alternatehistory.com
Yes - IF WISHES WERE HORSES, SOME THINGS WOULD STILL SUCK
IF WISHES WERE HORSES, SOME THINGS WOULD STILL SUCK
Donald J. Trump* (R-NY)/Gov. Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN) 2017-2019
Vice President Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN)/Sen. Marco A. Rubio (R-FL) 2019-2021
Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren (D-MA)/Sen. Sherrod C. Brown** 2021-2026
/Gov. Antonio R. Villaraigosa 2026-29
2020 def. Pres. Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN)/Vice Pres. Marco A. Rubio (R-FL)
2024 def. Sen. Rafael "Ted" Cruz (R-TX)/Gov. Casey Cagle (R-GA)
Sen. Seth Moulton (D-MA)/Gov. Kamala Harris (D-CA) 2029-
2028 def. Sen. Donald Trump Jr. (R-FL)/Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
At first, after all the legal fights, the years of protests, the grandstanding, the economic roller-coaster, the strutting authoritarianism, the homegrown violence, the war scare with China, and all the rest, it was still a shock beyond measure to all points on the American political spectrum when President Trump, the most polarizing American political figure in memory, who had made a life's work out of his strutting, vigorous masculinity, collapsed of a fatal pulmonary embolism, the physical cost of a man in worse shape than he would ever allow to be known doing the world's most stressful job for over three years. But from his opponents' perspective things grew worse not better under President Pence, who was more nakedly authoritarian in legal terms than Trump had been (Pence's predecessor had relied on free media, bullying, corporate leverage, and whipping up his loyalists more than repressive statutory measures), presided over a last, furious Republican attempt to privatize Social Security, and a cause dear to his heart, the 5-4 rejection of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. But the years of civil unrest, economic stagnation now punctuated by another burst stock-market bubble, and a backlash against the backlash that produced Trump galvanized bottom-up political forces against the stumbling, authoritarian Pence. The Democrats' champions, drawn now from the left wing of the party, trounced Pence at the polls in 2020. There were wild celebrations in city streets that dwarfed the excitement of Barack Obama's 2008 election: dragons were slain, and a broad swath of Democratic and other left-leaning organizers, protesters, and ground-level activists figured they could hang up their swords. They were wrong. Between the endless legal challenges to Warren's efforts to build a more social-democratic model of America, the slow implosion of Saudi Arabia abroad, the renewed cold war with Russia, the hard slog back to ground-level national prosperity, and the unprecedented whipping up of open violence against the Democratic platform (including the death of Warren's beloved daughter during an IED attack on her mother's presidential convoy on a Kansas highway and multiple foiled assassination attempts by Three Percenters, Sons of Liberty, and other domestic terrorist groups who now marched openly in Republican-leaning streets) the Twenties were no one's idea of an easy decade. There were up sides -- by the middle of her second term Warren was able to wrest back a 5-4 liberal margin on the Supreme Court after Clarence Thomas' passing, and when Sherrod Brown retired as Vice President due to failing health (the increasingly frail Warren clung to her iron will and kept at the job to her last day) she took the opportunity to appoint the first Latino ever to serve at the executive level of the United States, retiring California governor Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa declined to run after Warren's time ended on grounds of age, and the primaries and convention yielded a victory for the party's "coastal mafia": straight white male war hero Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, and multi-racial, multi-talented symbol of the future California governor Kamala Harris. Against them was ranged the champion of the white populist rage that had grown ever harder the more it was cornered politically over the course of the decade, son of the late father of the movement, Donald Trump Jr. (joined by a representative of the GOP establishment, Mike Lee of Utah.) It was a surprisingly difficult election, and the son of The Donald was true to his father's model. Angrily refusing to accept the outcome as legitimate, Trump Junior brazenly encouraged his open-carry followers to take their grief and frustration to the streets. The ex-Marine Moulton and the unflappable Harris, who had really made their names in this turbulent decade, were not like the Democratic politicians of the previous generation, in a defensive crouch against corporate money. They were ready for the battle when it came. And so it went on...
*= died in office
**= resigned on health grounds
Donald J. Trump* (R-NY)/Gov. Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN) 2017-2019
Vice President Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN)/Sen. Marco A. Rubio (R-FL) 2019-2021
Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren (D-MA)/Sen. Sherrod C. Brown** 2021-2026
/Gov. Antonio R. Villaraigosa 2026-29
2020 def. Pres. Michael R. "Mike" Pence (R-IN)/Vice Pres. Marco A. Rubio (R-FL)
2024 def. Sen. Rafael "Ted" Cruz (R-TX)/Gov. Casey Cagle (R-GA)
Sen. Seth Moulton (D-MA)/Gov. Kamala Harris (D-CA) 2029-
2028 def. Sen. Donald Trump Jr. (R-FL)/Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
At first, after all the legal fights, the years of protests, the grandstanding, the economic roller-coaster, the strutting authoritarianism, the homegrown violence, the war scare with China, and all the rest, it was still a shock beyond measure to all points on the American political spectrum when President Trump, the most polarizing American political figure in memory, who had made a life's work out of his strutting, vigorous masculinity, collapsed of a fatal pulmonary embolism, the physical cost of a man in worse shape than he would ever allow to be known doing the world's most stressful job for over three years. But from his opponents' perspective things grew worse not better under President Pence, who was more nakedly authoritarian in legal terms than Trump had been (Pence's predecessor had relied on free media, bullying, corporate leverage, and whipping up his loyalists more than repressive statutory measures), presided over a last, furious Republican attempt to privatize Social Security, and a cause dear to his heart, the 5-4 rejection of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. But the years of civil unrest, economic stagnation now punctuated by another burst stock-market bubble, and a backlash against the backlash that produced Trump galvanized bottom-up political forces against the stumbling, authoritarian Pence. The Democrats' champions, drawn now from the left wing of the party, trounced Pence at the polls in 2020. There were wild celebrations in city streets that dwarfed the excitement of Barack Obama's 2008 election: dragons were slain, and a broad swath of Democratic and other left-leaning organizers, protesters, and ground-level activists figured they could hang up their swords. They were wrong. Between the endless legal challenges to Warren's efforts to build a more social-democratic model of America, the slow implosion of Saudi Arabia abroad, the renewed cold war with Russia, the hard slog back to ground-level national prosperity, and the unprecedented whipping up of open violence against the Democratic platform (including the death of Warren's beloved daughter during an IED attack on her mother's presidential convoy on a Kansas highway and multiple foiled assassination attempts by Three Percenters, Sons of Liberty, and other domestic terrorist groups who now marched openly in Republican-leaning streets) the Twenties were no one's idea of an easy decade. There were up sides -- by the middle of her second term Warren was able to wrest back a 5-4 liberal margin on the Supreme Court after Clarence Thomas' passing, and when Sherrod Brown retired as Vice President due to failing health (the increasingly frail Warren clung to her iron will and kept at the job to her last day) she took the opportunity to appoint the first Latino ever to serve at the executive level of the United States, retiring California governor Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa declined to run after Warren's time ended on grounds of age, and the primaries and convention yielded a victory for the party's "coastal mafia": straight white male war hero Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, and multi-racial, multi-talented symbol of the future California governor Kamala Harris. Against them was ranged the champion of the white populist rage that had grown ever harder the more it was cornered politically over the course of the decade, son of the late father of the movement, Donald Trump Jr. (joined by a representative of the GOP establishment, Mike Lee of Utah.) It was a surprisingly difficult election, and the son of The Donald was true to his father's model. Angrily refusing to accept the outcome as legitimate, Trump Junior brazenly encouraged his open-carry followers to take their grief and frustration to the streets. The ex-Marine Moulton and the unflappable Harris, who had really made their names in this turbulent decade, were not like the Democratic politicians of the previous generation, in a defensive crouch against corporate money. They were ready for the battle when it came. And so it went on...
*= died in office
**= resigned on health grounds
- Yes
- Word Count: 770