'The Weasel in the White House'

[TNF]

January 20, 2017



"I, Scott Kevin Walker, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God."

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The 115th United States Congress

House of Representatives
Republican Party 256
Democratic Party: 179

Senate
Republican Party 56
Democratic Party: 42
Independent(s) 2

State Governors

Republican Party: 35
Democratic Party: 14
Independent(s) 1

State Legislatures

Republican Party: 34
Democratic Party: 10
Split legislatures: 6

[TNF]

Scott Walker was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States in the dreary close of January 2017, cementing his place in the history books and capping off his own personal career. Eight years prior, the country gathered together to celebrate the inauguration of a President that promised them 'hope' and 'change', but found it hard to deliver on either in the face of a chronically weak economic situation and strong public opposition to his policy proposals from an energized opposition.

The climate this time around was very different. Few expected that Walker would even be taking the oath, as up until the summer of 2016, he was trailing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the polls. But then, everything changed. Economic contractions, which became evident as far back as the latter part of 2014 with the sudden collapse in oil prices, mushroomed into a full blown double-dip recession in the Autumn, leading to a reversal in the fortunes of the Republican candidate and his coming out on top, in spite of poor debate performances and his being viewed as something of a lightweight when compared to the former Secretary of State.

Republicans rejoiced. It was as if 1980 had happened all over again - they gained seats in the House, putting their total seat number at its highest since the roaring twenties, and in the Senate, where they were only a few votes shy of a filibuster proof majority. (Not that that really mattered, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raised a point of order in the opening of the 115th Congress to nix the filibuster once and for all - to the consternation of Democrats that didn't have the guts to do the same at any point during the past eight years. In one fell swoop, the filibuster was gone and the 'nuclear option' at last utilized.) The Republicans also gained control of state legislatures and Governorships, the latter of which they gained in those states that still did not have 'right-to-work' laws, something that they'd seek to rectify in all four (although the split legislature of Kentucky would make the attempt there unsuccessful...for the time being.)

Walker made clear that he would seek to 'unleash American competitiveness' by 'taking on the unions' as he had in the state that his administration transformed from the stomping ground of Bob La Follette and Victor Berger into a right-to-work state without collective bargaining rights for public employees. This would of course be backed up with the traditional Republican formula of slashing taxation on the incomes of the wealthy, reducing corporate taxation and social spending, and increasing spending on the military. Walker would waste absolutely no time in enacting his agenda and pressing forward with it.

The first hundred days define a presidency. Walker's would define the decade.

[TNF]

The First Hundred Days: The Cabinet


John Bolton, Secretary of State


Jim Talent, Secretary of Defense


Ken Wainstain, Attorney General


Joe Lieberman, Secretary of Homeland Security


Robert Zoellick, Secretary of the Treasury


Carly Fiorina, Secretary of Commerce


Jack Gerard, Secretary of Energy


Bobby Jindal, Secretary of Health and Human Services


Rick Lazio, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development


James Inhofe, Secretary of the Interior


Nikki Haley, Secretary of Labor


Adam Putnam, Secretary of Agriculture


Marion Blakey, Secretary of Transportation


Michelle Rhee, Secretary of Education

[TNF]

There will be the Electoral Map?

Also.. who won the IL Senate Race?

Demopacalypse 2016

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York (Democratic Party): 44% of the popular vote / 190 electoral votes
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin (Republican Party): 54% of the popular vote / 348 electoral votes
Jill Stein of Massachusetts (Green Party): 2% of the popular vote / 0 electoral votes


Mark Kirk won re-election in 2016.

[TNF]

The First Hundred Days: The Shot Heard Round the World

As previously noted, the opening of the 115th United States Congress saw the fabled nuclear option finally used, eliminating the Senate filibuster and with it two centuries of tradition in that most conservative of U.S. governing institutions. While some within the Republican caucus balked at the move behind closed doors, they closed ranks when it became clear that dissent would not be tolerated on the move and that those who stepped out of line might face retribution from the RNC for doing so. The up or down vote was acrimonious but when the smoke cleared a majority of Republicans voted in favor, and Democrats against. The stage was set for the Walker agenda to be enacted in full.

Bigger fish were being fried by the President himself, however. President Walker immediately issued a series of executive orders declaring all the usual right-wing shibboleths, i.e. no funding for abortion in overseas aid, faith-based initiatives, etc. But one of those executive orders was different - the new President issued an executive order rescinding all previous executive orders guaranteeing federal employees the right to collectively bargain, overturning half a century of public practice in one fell swoop. Federal workers' unions, not having any other recourse (as of this writing no legislation exists at the federal level guaranteeing such bargaining rights, only executive orders), quickly mobilized.

Six years after the protests that enveloped Madison in response to similar legislation, federal employees gathered in Washington to protest the new executive order. Fiery speeches were made, demonstrations were held, but in the end, labor chieftains decided that it was better to face down the issue in the courts. In American Federation of Government Employees v. Walker, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling ultimately came down on the side of the President, asserting that previous executive orders issued by Presidents Kennedy and Nixon were beyond the scope of their power as president.

Federal workers would no longer have the legally recognized right to collectively bargain.

[TNF]

Domestic Policy: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Immediately following the executive order that stripped federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, Walker moved into position on the legislative front. A flurry of Republican policy proposals, first tried out at the state and local levels during the long eight years in opposition, would thus soon find their way to the Oval Office for the President's signature.

First and foremost came the matter of stimulating the economy, which had been shedding jobs since late 2016 and had produced the highest rate of unemployment since the protracted recession of the early 1980s, which saw nearly one out of every ten Americans out of work. The first piece of legislation that the President would sign would be an economic stimulus package, loaded with tax relief for high earners (the top income tax rate was reduced from 39.6% to 25% in one fell swoop, and the seven tax brackets established by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 were reduced to five; the capital gains tax was done away with outright and the corporate tax rate slashed from 35% to 20%), incentives for capital investment in new manufacturing equipment and fossil fuel extraction, and, of course, increases in military spending.

The subsequent federal budget would zero out funding for food stamps and make deep cuts to social welfare spending, with much of the funding that would normally have been spent on these programs being transferred to the military. But the 'Tea Party Express' didn't stop with a massive tax cut for the wealthy or the end of food stamps. It kept on rolling. When Democrats made it known that they would be introducing a resolution calling for a $12.25 minimum wage by 2020, the President responded by asking Congress to cut funding for wage and hour enforcement regulations in the next federal budget. On wages and hours, Congress would do that and more, enacting a bill that allowed states to apply for waivers from the Department of Labor that would allow them to pay workers below the federal minimum wage on the basis of 'proven need' (these would be quickly snapped up by Republican-controlled state legislatures and executives in the year to come) and denying federal funding for wage and hour enforcement for any state that dared raise the minimum wage above the federal wage of $7.25 an hour.

Satisfied for the time being on the labor front, Walker's administration moved to gut that biggest of all conservative boogeymen, Obamacare. Although ultimately stopping short of repealing the legislation entirely, the 115th Congress would craft a bill that gutted the healthcare exchanges, reversed medicaid expansion, and revoked the individual mandate for health insurance.

The transformation of American public education was left to Walker's firebrand Secretary of Education, Democrat Michelle Rhee. Rhee had a long history of provoking fights with teachers unions and pushing things like charter schools and school vouchers, so it was no surprise that Walker would embrace her approach to education reform as President. Although some within the administration thought that the Department of Education should be abolished outright, Walker preferred to have the hand of the federal government at the ready to shape legislative policy across the country, rather than risk the states implementing policies that could turn the tide against 'education reform.' This was one area where Walker had bipartisan support, and he aimed to make the best of it.

Congress responded with a bill reorganizing American public education, perhaps the most far-reaching of its kind. Age-old requirements for equal funding for sports programs for girls were gutted and the last vestiges of sixties-era busing and other requirements were put to rest, once and for all. The federal Department of Education would be transformed into a means by which states would receive funding and aid in transforming their public education systems into voucher-oriented charter systems, with incentives for school districts to convert themselves into for-profit charter schools and crack down on teachers' unions. Democrats like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised the administration for such actions and were among the first to apply for the new federal funding, making them national leaders in the fight to transform American schooling.

On social welfare, Walker is content with containing and reducing overall spending. Fearful of repeating the Bush debacle on Social Security, he puts off immediate action on that thorny issue in favor of bills devolving Medicaid fully to the states, raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and reducing benefits, and privatizing unemployment insurance. New tax incentives are drawn out to end defined-benefit pensions in favor of 401Ks and the Departments of Labor and Commerce are deployed to help corporate America make the transition away from employer-provided benefits to benefits that are more closely connected to Wall Street trading.

On the environment, Walker undoes essentially every new rule promulgated by the Obama-era EPA and gives a thumbs up for the renewed expansion of fracking sites. The Keystone XL pipeline, vetoed under the previous administration, is approved without much debate this time around. Federal lands are opened up for drilling, mining, and fracking.

Free trade agreements stalled under Obama were likewise given the greenlight by the Republican Congress and the White House, including the Transpacific Partnership and Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, with the administration even proposing a revival of the decades old idea of a 'Free Trade Area of the Americas', much to the consternation of nationalist Republicans and old-school union Democrats. This would have to wait, however, as Walker wanted to push through the capstone of his legislative agenda before the midterms and likely losses on his part.

Thus came the battle over the National Right-to-Work Act.

[TNF]

Which Side Are You On? The National Right-to-Work Act and the Great Upheaval of 2017

The announcement of a national right-to-work bill by Senator Rand Paul was mostly expected. Paul's own home state had elected a Republican Governor in 2015 but was unable to pass a state-level equivalent owing to the split control of the state legislature. Republican Governors and legislatures in West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Missouri had no such trouble.

States in red were right-to-work states prior to the passage of the National Right-to-Work Act

The proposal didn't get much attention at first; Paul had proposed such legislation in previous sessions only to have it die in committee. But with the economic crisis and the opportunity to expend what political capital he had prior to the inevitable midterm losses, Walker took up the legislation as the cornerstone of his program, and helped shepherd it through the committee process and onto the Senate floor. As the Senate gathered to vote on the largest change in labor law since the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, organized labor mobilized.

At first, the national AFL-CIO only called for local demonstrations that would converge in a 'New March on Washington' the day the bill was set to be voted on. This was more or less an attempt to hold back the movement and make sure that it didn't go outside the normal channels of public protest, litigation, and funneling all the energy from it into a spirited campaign for the Democrats next year. But things didn't go exactly as planned.

The first signs of unrest came from the cradle of the American labor movement, Chicago. The Chicago Federation of Labor, under pressure from the militant Chicago Teachers Union and other rank-and-file led unions like UNITE HERE Local 1, as well as a mobilized and (increasingly) angry building trades council, declared that in opposition to the bill, it would back a general strike of all Chicago union members on May 1st. Other central labor councils followed suit, and the AFL-CIO tacitly endorsed the call for a nationwide general strike of union members, hoping to contain the movement and control it from the top.

May 1st came and the AFL-CIO began to quickly realize that it wasn't going to be the master of ceremonies this time around. In major cities, union workers walked off the job and through the avenues of their cities, hand in hand and with the intent of marching all the way to Washington to make their voices heard. Unexpectedly, the walkout became bigger than its organizers could scarcely imagine, with non-union workers in the service sector and federal and state employees also walking off the job. A Senate report on the events that followed estimated that nearly 1 out of every 5 workers walked out on May 1st, 2017, and the number of workers participating grew as events around the country intensified.

But workers weren't the only ones on the march. Veterans of Occupy Wall Street and various other radicals got in on the act too, joining picket lines and marches in solidarity. Faith groups, too came out in full force, as did many environmentalist and other groups committed to doing something about 'The Weasel in the White House.' This would be Walker's greatest test yet.

For the most part, the day's events remained peaceful and orderly, extending into the next few days, which would radicalize the protestors. The change in attitudes may be clearly seen in contrasting Day One (May 1st) to Day Two (May 2nd) to Day Three (May 3rd) in the response of the marchers to Democratic politicians that addressed their various rallies. On the first day, Democrats were cheered on and calls were made for the election of a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president in 2020. On the second day, the cheers stopped for the 'corporate Democrats' and the slogans came to reflect the idea that a 'progressive Democratic Congress and progressive Democratic president should be elected', and on the third day, the Democratic speakers began to receive boos and jeers. Slogans changed from supporting the Democrats to supporting 'independent progressive candidates.' What brought about this change?

State repression.

While the first day of the protest seemed to mostly be about defeating the bill, the content of the protests were never monolithic. Some workers walked off the job, but others sat down. Factories, restaurants, and retail outlets were occupied by their workforce, which demanded a union and a living wage. At first attempts to dislodge the workers were frustrated by the fact that everyone was completely and totally puzzled as to what to do. No one had seen labor action on this scale since the 1930s and in spite of the howling from the upper crust, most local governments either stayed silent the first few days or endorsed the actions, depending upon the political makeup of the local government in question.

But then, the tide changed. Starting in Chicago, the epicenter of the movement, the police moved to restore order after scabs being escorted into an occupied factory engaged in a scuffle with the striking workers. This was the pretext for President Walker and Homeland Security Secretary Joe Lieberman to make their move and order a coordinated crackdown on the protests.

The President probably imagined that such a crackdown would be met with little resistance outside of the usual suspects for such activity (Oakland, Seattle, Madison), much like the mopping up of the Occupy protests had been six years prior.

He was wrong.

[TNF]

'If We Burn, You Burn With Us'

May 5th, 2017.

That date which would be known in American history as the day of the '5/5 riots' or the '5/5 uprising', depending on who it is you sided with in the subsequent chaos. With the sending of militarized police units into struck Chicago worksites, with scabs often in tow, the subterranean fire of working class anger, working class anguish, and working class revolt flared up in a spectacular display of defiance against the establishment that had literally bled it dry for nearly half a century.

In Chicago, the crackdown ordered by Mayor Emanuel was met with stiff resistance. As the militarized Chicago PD moved into struck factories and workplaces, workers within the occupied workplaces resisted their removal, at first by throwing bottles and rocks at the cops. As these workers were dragged out or led out at gunpoint, onlookers, which quickly grew to outnumber the cops, charged police, wielding baseball bats and lead pipes. After the police were successfully dispersed at one worksite after another and significant numbers of the police began to refuse orders to disperse the protestors, Emanuel called in back up.

Governor Rauner quickly issued the order for the mobilization of the National Guard to Chicago, with the backing of the President. As events in Chicago were livestreamed on the news, on Twitter, and on other social media sites, similar events began to manifest themselves elsewhere. First in major cities, then in the suburbs, then in rural working class communities. It seemed as if the whole country was in revolt.

In cities like Oakland, the local government itself became more or less irrelevant. Strike committees took charge in major cities and ordered the police demobilized, rallying those with military training to the defense of the protestors and the picket lines. National Guard units moved toward major cities, but many units outright refused to interfere with the protestors. In those areas, the private military companies, like Blackwater and other organizations fresh from tours of duty in Iraq and against ISIS, found their way to the front lines against the protestors.

In Washington, President Walker felt it necessary to address the nation. Referring to the protests as 'being led by communist agitators' and backed by 'union thugs intent on crushing American democracy', Walker called for calm and publicly announced that he would be declaring the whole of the nation to be in a state of emergency. 'We will not be intimidated by terrorists' Walker said before announcing that he would be authorizing the deployment of U.S. troops to put down the 'insurrection' across the country. It would be the first time since World War II that federal troops had intervene to quash a labor dispute. 

It would not be the last.

[TNF]

The Guns of May 5th

As federal troops made their way to major cities, the communications blackout entered full force. Kill switches on major communications networks were flipped by the big telecom companies to help the feds confound the plans of the 'communist-union terrorists'. Internet access was cut off. Phone signals vanished. Cable networks stopped broadcasting. It was as if the dystopic dreams of the past decade had come to life in one terrifying instant.

But that was objectively less terrifying than Walker's decision to authorize the deployment of predator drones to help 'restore order' in the major metropolitan areas of the nation. At first only monitoring missions were authorized, but with the news that some National Guard units were refusing to carry out orders, many in the administration were unnerved enough to beg the President to authorize the arming of drones and their use to disperse protestors. He at first relented, but upon hearing that Chicago had come under the effective control of the general strike committee there, he made up his mind to do whatever was necessary to restore order.

Working class wards were the first to be met with fire from above. The bombing of Chicago was followed by the razing of other cities. New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles suffered what were described euphemistically as 'surgical strikes' to wipe out the 'communist threat' in those areas. But wholly 'communized' cities like Oakland would get far worse treatment. Blanket carpet bombing in those areas would come to be the rule, rather than the exception. Those types needed to be taught a lesson, you see.

All of this would later be given legal sanction by the Supreme Court in what amounted to a 'state of emergency' exception conferred on the President for his actions. The Democrats, not wanting to risk being seen as 'friendly' toward the 'terrorists', mostly stayed silent, or actively participated. Governor Cuomo personally gave the order for the New York National Guard to 'do whatever is necessary' to restore order in NYC, after all.

As federal troops rolled into the cities, on the ground combat intensified. Strike committees raised 'Union Defense Guards' in anticipation of more open fighting and various radical activists joined up. Fighting with Blackwater mercenaries, police, and National Guardsmen resulted in a lot of mutual carnage of both sides, although in most cases the UDGs were outmanned and outgunned. In rural areas, radicals and workers engaged in guerrilla warfare, raiding country clubs and engaging in skirmishes with Tea Party militia groups.

But on the whole, fighting died down as federal troops and the bombing campaigns scared the population into submission. Picket lines were finally broken and workplaces secured by the DHS and the U.S. Army. Naval fleets patrolled harbors and aimed anti-aircraft guns at working class districts in order to prevent them from 'getting any ideas.' Within a week on the initial uprising, 'normalcy' had returned, although some diehards would continue waging guerrilla campaigns for weeks and months to come.

With the final collapse of the last holdouts, President Walker addressed the nation in June 2017. 'We have not seen such trying times since the dark days of September 11th.' the President said in a televised address. 'But our resolve, then as now, is one of steel. We have triumphed over those terrorist elements that have sought to drown our democracy in blood for their own greedy and self-centered purposes. As long as I'm your president, we will continue to maintain our faith in those things which make this country great - liberty, democracy, and free enterprise. I ask the Congress to ratify that belief by making that bill which these terrorists tried to kill by force the law of the land.'

And so it was.

The National Right-to-Work Act was signed by President Scott Walker on July 4, 2017.

[TNF]

Mr. 85%

Immediately after the events of May 5th, President Scott Walker's approval ratings shot through the roof. He had saved the country from 'communist terror', after all. At the peak of his popularity, he claimed an approval rating of 85%, immediately after the passage of the National Right to Work Act. He would now go about strengthening the repressive apparatus of the state in order to prevent other such uprisings in the future.

Walker and co. had been caught off guard by the 5/5 Uprising, but his administration was determined that such would not happen again. Congress responded by passing a new PATRIOT Act that afforded even more power to the executive in dealing with 'domestic disturbances.' The administration used the new authority it was granted to begin a systematic targeting of radical activists, union leaders, and undocumented immigrants. (The latter group being a fairly substantive group of participants in the protests)

The round-ups have become known to history as the Third Red Scare. Blacklists were drawn up, known protestors fired or imprisoned, and 'enhanced interrogation techniques' used to extract information about the May events from the captured. All of this went without as much as a peep from Congressional Democrats, who joined with their colleagues to pass the legislation that made this all possible 'in light of the national emergency.'

Surveillance drones would be flown high above the landscape from here on out, too, under the direction of the military, which was now freed to make arrests if necessary thanks to Congressional suspension of the Posse Comitatus Act. Local governments were given grants by the Department of Homeland Security to set up CCTV systems for monitoring goings on on street corners, and Congress hastily approved a national internet regulatory framework, with filters for radical and 'terrorist' websites and optional ones that filtered out pornography and anything users didn't want little ones to see.

Civil libertarians within the Republican caucus raised some consternation about the President's proposal for a National ID card, but without a filibuster, they could do little to stop its passage. Rand Paul notably broke ranks with the President to condemn 'this usurpation of American liberty' which replaced driver's licenses around the country with a card featuring the holder's name, address, blood type, social security number, and fingerprint. The new cards would hold all data on whether or not a person was permitted to drive, own a firearm, etc, which itself caused a bit of an uproar with the NRA, but the Congress would have none of it. This was about defeating the commies, after all.

The official union movement was harangued in Congressional hearing after hearing, with prominent unionists arrested on charges of everything from disturbing the peace to treason. Private and public sector union density collapsed, and the AFL-CIO itself more or less ceased to function as a federation of labor unions by the end of 2017. Environmentalists and other radical groups got more or less the same treatment, although the primary focus was on the 'unions and the reds'. Prominent left-wing academics lost jobs and federal funding dried up for anything that could be remotely described as 'radical research.'

The nation had been transformed, with Walker, now the villain, now the hero, at the top of it all.

But his day in the Sun would not last.

[TNF]

Splendid Little War

With the domestic climate under the firm grip of the Walker administration, things slowly returned to 'normal.' Remaining communist guerrillas were captured, arrested, and executed. State spending on new repressive technologies and the military helped bolster the economy, as did orders to rebuild bombed out working class districts (which became new playgrounds for the rich) from the May events. Polls indicated overwhelming support for the Republicans and the President, and it seemed early in the year that they may yet pull off a win in the coming midterms, bucking historical trends.

Foreign policy had never been the President's strong suit.

Coming into office on the heels of the final collapse of ISIS, he had been content to maintain the status quo, for the most part, picking fights at home rather than back himself into a corner abroad, as a certain former Republican president had done. However, the influence of that president's advisers in his cabinet would make its presence known after calm was restored at home and the economy began to show signs of health once again.

Venezuela had been a constant thorn in the side of American foreign policy aims in Latin America going on two decades. When the Venezuelan right finally massed the support it needed to challenge the Maduro government for power in Spring 2018, Walker seemed less than enthused to get entangled. But Secretary Bolton made a strong case for involvement, noting that Walker could use a 'splendid little war' to keep his poll numbers up and secure his place in the history books as a President that not only defeated 'communism at home' but helped knock it down abroad, too.

At first, Walker only asked Congress to approve military aid to the rebels in Venezuela. Military aid quickly turned into aerial support for the rebels, who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. With the Chavista population backing Maduro, a grisly civil war enveloped that ripped civil society in Venezuela up by the root. The bombing of a U.S. naval vessel by Chavista forces in Autumn 2018 formally brought the full force of the U.S. armed forces into the conflict. America was once again at war.

It would not end well for Scott Walker.

[TNF]

Fear and Loathing on the Home Front

The Republicans bucked the historical trend in 2018 and gained ground in both the House and Senate. This can more or less be chalked up to the Democrats avoiding campaigning on anything beyond bread and butter issues and staying mum on the Venezuelan issue, which the GOP campaigned on to great effect. The renewed Red Scare atmosphere allowed the GOP to make gains as many on the left stayed home or were imprisoned for his or that suspicious Facebook post or Tweet. The gutting of the Voting Rights Act also helped to prevent demographic groups not favorable to Republican policies from making it to the polls in droves, either. All of these things combined to give the Republicans the illusion that they had a mandate going into 2019, in spite of the fact that turnout for the 2018 midterm elections stood at an abysmal 25 percent.

The first deployments in Venezuela came in late 2018, after the midterm elections. American troops rendezvoused with Venezuelan right-wing paramilitaries in areas that they controlled and mobilized to capture the centers of the Chavista government. Walker's advisers expected a 'splendid little war' but nevertheless decided not to make the same mistakes that had been made in Iraq, and in response probably deployed too many, rather than too few, American troops. These troops were often tasked with charging into government-held territories ahead of the poorly led and scatter-brained rebel forces, qualities that probably reflected the fact that they had grown out of the Venezuelan elite and had little popular support.

The first engagements were fierce, as the arrival of the 'Yankee imperialists' boosted support among the population for the 'anti-imperialist' Chavistas. As body counts rose, American public support for the conflict began to wane, especially after it became clear that the Venezuelan War would not be the splendid little war it had been sold as. Walker nonetheless pressed forward, fearing to end up as 'another George Bush' and made gestures on the homefront for political support, attempting to connect the struggle in Venezuela to the struggle to suppress the May 5th events at home.

With the economy generally improving and the climate of fear receding in the face of difficulties for Walker and co, the Democrats began to find their own voice again to oppose the President, something that was all the more important for them now that the presidential election of 2020 was soon approaching. Walker's approval ratings fell below 70 percent for the first time since the May 5th events by the summer of 2019, which would coincide with the rhetorical shift from the Democratic Party that summer.

But the Democrats weren't the only game in town this time around. As the public climate of fear receded, the limits on public debate that were inaugurated by the Third Red Scare did too. Populist figures opposed to the 'creeping security state' and the War in Venezuela denounced the Democrats for their opportunistic moves. Unlike the Democrats, who promised that they would 'win the war in Venezuela', these elements proposed an immediate end to the conflict and the rollback of Walker's domestic legislation. Assembling in Chicago in May 2019 (an act that was itself positively skewered in the right-wing and centrist press), left-liberals and leftists would publish the 'Chicago Manifesto', calling for the formation of a new political party committed to opposing Walker's policies at home and abroad from the left.

The signatories of the manifesto would reconvene on July 4, 2019 to announce the launch of 'We the People', a new political party that was broadly speaking, left-populist in character. WtP called for the repeal of the bulk of Walker's domestic legislation, taxation of the rich, and an end to the ongoing War in Venezuela. WtP was quickly denounced as 'communist' by the press and by Walker and the Democratic Party's presidential frontrunner, Elizabeth Warren. It nevertheless attracted the support of a 'who's who' of liberal public figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders, who nevertheless refused to be its presidential candidate for fear of splitting the left vote and allowing Walker to win a second term.

WtP shocked both the Republicans and Democrats by performing well in local and state elections in 2019, gaining a number of state legislative seats, city council spots, and a few mayors. It's presidential candidate in 2020 would be one of those mayors, San Francisco's Lisa Chen(1). Chen accepted the WtP nomination with a rousing call to arms against 'the Walker-Warren duopoly and its Wall Street War in Venezuela'. Treated as little more than an unhinged left-wing nut in the mainstream press, Chen nevertheless got her message across, polling as much as 15% of the vote in the early part of 2020. For the first time since 1992, a viable third party candidacy, opposed to everything that the administration built itself up on since the May 5th events, appeared.

Walker was determined to nip it in the bud.


(1) Chen is a completely fictional character, and is in part an homage to a fictional mayor of San Francisco that runs for President on a third party ticket in a dystopic 'look forward' that Dick Clarke did about the War on Terror way back in 2005.

[TNF]

2020 Vision

The presidential campaign of 2020 would be the most exciting in years, with the nation, now in the midst of a bleak recovery, now in the midst of a foreign war, would have not two, but three choices. The Democratic primaries became a showdown between the liberal wing of the party, embodied in Elizabeth Warren, against the more conservative wing, with Andrew Cuomo at its head. Warren would emerge victorious after a particularly wrenching primary season, and would endear herself to the conservative wing of the party by promising a tough line on domestic terrorism and Venezuela. She would not run as a peace candidate.

The Republican campaign attracted only slight opposition. Muffled civil libertarian voices within the GOP backed a quixotic campaign by Michigan congressman Justin Amash against the President, but this never really amounted to much of a campaign. Walker crushed Amash's bid against him and put RNC funding directly into a primary challenger against Amash himself that year. No one was going to throw his leadership off kilter. No one.

And on the left, there lay the new hybrid liberal-populist We the People party. We the People had nominated San Francisco mayor Lisa Chen for president, a granola liberal that nonetheless attracted some degree of support from the left and a lot of genuine support from dissidents that were the victims of the Third Red Scare. Chen ran as the only peace candidate in the race and called for 'radical democratic reform' to open up the political system.

The campaign season would be bitter and ugly. Walker and Warren tacitly agreed not to engage Chen and not to invite her to the debates. The first debate was thus one between Walker and Warren only, and was chiefly focused on economic issues. Walker promoted his brand of conservative reform as the 'solution' to the economic crisis, while Warren proposed undoing the tax cuts for the rich that Walker had enacted and spending more money on 'shovel ready projects' that weren't directly related to the military as a means of spurring economic recovery. Warren chastised Walker on his 'inefficient' methods for fighting in Venezuela and promised that as President, she would 'do what it took' to make sure that the 'freedom fighters' seeking to overthrow Maduro would finally get the aid and support they needed to do so. Walker accused Warren of being a crypto-communist, and tried to make connections between her pre-crisis speeches and the May 5th events.

Denying a place in the debates for Chen led to demonstrations in the Autumn of 2020 for greater transparency in government and democratic reform. With polls showing now that Chen was receiving as much as a quarter of the vote, Walker and Warren scrambled to change course on their exclusion of her from the debates. The game would now be to let her in and defame her and We the People, to prevent the growth of the protest party in the polls.

At the second debate, Chen was largely regarded as the winner. Denouncing the War in Venezuela and calling for the immediate abolition of the electoral college, her support in the polls rose to around a third of the vote. With election day fast approaching, Democratic and Republican machines did their best to frustrate the ability of Chen and We the People candidates to make it on the ballot. Voter suppression from both the Democrats and the Republicans kicked into high gear.

As the polls opened on that cold November day, no one was quite sure what was going to happen. Final pre-election polls showed Walker at 35%, Warren at 33%, and Chen at 30%, with 2% of the vote scattered among various other smaller protest parties, chiefly the Libertarians (making a comeback in the wake of Walker's expansion of the security state) and the Constitution Party (because communism).

What would happen next would come as a shock to everyone.

[TNF]

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America.

And yet still more substantive than anything you've ever posted.

[TNF]

ELECTION DAY

Scott Walker of Wisconsin (Republican): 36% of the popular vote / 237 electoral votes
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (Democratic): 34% of the popular vote / 240 electoral votes
Lisa Chen of California (We the People): 28% of the popular vote / 61 electoral votes
Cheryl Robinson of Rhode Island (Libertarian): 2% of the popular vote / 0 electoral votes (1)


(1) Fictional person

[TNF]

Full House

For the first time since 1824, no candidate had achieved a majority in the electoral college, and as a result, the incoming House of Representatives would be tasked with electing the next President of the United States. The 117th United States Congress had a Republican plurality, but the Democrats weren't far behind the GOP in terms of total seats, which gave the scrappy newcomers, the We the People party, control of the outcome. The Senate remained solidly in the hands of the Republican Party.

With everyone converging on Washington, the backroom dealing became the stuff of the late night talk show circuit. Would We the People accept a deal from the Democrats that would undo much of Walker's economic agenda and promise electoral reform? Or would We the People settle for Walker's deal - a removal of the boot from its neck and the easing of the security state? Lisa Chen, the unofficial leader of We the People, debated this within the party caucus, which was as divided as ever.

On the right of the party, prominent leaders like Congressman Ben Townsend (1) of Iowa thought it best to deal with the Republicans and get a repeal of the aggressively repressive legislation of past years. This leadership was also close with the Libertarian Party and had played no small role in securing victory for We the People on the plains states and among many former Tea Party supporters.

In the center was Lisa Chen and the bulk of the caucus, which supported alliance with the Democrats in return for a repeal of Walker's economic agenda and electoral reform. These voices expressed concern with the national security state but were more or less willing to allow it to stick around if it meant that We the People could rally to fight another day and hopefully win at the next Congressional elections.

And on the far left of We the People were those elements that had entered the coalition from the remnants of the May 5th events. New labor unions, organized on an industrial basis and grappling with a renewed sense of class consciousness among American workers, made up this bloc, as did prominent socialist groups like Socialist Alternative, the International Socialist Organization, and Democratic Socialists of America. The left elements of the caucus, led by Congresswoman Louise Reed of Washington (1), a former construction worker, favored no deal with the Democrats or the Republicans, and instead sought to leverage control of state governments to force concessions from Washington in terms of electoral reform and the repeal of the Walker economic program, as well as an end to the war and security state.

When the 117th Congress convened, no agreement had been worked out within the We the People party or with its adversaries. Voting initially as a bloc for Chen, negotiations behind closed doors eventually led to an uproar within the We the People caucus when it was revealed that Chen had promised Warren and the Democrats support from We the People without so much as a guarantee that anything would be enacted beyond a repeal of the Walker economic agenda. Right-leaning members of We the People abstained from the vote, the left-wing of the caucus stormed out in protest in an attempt to deny the House quorum (this failed, given the small number of left-wingers in the caucus and botched negotiations with the right-wing of the caucus), allowing Chen's center delegation to give Warren the votes that she needed to be elected the 46th President of the United States.

Thus, Elizabeth Warren, who had come in second place in the popular vote, would be the next President of the United States and its first female President. The Senate elected Walker's incumbent Vice President, former Indiana Governor Mike Pence, to a second term in that office. We the People had agreed to a coalition in the House that would lead to a third of its caucus splitting off and would lead to it losing one of the Governors it had elected in the last cycle.

But with Walker heading out of office, many on the left thought that the worst of it was over. Sure, they didn't really control the Senate, and that might pose problems, but they had control of the House (by a slim margin) and the Presidency once again. The War in Venezuela could now be won and Walker's economic agenda undone. Some saw this as being a potential beginning of a new progressive era, with reform on the agenda for all involved.

They were dead wrong.