So it was Beckford’s predecessor who tried to force a reunification with Texas? Interesting!
TL-191: After the End
- Thread starter David bar Elias
- Start date
James Nightall doesn’t exist in TTL. The Soham rail disaster of OTL did not occur in this world.
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Benjamin Gimbert, as in our world, served as an engine driver on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) His fortunes took a turn for the worse in 1936, when he was arrested by the police after he was denounced (anonymously) as a political enemy of the Coalition government. The charges were false, as Gimbert had never involved himself in political activity of any kind up to that point. He served a six month prison term, until he was eventually released for lack of evidence. British railway historians, by 2021, have been unable to confirm who was behind the denunciation of Gimbert, but concluded that it was likely a fellow coworker on the LNER. Gimbert, after his release from prison, was blacklisted from working in railways; he was forced into any number of irregular jobs just to survive. After the end of the Second Great War, an embittered Gimbert emigrated to New Zealand, where remains did the rest of life.
U.S. Presidents of After The End:
34. Thomas E. Dewey (D-NY): February 1st, 1945-February 1st, 1953
35. Harry S. Truman (D-MO): February 1st, 1953-February 1st, 1961
36. Hubert Humphrey (SO-MN): February 1st, 1961-February 1st, 1973
37. Joshua Blackford (D-NY): February 1st, 1973-February 1st, 1981
38. Morgan Reynolds (R-BC): February 1st, 1981-February 1st, 1989
39. Leo Enos (SO-MA): February 1st, 1989-February 1st, 1993
40.Thurston DeFrancis (D-CA): February 1st, 1993-February 1st, 1997
41.Patrick Gutierrez (R-NM): February 1st, 1997-February 1st, 2005
42.Sergio Hernandez (SO-CU): February 1st, 2005-February 1st, 2013
43.Alfred Astaire (D-NY): February 1st, 2013-February 1st, 2021
44.George Novak (SO/R-OH): February 1st, 2021-February 1st, 2025
45. Charles Holst (SO-NY): February 1st, 2025-April, 2027 (Removed)
46. James Davies (R-ON): April, 2027-February 1st, 2029
47. Arnold Burroughs (R-ON): February 1st, 2029-February 1st, 2037
48. Eleanor Lehrer (D-CA): February 1st, 2037-February 1st, 2045
49. Dennis Beckford (SO-JM): February 1st, 2045-February 1st, 2053
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Any room for Irving Morrell in this? Maybe he takes Truman's second term?
In TTL, Morrell served as President Truman’s Vice President from 1953 until 1961. Morrell would have preferred the position of Secretary of Defense, but was still able to exert influence over US defense policy during the Truman administration. Morrell retired from public life in 1961.
Vice-Presidents of After The End:
Harry S. Truman (D-MO): February 1st, 1945-February 1st, 1953
Irving Morrell (D-KS): February 1st, 1953-February 1st, 1961
Warren Magnuson (SO-WA): February 1st, 1961-February 1st, 1973
James Rhodes (D-OH): February 1st, 1973-February 1st, 1981
John S. Smith (R-CA): February 1st, 1981-February 1st, 1989
Alfred Turnbull (SO-ON): February 1st, 1989-February 1st, 1993
Theodore A. Kent (D-PA): February 1st, 1993-February 1st, 1997
Roger Dotson (R-??): February 1st, 1997-February 1st, 2005
Timothy York (SO-??): February 1st, 2005-February 1st, 2013
Bud House? (D-PA): February 1st, 2013-February 1st, 2021
Phillip Wakefield (R/SO-NJ): February 1st, 2021-February 1st, 2025
Unknown (SO-??): February 1st, 2025-
Harry S. Truman (D-MO): February 1st, 1945-February 1st, 1953
Irving Morrell (D-KS): February 1st, 1953-February 1st, 1961
Warren Magnuson (SO-WA): February 1st, 1961-February 1st, 1973
James Rhodes (D-OH): February 1st, 1973-February 1st, 1981
John S. Smith (R-CA): February 1st, 1981-February 1st, 1989
Alfred Turnbull (SO-ON): February 1st, 1989-February 1st, 1993
Theodore A. Kent (D-PA): February 1st, 1993-February 1st, 1997
Roger Dotson (R-??): February 1st, 1997-February 1st, 2005
Timothy York (SO-??): February 1st, 2005-February 1st, 2013
Bud House? (D-PA): February 1st, 2013-February 1st, 2021
Phillip Wakefield (R/SO-NJ): February 1st, 2021-February 1st, 2025
Unknown (SO-??): February 1st, 2025-
Apologies for some details. I had to guess the VP’s for DeFrancis and Astaire. Also not sure of the homestates of Timothy York or Roger Dotson. Hope I got it right!
Thank you for the list. Here are the presidents who served in office from the end of the main timeline until the Beckford administration.
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Alfred Astaire, of the Democratic Party (2013-2021):
Former head of the Bureau of Investigation. The first Democrat to win the presidency since Thurston DeFrancis in the 1992 elections, and the first Democrat to serve two terms since Joshua Blackford in the 1970s. Astaire left office deeply unpopular due to the effects of the Great Housing Crash of 2019.
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George Novak, of the Socialist Party/National Fusion (2021-2025):
Senator from Ohio before winning the Socialist Party presidential nomination in 2020. Formed the “National Fusion” ticket with Governor Philip Wakefield of New Jersey (a Republican), in the name of pursuing a “non-partisan” government, in spite of opposition from within the Socialist Party and the refusal of the Republican Party to endorse the arrangement.
George Novak became deeply unpopular while in office, due to his failure to address the effects of the Great Housing Crash. In 2024, he failed to win renomination from the Socialist Party in the face of a challenge from Representative Charles Holst, a long-time marginal figure in the Socialist Party and in the House of Representatives, due to his far-left political views. Novak and Wakefield attempted to win re-election by founding an actual National Fusion Party, only to lose in every state in the 2024 elections, due to Novak’s widespread unpopularity and the failure of National Fusion to gain ballot access in a number of states.
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Charles Holst (2025-2027), of the Socialist Party:
Representative from a New York City congressional district. Holst served in Congress for almost twenty years before successfully challenging President Novak for the Socialist Party nomination in 2024. Holst, for most of his political career, was considered a marginal figure in Congress, due to his far-left political views, penchant for over-the-top revolutionary rhetoric, and abrasive personality. However, Holst gained national attention and broader acceptance during the Novak administration after emerging as the unpopular Novak’s preeminent political foe. Holst won the 2024 elections against a Republican Party still suffering from the divisions caused by Wakefield’s defection to the National Fusion ticket, and a Democratic Party still unpopular due to the Great Housing Crash.
The Holst administration ended in failure and disaster. Congress refused to pass the president’s plan to nationalize whole sectors of the economy, or the president’s proposal to grant the executive branch the power to expropriate property and wealth from anyone labeled an “enemy of the people.” Holst also caused alarm and outrage when he started to openly talk about ending term limits, as well as when he started to openly use antisemitic rhetoric blaming Jews for the Great Housing Crash.
Charles Holst was ultimately undone when his administration was caught up in the Dixie Mafia Scandal in 2026-2027, following a years-long investigation by several law enforcement agencies. This scandal resulted in the arrest of Holst’s Vice President, Conrad Koehler by the Bureau of Investigation, the arrest of several of Holst’s cabinet members during that year, and in Holst’s impeachment and conviction in April 2027. Holst was removed from office that month, and would later be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted on multiple charges related to the Dixie Mafia Scandal.
Due to the arrest of former Vice President Koehler, Representative James Davies, the Speaker of the House, was inaugurated as president in April 2027.
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James Davies, of the Republican Party (2027-2029):
A longtime Representative from Ontario, Davies eventually fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming Speaker of the House, following the 2022 midterm elections. Due to the presidential line of succession, Davies was inaugurated as president in April 2027, following the collapse of the Holst administration in the Dixie Mafia Scandal.
Davies was the second Canadian-American to hold the presidency. He pledged not to run in the 2028 elections, but also promised a “return to good government,” following the now almost universally despised Holst administration. The most significant initiative by the short Davies administration was the creation of a congressional Joint Committee of Inquiry to fully investigate and publicize the criminal activity of the former administration.
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Arnold Burroughs, of the Republican Party (2029-2037):
A Senator from Ontario, and close political ally of former Speaker of the House James Davies. The third Canadian-American to serve as president. The Burroughs administration oversaw the economic recovery from the over decade-long recession caused by the Great Housing Crash. Burroughs who had been a member of the Infrastructure and Public Works Caucus while in Congress, embraced a massive program to improve US infrastructure, as well as a program of urban renewal. Burroughs also focused on improving ties between the US and the member states of the CDS, which had been neglected during the Novak and Holst administrations. It was the Burroughs administration that began the first tentative, quiet talks with government of Texas on the possibility of pursuing reunification, after the US government was approached by special representatives from the president of Texas.
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Eleanor Lehrer, of the Democratic Party (2037-2045):
A Senator from California before winning the Democratic Party nomination in 2036, Eleanor Lehrer was the first woman to serve as president. Lehrer had a strong interest in foreign policy and defense policy. The Lehrer administration also focused on improving the US position in the ongoing Space Chase.
Lehrer, the second Jewish-American to serve as president after Joshua Blackford, had also been a frequent target of former President Holst’s antisemitic rants.
The Lehrer administration also pursued the diplomatic talks with the government of Texas that had been started during the Burroughs administration on the possibility of Texas rejoining the Union. The government of Texas had originally instituted these talks for economic reasons, as the Great Housing Crash had been especially harsh in that nation. These talks would result in a referendum on reunion held in Texas in 2044, the centennial of the independence of Texas, the fall of the CSA, and the end of the Second Great War. This referendum resulted in the option for reunion failing by a margin of 51% to 44%.
The failure of this referendum, intended by President Lehrer to be the culmination of her administration’s until-then generally successful foreign policy initiatives, led to a temporary dip in national popularity for the Democratic Party in 2044. Combined with the Republican Party nominating a weak candidate, this would provide a window for the successful return to office by the Socialist Party through their nominee, Senator Dennis Beckford.
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Dennis Beckford, of the Socialist Party (2045-2053):
A Senator and former Representative from Jamaica, Dennis Beckford had risen in influence in the Socialist Party in the late 2020s and 2030s, as the party struggled to emerge from the twin disasters that had been the Novak and Holst administrations. Beckford, during this time, threw himself into initiatives to rebuild the party as a national force (mirroring previous efforts by the Republican Party in the Twentieth Century to do accomplish the same goals). By the time that Beckford won the Socialist Party’s nomination in 2044, the Socialists had restored a significant measure of influence in terms of congressional seats and governors mansions held by the party. Beckford managed to triumph in the 2044 presidential elections. He was first African-American to serve as president, as well as the second president to serve from the Caribbean region of the country.
Dennis Beckford proved to be a popular president, and enjoyed a number of legislative accomplishments during his two terms in office. Perhaps the most far-reaching initiative passed by the Beckford administration was the Clean Energy Act of 2045, which committed the US to powering its grid entirely through renewable sources of energy within a generation.
The biggest test for the Beckford administration would come late in his second term, with the advent of the Hubei Respiratory Syndrome-52 Pandemic, in the spring of 2052. President Beckford would become, in effect, a wartime president during the greatest national and international crisis faced by the United States since 1944.
What was the Dixie Mafia Scandal? Sounds like a huge organized crime ring involving the federal government working in collaboration and openly protecting the mob and their interests.
There's no Covid-19 ITTL, but there is something similar to this, and the world is still unprepared for it. What were the effects on the world for this pandemic, both social and economic?
In 2021, the most dangerous prison gangs in the US are affiliated with the Dixie Mafia. The term “Dixie Mafia” is not applicable to a single outfit; The term “Dixie Mafia” is used in TTL to describe an array of large criminal groups in the Midsouth engaged in the same kinds of criminal activities, such as extortion, racketeering, drug trafficking, hijackings, and contract killings. The term “Dixie Mafia” also reflects the presence of Confederate and Freedom Party iconography among these kinds of criminal groups; several Midsouth criminal outfits associated with the Dixie Mafia are actually descended from anti-US militant groups that emerged in the former CSA after the end of the SGW.
Aside from groups affiliated with the Dixie Mafia, there are a number of Roundhead gangs present in major US cities in 2021. The term “Roundhead” is synonymous with the OTL term “skinhead.” Roundhead gangs originated in the enclaves in major Northern US cities settled by migrants from the Midsouth beginning in the 1980s. It did not take long for a number of these gangs to begin engaging in criminal activity. A number of these groups also engaged in racist violence against minority groups. Roundhead gangs were subject to a major US government crackdown following their role in instigating the West Philadelphia Riots in 2007.
There were efforts in the Ottoman Empire with that goal in mind in TTL. None of these efforts were successful.
The Dixie Mafia Scandal was worse than that. To make a long story short, it involved President Holst attempting to hire contract killers from major criminal outfits associated with the Dixie Mafia in order to target his opponents in Congress, the Federal judiciary, and the media.
Holst, according to investigators, attempted to carry out this murderous action in response to the Congressional rejection of his proposed initiative to nationalize major sectors of the economy, as well as in response to the Congressional rejection of his proposal to confiscate the private property of anyone labeled as an “enemy of the people.”
The plot by Holst, which was embraced by his Vice President, utterly failed, as the Holst administration was already under investigation by several US government agency over allegations that the president had maintained ties to organized crime (these kinds of allegations had dogged Holst throughout his political career). Holst would become the first to be impeached, removed from office, and ultimately sentenced to life in prison after a long and acrimonious trial in Federal court.
As late as 2162, Charles Holst is viewed both by the US public and US presidential historians as the worst president in US history.
By 2052, the world of TTL , including the United States, is far better prepared for a pandemic in comparison to our world’s 2020. However, Hubei Respiratory Syndrome-52 is also a deadlier disease than COVID-19 initially was during the beginning of the OTL pandemic.
One question in general: Why has the United States, both IOTL and ITTL, lived for over 200 years without a successful impeachment? OTL was a close case with Nixon resigning and Andrew Jackson missing it by one vote, TTL took until the 2020s and Charles Holst is showing things unprecedented IOTL.
Holst was impeached successfully over the Dixie Mafia Scandal, although he also had to be forcibly removed from the White House after refusing to leave.
Thank you so much for the info, I’ll amend the POTUS list! Out of curiosity, did I get the VP’s for DeFrancis and Astaire right?