You know your world is shit when the guy who provided the inspiration for Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove and broke the nuclear taboo ITTL is considered one of the better US presidents.
All Along the Watchtower: A Dystopian TLIAW
- Thread starter Vidal
- Start date
There was not, in fact, some way out of here.
An excellent experiment very satisfyingly concluded.
An excellent experiment very satisfyingly concluded.
Assuming the American economic recovery wasn't entirely fabricated, the material benefits to the rest of the world are such that I'm guessing most other nations are treating Renewalist America like the OTL CCP (or Putin pre-war) -- a combination of "Even if the elections weren't rigged, most Americans support them sincerely, and who are we to argue? (Secular democracy isn't really their culture y'know.)", "As long as we keep trading with them they'll have to mellow out eventually, it's a historical inevitability," and "Look, all that military sabre-rattling is just for domestic consumption, they wouldn't be crazy enough to invade Canada, c'mon."
Wow. Just… wow… utterly horrifying in the best way. This timeline has been incredible to watch, and this final update is the perfect icing on the cake. It’s amazing and a super interesting take on American authoritarianism I haven’t seen before. Bingo card coming soon!46. Ralph Reed (NR-GA)
January 20, 2017 – present
“I honestly believe that in my lifetime we will see a country once again governed by Christians...and Christian values. What Christians have got to do is take back this country, one precinct at a time, one neighborhood at a time, and one state at a time.”
America was facing a crisis. Just as things seemed to be improving – reunification, the return of free and fair elections – Ken Lay’s arrest threw the nation into turmoil once more. The Election of 2016 was, perhaps, America’s last chance to right the course, but voters that year ignored a Biblical warning: Beware False Prophets.
Since Robert F. Kennedy’s near-impeachment over government corruption, the American presidency had played host to a series of problematic individuals. Two former presidents (Butz and Lay) had been arrested, one of them had gone to prison. Two presidents (Butz and Cheney) resigned their office; three did not stand for reelection when political headwinds turned against them (Bork, Vidal, and Lay). Two had died in office, one of them had been assassinated in an attack that collapsed the federal government.
There had been secession, near-constant rioting and protests and military occupation of American cities. Nuclear missiles had been lobbed around the globe – and the American continent – as if they were like any other weapon. America’s dramatic retreat from the world stage had emboldened the USSR and extremists in the Middle East. Few considered the nation a superpower in any meaningful way.
Democracy as the founders envisioned was essentially over. The winner of the Election of 1984 had been decided on a legal technicality and within two decades, democratic elections had been replaced with sham elections that produced convenient outcomes for those in power. Routinely, dissidents found themselves imprisoned – lost in a maze of mysterious prisons and camps strewn about the middle of the nation, often never seen or heard again by their loved ones.
Twice, presidents had inspired hope in their people. Both died in office under tragic circumstances.
By 2016, Americans were feeling dejected, lost, and confused, and in that darkness many of them turned to religion for answers. Throughout the Southern states, where partisan elections were still permitted, a new political party, the National Renewal Party, began to win more and more elections. Its leader was Ralph Reed, a charismatic born-again Christian, who preached America’s restoration through a closer relationship with God. Returning America to its Christian roots, Reed argued, was the way back to American excellence.
And the country had been primed to believe him. For ten years, Cheney’s federalization of schools had heavily emphasized the wisdom of the Founders, the promise that America was a shining city upon a hill. That scholarship had provoked a number of books in the last ten years that talked about the “Golden Age” of the Fifties – before the Kennedys came to power and demolished America as we knew it then. There was no fighting about race in the Fifties, these books argued. Instead, everyone knew their place in society. There were stable family units. People went to Church. The national conversation had begun to change in Reed’s favor.
So it was no surprise in 2014 when Reed was elected Governor of Georgia. He mandated school prayer in the morning, banned abortions and Sunday shopping, and he led the state challenges to Cheney’s federal law permitting same-sex marriage. Eventually, Cheney’s own Supreme Court had ruled that marriage should remain, fundamentally, a state issue. Reed had won. So too, he argued, had God.
In the Election of 2016, Reed refused to identify as “Pro” or “Anti” administration. He said he was truly independent – that the nation’s politics should not be defined by your support or opposition to Kenneth Lay or Lynne Cheney but instead should be about finding a greater common purpose. That was what his National Renewal Party was all about.
Funded by a cadre of wealthy donors, Reed ran an aggressive national campaign, promising to unify the country and heal old wounds, including racial tensions. He went into Black churches and Synagogues and compared the struggle of the American people to the book of Exodus – the story of the Jews that many Black Americans had long identified with. Though the federal elections were technically non-partisan, he ran a slate of “Renewal Candidates” in all 50 states, who followed him into office after he soundly defeated two anti-Administration candidates and one pro-Administration candidate.
U.S. Presidential Election, 2016
Ralph Reed/J.C. Watts (Unaffiliated) … 50.4%
Rocky Anderson/Richard Painter (Anti-administration) … 27.6%
Michael Bloomberg/Evan Bayh (Anti-administration) … 15.3%
Dick DeVos/John Yoo (Pro-administration) … 4.6%
Various other candidates … 2.1%
His inauguration in Philadelphia was the most widely attended presidential inauguration in the modern era, and he promised to restore the United States to greatness. At the outset of his presidency, public opinion polling showed that he had the support of 76% of the American people. It was a hopeful time for the nation.
After the arrest and death of Ken Lay in February of 2017 came the “March of Miracles.” The first announced “miracle” was the state of the US economy. Lay’s economic initiatives and Reed’s recent economic stimulus bill, which included tax cuts for most Americans and a significant military build-up that created hundreds of thousands of jobs, meant that unemployment had fallen to just 3.4% and that GDP growth was at its highest point in decades.
The second “miracle” came when a far-left extremist tried to assassinate Reed after a tour of a factory in Ohio. A bullet just barely missed Reed’s head. Another lodged in his chest. Reed was taken to the hospital where he made a full recovery.
But the final and most mysterious “miracle” came at the end of the month when an employee at George Washington’s Mount Vernon home discovered a time capsule in a collection of Washington’s things that had been in storage for years. The capsule was dated for March of 2017 – 220 years after Washington left office. In it was a letter from Washington that prophesied that one day the United States would face a difficult period of decline, but a new leader would emerge and have the bravery and foresight to know a new Constitution was needed – one that built the nation in the image of his vision and of the electorate.
Some historians professed doubts about the document’s authenticity, but a number of scholars were brought in by the President’s administration to verify the documents, and they unanimously confirmed the artifact was a genuine letter from Washington. Reed, overwhelmed by the prophecy, announced that he was retreating to Camp David for a period of “reflection.”
He re-emerged three days later at Mount Vernon for a major address to the nation. Reed said that after thoughtful reflection and prayer, he had decided to convene a Second Constitutional Convention. Each state would send a number of representatives to debate and draft a new Constitution. “We will leave this Convention stronger and more unified than at any point since 1776,” Reed insisted.
At the convention, delegates again debated a revised Constitution. They did away with the Bill of Rights as a series of amendments and instead codified many of them into the original text, including the previous Second Amendment. Delegates voted against an updated version of the Establishment Clause, angering liberals who worried about a state-run religion. In a narrow vote, a form of the Electoral College was restored and the 17th Amendment, which provided for the election of US Senators by popular vote, was stripped out. There was a decided march towards the original copy of the Constitution “as the Founders intended.”
Those who warned about the dramatic departures from the original text were ignored. Some disappeared. For example, the Retention elections would no longer be put to a popular vote. Instead, Congress would vote on retaining the president after four years in office. Congressional elections would still be overseen by the Federal Elections Commission.
One proposal by Reed’s National Renewal Party fell short. They were some 20 votes shy of changing the name of the USA to the “People’s Christian Republic of America.”
The FEC also managed the vote on adopting the new Constitution. By this point, Reed had appointed a new crop of administrators, and the Commission more closely resembled the FEC under Cheney’s leadership than under Lay’s. It seemed that Lay’s collapse and Reed’s landslide election had given the new executive the leverage needed to backslide the country’s democratic standing. There were dissenters, but most of the public was still drunk on the March of Miracles, and those who were loudest in their opposition seemed to vanish without a trace.
The new Constitution was adopted with the support of 75% of voting Americans.
In rural Virginia, they erected a new national capital, Bethlehem, complete with a new Presidential Palace and a new Congressional building.
One of the most important roles was that of Secretary of Education. School curriculum had been an important mechanism for the surge in young Americans who identified with the concept of “American exceptionalism.” To lead the Department, Reed tapped Professor Newt Gingrich of Emory University, who had written many papers on the need to teach patriotism in school. Gingrich’s first edict as Secretary was to mandate that every school day begin with a Christian prayer.
In 2018, tragedy struck the State of Michigan, when arsenic in the water of residents of Dearborn, Michigan had wiped out nearly the whole city. Reed declared that it was an act of terrorism and trained his ire at the Soviet Union. Reed believed that American unity was strongest when the country shared a common enemy instead of turning on each other, and so he decided to call up a common one from the Fifties: Communism.
Schools, news commentators, and columnists preached the values of America’s democratic republic. Meanwhile, they broadcast horror stories from the Soviet regime.
Reed authorized an extensive build-up of the country’s nuclear arsenal in addition to the more traditional military build-up already underway, and his rhetoric made clear who it was he intended to fight.
For the first time in decades, Reed’s four-year presidency marked a time of tranquility and prosperity. Americans were exuberant and a real national identity had come into form. All around America, murals of Reed with a halo around him appeared. Shop owners hung his portrait in their stores. Some cities attempted to lead a resistance, namely Portland, Oregon, but the protesters were painted as radical extremists, and few voiced their disagreement when American troops moved in quickly to quell the rebellion. There was finally stability in America, why was the radical left trying to disrupt it?
In 2020, Congress voted unanimously to retain Reed. Even those of the new opposition party, the Peace and Liberty Party, were supportive. “Now is not the time for disagreement,” said the Senate Minority Leader, Evan Bayh. “It’s time to be Americans.”
Americans didn’t seem to notice when, by 2021, nearly all of their radio and television programming was produced by the state. When Dennis Kucinich, a longtime agitator of the Cheney administration, held a rally to protest the “Reed Regime,” only a few hundred showed up. Kucinich was never seen or heard from again. Noticing the disappearances, many liberals (branded by their opponents as “Godless”), slipped across the border into Canada, which had quietly begun accepting refugees. Some more liberal states simply adopted a quiet means to carry out life differently.
In 2021, when Reed amended the Constitution to include a Human Life Amendment, Peace and Liberty Governors on the West Coast established a secret network to provide individuals with access to abortion. The risks of publicly defying the government had become too great. There were reports that in some schools, when teachers refused to begin class with a prayer, they were fired – never heard from again.
Reed also announced that every American male would go to military training at age 17 for one year. They would serve three years in the military, until turning 21. During that time, they’d also receive a free college education. But it was clear that he was preparing for war.
According to the news, Communism was on the march. Americans were worried. Secretary of War Doug Feith assured the American public that the country was ready to “make the world safe for democracy.”
###
In early 2022, scholars from around the world met to discuss and debate the evolution of democracy with a particular focus on the decline in America. More than half marked the 1984 election as a point of no return. The runner-up was the assassination of Joe Lieberman in 2001.
Some questioned if the United States had really declined at all. In fact, it appeared to be stronger than ever. One German professor remarked, “Nobody does propaganda like the Christians.”
Reed used the academic conference to rally American popular sentiment. America had not declined, he said. America was renewed. Stronger than ever. And after five decades of domestic unrest, scandal and assassination, war and poverty, the weary Americans chose to believe him. By this point, they did not know.
They did not know that CIA agents monitored their every move. That those who dissented from the government were quietly removed from civilization. Many were simply discarded.
They did not know that their election results were manufactured by an FEC that produced results to match the desires of Ralph Reed.
They did not know that the Soviet Union had long stopped paying attention to America – that it had no intentions of instigating a world-ending conflict.
They did not know that in February of 2017, a team of document forgers from the CIA had carefully manufactured a letter from the nation’s founding president that predicted Reed’s ascension. They did not know that Reed himself did not intend to leave the new Presidential Palace that had been built for him in Bethlehem, Virginia.
They did not know that an anxious world looked on, weary of a nation returning to its status as an economic and military superpower without any of the former checks and balances that had preserved global stability.
The Americans did not know because they could not hear.
Could not hear the wildcat’s growl.
Could not hear the hooves of the galloping horsemen over the howling wind.
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Not much different I can say. This was an eerie ending, really well written! Sad to see the end. Hopefully it'll continue, but at least for now, we have Jimmy Two. America really has fallen. Especially having a full fledged Dictator.
So I just watched Escape from LA (not as good as the first but still good) and the laws in that would oddly fit well most of them
That United States of America was a desolate hellhole and this one manages to make that look kinda decent. Well done I loved this from start to finish.
That United States of America was a desolate hellhole and this one manages to make that look kinda decent. Well done I loved this from start to finish.
Presidential review time!
The US is back... but as a full on theocracy, and it's as bad as the worst fears of those fearing an actual American theocracy in OTL.
Now that the series is finally done, we can now look at a US... together after years, but it's now absolute crap. No abortions, mandated prayer... what became of the other religions in the US? The Jews? The Muslims?
Bravo, Vidal (and Enigma).
I must say this is one of the best scenarios I've ever seen on this site.
P.S. I'm calling this guy "REED the Bible". Anyone want to share their nicknames for these presidents?
The US is back... but as a full on theocracy, and it's as bad as the worst fears of those fearing an actual American theocracy in OTL.
Now that the series is finally done, we can now look at a US... together after years, but it's now absolute crap. No abortions, mandated prayer... what became of the other religions in the US? The Jews? The Muslims?
Bravo, Vidal (and Enigma).
I must say this is one of the best scenarios I've ever seen on this site.
P.S. I'm calling this guy "REED the Bible". Anyone want to share their nicknames for these presidents?
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Aside from technological progress being slower than OTL, I'd imagine that TTL America would probably be poorer in the present day due the political instability fucking with the economy.. Not "people are starving in the streets" level, but the average middle-class American would have less disposable income to spend on luxuries like computers and vacations.
Now that the timeline has completed, I present to you… the final bingo card for All Along the Watchtower!
As you can see, we’ve filled in all but four spaces, and achieved four separate bingos! Now for review, in order of placement on the card:
- Mass terror attack: 1/20/2001, the decapitating terror attack that nearly dismantled the federal government and killed President Lieberman.
- Removed from office: Expanding this to executive-level officials, Attorney General Mecham was removed. Keeping it to the President, explosions count as removal from office.
- Internment camps: put in place in response to unrest by the Bork, Lieberman, Cheney, and Reed administrations.
- Total gridlock: Robert Kennedy’s presidency following the wiretap scandal.
- Assassination: Likely Harold Washington, as well as 1/20/2001 for Joe Lieberman.
- Coup: Attorney General Mecham’s attempted coup against President Gore Vidal.
- Massive scandal: Robert Kennedy’s wiretap scandal; President Lay’s Enron scandal.
- Mass natural disaster: the floods that brought down Dixie (Cheney administration).
- Nuclear war: Cheney.
- Enemy congress: Almost every president, but I’m highlighting specifically Robert Kennedy.
- Free space: free space.
- Union busting: when Bork said “It’s Borkin’ time and borked all over those labor unions”.
- Open insurgency: Almost every president since Curtis LeMay.
- Dissident purge: Almost every president since Curtis LeMay.
- Neo-Confederacy: Formation of Dixie.
- State secession: Secession Crisis and Second Civil War (Vidal).
- Mass unemployment: Almost every president since Kennedy and until Lay.
- Economic collapse: Almost every president since Kennedy and until Lay.
- Extreme corruption: Almost every president Since Kennedy.
- US dictatorship: H E A V Y B R E A T H I N G
- Political parties fracture: Every president, starting with LeMay.
Looking at this list, I am realizing just what a nightmare this timeline has been! But like, the good kind of nightmare. Thank you very much for this adventure in dystopia, Vidal and Enigma!
As you can see, we’ve filled in all but four spaces, and achieved four separate bingos! Now for review, in order of placement on the card:
- Mass terror attack: 1/20/2001, the decapitating terror attack that nearly dismantled the federal government and killed President Lieberman.
- Removed from office: Expanding this to executive-level officials, Attorney General Mecham was removed. Keeping it to the President, explosions count as removal from office.
- Internment camps: put in place in response to unrest by the Bork, Lieberman, Cheney, and Reed administrations.
- Total gridlock: Robert Kennedy’s presidency following the wiretap scandal.
- Assassination: Likely Harold Washington, as well as 1/20/2001 for Joe Lieberman.
- Coup: Attorney General Mecham’s attempted coup against President Gore Vidal.
- Massive scandal: Robert Kennedy’s wiretap scandal; President Lay’s Enron scandal.
- Mass natural disaster: the floods that brought down Dixie (Cheney administration).
- Nuclear war: Cheney.
- Enemy congress: Almost every president, but I’m highlighting specifically Robert Kennedy.
- Free space: free space.
- Union busting: when Bork said “It’s Borkin’ time and borked all over those labor unions”.
- Open insurgency: Almost every president since Curtis LeMay.
- Dissident purge: Almost every president since Curtis LeMay.
- Neo-Confederacy: Formation of Dixie.
- State secession: Secession Crisis and Second Civil War (Vidal).
- Mass unemployment: Almost every president since Kennedy and until Lay.
- Economic collapse: Almost every president since Kennedy and until Lay.
- Extreme corruption: Almost every president Since Kennedy.
- US dictatorship: H E A V Y B R E A T H I N G
- Political parties fracture: Every president, starting with LeMay.
Looking at this list, I am realizing just what a nightmare this timeline has been! But like, the good kind of nightmare. Thank you very much for this adventure in dystopia, Vidal and Enigma!
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AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
A fantastic end to a dark timeline, with the world on a precipice to a very likely Third World War between the fundamentalist dictatorship that is the United States of America and the Soviet-led bloc, which has viewed the country as a shell of its former self ever since the 1990s.
Kudos to you both!
Kudos to you both!
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I love that in light of a purported message from Washington urging Americans to rewrite the constitution in light of recent struggles, the conclusion of the constitutional convention is to go back to what the Founders intended. It's not even internally consistent propaganda!
Anyway, bravo to Vidal and Enigma for a superb TLIAW. I've alluded to it in my previous posts here, but I really like how you two decided to do "dystopia": not a sudden and dramatic collapse followed by an increadingly hellish world; but a slow and gradual decline, and one peppered with spots of hope and silver linings to make the descent all the more agonizing. It's been mentioned that Harold Washington's death is considered ITTL to be the point-of-no-return for the United States, but I think there's moments under Vidal, Lieberman and even Lay where there looked to be a path to recovery — hell, even LeMay could have marked a relative return to normalcy in another world, nukes aside (granted, that's a big thing to put aside). I am generally not a fan of dystopias because I think they go all-in way too fast (and often to a ridiculous amount), but I think you two really threaded the needle here.
Also, the improv format was a lot of fun! I liked reading the two of you put down little threads and ideas for the other to follow up on or not. It gave the TL a real sense of dynamism that I don't often see. If you two ever decided to do something else in this format, I'd be very excited for it.
Oh, I never filled that in, whoops. I think it works if you count a president resigning or being assassinated as being removed. And if you extend “removed from office” to other officials, it also works, citing Mecham.
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Deleted member 81475
Oh I see it now, whoops. I don’t know how I missed that. I just edited the review with a few fixes.
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A stellar timeline. I liked the TLIAW format, I liked the back-and-forth, I liked how gradual the dystopia was developed. This kind of Christo-populist hellscape is hardly unrealistic, given the overall trajectory of TTL. Would definitely appreciate a utopian spinoff, maybe one where Nixon wins in 1960 (but everything turns out well somehow).