A Time For Unity - The Lost Decades - A Tale of a Potential Future

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I want a Michael Walton presidency!

[Einzige Mk. II]

This was one of the best timelines on the site. Is there any way I can get it continued as a sort of Christmas present for the forum?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

This was one of the best timelines on the site. Is there any way I can get it continued as a sort of Christmas present for the forum?

Yeah. I always wondered where this went.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Funny coincidence:
I got an iPod for Christmas and downloaded Blue Oyster Cult's "Fire of Unknown Origin" Album and am listening to it right now. The songs on that album were what I was listening to the whole time I was reading this, when it was active.

[Mr. Morden]

Maybe if he's not able to finish the timeline properly, he can at least give us a one or two paragraph summary of where this was going, and how it was going to end.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Maybe if he's not able to finish the timeline properly, he can at least give us a one or two paragraph summary of where this was going, and how it was going to end.

I think we all knew where it was going.

[Mr. Morden]

Maybe if he's not able to finish the timeline properly, he can at least give us a one or two paragraph summary of where this was going, and how it was going to end.

I think we all knew where it was going.

Well, in very, *very* broad terms yes.  But a one paragraph summary with a few more specifics would be nice.

[Dan the Roman]

So I recall getting a number of requests that I continue this. At the time I stopped, I had managed to get into quite a busy stretch, having been published quite a bit on Iran and accepted into a Phd. program, which as can be guessed, was proving quite time-consuming. Looking back I am not sure I made the best choices in August-September of 2009, with not continuing this thread being the least of them.

It is, however one I can remedy.

I considered directly starting from the end of where I left off. There is a lot I got right:

2010 Being a good GOP Year
Rick Perry winning his Primary
Kelly Ayotte Winning her race
Partisan disenchantment with Obama and anger on the left(Wisconsin)
I would also like to take credit for how unstable the Middle Eastern Dictatorships were

That said there is one great big hole, namely the 2010 MA special election. Given the large role a certain candidate played in the timeline, a role that will not be played in the real one, I felt it difficult to continue it.

My preference therefore is to effectively continue from the 2022 Midterms:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=100688.105


I will ask my audience to pretend that whoever wrote it was running a really awful system of spell-check, and to assume that all references to Martha Coakley in fact referred to Amy Klobaucher. At least until she loses next year,  and I have to rewrite this again.

[Dan the Roman]

A little bit of catch-up:

2008-2017 Barrack Obama
2017-2019 Mike Pence
2019-2022 Rick Perry

In the original version, Rick Perry was assassinated at the beginning of 2023. In addition to leaving me with an impossible President given what happened on January 20th of 2010, this also caused me to get bogged down in a highly repetitive narrative that was clearly going in direction, but not getting there particularly quickly.

As a consequence, I think I am going to avoid that this time around. One other change. I think the Democrats remained as a strong residual force a lot longer than they necessarily would have. At the time I was looking at the example of the Social Democrats who showed a substantial degree of staying power 1930-33 despite following policies deeply unpopular with their own supporters. I don't think, outside of the Black vote, and some upscale areas, the Democrats are anywhere near that sturdy. Given what just happened to the Liberals in Canada, I tend to think that the sort of mutually contradictory forces they suffered under from 2021-2022 would probably have had a much more deleterious impact on their performance.

Therefore this will start from the week of the 2022 Congressional elections which had the following results:

With Energy Prices surging to record levels, and no Federal Energy policy of any variety coming from Washington, it went without saying that the Republicans confronted a difficult electoral situation. But they had something to run on. The country was polarized, and for those who saw the Progressives as traitors, Marxists, or anti-Christian, they were the only option.

They also had the benefit of having a policy. A policy that was impossible to enact, unlikely to work if enacted, but nonetheless a policy. People knew where they stood, and if the campaign was a difficult one, Republican incumbents strived to present it as a choice on America's future.

The Progressive's also had a cause. Recent events had vindicated most of their proposals, and unlike the Federal Government, they had actually done something about the energy problems in the areas they controlled. They were better funded than the GOP, some whispered because of money pocketed through their quasi-illegal trade deal with the Caliphate. Most importantly of all they offered an answer.

The Democrats had neither policies, positions or answers. They were tarred with having voted for every unpopular policy of the Perry Administration for the better part of two years, and if they had broken with it more recently, it left them looking unreliable in the eyes of the GOP. Few voters who favored Progressive policies like a Sovereign Wealth fund would vote for them. Most damagingly, because they were almost certain to be a third wheel in Congress, Democrats had to answer the question of not what they would do in office, but who they would support. Because a reduced Republican plurality would probably still see Democratic support, this had little appeal to voters unhappy with Washington. And a Progressive Majority would have little use for them.

Therefore the Democrats had seen steady erosion in the polls over the final three weeks:

Rasmussen 9/12
Progressives 36%
Republicans  29%
Democrats   27%

Rasmussen 10/16
Progressives 40%
Republicans  32%
Democrats    25%

Rasmussen  10/23
Progressives 42%
Republicans  33%
Democrats    23%

Rasmussen 10/30
Progressives 42%
Republicans  34%
Democrats    21%

On election day the Progressives scored a breakthrough, though not the outright majority they had hoped. The Republicans suffered losses, but held on, preventing a Progressive breakthrough in the south. The Democrats were largely reduced to Minority-Majority districts.

Progressives 209 Seats
Republicans  169 Seats
Democrats      57 Seats

In the Senate, the results were route, but the stratified nature of elections denied the Progressives a majority, not that it would have served their purposes without holding the Presidency. As long as the fillibuster remained, nothing was going to be passed.

Senate
Progressives 45 Seats
Republicans  28 Seats
Democrats    27 Seats

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Does Michael Walton still exist then? You mentioned the 2010 MA gubernatorial.

[Dan the Roman]

Does Michael Walton still exist then? You mentioned the 2010 MA gubernatorial.

Well, I considered rewriting everything to bump things up a decade. That could work - in fact it would probably work better for domestic developments.

Two problems though:

1. Because of the way seats and results are staggered it would not be a simple matter of adding ten. It would have to be 4 or eight, and the chronology of Presidents would have to shift dramatically. Ie. the whole thing would have to be rewritten and one of the problems I ran into was how repetitive things were.

2. The International environment actually seems to be proceeding faster than it did in timeline. I think we are going to hit an unsustainable energy crisis and a major regional political crisis in the Middle East a lot faster. Especially if the debt ceiling.

If a bunch of people prefer that I can look it over and rewrite the whole thing. It is an alternate timeline board though.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Since you switched Martha Coakley to Amy Klobaucher, will the newer version take place in Minnesota?

[Dan the Roman]

Since you switched Martha Coakley to Amy Klobaucher, will the newer version take place in Minnesota?

Hahaha going to have to give more thought to just doing a modified one. To be fair, given whats been happening in Wisconsin, thats far from impossible.

[Person Man]

Really would like to see what happens with the Progressive Plurality and the election of a Progressive President in 2024. I think the ten years after his election will look like Mech's Alfalfa Bill timeline? Wonder if we get to invade Canada..

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Really would like to see what happens with the Progressive Plurality and the election of a Progressive President in 2024. I think the ten years after his election will look like Mech's Alfalfa Bill timeline? Wonder if we get to invade Canada..

I remember reading that timeline and I loved it. I just wish it would continue...

[Dan the Roman]

Really would like to see what happens with the Progressive Plurality and the election of a Progressive President in 2024. I think the ten years after his election will look like Mech's Alfalfa Bill timeline? Wonder if we get to invade Canada..

I remember reading that timeline and I loved it. I just wish it would continue...

Thats the plan. Basically despite some potential discrepancies I think it makes the most sense to drive through. Oh and there is some Canada stuff. Canada has lots and lots of something quite valuable these days.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Exposure to the arctic, meaning oil?

[Person Man]

Exposure to the arctic, meaning oil?

That among other things.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

It's scary how accurate this story has been in predicting the political winds of the last two years.

The strength of the Republican wave in 2010 definitely blunted some of your predictions for the US because the Governors and GOP legislatures across the country are now the main scapegoats for economic problems, while the House GOP continually becomes more and more unpopular as the time goes on. I'm guessing that this would only strengthen this TL's Progressives though.

[Person Man]

Too bad this TL died...it would have been fun to see the apocalypse. So far only Mike has a somewhat good one.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

bump

Occupy Wall Street's rhetoric eerily reminds me of the Progressives. Dan, please stop being a soothsayer!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Please, liberalrepublican, Dan, whatever you like to be called. Please continue this,  it was one of the greatest tls I've ever read, no lie.

[RI]

While I really wish this would continue, I'm not holding my breath. It's firmly in development hell.

[Person Man]

What FOTL and this might state correctly is that the America of the 2010s and 2020s could be the America of the 1930s or 1940s had FDR, Capitalism  and Liberal Democracy failed. Basically we could be living through Mech's Alfalfa Bill timeline albeit 80 years later.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What FOTL and this might state correctly is that the America of the 2010s and 2020s could be the America of the 1930s or 1940s had FDR, Capitalism  and Liberal Democracy failed. Basically we could be living through Mech's Alfalfa Bill timeline albeit 80 years later.

I'd still like to see it play out, especially with the great way it's been done so far. I loved the sh**t about the party takeover, the oil crisis, both parties falling apart, New England becoming the head of the new fascist party, etc. This was IMO one of the best timelines done on this forum, counting Fluke of the Gods and American Monarchy. Too bad Dan seems to have forgotten/doesn't have the time/doesn't care.