His Elective Majesty - A US Presidents Blog Series

This has definitely taught me a lot about writing TLs, namely that it requires a lot of thought and research. While I'm abandoning this project for now, I still like the idea of a historical summary given from an in-universe perspective. In particular, I think it would be fun to do something like this, but using a comically biased and inaccurate narrator.

This helped influence a different timeline I had been plotting - but didn't make it far enough to post anything from it. This was one of my favourites on here!
 
Heliogabalus, I sadly just discovered this TL, sad to see that it won't go on any more, but totally understand the writer's block and how that goes sometimes.

Wanted to add my praise as well, this was a really enjoyable read. I liked how you came up with interesting alternate names and terminology for different regions in the US. One that threw me off at first but I came to appreciate was the use of "Oklahoma" as the ITL term for "Indian/Native American." I'm from Oklahoma, so I immediately noticed this use, and while I'm not sure that the Choctaw word for "red people" would have actually caught on like you did, it still made things interesting. Bravo.

Also, thanks for giving the "closure" post at the end. It's nice to see what you'd already fleshed out and know kind of where the TL was headed even if you didn't quite make it there. The McLaren guy sounded really fascinating in a "yikes" sort of way.
 
What about Meredith Ashford's suspected cannibalism? Also, I'm surprised that Ashford was one of the male presidents. I was dead positive Ashford was a female. Also, I find myself strangely disappointed that Laurel Husik, the most attractive president of this or any timeline, is not one of the good ones.
 
What about Meredith Ashford's suspected cannibalism? Also, I'm surprised that Ashford was one of the male presidents.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Basically, while Ashford was working as a lawyer, there was a string of murders on the area where he lived, the victims of which showed signs of being cannibalized. This started a conspiracy theory that he was behind the murders, but the evidence is circumstancial, and the overall theory is about as substantial as Prince Albert Victor being Jack the Ripper.
 
Wow. That makes sense. And I notice the author seems very interested in conspiracy theories from loads of different time periods. Either the author is a bigger conspiracy theory buff than the average person, or conspiracy theories from early America are better known in this timeline.

Also, I'd like to hear more about the Change For The Sake of Change, and the functioning of the dictatorship.
 
Also, I'd like to hear more about the Change For The Sake of Change, and the functioning of the dictatorship.
"Change for the Sake of Change" was my excuse for making putting in cliches like a one-term six-year presidency and a ceremonial Senate. After the McLaren administration collapsed, people were eager to shake up the status quo, even if those changes weren't strictly necessary, and the constitutional convention gave them a means to do whatever they wanted. For example, one minor change I had planned was for the national seal be changed from an eagle to a snake (reminiscent of the Gadsden Flag) as the former looked too generic and imperialistic.

McLaren's administration worked like a typical flawed democracy. The National Party had the loyalty of political machines and big businesses to keep it in power. McLaren appointed his cronies to high-ranking positions and fired anyone who questioned his authority. Federal prosecutors meticulously investigated the wrongdoing of the president's enemies, but turned a blind eye to his allies.
 
OK. That makes sense. You came up with a wide variety of presidents with odd stories, and each of them feels entirely possible within the historical context. And I like how, even though there isn't a black president or a president who grew up outside of a Christian background, the presidents are a more diverse cross section of white Americans with a Christian background. There's an immigrant, a Lebanese American, several women, and there seems to be to be more non-British last names. And the names in general are so fun! Absolom Grey, Green Thomas, Throckmorton H Powell, and Zenobia Lawson. Fantastic! And it's comforting to imagine a world where the end of American slavery went so smoothly that a history buff can dismiss it as a non-event
 
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