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The McCain Administration in Retrospect

The McCain Administration had a lot to live up to after the Gore Administration. It would end up succeeding in being a time of great change and culture revelations for the people, but very much unintentionally. Perhaps the absurd humor in it is that the McCain Administration would be more impactful than Gore's regime through their missteps and the revelations of the deep rot, problems and corruption within the American politcal and economic systems, along with growing revelations on the cultural trends.

While starting off relatively okay, the McCain Administration was always on a balancing act, trying not upset the relative bipartisan nature that was upheld thanks to Gore's successes, but their first true test came in the form of the Great Recession that would appear in the beginning of the new decade. A result of a variety of factors, from the housing market bubble burst, to the corruption of banks and unsavory loans to the actions and fraud of various individuals and organizations, it would define the new decade as the bursting of the American Dream. Furthermore, the fact that many of these banks were saved while the common man was left lying would come to leave a bitter taste and growing frustration at the upper class once the panic died down and people realized what happened. On the longer term, several political scholars would need that this led to the decline of both neo-conservatism and neoliberalism, in part because they were born from similar trains of thought that promoted the cooperation of government with big business along with enabling further consumption without regard for production or consequence. Flashbacks to Exxon-Mobil and other companies just created further parallels and along with an acknowledgment from Gore over how he did wish he count enact more along with growing closeness to the Green Party meant that it added some acceleration to the growing notion of both parties being corrupt.

The phenomena of "going green" underwent changes thanks the Great Recession and some noted this is where the combination of labor reform and economic reform mixed with the green movement. People began going to grow their own food or trying to figure out how to be cost-effective while being green, and the growing influence of social media meant that the information was being spread around. The second wave of renewable energy continued on with addressing the problems, such as what goes into creating solar panels and wind turbines and thus searching for alternate venues of power. Geothermal looked promising and further development into tidal power and other water was looked into. However, it did inspire more radical ideals such as biological-based solar panels that began catching on with various science-minded shows being used to spread information and promote ideas. Others instead advocated for minimalism and simplicity to reduce consumption, an idea that grew partially thanks to pragmatism in regards to the stagnant economy. Both methods did find success as a result of growing cooperation and support amongst communities formed to help develop this and awareness spread.

Despite the economic problems causing havoc for a large portion of the world, there were positives as well. The McCain Administration's "hot streak" when it came to military affairs abroad became a punchline, but still a success. While Nicaragua was the first bit, the real meat of it came in the Middle East, notably the Iraqi-Syrian War and the Arabian Civil War. The former saw a coalition interfere with Saddam's attempt to exploit the Syrian civil war to his ends and in turn, out-manuevered him and exploited the chaos to try and build somewhat stable nations along with the promised Kurdish homeland and even one for Assyrians. Saudi Arabia meanwhile would see its controversial government be brought down by the remnants of the Baathist movements from the former Syria and Iraq and order would be restored under a constitutional monarchy headed by a reformer with Iran cementing a more dominant approach. While some troubles remained such as in Yemen, there was genuine plenty of hope within the entire Middle East for peace and growth, something that even many critics of McCain had to acknowledge. At the same time, it was followed by reports and reflections on how past conflicts were extended and the origins of the Saudis' rise to power and how they played a large part in troubles in the Middle East, due to the connections to Wahhabism and Salafism. Beyond the Middle East, other nations saw vast change. China underwent some surprisingly large reforms after Xi Jinpeng's murder done on the orders of Bo Xilai due to suspicions on the latter's prior criminal activites and thus forcing new president and party chairman Li Keqiang to institute new reforms to combat corruptions along with dealing with the Kim administration's recent belligerence, resulting in North Korea under new management and undergoing "de-Kimificiation." Even Venezuela would undergo change due to the overreliance on petrol for funding of social welfare along with the growing strife and underlying reactionary tones of the Chavistas, resulting in them being ousted from the presidency and later from the legislation and rebuilding themselves.

Culture began undergoing changes from here. The effects of 2008-2010's #MeToo reverberated as the industry began making changes to fix the damage and prevent similar actions from happening again along with requiring of higher standards. The YA novel craze began dying down and was being replaced with the rise of superhero fiction, present in cross-media platforms in film, televisions, graphic novels, video games and even literary novels. Film would be dominated by the growing Marvel and later DC cinematic universes though reboots of some film franchises along with remakes or long sequels have begun to show some of the problems and trends within it that people hope will be shaken with fresh blood and the growing prominence of indie-films. Television saw a rise of quality programming that would match or exceed film such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and plenty of other shows. Television animation saw a renaissance across the board with memorable story-telling, well-rounded characters and pushing boundaries. Many view this starting with Adventure Time and continuing on with plenty of other shows across the three main channels and beyond. Adult animation saw a revive through shows like The Orville, Bob's Burgers, Archer, Rick & Morty and Bojack Horseman especially, being reflections of the complications and problems of adulthood told through fantastic settings though it did lead the question to how said animation will be able to handle a potential shift into more opitmistic affairs into the future. Video games continued to push boundaries through exploring new mechanics, telling deeper stories or just simply indulging in fun gameplay, especially as mobile devices grew more powerful. At the same time, this brought their own problems in shedding light such as unfair business and labor practices along with the ethics of certain microtransactions such as the "lootbox" among others. Another commonality was in the representation of minorities and LGTBQ+ characters within the medium and working to establish it as part of the norm, working to combat backlash from reactionary groups though several steps remained, such as working to further diversify the people working behind the scenes along with addressing the cultural infrastructure of animation and video games along with inherent biases. Indie works in games and animation also began rising in popularity and the established model in being crowdfunded meant that there was a chance to really grow without much concern of having content be influenced though problems did remain due to the economic situation and working to try and get organized.

The internet world reflected these changes. The various cultural eras of the Internet changed with the rise of mass video websites like Youtube, Veoh and Newgrounds. Each worked to try and establish their own niche and aiming at their audiences, especially with the success of Myspace, Artistshare, and Youtube's collaboration with the later inclusion in OpenFilm. The contract would be renewed for a third time after analysis. Internet culture would see forums remain somewhat prominent, but also the decline of traditional sprite comics and some of the old guard to the rise of new blood. Sprite animations saw rise and falls though manage to stablize thanks to Newgrounds mimicking the aspects of crowdfunding, especially in portions done through a subscription set (which would be compared to Patreon). Webvid stars became increasingly common whether it be Youtubers, Veohstars or whatever platforms they appeared on. Music remained a prominent aspect within it and indeed led to the rise of strange and new genres that would spread across. People with shows maintained their work and while some ended or declined, others game to take their place such as Let's Players or even independent news groups, mentors or even webshows. It was a new platform that was growing independent of the mass market groups and their influence and there were many people working to keep it that way, which including combatted some ill-written legislation on trying to control some of the more problematic aspects of the Internet. The net culture itself had to deal with certain Internet personalities being exposed for troublesome, offensive or even criminal behavior. The subcultures remained prominent though the "GIFT" phenomenon did fade considerably with more than a few people crediting Fred Rogers' influence in shaping the internet cultural landscape. Advterisements did remain a prominent problem even with crowd-funding if due to decisions made in the early years people hope to change along with dealing privacy, security and data sharing. Webcomics saw an increase an prominence through a few getting adaptations as webshows, being discussed or even advertised or plugged in and so on.

Over half into the new decade and it seemed as if the political spectrum began leaning more to the left. Leftist politicians would end up in thanks to promises of changes, but the rise of Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn and the election of Bernie Sanders hinted at a potential return of the social democrats along with a new wave of populism and the hopes of addressing long-standing politics and the hope for change.

Join me in the last chapters of this timeline...

A Gore Prosperous Tomorrow was shown...

and after overcoming the Years of McCain and Suffering...

... The Future Berns Bright...