Lacrimi de Chiciură
3rd August 2010, 02:10
Partially as an exercise in speculation and creative writing, and partially just for fun, I am trying to create a framework for a story set in the near future (2028), involving political developments in the United States. I would like for people to make any comments, suggestions, criticisms, or things you would change, etc.
Here it goes:
The present (2010): President Obama continues to fail to deliver on promises of change. Occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan continue.
2012: Republicans run Tim Pawlenty for president with Jeb Bush as his running mate. Americans, although increasingly disillusioned with the 2 party system, reelect Obama and Biden, who many see as the lesser of two evils.
President Obama's second term in office (2012-2016): The economic recession turns into a depression. National unemployment hits 45%. Democrats become increasingly divided and in 2015 a caucus within the Democratic Party breaks off to form the Democratic-Labor Party.
2016: Glenn Beck announces his candidacy for president. Joe Biden runs for president as the Democratic candidate. Keith Ellison, formerly a democratic senator from Minnesota, runs on the Democratic-Labor ticket. Beck runs an emotional campaign, accusing the black Muslim Ellison of not being a "true American" and blaming the depression on Obama's "big government spending." Beck's populism, coupled with the split within the Democratic Party gets him elected, although he only wins 38% of the popular vote.
2016-2017: President Beck proposes "to allow the free market to bring us out of the depression." New legislation cuts essentially all social welfare programs and public education now exists solely in charter schools which receive funding only if they teach the Beck administration's religious-militarist curriculum. At the same time, higher education becomes unaffordable for the vast majority of people. Cities become increasingly ghettoized while massive shanty towns surround all major metropolises. Beck accuses the African-American community of not providing support for its people, and uses this argument to institute the Universal National Service Act of 2017, requiring everyone ages 18-42 to serve a mandatory 2 year period of service in the United States Armed Forces.
2018: President Beck begins "strategic bombing" campaigns against Iran, Egypt, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Somalia. Mass protests occur, but alternative political forces lack the organization necessary to stop the bombings. Bill Maher is elected governor (DL) of New York.
2019: President Beck deploys 500,000 troops to Iran and 150,000 troops to Somalia. The military-industrial complex has grown massively in the first 3 years of the Beck presidency; and with few other opportunities available at home, many draftees re-enlist. Beck is very close with top military leaders, and together they use and develop new brainwashing techniques on soldiers.
2020: The world is shocked and outraged by the invasions of Iran and Somalia. President Beck, who has built his entire presidency around megalomaniacal delusions, spends most of his time grooming the military and ignoring the needs of the general public. Bill Maher announces that he wants to become America's first atheist president. Maher runs on an anti-war campaign of bourgeois atheist "new enlightenment" and makes vague references to "real change." Casualties in Iran and Somalia run high and the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue relentlessly.
2021-2022: President Bill Maher of the Democratic-Labor Party sworn in, moves to withdraw most US troops from abroad. As President Maher cuts the size and funding of the military, the Beckite generals and soldiers feel robbed of their livelihood. The returning military leaders rally the brainwashed Glenn Beck supporters and use the returning troops to hold the government hostage. President Maher flees to Britain. Beck refuses to step down, claiming an atheist president is unconstitutional. Activists in various communities recognize this as an opportunity to fight back against the Beck administration and to make gains under the new Maher administration; a campaign to "occupy the cities" is launched by a united front of youth and workers. Barricades are erected in major cities to keep Beckite troops out. The Beckite troops besiege rebelling cities, depriving them of electricity, water, sewage, etc. After several weeks, some refugees are allowed to leave the cities, but the dedicated stay. The Beckite troops move in to secure the cities, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of resisters and civilians in the process. In Pennsylvania, either due to fighting or negligence, a nuclear power plant meltdown occurs, causing 12 million people to be displaced in the already unstable country. The 12 million refugees, living in tents in the countryside, organize themselves under a Marxist leadership, and are supported by thousands of left-wing activists from around the country. The refugees, disgusted by FEMA's negligent response to the nuclear disaster, decide that enough is enough, and form a ragtag but 700,000 person strong militia to march to Washington DC to begin seizing political power for the working class. Bill Maher, still in exile and alarmed by this development, betrays the people and offers full support to the Beckites. The military, once divided between Beck supporters and Maher supporters, are now all following the same orders: secure DC and prevent the chaos that will surely follow if the ignorant masses seize power. After a month of fighting, DC is smoldering pile of rubble and 1.5 million people are dead. Across the country, people find the death and destruction unbelievable, and most just want a return to some degree of normalcy. The military leaders realize that they need to get rid of Glenn Beck to be taken seriously now, so he is quietly taken out. In other areas of the country, all sorts of radicals and activists are targeted for assassination by government death squads. Some find easy refuge in autonomous regions of Mexico and Cuba.
2023: Military leaders appoint Chelsea Clinton as interim president to recreate a sense of security and put a happy face over the conflict. President Clinton declares the return of constitutional law and order.
2024: With the "return to normalcy" and most radical activists dead or in exile, the country goes back to the familiar 2 party system. Mike Huckabee runs as the Republican candidate on a campaign of conservative reconciliation and "making America great again." Clinton reelected. Nothing changes.
Here it goes:
The present (2010): President Obama continues to fail to deliver on promises of change. Occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan continue.
2012: Republicans run Tim Pawlenty for president with Jeb Bush as his running mate. Americans, although increasingly disillusioned with the 2 party system, reelect Obama and Biden, who many see as the lesser of two evils.
President Obama's second term in office (2012-2016): The economic recession turns into a depression. National unemployment hits 45%. Democrats become increasingly divided and in 2015 a caucus within the Democratic Party breaks off to form the Democratic-Labor Party.
2016: Glenn Beck announces his candidacy for president. Joe Biden runs for president as the Democratic candidate. Keith Ellison, formerly a democratic senator from Minnesota, runs on the Democratic-Labor ticket. Beck runs an emotional campaign, accusing the black Muslim Ellison of not being a "true American" and blaming the depression on Obama's "big government spending." Beck's populism, coupled with the split within the Democratic Party gets him elected, although he only wins 38% of the popular vote.
2016-2017: President Beck proposes "to allow the free market to bring us out of the depression." New legislation cuts essentially all social welfare programs and public education now exists solely in charter schools which receive funding only if they teach the Beck administration's religious-militarist curriculum. At the same time, higher education becomes unaffordable for the vast majority of people. Cities become increasingly ghettoized while massive shanty towns surround all major metropolises. Beck accuses the African-American community of not providing support for its people, and uses this argument to institute the Universal National Service Act of 2017, requiring everyone ages 18-42 to serve a mandatory 2 year period of service in the United States Armed Forces.
2018: President Beck begins "strategic bombing" campaigns against Iran, Egypt, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Somalia. Mass protests occur, but alternative political forces lack the organization necessary to stop the bombings. Bill Maher is elected governor (DL) of New York.
2019: President Beck deploys 500,000 troops to Iran and 150,000 troops to Somalia. The military-industrial complex has grown massively in the first 3 years of the Beck presidency; and with few other opportunities available at home, many draftees re-enlist. Beck is very close with top military leaders, and together they use and develop new brainwashing techniques on soldiers.
2020: The world is shocked and outraged by the invasions of Iran and Somalia. President Beck, who has built his entire presidency around megalomaniacal delusions, spends most of his time grooming the military and ignoring the needs of the general public. Bill Maher announces that he wants to become America's first atheist president. Maher runs on an anti-war campaign of bourgeois atheist "new enlightenment" and makes vague references to "real change." Casualties in Iran and Somalia run high and the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue relentlessly.
2021-2022: President Bill Maher of the Democratic-Labor Party sworn in, moves to withdraw most US troops from abroad. As President Maher cuts the size and funding of the military, the Beckite generals and soldiers feel robbed of their livelihood. The returning military leaders rally the brainwashed Glenn Beck supporters and use the returning troops to hold the government hostage. President Maher flees to Britain. Beck refuses to step down, claiming an atheist president is unconstitutional. Activists in various communities recognize this as an opportunity to fight back against the Beck administration and to make gains under the new Maher administration; a campaign to "occupy the cities" is launched by a united front of youth and workers. Barricades are erected in major cities to keep Beckite troops out. The Beckite troops besiege rebelling cities, depriving them of electricity, water, sewage, etc. After several weeks, some refugees are allowed to leave the cities, but the dedicated stay. The Beckite troops move in to secure the cities, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of resisters and civilians in the process. In Pennsylvania, either due to fighting or negligence, a nuclear power plant meltdown occurs, causing 12 million people to be displaced in the already unstable country. The 12 million refugees, living in tents in the countryside, organize themselves under a Marxist leadership, and are supported by thousands of left-wing activists from around the country. The refugees, disgusted by FEMA's negligent response to the nuclear disaster, decide that enough is enough, and form a ragtag but 700,000 person strong militia to march to Washington DC to begin seizing political power for the working class. Bill Maher, still in exile and alarmed by this development, betrays the people and offers full support to the Beckites. The military, once divided between Beck supporters and Maher supporters, are now all following the same orders: secure DC and prevent the chaos that will surely follow if the ignorant masses seize power. After a month of fighting, DC is smoldering pile of rubble and 1.5 million people are dead. Across the country, people find the death and destruction unbelievable, and most just want a return to some degree of normalcy. The military leaders realize that they need to get rid of Glenn Beck to be taken seriously now, so he is quietly taken out. In other areas of the country, all sorts of radicals and activists are targeted for assassination by government death squads. Some find easy refuge in autonomous regions of Mexico and Cuba.
2023: Military leaders appoint Chelsea Clinton as interim president to recreate a sense of security and put a happy face over the conflict. President Clinton declares the return of constitutional law and order.
2024: With the "return to normalcy" and most radical activists dead or in exile, the country goes back to the familiar 2 party system. Mike Huckabee runs as the Republican candidate on a campaign of conservative reconciliation and "making America great again." Clinton reelected. Nothing changes.