[1] Despite all his scandals, despite his failure to act on his 2016 campaign promises, despite the investigations - Trump thrived. Upon his second term, however, Trump was somewhat anxious; the Bannon campaign almost made him lose the electoral vote, and the Democrats gained another heap of seats in the Congress, most of them in the South.
Congressional weakness and Trump's own poor health meant that Trump's second term would end not in a bang but in a whimper. The main focus of Trump's second term, however, was the creation of the National Infrastructure Department, a massive creature designed to oversee the megaprojects of American industry, the creation of the US Space Force, and diplomatic failure in the South China Sea that led to the POTUS being roundly mocked in the UN.
[2] After losing two elections in a row against all odds, the Democratic Party went into chaos. The moderate faction of the party, which had just barely managed to win the primaries in 2016 and 2020, would be blamed for the loss by the rest of the party, this resulting in a thoroughly progressive Democratic Party by 2024. However, unlike 2016 and 2020, the progressives were not led by the increasingly elderly Bernie Sanders, but rather the upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who managed to win the nomination of the Democrats in 2024. However, many argue that regardless of who won the Democratic nomination, the Democrats would have won in 2020. The election was cannibalization the likes of which had not been seen since 1860, with conservatives split between the Republican Party and For a Great America Party, while Howard Schultz took what remained.
Regardless, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the 46th president on January 20th, 2025. Her early administration was dominated by social democratic policies, such increased welfare and a single-payer healthcare program, nicknamed "Cortezcare," especially by Republicans. President Ocasio-Cortez also oversaw the admittance of Puerto Rico into the Union as the 51st state in 2027.
However, AOC's arguably largest accomplishment has been the Green New Deal plan, which passed through the slim Democratic majority in late 2025. The GND has revolutionized the American economy and way of living as public works programs in energy infrastructure dominate the United States. The GND has become beneficial to the American economy and poorer Americans, which gives President Ocasio-Cortez high approval ratings going into 2028. However, conservatives have become critical of AOC's ambitious projects, which have led to substantially higher taxation rates on the American upper class (however, the Democrats like to point out that similar taxation rates in Europe are still higher), and the budget of American military forces, especially the young Space Force, have been substantially reduced.
Overall, a second term for Presidmt Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems likely, however, her overthrowal by a charismatic conservative is always a possibility.
[3] While successfully winning re-election in 2028 in the first Presidential Election in US History where all major parties ran female candidates, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's second turn would not be as successful as her first term as the Republicans, having purged the remaining "Trumpist" elements of the Republican Party, which has helped trigger the rise of the America First Party, started to develop into a political party with soft-libertarian, Christian democratic, and moderate conservative factions.
The new-found centrism of the GOP would trigger the Republican wave of 2030 where the Democrats were reduced to holding very narrow majorities in the House and the Senate. In addition, President Ocasio-Cortez had to deal with the Arabian Crisis, which resulted from the assassination of King Muhammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia by an angry Shi'ite Muslim (despite initial reports, he was a "lone wolf" assassin and not an Iranian agent). This crisis led to the end of Saudi Arabia as it resulted in the break-up into the Hashemite Kingdom of Hedjaz, the Republic of Nejd, and the Republic of Bahrain (which controlled Shi'ite-majority areas of the former Kingdom).
However, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would not live to see this result, for on October 4, 2031, a 22-year old man named Yulian Khabarov, connected to various far-right Russian ultra-nationalist groups, would shoot her four times at 9:24 am, Moscow Time with a sniper rifle while President Ocasio-Cortez was meeting the Russian President.
[4] America was stunned. Gillum was worried. The White House was thrown into chaos overnight. The America First Party felt giddy.
Thrust into the Presidency by an unfortunate death, Gillum had quite the shoes to fill. Previously the Mayor of Tallahassee and very briefly the Representative from Florida's 2nd Congressional District before his tenure as VP, Gillum did not have his precedessor's charisma and progressive reputation, and was consistently plagued by allegations of campaign fund misuse and corruption. Observers noted that Gillum, likely knowing that he wouldn't be re-elected, sought to establish a legacy in the few years that he had, and was deeply strained during his short tenure as President. Lacking much in the way of foreign policy experience, Gillum nominated Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, who was confirmed in the Congress by huge margins.
Gillum's first action was to demand an investigation into Ocasio-Cortez's assassination. Although some did suspect that the murder of Ocasio-Cortez was state-ordered, it was ultimately found out that Yuliy Khabarov was merely a lone wolf, much like Arthur Bremer or Nikolas Cruz, who was involved in a low-level white nationalist group and saw Ocasio-Cortez as the embodiment of degenerated Western liberalism that has been besieging Russia for so long. Nonetheless, the sheer aggression with which Gillum demanded the investigation (involving possible re-opening of sanctions) was criticized internationally and domestically, as Russian President Nikolai Bondarenko (the first President from KPRF) saw the POTUS' behavior as a "senseless overreaction" and EU leaders mocked Gillum as "virtually inexperienced". Gillum's attempts to mediate the Eritrea Crisis and get the world to focus on climate change were also largely unsuccessful.
Gillum's presidency was ultimately mixed. While Gillum was ultimately successful in re-estabilishing the Immigration and Naturalization Service along with a coherent immigration reform bill, and his "Fight Against Unemployment" did help many young people, poor African-American families and former workers, farmers and miners in Appalachia and the Deep South to gain jobs, Gillum's attempts to prevent cuts on Cortezcare ultimately failed, and when a FBI investigation loomed over the President as his ethics came into question again, Andrew Gillum resigned immediately, citing "irreconcilable issues" pertaining to his health and public service.
[5] Martin Heinrich's tenure was even shorter and simpler than Gillum's was. A much older man than Gillum (being eight years older than him), Heinrich was focused on repairing America's foreign prestige and managing the economy, and was dubbed by international observers as "The Quiet President" as he negotiated trade rights with the EU. Compared to either Trump, Ocasio-Cortez or Gillum, he was much more subdued, less so than even his Vice Presidential nominee, the boisterous ex-Representative and Chief of Staff Amy McGrath of Kentucky. With 2032 midterms firmly turning both houses of Congress Republican, Heinrich devoted a lot of his time to reorganizing the Democratic Party, particularly as it grew strong in the South. In the meantime, Republicans were scrambling to find a candidate, one who could unite the Party and end the eight years of Democratic dominance.
[6] Ron DeSantis was that candidate. Attorney, naval officer, experienced Congressman and the most popular Governor in the US during his tenure, Ron DeSantis repudiated Trumpism firmly and eagerly, and attracted the attention of Republican Party leaders in Congress who sought to ensure nothing short of a landslide. Running on a campaign of reform, economic security, diplomatic strength and personal liberty, DeSantis picked the young Hispanic Governor Kate D. Campanale of Massachusetts, a well-known libertarian voice and skilled legislator, as the nominee for Vice President.
Nonetheless, the 2032 presidential election was unexpectedly competitive. Marking yet another change in the US party system, the election saw McGrath and former Gov. Frank Scott Jr. of Arkansas win previously strongly Republican states such as Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi, while losing Rhode Island and winning states such as Illinois by laughably narrow 1.2% margins. Undoubtedly, the chaotic campaigns of the America First and People's tickets contributed to that; the Trumpists nominated former Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky and political pundit Candace Owens of New York, who ran a deeply chauvinistic campaign, while Governor Richard Ojeda of West Virginia, feeling that Gillum and Heinrich have betrayed the cause of the Democratic Party, ran together with recently defeated Senator Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii "for True Progress" in a schizophrenic fiscal progressive/social conservative campaign.
DeSantis's first term went... rather smoothly. Marking a new era in Republican politics, DeSantis backed comprehensive climate change combat, helped establish "ethical education" (to the rejoice of many parents as well as Hispanics), worked to revitalize American space industry as Chinese, Nigerian and Russian space programs sidelined NASA, and helped stabilize the Republic of Nejd and North Africa, creating a number of loyal pro-American democracies (to the chagrin of both Brussels and Abuja). However, DeSantis' efforts to maintain water security in California and Southwest were... mixed, even as the President was especially concerned about the Ogallala Aquifer.
[7] The 2036 Election was a landslide victory for President DeSantis as the Democratic and America First Parties both nominated "sacrificial lamb" candidates and focused on downticket races. However, the running mates of the two would both be prominent in the future with both of them becoming major political figures in the mid-21st Century
The second term of President DeSantis would see a continuation of the policies and domestic successes of his predecessor. However, the world would become more volatile in his second term as a wave of nationalism would sweep over with India, many countries in Eastern Europe, the Congo, Ethiopia, the nascent East African Union, Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, and Venezuela all electing right-wing nationalist governments in the late 2030s.
[8] The 2040 presidential election came at a contentious time in not just American, but works history. The People's Republic of China was on the rise over Eastern Asia, the Indian Ocean, and established an economic bloc known as the Silk Road Accord (SRA) in 2040, which quickly overcame the Indian-aligned Association of Southeast Asian Nayions (ASEAN). Nationalism was also making a comeback after declining in the 2020s, and the effects of climate change were beginning to set in.
It was in this climate that Emma Gonzales, the governor of Florida, entered the national stage. Decades earlier, Gonzales had briefly entered the public spotlight after the 2018 Parkland Shooting at her high school. Gonzales would campaign for gun reform throughout the Trump administration and, despite eventually exiting public attention for awhile, would see many of her demands put into place by President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Years later, Gonzales was elected governor of Florida in 2030, implementing popular radical changes to the state. Floridian state healthcare became one of the most advanced and accessible healthcare programs in the United States, gun control was strengthened, and, as one of the states most affected by rising sea levels, Florida would become a national leader in the implementation of the Green New Deal.
By 2040, Gonzales seemed like a reasonable choice for the presidency. She just barely beat the Republican and America First Party candidates, become the 50th president of the United States in 2041. As president, Emma Gonzales would obviously take concern in domestic policies, helping improve gun control reform where she could, however, her priority was on the international stage.
The Green New Deal had come to an end in 2041, thus meaning that the United States ran on completely renewable energy, however, the rest of the world, particularly the Chinese sphere of influence, still utilized fossil fuels. The Gonzales administration has spent much of her administration improving clean energy infrastructure around the world, hoping to prevent the dangers of climate change.
However, much of the crisis relating to climate change is unavoidable, for too much damage has been done. Many economists predict that climate change will soon cause a global economic recession if action is not quickly taken, and a new crisis is emerging in India after a civil war broke out in 2044 between the nationalist government and a coalition of socialist and secessionist movements backed by China.
Simply put, the 2044 election will be one of the most controversial and important elections in American history.
[9] And so it was. Gonzales' presidency was, in a way, tragic. Two years into Gonzales' presidency, the Bangladeshi Civil War has begun, as a disastrous flood exacerbated the political violence between the ruling Awami League and the various opposition parties of varying ideology. Two years later, the Indian Civil War would begin, as the unfortunate death of one Governor triggered a war between millions of people. Chinese and Western agents battled one another in the burning streets of New Delhi and in the deep Net, and Beijing breathed down the neck of Western Europe as the likes of Spain and Italy were being slowly eaten away by deserts and rising "water battalions".
Gonzales cried that it was, above all, the fault of the Boomer administrations of long past, that America and the world didn't listen to the scientist community and now they were suffering the consequences. The American people knew this, of course, but it did not ease the burden that President Gonzales had to bear. Americans wanted something to be done, something swift and efficient, and climate change was not merely their only concern - water security, automatization, unemployment were causes of concern as well. Just as young men and women were lost to other countries with more jobs, entire towns were being lost to deserts, and it did not help at all that the Vice President was indicted in 2043 over a water company scandal.
In such conditions, youth grew radicalized. Cherry Fontenot, a biracial city councilwoman, officer and Representative from Louisiana's 1st district, was a noted maverick and troublemaker since her youth. Although initially an ardent supporter of Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal, Fontenot grew dissatisfied with the weakness of the national Democratic and Republican Parties, as if the arduous efforts of Ocasio-Cortez meant nothing, and the willingness of President Gonzales to spend taxpayers' money over questionable foreign organizations and causes rather than the hapless people and dying towns of America. To this end, the Commonwealth Party emerged, a syncretic populist, left-nationalist party dedicated to securing an existence of the American environment and a future for American children at all costs - and Fontenot led it, speaking to raging crowds across the Southwest and demanding "the preservation of water for America". In the meanwhile, the America First Party waned, weakened by its inability to secure a strong base and its out-of-touch politics.
The Republican candidate, however, was more optimistic. Born into a Ecuadorian-American family in the Southwest, Irene Falcone grew up in a poor family, and to this end pursued a career in the Army. Soon, Irene Falcone reinvented herself as a witty, happy-go-lucky pop singer and swept the charts. Her victory in the 2044 Republican primaries was not accidental; although she has only just completed her first term as Governor of Idaho, she espoused a message of brotherhood, faith and growth, and this image resonated with many people. Balanced out by the more timid and intellectual Gary Fillon, economist, shipwright and Governor of Hawaii, Falcone would go on to win the 2044 elections by a wide margin.
Left behind a disaster, Falcone tried to fix it. Lowering taxes while implementing a network of state-owned Water Distribution Commissions, Falcone presided over the Great American Harvest of 2043 (which caused massive population growth in the Rockies, the Midwest and certain Southern states as well as Alaska and Hawaii) and fought against Chinese interests in the UN (famously demanding that China force their troops out of Sri Lanka and Yemen). Critics called her a neo-Mellonite, a naive woman whose policies would bring about the revival of neo-Confederates, and a warmonger. But, to be frank, the possibility of a Third World War slowly creeped towards reality every month, until no one could ignore it any longer.
[10] The 2048 Elections were an election which saw the Democrats return to the White House on the basis of co-opting moderate factions within the Commonwealth Party under the charismatic Senator Natasha Lane, who narrowly defeated President Falcone in the 2048 elections.
Natasha Lane had to deal with a great crisis politically after defeating Irene Falcone in the 2048 Elections. This was how India's Civil War had ended in the rise of a new "syncretic" revolutionary ideology combining civic nationalism, technocratic ideas about government, socialist economic policies (with a touch of syndicalism), and a belief that AIs would solve all of humanity's problems. This "Dristiist" ideology, named after Mukul Dristi, the man who developed said ideology and would become the first overlord of the Rational Nation of the Indian Peoples, would spread around the world with Argentina, France, Serbia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Turkey, and Iran undergoing Dristiist revolutions or having Dristiist parties win elections there and Dristiist ideas becoming popular all over the Middle East and South America with the rise of the Mexican Dristiist Party being a major concern in the halls of power in Washington.
As a result of the rise of Dristiism, President Natasha Lane had to forge a detente with China, which had similar fears over the spread of Mukul Dristi's revolutionary ideology and was under a reformist named Wang Ju. The Haikou Conference of 2050 would solidify the Sino-American detente as the two powers realized the threat of Dristiism was something that the two of them could not face alone. Germany and Russia also saw fears of Dristiism dominate their political scenes and were courted by President Lane to form a cordon sanitaire against revolutionary Dristiism.
President Lane's domestic policy would be one where she would continue President Falcone's policies of Water Distribution Commissions but would generally see a new emphasis on space colonization, the development of asteroid mining (including the quasi-governmental "American Space Developmental Company" being founded), and technological development with bio-tech being a major emphasis. By the end of her (first) term, President Lane was generally seen as a President who had worked effectively against the revolutionary tide of Dristiism and was working hard to solve America's problems.
[11] However, Lane could not escape her insecurities. Having lost the popular vote by a narrow margin, Lane was seen as a second Benjamin Harrison. To many people, her long-praised charisma underlined a self-absorbed nature, further exacerbated by a scandal regarding a personal affair that Lane refused to admit to, and to many people Lane was a non-entity, content to continue watered-down policies of her predecessor as long as the Democrats in Congress were okay with it. People like Democratic Congressman Vishakh "Vic" Reddy of Washington saw Lane as an appeaser, whose ineffective methods would lead to Dristiism's untimely victory; indeed, one of the factors that damaged Lane's presidency the most was the 2051 Canadian election, which saw the "Rationalist" (Dristiist) faction of the Liberal Party, led by Xavier Trudeau, gain near-complete control of the Parliament. The moderate faction in the Commonwealth Party whimpered, as they were lambasted by their comrades for helping elect a neoliberal. Thus, in a near-total rematch of 2048, down to the Vice Presidents, Falcone was re-elected, becoming the second POTUS to be elected for two non-consecutive terms.
Irene Falcone's second term was quite eventful. Falcone implemented several major regulations on asteroid mining, citing "possibility of economic collapse if unfettered asteroid mining were to continue". Reception among supporters of ASDC was mixed, however. Falcone also created of the Pan-American Trade and Development Union, a ostensibly economic union of several American countries (including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Cuba and Bolivia) that was de facto a defense union, directed funds to rebuild sunken cities, and re-affirmed the funding of the Water Distribution Commissions; however, her second term also saw relations between USA and India sour considerably.
[12] Mara Schneider would win the 2056 elections with a comfortable margin, presenting herself as a centrist unifier as the Republicans nominated the head of the libertarian faction, triggering a surge in the Nationalist Party where they won 8.2% of the vote while the Commonwealth Party won 11.8% of the vote with the Commonwealth Party even winning a state.
While the Schneider Administration was tragically cut short, it's achievements over said short Presidency cannot be understated as the loose coalition against Dristiism which President Lane forged was turned into a formal alliance against "the Dristiist Menace" in the Seoul Accords, which united the remnants of NATO, Tatiana Antonova's Russian Federation, Zhao Jianhong's People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the State of Japan, the Republic of Egypt, the East African Union, and the ASDC into the Organization of Free States. She also brought about large-scale economic reforms to move the United States to an ordoliberal "social market economy" as well and heavily invested in America's prescence in space.
On February 16, 2059, like President Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, President Mara Schneider would be assassinated in a foreign country, but this time, it would be in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, to be more precise, in Karachi, when she was assassinated by the "Freedom Fighters of Baluchistan", who assassinated her by placing a car bomb on her car. This day, like June 28, 1914, would change the world forever.
[13] In terms of Russian diplomat Ilya Karenov, Michelle Wayland was "a strange creature". Born to an upper-middle class family in Florida in the year of 2012, Michelle Wayland saw her father, a minor tech company CEO, gain rapid wealth during the DeSantis economic boom, and emerge as one of the largest tech corporations in Florida. People who knew her described her as "ambitious, forceful and sociable, hardly a stranger to making friends, albeit very manipulative". As a Senator, Michelle was liked for her oratory skill and frequent disputes with Senate Republicans, though detractors noted her dedicated lobbyism for the tech and space industries. Nobody was sure why Schneider picked Wayland exactly; it was argued that Wayland's diplomatic skill and history as a space lobbyist would help her in the coming years.
Upon ascending to the Presidency, Wayland went down to business, demanding immediate punishment from the hapless Pakistani government and even threatening sanctions if Pakistan did not turn over the Freedom Fighters quickly enough. However, as historians noted, Michelle Wayland was actually deeply hesitant to attack Dristiist India as much as her precedessor did; indeed, she only declared war on India in 2060, way later than the rest of the Seoul Accords, even as India's invasion of Pakistan and Thailand sparked a prolonged, tedious bloodbath, even as Dristiist forces invaded Chongqing and Hubei. This was, of course, not appreciated at all by the rest of the Seoul Accords, and was particularly disliked by Russia and China, who up until this point were bearing the brunt of Dristiist attacks. However, America would strike New Delhi quickly enough, Wayland assured them, even as her own domestic policies (such as her America Works program, and the War Production Bill that gave a giant surplus to various corporations to "drive the war effort") seemed Dristiist in nature.
The 2060 elections were, of course, chaotic. With Schneider and Wayland getting elected, the Commonwealth Party surged in popularity, particularly as an "anti-California" movement emerged in small states, primarily dedicated to stopping the severe California/Florida bias in Democratic primaries (as both states were centers of large tech businesses). The Nationalists splintered once more, particularly as 2056 candidate Barron Trump publicly declared that he was, quote, "tired of this shit that [the Nationalists] keep dragging [him] into" and preferred to, in his own terms, "go back to [his] favorite hobby: animation". The Republicans nominated former Vice President Gary Fillon, alongside former Mayor of Chicago and Governor of Illinois Jared Weicker, who ran on a platform of preparedness with "unwavering and definite support for the Seoul Accords", reform, and soft economic libertarianism. The 2060 elections were won by the Democrats by a narrow margin; however, this election was compared to 2016 in that it was wracked with accusations of electoral fraud and campaign funds misuse.
The Seoul Accords succeeded in pushing back the Dristiists considerably, retaking China, Germany, Argentina and Eastern Europe; although India still remained, Seoul Accords forces were penetrating deep into the country, and at this point Americans felt more assured - and thus relaxed - about the outcome of the war. All in all, Wayland's first term was a success, and the media hailed her as a true American leader in the vein of FDR. However, it is also at this point, at the end of Wayland's first term - when India was increasingly weakening - that scandals began to emerge. It is at this point that a state news site, Florida Times-Union, published a story in which Representative Ruben Franco revealed that, in 2061, he received multiple phone calls from a group of men that "persuaded" him to "support our war effort", and later on just barely avoided dying in a car bomb incident. The story was picked up by investigative journalist Warren Budiaman-Rosa, who left New York City in 2058 for Miami after the closing of his favorite casino. While he is uncertain what exactly will he find, the messages he received, which demanded that he stop his investigation, have pressed him to go deeper.
[14] With a wartime election, Michelle Wayland easily cruised to victory with the main highlight of the 2064 election being the Commonwealth Party rebranding itself as the Social Democratic Party to attract middle-class intellectual support and "Ocasio-Cortezites". With this new popular mandate, President Wayland saw that she had a mandate for victory.
She used it effectively with the Seoul Accords defeating the Dristiists with India surrendering on February 16, 2066 after the fall of Delhi to the Seoul Accords. The war would end a few weeks later with the Dristiist regime in Nigeria being forced to surrender with the usage of a new weapon, kinetic rods, which destroyed Port Harcourt, killing three million people. With the war over, now was the time to "win the peace" with the Hamburg Conference deciding the fate of the defeated Dristiist Powers of Europe, the Manila Conference deciding the fate of the defeated Dristiist Powers of Asia, the Mombasa Conference deciding the fate of the Dristiist Powers of the African Continent, the Beirut Conference deciding the fate of the defeated Dristiist Powers of the Middle East, and the Miami Conference deciding the fate of the Dristiist Powers of the Americas.
These conferences would comprehensively reshape the world map with India being broken up into a series of smaller states complete with a "Greater Pakistan" absorbing the rest of Kashmir and a united Bengal. The division of India would be unpopular in the North but the Dravidians, Sikhs, and Assamese (a shorthand for the peoples of the "Seven Sisters" states of the Northeast of India here) would accept said division and develop narratives akin to Austria after the Second World War. Indonesia was treated kinder with Aceh, Kalimantan, Bali, the Moluccas, the Indonesian half of Timor, and West Papua broken off and a truncated Indonesian Republic controlling the rest of Sumatra, Java, Sulawasi, and the other Lesser Sundas established. Nigeria was also broken up into a Hausa Republic, a revived Biafra, and a Yoruba state. France had to accept Breton independence and Germany annexing Alsace-Lorraine, again. The Dristiists of Eastern Europe saw their countries turned either into German or Russian puppet states as well and Argentina would have to accept Chilean annexation of large swathes of Patagonia
While redrawing the world map, war crimes tribunals were also a major issue to settle with Mukul Dristi and Gael Germany, the leaders of India and France in the Third World War, being the "star defenders" in the Kunming Trials, which saw both of them executed for war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity along with 14 other lesser leaders, senior politicians, and high-level military officers who were tried in said trials.
The post-WW3 accords also included a commitment by the "Big Three" running the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the People's Republic of China towards working for the unification of humanity with treaties calling for international control of space and general global integration as a whole being signed in the heady post-WW3 years.
Domestically, Michelle Wayland would be seen as an above-average but not great president as a result of Francogate marking the post-war years of her Presidency along with general reports of voter fraud with her domestic reforms which would make the ordoliberal ideal of a "social market economy" the economic consensus by the end of her Presidency. Despite a failed impeachment vote, Francogate did not have a significant impact on President Wayland's policies, even if it did decrease her popularity ratings.
As America goes to the polls on November 5, 2068, the American people face a choice as while Wayland has won the war, can her party "win the peace" with Michelle Wayland announcing she would go back to running her company, travelling the world and the solar system with her close friend (and diplomat, stateswoman, author, historian, and WW3-era Russian President) Tatiana Antonova, and grooming the 24-year old Justine Grant to inherit her company.
[15] As it turned out, the Democrats would not win the peace. Although they won the war, their reputation was severely damaged by Francogate, as Budiaman-Rosa and the House Judiciary Committee's findings revealed the sheer extent of Wayland's collusion with big corporations, campaign fund misuse, and voter fraud. Many progressive Democrats flocked to the Social Democratic Party, unnerved by President Wayland, quote, "doing everything in her power to dismantle Ocasio-Cortez's legacy and replace it with her own", and The Democratic Party further devolved into chaos after Gavin Berdle declined to run in the primaries, prompting an ultimately successful underdog campaign by Guamanian governor John William "Jack" Bush. It was in these conditions that the 2068 presidential election was held.
The election would see the victory of Governor of Louisiana Wes Belmond, who ran alongside former Mayor of Pittsburgh and U.S. Ambassador to Britain Rowen Buchanan. Belmond was the first Haitian-American President, and was considered, by many, a symbol of the Republican Party's evolution; a third-generation immigrant who grew up in an impoverished Shreveport neighborhood who would eventually be elected Governor by a narrow margin, and would be considered one of the most popular governors in the country due to his efforts to reclaim the sunken lowlands, strengthen regulations on interstate corporations, and engage in an ambitious program dedicated to ennobling the cities of Louisiana and attracting investment. In a war-weary America that felt threatened by the growing cracks in American democracy and business, Belmond was very popular, managing to win over the Social Democratic ticket of Governor Pierre Roatta and former Senator Coltrane Delgado, and leaving the Democrats with only a handful of states.
Domestically, Belmond focused on improving the countryside over ambitious megaprojects pertaining to space, giving incentives to state Governors and mayors to improve their cities, beautify them, and develop the local infrastructure; he also engaged in a partial anti-corruption campaign against businessmen and politicians involved in Francogate, with many Wayland Tech officials being prosecuted and indicted in a span of four years - infamously, Belmond also called for the prosecution of Wayland, who at that point actively refused to return to America. However, despite this zeal, Belmond was seen by many as a more "down-to-earth" politician than his precedessors, meeting with constituents and traveling America frequently. Outside America, however, Belmond had to face a changing world, with much of Europe (save for a select few countries) and China sliding into a post-war economic slump, Ireland becoming the center of the transhumanist movement on Earth, and Ethiopia, now easily the most powerful nation in Africa, contemplating expanding its sphere of influence in the Middle East.
[16] The late 21st Century was the start of global chaos. While Belmond won his re-election in 2072 and the Democratic Party slipped further into obscurity, the post-WWIII order began to decline. As Michelle Wayland was arrested in 2073, effects of climate change began to set in around the planet. While the vast majority of the planet was powered by clean energy by this point, these efforts came too late. Deadly tropical storms caused by climate change has been common for decades, but rising sea levels would turn many major population centers into a modern Atlantis.
This included Washington DC.
Yes, by 2074, the major political institutions of the United States had been submerged into the Atlantic Ocean. The Belmond administration relocated to St Louis, which was later renamed to Libertopolis in 2075 once it became clear that Washington DC would not be suitable for living anytime soon, and prepared for the subsequent chaos. Public infrastructure was built to combat the crisis and refugees from destroyed coastal settlements were relocated to interior cities. This was all at the expense of the American space colonial program, and as the American economy submerged into seclusion in the face of global recession, the dream of a renewed Pax Americana died.
However, while the United States faced chaos, the rest of the world was much worse off. The commitments of the "Big Three" proved to be meaningless, with Russia and China focusing on their own issues. For the former, this meant suppressing revolts in Eastern European puppet regimes. For the latter, this meant that an already-declining economy was shattered, thus leading to a military coup in 2075, which pledges to turn the 21st Century into the Chinese Century, with militarization and increased nationalism already beginning as the Chinese dragon seeks to fly once more.
And so, 2076 will be an uncertain time. Global cooperation has started its decline, and billions around the world have become homeless. The next president will have to face these issues, and ensure that the world will not move towards yet another global conflict.
[17] The very first Social Democratic President, Marcella Carlton, hailing from a wealthy family but drawn to left-wing ideas while studying in Tsinghua University, leading to her being amongst the founders of the Social Democrats and a major leader with her charisma, intelligence, ability to forge connections, and good looks, would win 2076 in a landslide, promising a "New Era for America". With the Social Democratic Party on the ascendency, her promise of a "New Era for America" would be one which would have a strong popular mandate due to the landslide victory the Social Democratic Party had won in 2076. Her first action as President would be to pardon ex-President Michelle Wayland on the argument that her arrest set a bad precedent to follow and that the United States needed national unity, not using corruption to go after political enemies. After her release, President Wayland continued her travels around the world and the Solar System with her life-long girlfriend (she's bi) Tatiana Antonova (who's daughter Lana was a rising star in Russian politics, but that's another story)
The Carlton Administration saw the completion of the "Venice of the Occident" scheme which turned New York City into what many people termed a "cyberpunk version of Venice". Despite many opponents of the Carlton Administration condemning the scheme as thinly disguised pork for the constituents of the long-time New York Senator, modified versions of the scheme would be applied world-wide to maintain habitability of major port cities around the world.
In addition, President Carlton presided over a shift towards more power to the Congress with America developing a semi-presidential system as the Speaker of the House became the de facto Prime Minister of the United States, even if the US remained de jure a Presidential system. She would move the United States into a social democratic system during this period as well.
Her "New Era for America" policies domestically were a major success as the United States developed into a social democratic "welfare state" with a Scandinavia-style Social Democratic economic system. In addition, she pushed for more support for biological enhancements and pushed through a plan for resettling people in Alaska, which would ensure that it would be a demographic titan of the Union with a rapidly growing population with a population breaking the 10 million barrier in January 2081.
In foreign policy, President Carlton had to deal with the Second Xinhai Revolution, an Arab Spring-esque uprising which ended the People's Republic of China in 2078, resulting in the People's Republic being replaced by a shaky democracy with unstable coalition governments rising and falling every few months akin to the Third and Fourth Republics in France. President Carlton worked well with the new democratic government of China with her first term being marked by stronger international co-operation between the world powers.
However, on December 5, 2079, an assassination attempt would take place on President Carlton. While the President was unhurt, the same could not be said of her Veep, who was "dead even before her body hit the floor" due to the bullets which hit her in the brain and heart. Afterwards, President Carlton would appoint the 38-year old Lea Helena Schneider, daughter of President Mara Schneider who defected to the Social Democrats in 2070 due to her popularity as a space explorer, being the commander of the USSS (United States Space Ship) Cook, the very first FTL spaceship with its voyage from March 2077 to February 2079 with four habitable worlds and two airmoons around a "hot Jupiter" being shown as having "lots of potential" as Vice President, which Congress confirmed on Decemeber 20, 2079.
With the symphaty vote behind her, it seems like President Carlton would win re-election handily but the Republicans are rebounding and the Democrats have reformed themselves into a centrist "kingmaker" party as the new DNC chair, Russell Richard descibed it himself.
[18] The Carlton administration was not as glamorous as the SDP would have one to believe. While Marcella Carlton's welfare projects were popular, her increased space program was deemed unnecessary when millions of Americans had lost their homes in the face of climate change, and the economy only continued to decline. Even relatively minor issues, like the pardoning of Michelle Wayland, earned Carlton more controversy than she had anticipated.
Nonetheless, Carlton just barely won 2080. But as Carlton settled into a second term, chaos erupted. In the December of 2080, the Chinese Civil War began when a group of ultranationalist warlords began to rebel in the north. With major global centers of industry and commerce under siege, the international economy took a second plunge, and by the March of 2081, over 25% of Americans were unemployed.
President Carlton was no economist, and quickly took much of the blame for the the shattered American economy. Millions of Americans were outraged, and called on a recall election, but without any party holding a majority in Congress, such a thing was possible.
America was on the brink of chaos.
It was General Ulysses McCormick, a staunch ultranationalist who had won public attention by criticizing the Carlton administration, who took advantage of this chaos. In a coalition with military forces, prominent politicians, and a handful of corporations, Marcella Carlton was overthrown in the United States' first coup on September 1st, 2081. Declaring himself the president of the United States of America and leader of the National Protection Committee, Ulysses McCormick has instituted marshall law and has imprisoned the Carlton administration, with the interior of the United States under McCormick's totalitarian iron fist. But in the west and northeast, democracy has yet to kneel to Ulysses McCormick. There is hope that he can be forced out of power and democracy can be re-installed.
But there are no easy solutions to the September Crisis. A war would have to be fought across the Rocky Mountains to Libertopolis, and that is no simple feat. Both sides would be armed with nuclear warheads, and a Second American Civil War could be cataclysmic.
America is at a crossroad. The fate of western democracy is in the balance.
The McCormick Years have begun.
[19] The McCormick Years - seven years of bloodshed and terror - affected America deeply. A visionary who believed that America could be - and should be - reconstructed, instead plunged the USA deeper into disrepair, with many cities and counties being outright depopulated. Having been killed in Peoria, Illinois during a battle, McCormick was succeeded by George Dupree, a professional propagandist and informed "war hero" who surrendered to the American Provisional Government in February of 2087. The transitional authority, led by General Bud Blanc of Maryland, announced that elections would be held in November 2088. While personally popular, Blanc found himself unfit for the presidency, and thus refused to run. The election was vicious, owing to the collapse of the old party system and the nasty campaign ads, but in the end a former Governor won.
Everett Crow, a technician by trade, was born in 2041 to an Arapaho man and a Japanese mother in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. A protest organizer in his 20s and a megaproject manager in his 30s, Crow was a humble, if aloof and calculating man, and was on his way to become a county clerk in Colorado; in Guam (which was by that point a mechanical fortress), he wound up meeting the fiery Sigmund Guerrero, a charismatic engineer and sailor who would later become the Governor of Guam and a veteran of the McCormick Years.
Campaigning on the need to maintain a democratic welfare state with a stable economy, one that wouldn't be rendered bankrupt by ever-expanding space programs or destabilized by corruption, as well as development of efficient agricultural technologies and the reclaimation of Sunken Land™, Crow/Guerrero ticket easily won over the conservative, pro-business Legalists, the Social Democratic Party that was torn apart by Lea Helena Schneider's supporters and her more left-wing opponents, and the growing Farmer-Labour Party in the Northern states.
While in office, Crow championed tech development and the strengthening of the Water Distribution Committees; viewing himself as a Native American first and foremost, Crow implemented numerous bills dedicated to the protection of Native American people and cultures as part of a "America Works" legislative package. However, his first term would be troubled by conflicts with the strengthened Congress, a legacy of the Carlton Years; the Independent Speaker of the House, Abraham Poole, was an ambitious and wealthy man who viewed Crow and Guerrero as "upstarts". As the 2092 election nears, Crow begins to make plans for the renewal of the Presidential system...
