Arianne Nightingale "Arya" Moon (born
Elizabeth Sarah Wilson) was the 46th President of the United States between 1987 and 1993, serving a total of six years. Before that, she was most well-known for being the 32nd Governor of California, serving between 1971 and 1984 being re-elected three times [and to this day she is California's longest-serving Governor]
Born in New York City to rising Social Democratic politician Audrey Wilson, who gave her a name, but later gave her away to a foster family
[1]. This foster family was the Moons, a hippie family that Wilson knew well from arguing for their right to live in a camp in Long Island. This family would eventually move to California when Moon was around six years old, journeying the way there which took them two or so years. A possibly-apocryphal story is that the young Moon met the middle-aged hippie W. S. A. Gregor, the descendant of the
other president strongly associated with drugs, N. H. C. Gregor
[2] while journeying to California.
Arriving to California, the Moons joined a big hippie commune and Arya grew up in that environment which taught her a lot of her political values
[3], but when she was a teenager she realized that she couldn't spend all her life there, and she eventually left for the Big City, San Francisco. In SF, she struck up a friendship with an ambitious twenty-something spationaut named Jean-Luc Kirk who struggled to achieve prominence. This on-off friendship would last them the rest of their lives
. [4]
Becoming an active campaigner for the Nature and Left Coalition, the rising anti-establishment New Left force, she achieved enough of a clout to become the manager of the San Francisco branch of Wendy Hamburger's 1968 presidential campaign
[5]. Using this reputation as a capable campaigner, she managed to leverage the nomination of the NLC for Governor of California.
Widely seen as a long-shot, she defied the odds and after getting the Citizen's Alliance nomination, she narrowly won the gubernatorial election, defeating Social Conservative Governor Sam Yorty in an upset.
[6] Assuming power, she was widely known as a defiant hippie deeply soaked in the counterculture, with California being called the "Technicolor State" either approvingly or with disdain.
By the time she was elected as Governor, she acquired a severe dependency on drugs, especially marijuana and LSD, but also several other, more "hard" drugs. This would be a struggle for her as she attempted to quit it several times before finally succeeding when she was Vice-President
[7] Rapidly becoming a national figure for her unashamedly-liberal criticism of the Social Conservative presidencies of Mellie Gump and Dwight Potter, she surprisingly was adept at the home front, delivering California out of the financial depression of the 1960s earlier than Mellie Gump did the country, balancing the budget despite predictions that she would fail
[8], she got re-elected in a landslide in 1974 as the state grew to like their unconventional Governor.
But in 1972, a revelation would shake her to her bones, as Professor Etxeberria announced in an interview with the
Daily Investigator, that Moon was almost beyond doubt the illegitimate daughter of Audrey Wilson.
[9] This caused her to give one of the most prominent speeches of her life, titled
"I Am Who I Am", in which she revealed she had no clue of her real parentage, that this being revealed did not change her in any way and that "your governor is still the same governor you elected in 1970." It would lead to several failed attempts of hers at crafting a relationship with her biological mother, with the most success she had was a "I'm happy you made it in the world on your own." statement in 1983, shortly before Wilson's death.
Re-elected for a third time, defeating her Soc-Con opponent in a landslide, she set sights for the White House. Her campaign in 1980 made her the youngest yet presidential candidate, with her only becoming 35 that April.
[10] It proved a failure as the Reform Party united behind the centrist Charles Henry Bonaparte and lost in a landslide that December. So far proof has only showed that she was not involved in the plot to make Charlie Wilson vice-president to President Potter on a 'National Unity' ticket that year, despite her cautiously pro-war statements.
[11]
And then in 1984 shortly after the chaos of the Great Dying, Moon vanished without a trace, eventually being found in a drugged haze lying under the hot, sweltering California sun.
[12] This could be argued to her 'vision quest', as she ended up leaving the post of Governor which she was in the position for a record 13 years, in favour of President O'Shea's offer to make her Attorney General.
[13]
Her time as Attorney-General was short and surprisingly uncontroversial. Later that year, the aging Artemis Fowl arranged for his Green Party to endorse the Radicals provided they chose a Green as their running-mate, and they ended up choosing Moon to be the running-mate to Murillo. The two halfs of the 'Social-Left' ticket got on famously, with the older Murillo adopting a 'mentor' status to Moon despite her having more electoral experience
[14]. This created a rift in the Moon-Kirk friendship [since Kirk was the Reform nominee] that would eventually heal after she became president in 1987. As vice-president, she would finally permanently quit drugs after souring on them due to her 'vision quest'.
In 1987, Murillo was assassinated by a far-right conspiracy, rudely placing Moon in the role of president. Jim Buckley, president of the newly-declared 'National Salvation Government', hoped that Moon would prove an incapable president and end up letting the NSG win the Second Civil War. They were to be proven wrong, as she rapidly adapted to the role of president
[15] and rapidly crushed the NSG within her first two years. Acutely aware of the unique position she was in, she focused her first year as president on crushing the NSG, deliberately setting aside policies for a second term.
Winning a second term in 1988 handily over the right-wing's candidate General John Wickham thanks to a rapid recovery in the economy, she moved quickly to implement her 'Modern Society' reforms, including the Civil Rights Act that past presidents 'passed the buck' on, finally signing a federal affirmation of every citizen's right to not be discriminated on the basis of their skin colour or ethnic nationality.
[16]
Her conflict with the conservative-dominated Supreme Court that overruled many of her Modern Society reforms would lead to her endorsing a constitutional convention and pushing two ideas, one of which would remove the judicial veto [which was refused] and one which would set ten-years term for a now-ten-numbered Supreme Court [which passed]. Once the Constitution of 1991 was in effect, she dismissed Chief Justice Thurmond and replaced him with the left-wing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, setting the "judicial cycle" in process in which the Chief Justice term would start and end in years beginning in 1.
[17]
The Modern Society reforms included Americare, the national universal health service based on an old pre-communist German system [called "Bismarckian healthcare"]. That passed with flying colors and rapidly became so popular that Moon's 1992 opponent and successor Kate Barclay would affirm that she would not repeal Americare when someone asked her what she would do with it.
[18]
The Modern Society reforms would also establish Societal Security, which remains the basis of the American welfare state today, and a minimum standards in housing [which led to the demolishment and rebuilding of many slums into decent houses], amongst many, many things that Moon signed in her presidency.
[19]
With the new Constitution of 1991, which she oversaw the creation of as president of the Constitutional Convention, most domestic policies would be handed over to the new First Secretary position. To her, that was perfectly fine, as wasn't it the tension between congress and president that sank Henry Jones Jr. back in the 1960s?
[20]
Of course, no talk of Moon's presidency and its massive impact on America can be without the Eastern Europe quagmire that goes all the way back to the aftermath of the Third World War but despite the best of intentions deteriorated under Moon as the rising German terrorists [funded by the rump of communist Germany] ended up winning more and more despite every attempt to stop them.
[21]
And in 1992, the horrors of Eastern Europe proved all too much for the American people and they narrowly voted the most transformative president for decades [and still a popular president despite it all] out in favour of Representative Kate Barclay. Moon would take it in grace, accepting her defeat despite calls for a recount, and would take her "long walk in the snow" to the press committee announcing that she called Barclay and congratulated her on a hard fought victory.
[22]
Retiring to San Francisco, she would become an informal advisor to several presidents, including her successor Kate Barclay, and would serve out a reasonably-quiet life. She would die at the age of 72, receiving many messages of mourning for one of the 'great presidents'. Eastern Europe remains a blot on her record, but it has faded since, ensuring her place as one of the three 'best presidents' - George Washington, James Marsh and Arya Moon - in the popular memory. She would be buried in Burlington, Vermont, in the new "Wilson Family Graveyard", alongside her mother, uncle and cousin.
[23]
Arianne Nightingale Moon. What a person. What a president. Rest in peace.
========
[1] The Writings of Audrey Wilson: "I realized that having an illegitimate daughter would be bad for my career, and that it wasn't beneficial for either of us, so I put her with some friends that could look after her."
[2] Becoming President Moon: "This story is quite interesting, as there is no way to disprove it nor prove it, and it does tell a good story in which the descendant of one president meets the young future president."
[3] A Life: "Growing up in that commune taught me the value of love, understanding and communal peace. Those guided me all through my career."
[4] Becoming President Moon: "Kirk's influence on the young Moon cannot be overestimated, as her writings show a lack of ambition before she met Kirk, and her involvement in active politics began after."
[5] Flower Power Kids: The History of US Counterculture: "By 1968, the Nature and Left party was gaining quite a bit of steam, and many joined Hamburger's 1968 campaign, including one Arya Moon."
[6] The San Francisco Times, November 4, 1970: "MOON WINS IN SHOCK OUTCOME! YORTY DEFEATED!"
[7] Becoming President Moon: "Her addiction to hard drugs started when she was in her twenties and she only quit it in her forties when she was Vice-President. As Governor, she was a very relaxed figure when it came to drugs, including the infamous decriminalisation of LSD and marijuana by California law, but later on as President she turned hard against them."
[8] The Technicolor State: California under Moon: "In an echo of her later financial success as President, Governor Moon would be the first one since the 1950s to balance the budget successfully."
[9] The Writings of Audrey Wilson: "By 1972, I had almost forgot that I once had a daughter that I fostered on to a hippie family. Then that nuisance professor ripped it all out and now I have to deal with the unwanted daughter I wished I never had. And her being a Governor, that was the rub, she was a prominent figure on her own, like the world was mocking me."
[10] A Life: "I chose the most odd slogan ever. It was 'Protect the Earth, serve the people, & explore the universe'. Not a
bad slogan, but certainly a very idiosyncratic one."
[11] Becoming President Moon: "Most people insisting on her role in it only started after she became president. This is kind of an easily-disproved boogeyman by the National Left, truthfully."
[12] A Life: "I vaguely remember it was some sort of experimental 'blue ice' made by some scientist-turned-drug-manufacturer in New Mexico which was becoming the craze, so I thought why not try it?"
[13] O'Shea: A Family History: "To this day, we have no idea why Chezza O'Shea randomly appointed Moon to that post."
[14] Becoming President Moon: "Tadeo Murillo, her running-mate in the 1984 election and her president after that, was probably the closest thing to a mentor figure she had, and by all reports she was devastated when he was assassinated. The Murillo assassination is a key element in making her what she was as president."
[15] A Life: "I remember looking at a mirror on my left side and seeing a woman who was clearly not ready to assume the highest office in the land. How I wished to shout and protest my new role. But that was not possible. I had to be the bowl America put all their hopes in. Otherwise, who could America trust in a period of crisis? As much as I was scared, America was even more scared."
[16] A Life: "At the Oval Office desk, surrounded by peoples from all races, I felt that I was in the middle of making history"
[17] The Birth of the New Republic: "The dismissal of Chief Justice Thurmond told a very strong message, that the Supreme Court was no longer to be a chamber of far-right geriatric people."
[18] Crafting a Modern Society: "Barclay, at one of the debates, would famously affirm 'Read my lips, Americare stays'."
[19] A Life: "To this day, all I can remember of that bit of my presidency was signing a lot of papers that came to my desk all the time. I felt like I was a paper-signing machine."
[20] The Birth of the New Republic: "Moon expressed that she thought it was best to hand power to the legislature, an idea originally championed by Marcus Julian Watson, later the first First Secretary."
[21] Eastern Europe (1945-present): Paved with Good Intentions: "President Moon would often experience sleepless nights as nightmarish reports of mass executions flowed in from Eastern Europe."
[22] A Life: "Defeat was bitter to me, but after a while entertaining the notion of calling for a recount, the face of President Hoover appeared in my head, as a president who did not accept his defeat and instead fought hard against the election results. I did not want to end up like him, so I decided to accept my defeat gracefully."
[23] A Life: "I knew where I would be buried. It would be in Burlington, Vermont. The state populated by the people my mother saved from certain death. Buried in the same graveyard as my mother and my uncle and my cousin. How I miss you, Charlie. You were always funny, all the way up to the day you passed away. I hope I see you in Heaven."
