dominated by what happened in late 2007, but before that the lustre was starting to go off the President. The Nusantara War was still going on... and on... and on... with no sign of victory. And as the American people grew more and more impatient, the Democrats soared in popularity. The Populists were still torn between Clintonites and those to his right, and the Democrats was on message and won a clear plurality of the seats in the House, before negotiating a coalition with Populists to put Andrew Cuomo in as Speaker. Also notable in Lieberman's second term was the Supreme Court casting down the decision in the 2007 case Hart vs. United States that same-sex marriage should be legal nationwide. This led to a rise in social conservative anger, but certainly nothing like the 1990s
Donald Rumsfeld was still the favourite to win the 2008 Republican nomination. Vice-President to Lieberman for eight years and faithfully pushing their neoconservative message, he was seen as The Candidate. But in mid-2007 Air Force Two went down due to an engine malfunction and the nation was without a Vice President. Lieberman, in due time, nominated Senator John McCain, a personal ally and more significantly, someone more popular than the icy blinkered technocrat that Rumsfeld was [although Rummy was then gathering a peculiar fanbase on the Internet that called him "The Donald" and came across as particularly fanatic in their devotion], so could be counted on to win 2008 or at least give a good showing
The 2008 election was shaped by the 2007 financial crash. The economy was always on shaky grounds all through Lieberman's presidency, even if it could be argued to be "good", and by late 2007 things were starting to fall apart. Lieberman's economic policy was straight out of the Iacocca playbook, including welfare cuts and relaxing bank regulation, and it came back to bite him. As banks declared bankruptcy and the value of the dollar went down, Lieberman worked with the Populists and Speaker Cuomo to negotiate a bank bailout in early 2008 that although saved the economy, was intensely polarising and led to many calling for "a people's bailout" [often with a hashtag on Chirpit]
43: Warren Beatty (Democratic) 2009-2017
2008: def. John McCain (Republican) and Rick Santorum (Populist)
2012: def. Lincoln Chafee (Republican) and Sarah Palin (Populist)
"Government is not Show Business"
For a man who many expected to be a return to the glitzy Hearstwood days of Robert Redford, Warren Beatty proved just the opposite. He was a self-declared "puritan" who was notable for speaking out against Hearstwood's obsession with youth, for marrying later in life and for having... well... how do I put it this nicely, an attraction to the far-left. His uncle A. A. MacLeod was the Canadian Communist leader for many years, and Beatty has said that he was 'inspired' by him. First attracted to the Democratic Party by George McGovern's 1972 campaign, he ended up entering politics full time in 2002 by running for the Governorship of California against unpopular Populist governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was re-elected in 2006 in a landslide as people turned against the Nusantara War and rallied behind the Democrats
Beatty's 2008 campaign was not flashy like Redford's 1980 one was, but it had something Redford lacked. The personal touch. If you think an actor can't be a President, okay, why don't you go to a campaign meet-and-greet and talk to the candidate himself? Many who come away from meeting Beatty remarked that he didn't seem like a typical actor, but like a humble politician willing to form a team and lead the country. And for those who weren't sure about an actor from Hearstwood and the "Left Coast", there was the fiery working-class rhetoric of his running mate Senator Anthony Weiner of New York who was widely seen as someone who took no shit and attacked the other two parties for "failing America"
Up against Vice-President John McCain and Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and for the Populists, the fiery demagogue Governor Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Governor Peggy Wallace Kennedy of Alabama, it was an election to remember. While McCain and Beatty enjoyed a pre-existing friendship and agreed on several issues, like campaign finance reform, so the debates between the two were often portrayed in the media as a civil disagreement of a bipartisan friendship which likely enabled Rick Santorum to bounce back his flagging campaign to tap into people's disgruntledness at the "chumminess" shown between McCain and Beatty. But in the end, Beatty won. Too much people lost their jobs, and although the economy was on paper starting to recover, nobody felt that recovery. Everyone was angry. And Beatty was their candidate
Top of President Beatty's agenda was his promised "People's Bailout", a slew of programs designed to make the recovery "work" for every American. including a level of debt forgiveness that made Wall Street nervous [and possibly led to a slight dip in the economy in 2010]. While Republicans and "New Populists" decried this as socialism, the old-school Populists nodded. Here was a common-sense solution, one fit of Huey Long himself. And for the person on the street, the common John and Jane Doe-Smith, things were getting better. People they knew were getting jobs, the economy was humming once again and President Beatty was clearly a trustworthy figure, even if not as glitzy as they originally thought. Hey, that was good!
The exposure of a Hearstwood film manager's sexual abuse of actresses seeking to get ahead, led to a social ripple in early 2011 and ultimately led to the fall of several Hearstwood big names. Of course, many kept their eye out for a possible mention of the President himself, but no such name appeared. What did, after everything came out and the social ripple reached politics, was Vice-President Anthony Weiner. Weiner denied ever sexting an underage minor, but upon President Beatty receiving word of it, he made it clear in a press conference that "Anthony Weiner now has no place in my Administration" and called upon Weiner to resign "for the good of the country". Weiner persisted up until early 2012, when he accepted a plea deal in the trial that included him resigning from office. President Beatty came across as a firm man of values, including no tolerance of anything sexually misconducting or abusing and his popularity increased a bit. Since it was so close to election day, Beatty chose to not appoint any new vice-president, but his new running-mate was Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
In the 2012 election, trans rights was then a heated social topic, with Beatty being clearly and uncompromisingly in favour of it [he had a trans son he was very proud of] while the Republicans narrowly after a bitter primary nominated Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who was considered quite a "liberal" for the GOP including on LGBT rights. The only social conservative in the race was Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, a Populist. And Palin made sure to exploit this opportunity all she could, to take as much votes from the Republicans and perhaps eclipse them as the main right-wing opposition to the Democrats [a far cry from Clinton's "moderate centre" attitude], Endorsed by conservative talk radio, she ended up bringing in the Populists' worst result electoral vote wise, but a marked improvement votewise from Santorum, and dragging the Populists to the right
But with Palin taking Chafee votes that Chafee just couldn't quite make up for, the 2012 map was a redwash, with Beatty getting almost 400 electoral votes. President Beatty chose to take this as a confirmation of his path going forward being right
In 2013, Chief Justice Antonin Scalia died. Beatty, already with two confirmations under his belt, chose to push the boundary a bit and nominated Chai Feldblum, a disability rights and LGBT rights lawyer, what struck many conservatives was the fact she would be the first female and first lesbian Chief Justice [and indeed first LGBT justice overall], something that many of them had a problem with. But she was competent, and Democrats had an advantage in Congress - they were reasonably united while Populists and Republicans were split between moderates, liberals/populists and conservatives. In the end, Beatty got his Chief Justice. And continuing with his uncompromising social agenda, was the long-dreamt-of Equal Rights Amendment. In the 80s, it was set rolling by President Redford yet stagnated under Iacocca, Clinton and Lieberman. The Palin-Chafee division allowed Democrats to make gains in enough states to confirm it as a constitutional amendment at last, and much to conservatives' fury, Chief Justice Feldblum cast down a judgement from the Supreme Court that it covered gender identity as well
Ultimately all those led to a conservative backlash and Democrats lost control of the House and Senate to a centre-right Pop-GOP coalition. The heady days of social progress were seemingly over, but American society was already rapidly transformed. In his final two years, the President turned his attention to environmental matters. Green energy was quite a growing sector, with it accounting for 30% of America's energy usage, and the President wanted to spread that to other countries and push it to a dreamed of 50%. Working with Secretary of Energy Jill Stein and new Republican Speaker Gwen Graham, new tax incentives on people to adopt green energy was adopted, as well as encouragement to use new green cars and of course quite a bit of investment into public transit in cities via a board that would work with the states using Congress-allocated funds to grow public transit and cut down people using cars [or at least carpool]. All of those was part of the "Cultural Revolution" President Beatty boasted of
Abroad, the President had more free rein and he desired to "Green the World", so he arranged for a conference of the Concord of Nations and acutely aware that the world leaders were more interested in nuclear disarmament instead of green energy, he negotiated a treaty that covered them both. The most energetic adopter was the Republic of China which declared a "Green Dream" of a sustainable China. At that conference, America and China rekindled their alliance yet again, underlining the Democrats as the most pro-China party. And of course, we can't mention foreign policy without Nusantara. Nusantara was a nuisance for Lieberman as his hoped for victory became a stalemate in the hot stifling jungle. Beatty knew victory was impossible, but he couldn't just withdraw yet even though the Dems originally backed Nasakom, due to the fact that the Nusantara regime has retorted to human rights violations to fight off American troops. So what was President Beatty to do?
A rather ingenious thing indeed. The Concord of Nations had a peacekeeper force, but not one that would be enough to defeat the regime and keep things stable. All Beatty needed was to clean America's hands of it, and upon getting China and Dravidia to agree to back up CoN peacekeeper forces, he started a plan for withdrawal receiving applause from Americans across the political divide [well apart from some crusty Republicans]. Whatever troops were left there, were officially under the aegis of the CoN, not under America
This gambit received a backlash as the President overreached once more as was his tendency. In the 2016 election, one person emerged as the main anti-CoN critic, arguing that America was still in Nusantara just under CoN pretenses and that America should do less for the CoN than it currently does. That man would go on to win the 2016 election and make a splash in the history books as well...
44: Marco Rubio (Populist) 2017-present
2016: def. Amy Klobuchar (Democratic) and Bill Haslam (Republican)
"A Dreamer and a Believer"
America's first Latino president was Marco Rubio of Florida. A Senator originally famous for declaring that "Warren Beatty knows exactly what he's doing" when he was giving the Populist response to the 2014 State of the Union Address, he grew in stature as he criticised Beatty's ambitious global gambits while cannily avoiding any social issues [well apart from the growing non-binary issue, which he made his point clear on - he thought they didn't exist, instead maintaining that "God made us, male and female"]. He promised to "bring troops back home" and review America's commitments to the CoN [not exiting it, merely reviewing, he insists] and this was popular with a big chunk of Americans
But even though he captured the zeitgeist of distrust of the world, he faced firm opposition. Vice-President Amy Klobuchar proved a strong opponent and had a strong argument as well, namely that of "the economy is doing well. why change horses?". Meanwhile the Republicans were firmly internationalist and nominated Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee, someone who had some appeal with the youth voters for his provision of free college in Tennessee [that and weird "Bill Haslam Will Make Anime Real!" memes]. But Rubio was clearly shaking up the Populists and driving them on a more insular yet more moderate line. Drawing heavily from the legacies of Huey Long and Oscar Underwood, Rubio managed to come across as someone who... well... knew exactly what he would be doing. Sorry. The most notable thing he said in the debate was... "While Klobuchar and Haslam talk about what they apparently know will happen if my plans happen, I can only tell you this. I only know what I believe, and I believe in American greatness. I believe in the American Dream. And I believe in America asking for a better deal from the world" which spread around on the Internet quite a bit as a gif on Chirpit and Facepage and linked to by grandmothers on "RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Finally some sense!!!" emails
Making historic gains in the Midwest, Rubio won the election by a narrow margin in American history [with recounts in Indiana and Arizona being part of the post-election drama as Dems and Reps tried to deny Rubio a majority] but he did it. Sworn in as President, he would seek to not destroy Beatty's treaties, but adjust them. And... at first it didn't sound promising. The Concord of Nations expected Rubio to keep Beatty's treaties and to maintain troops in Nusantara, but with negotiating with China and Dravidia, Rubio managed to end American troops in Nusantara for good in exchange for lucrative trade deals for both countries as a "reward". This got some condemnation back home, but all the American people cared was that their president delivered on his promise to finally finish the Nusantara War for good
Now, on broader renegotiation with the Concord of Nations? Ah. That's something still going on, and it doesn't seem good at present. Rubio is a very stubborn man, but he is trying to alter decades-old structures with little interest from others. The economy is fine, people are getting jobs, the Populists don't expect to lose much seats in the midterms, but the Democrats and Republicans will try to undermine him of course
Such as is for America in its eternally chaotic yet tragically beautiful three-party system