A Theoretical Look Forward: A Giant Sucking Sound
I decided to copy Japhy. What are you going to do about it?
Anyway, I've decided to start with one of my personal favourites on this site : A Giant Sucking Sound by MaskedPickle, a what if that revolves around Ross Perot's win in 1992 and the ensuing chaos. While, yes, the Freedom party is fairly unrealistic (Ron Paul, Ralph Nader and Nolan Ryan all packed together in the same party isn't exactly plausible), it is still a very enjoyable TL. It's a shame that MP dropped off the earth and didn't finish it.
1993-1997: H. Ross Perot / Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown (Freedom)
1992: William Clinton / Albert A. Gore Jr (Democratic), George H.W Bush / Dan J. Quayle (Republican)
1997-2001: Paul D. Wellstone / David L. Boren (Democratic / Freedom) [1]
1996: Paul D. Wellstone / Jim Hunt (Democratic), H. Ross Perot / David L. Boren (Freedom), Carroll A. Campbell Jr / James Edgar (Republican)
2001-2003: Paul D. Wellstone / Robert J. "Bob" Miller (Democratic) [2]
2000: Francis A. Keating / John M. Engler (Republican), Angus S. King Jr / Raymond H. LaHood (Freedom), Patrick J. Buchanan / J. Gordon Gritz (Constitution), David E. Duke / S. Donald Black (American Independent) [3]
2003-2003: Robert J. "Bob" Miller / vacant (Democratic) [4]
2003-2005: Robert J. "Bob" Miller / John F. Kerry (Democratic) [5]
2005-2009: John E. "Jeb" Bush / Thomas A. Coburn (Republican) [6]
2004: John F. Kerry / Mary K. Heitkamp (Democratic), Arlen Specter / W. Hamilton Jordan (Freedom), Bernard Sanders / Howard Hawkins (Green) [7]
2009-2017: Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown / Randi Weingarten (Freedom) [8]
2008: John E. "Jeb" Bush / Thomas A. Coburn (Republican), Richard Blumenthal / Ronald J. Kind (Democratic), Howard Hawkins / Dennis J. Kucinich (Green)
2012: Joseph A. Sestak / Kathleen K. Townsend (Democratic), John R. Thune / Gary E. Johnson (Republican), Herman Cain / Gary L. Bauer (Constitution)
2017-Present: Stephen T. Colbert / Aníbal A. Vilá (Democratic) [9]
2016: Piyush "Bobby" Jindal / Luis G. Fortuno (Republican), Randi Weingarten / Francis E. "Hill" Harper (Freedom)
[1]: Having gained a sympathy bump following a failed assassination attempt, one would think that Wellstone would've won outright in the electoral college. Well, he didn't, he came up short in several states, failed to get 269 Electoral Votes. The Freedomites and Democrats in the House agreed to cut a deal to elect Wellstone, if Senate Democrats chose Boren to be VP.
Wellstone proved to be a divisive figure, vetoing Congress' anti terrorism bill right after he took office, claiming it to be "unnecessary". He focused much of his first term on domestic policy, signing the "Affordable Care Act", which would include an individual mandate and a medicare buy in, after being trimmed down by the Freedomites and more Moderate Democrats, and later enacting a stimulus act, bankruptcy reform, high speed rail, and gun control following the deaths of Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein. These decisions annoyed VP Boren, who expected Wellstone to take a more Moderate and bipartisan path, even if he signed a pro fair trade agreement in 1999.
Wellstone's foreign policy decisions were also controversial. Instead of sending troops to Algeria during the civil war there, he decided to send humanitarian aid to the people instead, which hawks blasted him for. He also backed Taiwan heavily, appointing Paul Simon to be the ambassador there, and providing millions in foreign aid. He signed enhanced START agreements and oversaw the Rwandan Genocide trials too. But he did have mistakes, like failing to get the Iraqi Government to agree to a compromise on Kurdistan, resulting in several mass riots and deaths.
He was fairly popular by 2000, and was narrowly re-elected despite Domestic Terrorism being at an all time high.
[2]: Having been re-elected, now with a Democrat as VP, Wellstone decided to compromise with all parties in order to fight Stormfront, which had bombed an abortion clinic in Birmingham only a month in. An extension to Secret Service powers (desperately needed after the michigan militia attacks), a raising of the White House fence, increasing funding for the COPS program, and increased security regulations (a concession on behalf of Wellstone). Stormfront looked like it was about to wither away after several raids and attacks, but they had one last trick.
[3]: Stormfront fielded their candidate in order to raise their profile even more. It didn't work, as they only garnered 1.2%
[4]: President Wellstone was in Louisiana, campaiging for Cleo Field's gubernatorial run, when a man, later revealed to be David Duke, shot him several times in the chest, killing him instantly. The nation went into mourning as Miller took over as President.
[5]: President Miller appointed Senator, and rising star, John Kerry, to the position of Vice President. His short term would be focusing on the economy, extending unemployment benefits and compromising with the GOP by including tax credits in his economic plan. His final act was to enact Gambling Reform.
[6]: President Bush very narrowly won in the electoral college (taking the all important state of New Mexico by hundreds of votes), and came close to losing the popular vote, leaving him without a big mandate. Soon into his term, a terrorist attack by Hezbollah, which had recently taken over Lebanon, was inflicted on the city of Boston, killing over a thousand. The response was a joint U.S-Israeli invasion of Lebanon, also funding rebels. It was successful, even if half of Lebanon was either dead, missing or injured, leading the UN to start a humanitarian refugee project in the country. Another place that was of interest was Algeria, which was still engulfed in a Civil War as the European nations battled the Islamist Extremists. It got worse when the US intervened, bombing several villages and towns in the hopes of finding GIA militants. Ground troops were sent, which turned the tide against the GIA and other splinter groups. An occupation zone was formed, and the country would be divided between the US, France and Britain, until late 2006 when it would be reunited. There would also be bombing runs on Iraq. These actions made Russia suspicious, so they decided to form their own "Bloc Alliance", of sorts, which would include independent states like Romania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and client states like Ukraine and Kazakhstan. While this wasn't an attempt to repeat the Cold War, President Zhirinovsky was certainly cracking down on opposition, including the exile of Sergey Mironov, who was called a "dissident".
Domestic policy was also major. At the behest of party leadership and VP Coburn, Bush made debt reduction an important policy. He cut taxes across the board, introduced more tax credits, loosened regulations, and enacted new entitlement reform by snipping welfare. Crime Reform was also introduced by closing down understaffed prisons, increasing the number of cops on the street, adding more security cameras, and increasing the possibility for parole for non violent felons. Bush also had a few compromises with Democrats and Freedomites, specifically on immigration, where he would enact a Reagen-esque amnesty , and education, where he would introduce a "Common Core" system.
The tail end of the Bush administration would be engulfed in a sharp poverty increase and several scandals involving embezzlement, leaving him quite unpopular by election day 2008.
[7]: Folks who weren't all that chuffed with Wellstone or Kerry's lack of attention on the environment.
[8]: Jerry Brown was able to make a big comeback, demolishing Tom Ridge and Olympia Snowe in the primaries, and winning the general election by a decent margin. His first act was to balance the budget by cutting 12 billion dollars. Then he passed new environmental reforms, entered trade negotiations with China, stripped regulations on job hiring, sign national high speed rail, rollback CIA powers, and drop regulation of the internet.
Foreign Policy was not his strong suit however, as Israel and Palestine began fighting again over Gaza territories, leading to a hasty EU intervention, which would result in a long stalemate. Russia also annexed eastern Ukraine, as well as Kazakhstan. At that point, Brown decided to actually involve himself in foreign affairs. He forced a resolution for a Kurdish state through the UN, as well as making the African Union an official ally and trading with them extensively.
Brown cut prison funding, refused to enforce affirmative action and enacted harsher penalties on drug users, which confused Civil Libertarians a lot. Despite that, he remained popular through 2016, though a failure to capture several Taliban members in a raid on Kabul, combined with a botched FEMA reaction to a Hurricane in Puerto Rico, lead to a Democratic victory in November.
[9]: President Colbert is fairly popular as of March 2017, working with Majority Leader Rodham and Speaker Kasich to pass tax reform as I speak, and he has plans to rebuild Puerto Rico with the help of the UN.
