'The Weasel in the White House'

[badgate]

Nooooooooooo
I'm meltiiiiiing

[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.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Goddamn.

[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.

[Arturo Belano]

I CRAVE MORE

[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.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

What's foreign reaction to the internal conflicts in the US? Are we seeing international volunteers on either side of the Venezuela war as happened in Spain, Syria/Iraq, and Ukraine?

[KingSweden]

And here I thought I had the bleakest TL on the forum.

[Thunderbird is the word]

TNF, I still hate you, but I'll fight right alongside you if this ever happens.

Nothing like a true reactionary to unite the left and liberals in a popular front. TTL might finally lead to a left-wing equivalent of the Tea Party.

[Thunderbird is the word]

Reading this timeline put this music in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68I3j2luW64

[Türkisblau]

Good so far but utterly terrifying.

Love the rate of updates!

[Cranberry]

This is extremely great! Please more!

[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.

[TTS1996]

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

[TNF]

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

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

[Türkisblau]

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

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

TNF, you're the best.

[Maxwell]

I don't get criticism like that. Yea, it's his timeline. It's not REALLY happening. It's a story. Enjoy it or don't.

[Boston Bread]

To the left we go!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This is a worst case scenario. Of course it wouldn't be this bad, but it still isn't a bad timeline.

[Maxwell]

It doesn't seem like you really want to leave.

[Türkisblau]

Last time he said he was leaving, he pm'ed some people, myself included, talking about it and then came right back.

I'll wager that this "bye everyone" thing he's doing is a plea for attention and he'll be right back, if not I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[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

[Duke of York]

if this ever happened I would move to Toronto.

[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.