A Giant Sucking Sound: a President Perot TL

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Archibald

Banned
The last time I 'resurrected' a TL, it resulted in its closure, so I hope this one won't.
Because, I got things to say.

First, I've just finished reading the entire 68-pages thread in one go (Madness some will say) and... what can I say? This Timeline ranks directly into my "Top 10 AH Forum Timelines" right from the beginning.

But second, and most importantly - and I am saying it in French because words are lacking: Cette uchronie me touche.
You experienced what every AH user willing to write/doing TLs could face: depression, burn-out
and then desinterest. This Timeline was big by all means, maybe too big for one person to handle, covering such a gigantic time period (1992 - 2012ish), and seeing this gradual descent and desinterest, updates after updates, was both painful and understandable for me: painful because it is always difficult to watch, after all you've written and done, someone stopping a TL because the will isn't there anymore. And understadable, because I am facing the same problem behind the scenes: I, too, want to write a TL on this Forum. To leave a mark. But more I write and write about a subject, the more I am losing the interest of continuing this Timeline, leaving me in an odd state of mind.
The lack of messages between 2013 to 2015, led me to believe that AH.com literally wrecked you, but your answer from that period was a beam of sunlight in the dark sky, and seeing that you were 'finally' at peace with what you had done, deeply... moved me. You ended that chapter of your life, and began a brighter one, with new departures. Et je t'envie ça.

Parce que je ne sais pas si, par hasard j'écris un jour ma propre uchronie, je serai capable de surmonter de tels obstacles, comme toi tu l'as fait, il y a 3-4 ans de ça.

Please, note that you have all my respect and admiration for this TL.
Je te souhaite le meilleur. Et si tu tombes un jour sur ce commentaire d'un étudiant de LLCE Anglais en manque d'inspiration et de sommeil... une petite réponse, ferait le plus grand bien.
;)

Didn't saw that last time. It is so beautiful written. First I'm French like you two guys. Then everything bolded is personnal experience, too. So I'm touched. See Explorers in my signature: started ten years ago, 1600 pages of WORD so far. Covers 1972 to... I don't know when. 2017 or even beyond.
The day I lost steam to wrote on the space program because real life tookover, I knew bad times were ahead. I had no idea, however, how bad it would get. And it got bad, and mad, until past the breaking point. Took me a year and a half to recover. Fuck 2014, that year should be thrown on the ash heap of history.
But I made it through. Despite all those terror attacks. Don't let them cut into your morale. France survived 1.5 million dead and 10 million maimed and traumatized in WWI. We survived Vichy utter shame. We survived 16 000 dead in car wrecks in the year 1972 (and still 3000 annually these years). Fuck terrorism.
 
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Archibald

Banned
By the way, I'm a former language student at a university, but not a LLCE: the other side, LEA, Langues Etrangeres Appliquées. We were good friends with the LLCEs.
As far as I remember, you LLCEs were groomed as future teachers, hence you had to knew foreign literature, marvels like Don Qixote, Shakespeare, Goethe. We LEAs were to become translators, so we had to knew the mechanics of foreign languages, not their beauties.
Do you plan to pull and ERASMUS foreign trip someday ? mine changed my life forever and for the best.
 
Thank you all for your very kind words, I always say that I'm grateful to AH.com to having inspire me to write this piece, have such implications and feedback.
I thank you all, the election of Macron looks a bit like a Perot gone real too, but still, I'm perfectly fine, working, having a most excellent girlfriend and travelling around Europe.
I will soon post you a poll asking you to choose what TL you would like me to undertake; I have so many ideas that I need your approval, and would prefer not to encounter the same failure than my 1914 TL.
Also, if you want to write some stories about the Giant Sucking Sound TL (like in Rumsfeldia), or even undertake a reboot, please do ! I will only ask you to send me feedback.
 
Thank you all for your very kind words, I always say that I'm grateful to AH.com to having inspire me to write this piece, have such implications and feedback.
I thank you all, the election of Macron looks a bit like a Perot gone real too, but still, I'm perfectly fine, working, having a most excellent girlfriend and travelling around Europe.
I will soon post you a poll asking you to choose what TL you would like me to undertake; I have so many ideas that I need your approval, and would prefer not to encounter the same failure than my 1914 TL.
Also, if you want to write some stories about the Giant Sucking Sound TL (like in Rumsfeldia), or even undertake a reboot, please do ! I will only ask you to send me feedback.

The poll is now posted, fellows ! Please cast your vote !
 

Archibald

Banned
I've spent the entire-day binge-reading all 68 pages of that TL and it is riveting. And prescient with that. Stormfront is OTL alt-right wet dream, with weapons. sickening. I like the way David Duke broke down miserably when he went to the electric chair. Pathetic moron until the very end.
 
That one was written long before the scandal, so that's not much relevant.

ITTL, Weinstein will be remembered as a martyr of David Duke and the madness he unleashed upon the America.

However, within a few years of his death, someone from Holywood will publish a biography detailing his more sordid actions, like with Jimmy Saville.
 
Well, the TL has progressed as far as 2000, plus outlines of the following years up to 2006, and there hasn't been anything mentionned like that. Since this TL is more or less in comatose state for a long time now, you can't say that was even planned to be included in its frame. At best, that could be an ATL within the ATL.
 
That one was written long before the scandal, so that's not much relevant.

Oh I know, same with Trump being elected president in 2004, which led to a rather hilarious comment which now serves as my signature you see below. I just find it so fascinating to see familiar names pop up here and there who are embroiled in scandal now.

ITTL, Weinstein will be remembered as a martyr of David Duke and the madness he unleashed upon the America. However, within a few years of his death, someone from Holywood will publish a biography detailing his more sordid actions, like with Jimmy Saville.

That's a distinct possibility, although in the late 90s of this TL with stormfront on the rise it might be seen as too controversial to be given any relevance to someone held up as a martyr.
 
I just realized that there is a political knock-off effect of the ITTL events: a stronger resistance toward racism.

I'm not saying racism would be COMPLETELY removed ITTL. However, there would be a greater understanding of it by many members of America.

I bet many Southern states have willingly removed their Confederate monuments and flags. Remember when the Dylann Roof massacre forced the state of South Carolina to remove their Confederate Flag? Well multiply that by 1000, and that's the impact Stormfront had.

What we call the 90s kids have grown witnessing a bunch of Nazis attack members of American society. Steven Spielberg's death would have a particular impact on the demographic. As Spielberg was producing some of the best cartoons of the 1990s, you can BET some of them made tributes to him ITTL. The American youth blame Nazis for hurting their Saturday morning cartoons.

I imagine Hollywood has mostly eliminated whitewashing in its movies, if only to stick a craw in those monsters who killed some of its brightest stars, and because of a greater appreciation of diversity.

The American heartland was beginning to show somewhat greater tolerance. Hill Harper managed to become Senator of a state that was almost entirely white. Ron Kirk, an urban African American, became a Democratic Governor of Texas.

The GOP, seeing a lot of its Silent Majority figures drift toward the Freedom Party, haunted by the horrors of Stormfront, and seeing the success of women and minorities, began a less confrontational and more inviting and color-blind form of conservatism.

J.C. Watts giving the keynote address was an example of this. Clarence Thomas' nomination would've been an important milestone for a party of Lincoln, and their attempt to reach out to minority voters. His success is a sign that race is becoming less of an issue for people (he would lauded by the GOP for pushing for conservatism from the nation's highest bench), and that conservative values are shared by a wide spectrum of people-of course Aaron McGruder, if he still has a career, wouldn't hesitate to take shots at Thomas in his work.

It is on this platform that Jeb Bush, not some racist demagogue, becomes the first GOP President in 20 years. George HW Bush becoming a martyr has made his less confrontational and moderate style of governance (willingness to raise taxes, pushing for the rights of the disabled) more appealing to a lot of people.

"Like my father, I will learn to work across the aisle for policies that benefit all Americans", says Jeb Bush in his inaugural address.

Jeb Bush, as a governor of Florida would understand the need to reach out to minority voters. The fact that a Freedomite President was the one that toppled Castro (as controversial as that war would have been) would really shake the loyalties of the staunchly Republican Cuban community. With Cuba no longer an issue, Jeb would have to work hard at getting minority votes. I think he would even pick a minority running mate.

His brother George, as his political adviser, would be very helpful in this regard. While we tend to treat George W. as a buffoon, his OTL political success was because he was able to reach out to unprecedented numbers of Hispanic and black voters, without alienating white conservatives.
 
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Now that we are two years into the Presidency of President Spicy Cheeto, I wanted to ask you @MaskedPickle , what kind of Governor and President did you imagine Donald Trump being, and how differently is he governing then what you expected?

You never really got into the details, but I get hints he was...kind of a Rockefeller Republican, mixed some very harsh views on criminal justice, mixed with hawkish views on foreign policy, to the point where the military locked him up for nearly creating World War III with Zhrinovsky.

Did being the governor of a large, diverse state make him less likely to indulge in his OTL bigtory, or was he forced to cloak it when the far-right nutjobs started killing so many important people.

What was ITTL Trump like, compared to OTL Trump?
 
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