Upon a Cross of Globalism

[Person Man]

What I was expecting to be the last update will instead be split in two. The third update (of four) should be finished sometime this week.

2 more parts?  Awesome.  Going until 48 or 52?

I have some guesses on the next states to flip. I'll have to wait and see how close I am.

The fact that he is splitting it into two parts seems like things are going to take a turn for the worse. It could just be that 2040 is an aberration, the country goes the way of South Africa, it goes the way of the Soviet Union, or it goes the way of any other country that successfully "purified" itself and remained stable.

[Person Man]

Jesus lord. Oh my god. Oh my god.

This is AMAZING. I cannot wait for the finale!

Also, yes the American Republic and the Constitutional order is dead.

Looks like the United States has fallen. Hopefully those who don't want to live in a monarchy will be given a chance to leave.

[Person Man]

Looks like he left it to the readers to decide what happened next.

[Person Man]

I guess the 2048 election wil be just a formality with president Gallagher winning 99%+ of the popular vote.

Or not happen.

It would be interesting to see a National Salvation and Restore Democracy situation.

[Person Man]

This is all just a long-con by the NRA to get Democrats on board with gun rights, obviously.

I've went from being hostile to skeptical about gun control because of polarization, I guess. That and that though it appears people are committing less crime, its becoming more extreme when it happens. Either that or there are too many great reporters and not enough reporters. That's unlikely though. Also, I think that it's just not a good reason to support increased access to firearms just because people like them. However, I still think they are useful in many situations and I generally prefer broad due process over individual decision making in general. That's why I'm kind of in the middle on this corona thing instead of thinking there needs to be lock downs through the onset of summer.

[Person Man]

I wonder what a Civil War or High Intensity Social War would be like with nuclear weapons.

[Person Man]

Except in our TL, Nikki Haley will swoop in and save the day

Lol

[Person Man]

"We cannot afford to give Barack Obama a fifth term" is pure genius.

Sounds like the Watchmen movie where Nixon won a fifth term.

[Person Man]

My god.

I wonder how Atlas is doing ITTL

Haley/Ryan, ReaganFan, Sanchez, are all loyalists to the Gallagher regime. Fuzzy was very happy how things were going but he passed away in his 80's. Most of us are probably in prison at least those who weren't able to flee the country.

Or in an ashtray.

[Person Man]

At this point, I hope the United States gets into a large war and is forced to unconditionally surrender and be partitioned amongst the victors and eventually spun off into a collection of protectorates for its various victims. At least there is still a resistance going on by the National Guard units.

[Person Man]

At this point, I hope the United States gets into a large war and is forced to unconditionally surrender and be partitioned amongst the victors and eventually spun off into a collection of protectorates for its various victims. At least there is still a resistance going on by the National Guard units.

That’s a good way to see *European Federation* cities wiped off the map. Gallagher would not give a sh**t about M.A.D.

Fixed it for you.

Do you honestly think Gallagher will stop unless stopped?

[Person Man]

At this point, I hope the United States gets into a large war and is forced to unconditionally surrender and be partitioned amongst the victors and eventually spun off into a collection of protectorates for its various victims. At least there is still a resistance going on by the National Guard units.

That’s a good way to see *European Federation* cities wiped off the map. Gallagher would not give a sh**t about M.A.D.

Fixed it for you.

Do you honestly think Gallagher will stop unless stopped?

What?

My fix was that he said "EU" whereas in the timeline it has become the European
 Federation.

No. You're right. It wasn't  meant against that. It's just that Gallagher won't stop with just enslaving his own nation. He's already started attacking some of his neighbors.

Applause, applause to one of the greatest timelines every written on this site


America has fallen to fascism. Tucker's diary entry is almost identical to Wilhelm II's comments on the rise of Nazism.

America is dead, the fascist regime that replaced it must be smashed to bits, whatever it takes. I hope the epilogue sees the collapse of the regime into tiny pieces.

And btw, I would have left after the first few years of Gallagher, or earlier, to Canada (where I am a citizen).

I would think around the time of the initial coup, I hopefully will have emigrated.

[Person Man]

Yes. Probably Atlas would become some weird EXTREMELY retro thing exclusively for European Federation millennials and older zoomers with an interest in how sh1tty things are on the other side of the Atlantic.

Tbh the way more likely scenario is that in 2049 the Atlas forum would not exist (Dave's page probably survives though, albeit with rigged election results and no RDC recognition)

If it somehow did, I assume Virginia and/or Dave transferred the ownership and servers to a foreign poster (Kalwejt?) before everything collapsed.

I assume a handful of Americans would get prosecuted for supporting the RDC or President Ramirez Rosa back in the day.

The few posters here would indeed be a weird mix of esoteric European and Canadian posters, and the American refugees who left the US.

In any case, 2003 is as far away from 2020 as 2037 is. So by the time people who joined this year are as old as the old timers, we'd only be in the 2nd term of president Hawley.

I agree very much with your first sentence, but since in this timeline Vox, Fox, CNN and a host of other media all still exist after more than 20 years (something I disagree with) I figured that Atlas might still exist too.

CNN has been around since the 80s and Fox since the 90s.

[Person Man]

My god.

I wonder how Atlas is doing ITTL

Haley/Ryan, ReaganFan, Sanchez, are all loyalists to the Gallagher regime. Fuzzy was very happy how things were going but he passed away in his 80's. Most of us are probably in prison at least those who weren't able to flee the country.

It'd be a dark timeline if I am still posting in Atlas in my 50's.

Anyway, great timeline Reagente. Really shows you how democracy can be undermined.

There's people who post here in their 50's and 60's.

[Person Man]

My god.

I wonder how Atlas is doing ITTL

Haley/Ryan, ReaganFan, Sanchez, are all loyalists to the Gallagher regime. Fuzzy was very happy how things were going but he passed away in his 80's. Most of us are probably in prison at least those who weren't able to flee the country.

It'd be a dark timeline if I am still posting in Atlas in my 50's.

Anyway, great timeline Reagente. Really shows you how democracy can be undermined.

There's people who post here in their 50's and 60's.

True, but I say this because I would still be posting here like 40 years after registering, lol.

People have been here for almost 20 years now.

[Person Man]

I wonder what BRTD and the other original Atlas posters would be in as BRTD would be around 60?

YH Is part of the roundup as the last remaining member of the #resistance.

What do you think happens to people who are in the round up?

[Person Man]

So if there's an epilogue coming, I'd like to make a prediction.

Gallagher = American Pinochet, and his rule ends in a similar way?

Do you see Gallagher making an honest referendum on his rule? I certainly don't tbh but we shall see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Chilean_national_plebiscite
(in fairness, Pinochet getting 44% of the vote was quite a lot of support)

Once under enough pressure. And I mean a lot of pressure.

I could see this happening if the early 2050s was like a WWII scenario or some other more likely and  conservative "soft" scenario where the European Federation and the PRC were able to contain the Gallagher regime. At a certain point, it could be that finding a legal way out of power would be better than either rebels or the Chinese getting him and giving him either Qaddafi or the Mussolini treatment.

[Person Man]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-republican-embrace-of-qanon-goes-far-beyond-trump/ar-BB18cS9P

Looks like this might come true a few decades early

We might be hitting these things faster.

[Person Man]

Really waiting for the end of this one

[Person Man]

epilogue:

Gallagher is crowned King Eddie I and everyone either leaves, goes to jail, loses their head, or excepts him as their personal Lord and Saviour!

[Person Man]

Many people have asked me if there is a place where they can view the entire timeline in a single location (i.e. not punctuated by other comments). The entire timeline is located here*:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/upon-a-cross-of-globalism-an-american-politics-timeline.495155/

Also, I don't have any plans to do an epilogue to the epilogue - but I did have a few ideas about what happens with the Barron Presidency that I might share (but would be considered non-canon) assuming there is interest

It would be interesting to see the United States take its own unique course in history. Maybe Barron’s presidency marks the transition into a new form of governmental organization built around businesses instead of just heavily influenced by them.

[Person Man]

What would the Romans have done?

[Person Man]

What would the Romans have done?

♩Them Romes Them Rome’s gonna stab around ♩

I was thinking that the barbarians would be crucified along the 100 miles of 495 beltway around Washington. Motorists would see a cross every 50 feet or so if 10000 traitors, barbarians, or subhumans were being punished at once.

It’s actually a pretty good model of how states with some form of Democratic or liberal tradition transition to authoritarian regimes sustain themselves and handle the continuity of government after they become authoritarian. Especially ones that don’t really face immediate external threats. Elections are eventually replaced by as box power transfer and sharing agreements and when those fail, they are replaced with Civil Wars and revolts. It doesn’t really become a problem for the society to continue until the various factions, especially the one in power, starts needing more and more “help”.


How do you deal with 30,000 mercenaries that you needed to put down a black rebellion in the upper Midwest or an anarchist rebellion in Front Range because you lost a bunch of guys invading some leftist-controlled Latin American country or a state that had to be occupied because the Governor wanted to be the next President and then these mercenaries only decided to fight for you because you would let their families cover over as climate refugees?

In the first few decades of the Gallagher regime, these sort of issues become problems but there are enough conscripts to fill the holes. Eventually, expansion will slow down as the Chinese and Europeans catch up and as the climate worsens, they’ll be more people wanting to do whatever it takes to survive. My guess is that the regime survives until about the middle of the 22nd century and gets replaced by a hodgepodge of various actors from remnants of the regime, to various subjugated and migratory peoples. Maybe another major power survives, but they won’t have the resources to ever invade the mainland though they could occupy Alaska or Hawaii and maybe set up spheres of influences in areas who want protection from the regimes’ remnants.