The Darkest Timeline: Moderate Heroism1992 Presidential ElectionPerot runs a perfect campaign, nearly ties the popular vote and sends the election to Congress. The Democratic-controlled congress selects Clinton and Gore as President and Vice President.
Bill Clinton/Al Gore 35%, 255 EVsRoss Perot/James Stockdale 34%, 171 EVsGeorge Bush/Dan Quayle 29%, 112 EVsInterimRoss Perot, furious that he lost such a close election, hires an army of political of consultants and dumps a massive amount of personal fortune into founding a new political party, the Reform Party, ordering his surrogates to "shake the bastards up." The 1994 midterms are historic in the number of defeated incumbents, with the Reform party electing dozens of representatives to the US house and winning a handful of senate and gubernatorial races.
In 1995, Ross Perot suffers a stroke. Unable to run for president himself, he persuades Colin Powell to run on the Reform ticket. Powell is easily nominated and selects Jim Jeffords, the Vermont Senator who recently switched from the Republican to Reform Party, as his running mate.
1996 Presidential ElectionIn a historic election, Colin Powell becomes America's first black president and first president elected from a new party since Abraham Lincoln in 1996. His coattails bring in a significant number of Reform congressmen, enough to form working coalitions with the Republican and Democratic stalwarts.
Colin Powell/Jim Jeffords 40%, 317 EVsBill Clinton/Al Gore 33%, 108 EVsBob Dole/Jack Kemp 25%, 113 EVsInterimAt this point, the Reform party is the party of Serious People. Everyone who subscribes to The Economist and watches CNN for the analysis is excited to have a party with Real Solutions willing Reach Across The Aisle to pass Bipartisan Deals. The Republican Party is a husk of its former self, reduced to the political wing of the Southern Baptist Convention (with an uneasy alliance with Those Mormons) and party of choice of the growing militia movement, located primarily in the mountain west, who are not all to happy about having One of Them in the "White" House. The Democratic Party has also been decimated, and after losing many of its liberal/moderate funders is now essentially the AFL-CIO's party, with all the loss of power that implies.
2000 Presidential ElectionPresident Powell easily wins reelection. Gore's selection of Ted Kennedy as his running mate is not as helpful as The Pundits expect, while the Buchanan/Gingrich ticket proved absolutely farcical. Enough Reform congressmen and senators are elected to give Powell majorities in both houses, allowing the Reform party to discard with the coalition politics which had defined his first term in office.
Colin Powell/Jim Jeffords 44%, 348 EVsAl Gore/Ted Kennedy 35%, 103 EVsPat Buchanan/Newt Gingrich 20%, 87 EVsAftermathBy 2016, the US is a one-party state, ruled by President Hillary Clinton and Vice President Andrew Cuomo of the Reform Party with an iron fist. Support of charter schools, low taxes, fracking, humanitarian interventionism, gay marriage, and HillaryCare are the default politics of the average American. The political junkies are looking forward to 2020, with Silicon Valley titan Larry Page and Wall Street favorite Steve Cohen look like the favorites going into the Reform Party primary, which of course elects the President in all but name. Who will the brave citizens of Iowa choose?
