Lost Freeway
Banned
The specter of Rumsfeld has actually proven quite useful in helping the unions get their way, while the specter of labor unrest proved useful in helping Rumsfeld get his way. The two basically fed off each other.
Rumsfeldia: Fear and Loathing in the Decade of Tears
- Thread starter Drew
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I wonder how the changes of the world would affect the premises. For one, I imagine that the persona of George VII (who is portrayed in this TL as not daft but still quite naïve at times) could potentially impact both Blackadder I and III.
There is always a limit to what you can do, even to the Union in this UK, people will start to be feed up with them and they will lose popular support.
Hell even Italy in the 80's give some rule about the strikes due to the massive disruption they created and the general population was tired enough to support them.
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
I think he's talking about this guy;
And how his reign will alter Blackadders portrayal of George IV.
Lost Freeway
Banned
I think he's talking about this guy;
And how his reign will alter Blackadders portrayal of George IV.
Ah, I missed that.
Lost Freeway
Banned
I think he's talking about this guy;
And how his reign will alter Blackadders portrayal of George IV.
Confession: Given the friction between Healey and George VII, I fully expected Healey to have the king murdered and pin it on the INLA.
Based on how things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if this scene will become reality in the future!
I can see a hand-picked CV commentator expounding on this theme with regard to Rumsfeldism:
"Rumsfeld was the curse sent by God to punish an unjust people for their support of liberalism, homosexuality, abortion and race-mixing. The people turned their backs on God, and God sent Rumsfeld to remind us what a world without His grace is really like. Fortunately, brothers and sisters, the Christian Values can bring our nation back to His way, by obedience to His Commandments and through a struggle to bring forth the New Jerusalem upon our sacred soil."
I recall Robertson and Falwell expounding on the evils of America after 9/11 - blaming America's "sins" for what happened. And then there was Robertson blaming the Haitian earthquake on the Haitian people for making a pact with the devil to free themselves from French control.
In post-Rumsfeld America, they would find fertile ground for this sort of thing.
bookmark95
Banned
Kiang Liu called The Lesser Mao "a curse from the gods brought down upon us for some arrogance or folly".
That commentator is actually kind of true. All those wonderful corporations and Middle American bigots gave everything to Rumsfeld. Now they are indeed reaping what they sowed.
A scene in Rumsfeldia would be watching your neighbor being dragged off to an asylum. They scream for help, and you do nothing to stop them. In the CSA takeover, it would be your butt being dragged off, with no one to hear your cries.
If there is proof of karma, it is the CVs and their efforts to "reform" America.
First they came for the left-wing radicals, and I did not speak out—
Because I voted for Nixon and hated the left-wing radicals.
Then they came for the eggheads and liberals, and I did not speak out—
Because I voted for Wallace and hated the eggheads and the liberals.
Then they came for the Unionists and Democrats, and I did not speak out-
Because I voted for Rumsfeld and hated the Unions and wanted a free economy.
Then they came for me—and no one remaining would speak for me -
they hated me because I voted for Nixon, Wallace and Rumsfeld.
Because I voted for Nixon and hated the left-wing radicals.
Then they came for the eggheads and liberals, and I did not speak out—
Because I voted for Wallace and hated the eggheads and the liberals.
Then they came for the Unionists and Democrats, and I did not speak out-
Because I voted for Rumsfeld and hated the Unions and wanted a free economy.
Then they came for me—and no one remaining would speak for me -
they hated me because I voted for Nixon, Wallace and Rumsfeld.
A sad truth of this reality. The extraordinary thing about the decline of America as portrayed in this TL is that it technically started before the POD with the breakup of the New Deal coalition. The difference is that in OTL, Nixon formed the foundation of the Reagan coalition that re-stabilized American politics. I like to think of the TL as one where "the Sixties" (by which, I refer not to the chronological period of 1960 - 1969 but the period of the zeitgeist of the 1960s of roughly 1965 - 1972) never ended. In many ways, the Sixties never ended for the rest of the world either. Israel continued to gain influence and territory at the expense of its neighbours. The Chinese Cultural Revolution gave way to rule by a deranged madman who envisioned a rural empire. Western Europe continued to drift away from NATO and democratic communism continued to obtain popularity in Western Europe.
bookmark95
Banned
To put it another way:
"Oppression is when your enemy is condemned. Totalitarianism is when you are condemned".
bookmark95
Banned
One could argue that the TL accelerated the intense political polarization and dogma we see in today's politics.
Bush OTL rejected stem cells as sinful, and thought "democracy" needed to be brought to Iraq.
Rumsfeld claimed mental illness and addiction was pseudoscience, and that South Africa needed to be made safe for democracy.
The 60s lasted into the 1970s, and what we got was an early example of the Tea Party being led by a man with the political instincts of Mobutu Sese Seko.
Let's not forget about an early version of Fox News starting in the 1970s with an earlier loss of the "Fairness Doctrine."
At the very least I hope that we still have Miranda Richardson's Queenie. That was the absolute best aspect of the second series.
Lost Freeway
Banned
Except that the people most heavily targeted by the theocrats would also be the people who opposed Rumsfeld the most.
Yes and no. While CV would treat those people very harshly, and those who opposed Rumsfeldia from a left-wing perspective would be the most heavily persecuted within CV territory, it's important to note that the areas of the country that most heavily resisted Rumsfeld (the libertarian West, Independent California & Hawaii, the liberal Northeast, etc.) are the only areas that haven't fallen to the theocrats and are mounting a campaign against them. Plus, in areas where Rumsfeld support was high, those who would have been opposed to him would have already been long gone, either moving to other areas of the country/world, or having been rounded up to the "mental hospitals" already. So there wouldn't be many left to persecute in the first place.
So, in the grand scheme of things, it more or less amounts to "the chickens coming home to roost" for Rumsfeld's support base.
bookmark95
Banned
I know that many of the people targeted by theocrats are leftists and libertarians. According to "Rummyhorror", they've tried to ethnically cleanse
the DC area of its African American community.
But according to Drew's map, the areas languishing under CV control are the areas that were pro-Rummy and pro-CV.
The conservatives who ignored the excesses of Rumsfeldia. One scenario I could foresee is a working mother who voted twice for Rumsfeld, or possibly once for CV, because she wanted a return to "simpler times".
The Christian Values, with control over the area, tell this woman, "you must return to your God given job as a homemaker. The lord finds your work outside the house blasphemy." Then she learns that her children have had their science textbooks confiscated, her children's black friend has been taken to a segregated school "to be apart as God intended", her birth control and condoms are banned, and that her husband was fired for not "reciting the lord's prayer".
Then this woman discovers that one of her friends, a single free spirit, has been forcibly wedded to a Holy Battalion since "god requires that all woman must serve in their motherhood roles." And in a truly frightening moment, the abortionist has been publicly hanged in the streets.
Soon millions of Americans realize that "traditional values" they have sought for a generation aren't all that fun in practice, and they realize too late they could have stopped it.
It's also clear that CVs are targeting Republicans. The last Congress was apparently dominated by Republicans, many of them stooges who refused to raise a finger against Rummy because they feared losing their seats to Christian Values. The CSA apparently obliterated Congress in order to cement their control. Trent Lott, after looking out for himself, sees a missie headed for his head and realizes no one is coming to save him is ultimate karma.
There'd also be fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Rumsfeld was either some kind of deep cover KGB mole/agent, sent to destroy America and assure the ascendancy of the USSR, or he was some kind of rogue agent for the CIA/military industrial complex; one who got a taste of power and went too far, only to be taken down by the very forces he once used to get into power.
If Rummyhorror does indeed come to pass, I could see both of these becoming widespread the post-recovery America (which we know is established in some form by TTL present day).
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