2019: The New Rebellion

[JonathanSwift]

It all started with the highly unusual election of 2016. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton and running mate Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia had decisively defeated former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Colorado Senator Cory Gardner to win the Presidency.

Colorado, a state which had gone to Barack Obama twice, reacted violently on a personal level against Hillary Clinton. She remained extremely unpopular there throughout her term, and by the time Cory Gardner won the Governorship in 2018, there wasn't a single member of Clinton's party in either the state government or its Congressional delegation. Colorado representatives filibustered every Clinton initiative, and by 2019 the notoriously bloodthirsty Hillary, riding high off her military conquest of Iran, decided to punch back.

In January 2019, President Clinton called the state out in her State of the Union Address, declaring that Colorado's marijuana laws were in defiance of federal authority, and must be brought back into compliance -- or else. Other states which had legalized the drug, such as Oregon and Washington, quickly re-banned it, but Colorado took this opportunity to amplify its defiance of the hated Clinton regime.



Gardner declared that as Governor, it was his duty to enforce the laws enacted by the people of his state, and only those enacted by the people of his state. In a move which saw his approval rating in the state soar from 75% to 96%, he boldly proclaimed that he would not cave in to the wicked federal tyranny.

Clinton issued a public proclamation that Governor Gardner and the whole Colorado state legislature had exactly forty-eight hours to resign from office and hand themselves in to federal authorities. The Coloradans refused.

Instead, the state held an emergency plebiscite, in which 98.3% of the Coloradan population voted to secede from Hillary Clinton's despised and tyrannical union. The results of the plebiscite were confirmed by a unanimous vote of the state legislature, and the ordinance of secession was promptly signed by Governor Gardner -- now President Gardner of the Sovereign Republic of Colorado.

An enraged Hillary promptly declared martial law, and ordered the Armed Forces of the United States to march into Colorado, squash the rebellion, and execute all members of the secessionist government on sight. War had come to the North American continent.

[The Other Castro]

I see Mark Halperin helped you with the map, that was nice of him.

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter I: First Blood



The first casualty of the Coloradan Rebellion (known in Colorado as the War of Clintonian Aggresion) was to occur on February 9th of that fateful year. President Clinton had already placed the Republican governors of Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming under house arrest (lest any of them attempt to aid or abet the insurrection) and ordered a full military blockade of Colorado's borders.

It was at the Four Corners Monument that the very first shots were exchanged between the Federals and the Colorado Republican Guards. Only one individual -- a rebel, as it so happened -- was killed in that incident, but the picture became well known around the world.

Blood had been shed; now, there was no going back: it was to be a fight to the death between the Sovereign Republic of Colorado and the United States of America.

The following day, the second casualty of the war came, not in Colorado, but in far away Washington D.C.



Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was passionately filibustering what he called "Hillary Clinton's unconstitutional violation of states' rights." The President would not stand for such open sedition. She sent in a drone and assassinated the Senator right there on the Senate floor -- live on C-SPAN. Anti-war Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) -- the latter of whom Clinton had never forgiven for a Primary challenge three years earlier -- were arrested and deported to Guantanamo Bay, where they joined the entirety of Colorado's congressional delegation. This was civil war, and no dissent could be tolerated.

[/]

LOL

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

I see Mark Halperin helped you with the map, that was nice of him.

I thought that I recognized the map from somewhere.

[WVdemocrat]

I'm on the edge of my seat.

[Dancing with Myself]

How Colorado/Paul fans sees Hillary:





Keep this thread going it's an interesting read..

[ElectionsGuy]

This is so ridiculous its good.

[Thunderbird is the word]

This is glorious

[SATW]

#scandalous this is amazing

[Senator Cris]

AMAZING.

So Gardner resigned from the Senate to be Governor, right? Who is the new U.S. Senator from Colorado?

And can you post the results of the 2016 Presidential election in Colorado and the results of the 2018 Gubernatorial Election in Colorado?

[JonathanSwift]

AMAZING.

So Gardner resigned from the Senate to be Governor, right? Who is the new U.S. Senator from Colorado?

And can you post the results of the 2016 Presidential election in Colorado and the results of the 2018 Gubernatorial Election in Colorado?

Yes, Gardner resigned from the Senate in order to assume the office of Governor. He appointed Colorado Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel to take his place. Of course, Senator Scheffel is now imprisoned at Guantanamo, along with Senator Walker Stapleton (who defeated Bennet in 2016).

2016 United States Presidential Election in Colorado
Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) / Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO): 84.31%
Former Governor Jesse Ventura (L-MN) / Judge Jim Gray (L-CA): 5.85%
Physician Jill Stein (G-MA) / Mayor Gayle McLaughlin (G-CA): 4.94%
Former Representative Steve Stockman (C-TX) / Attorney Darrell Castle (C-TN): 4.19%
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) / Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA): 0.58%
Other/Write-ins: 0.13%

2018 Colorado Gubernatorial Election
Senator Cory Gardner (R): 100%

The Republican candidate won every county in the state both times.

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter II: Battle Lines Drawn

Few in America or abroad thought the rebellion could last long. Colorado was landlocked and surrounded entirely by enemy territory. Accordingly, Clinton and her advisors believed that it would not be too difficult to simply starve the rebels out. The United States Armed Forces implemented what was called "Operation Boa Constrictor," the starvation and strangulation of Colorado through a blockade of its borders. But where the rebels were at a distinct disadvantage in terms of numbers and armaments, they were not at all lacking in bravery.

The next battle of the conflict occurred on February 12th. A few minutes before dawn, a platoon of the Colorado Republican Guard launched a daring assault upon Federal forces at the Kansas border on I-70. Despite being outnumbered three to one, the Coloradan forces routed the Federals, inflicting heavy casualties upon them, and even penetrated forty miles across the Kansas border before being wiped out in an airstrike.

Once shots had been fired and blood drawn, a wave of patriotic fervor swept both sides. In Denver and other cities throughout Colorado, crowds marched through the streets, carrying placards of their fallen martyrs and burning effigies of the wicked Clinton. In America, political pundits on both sides of the aisle rallied behind President Clinton and called for the Rebellion to be crushed. In both lands, young men enlisted for military service in numbers which almost made the reinstatement of the draft by the two governments redundant.



Meanwhile, President Clinton's war against the opposition in her own country continued unabated. The Libertarian, Constitution, and Green Parties were banned by executive order and their leadership imprisoned, on suspicion of sympathy with the rebellion. The State Department seized control of the internet and began shutting down "dangerous" websites. Persons who had donated money to or expressed online support for the likes of Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders were interned in FEMA camps as potential domestic terrorists.

Nor would the assault on the blockade go unpunished. On the night of February 13th-14th, Federal planes bombed Aspen, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Fort Collins, killing an estimated 30,000-40,000 Coloradan civilians in total, and injuring or displacing many others. On the morning of the 14th, the Federals seized Cory Gardner's home county of Yuma. The Coloradans fought tooth and nail there until well into the night, inflicting upon the Federals five times as many casualties as they themselves suffered; but ultimately, they were overwhelmed by American numbers.

If Clinton thought that these measures would demoralize the Rebels, she made a tactical mistake. The Coloradan people, outraged by the bombing and by the reports of Federals atrocities against civilians in Yuma, and inspired by the heroic struggle of the Republican Guards, rallied behind President Gardner as never before. Even the few Coloradans who had voted against secession and up to that point still had qualms about it, now came to see the righteousness and necessity of the war against the vicious monster Hillary Clinton.

[Senator Cris]

It's epic. Go Colorado and President Gardner!

I wonder what are the reactions of the international community after the death of 40.000 Coloradans and what are the numbers of Clinton's approval rating.

[Thunderbird is the word]

Hunter S Thompsons old house should be converted into an officers quarter for Republican Guard troops on leave.

[Anti-Bothsidesism]

This is going to be one of those TL's. XD

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter III: Colorado Strikes Back

The Federal Armies next struck from the north, invading Larimer County (home of Fort Collins) on February 20th. Here, resistance was as stiff as in Yuma, but this time the Coloradans were more prepared. They held back the Federal assault, and by April 11th (after thousands of casualties on each side) they had expelled the invaders and not only chased them across the Wyoming border, but actually seized control of much of Albany and parts of Laramie County, Wyoming. On April 20th came the news that the Republican Guards had recaptured Yuma.

This news, celebrated throughout Colorado, spurred the soldiers of Colorado to seize Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming. The people of Wyoming were almost as anti-Clinton as the Coloradans themselves; some treated the Coloradan forces with open arms, some stood by passively, but very few resisted.

Soon, Operation Boa Constrictor fell apart completely, as the Coloradan rebels pushed the Federal forces away from their borders, and actually seized territory in the neighboring states.

Nor were Coloradans fighting for their own cause alone. By May, thousands of foreign fighters -- mainly Americans from Utah and Wyoming, but including individuals from every U.S. state and even Canada, Mexico, and beyond -- had flocked to Colorado to aid the rebellion. These foreign fighters, organized in militias which were informally known as "Vince Foster Brigades," quickly established themselves as some of the fiercest fighters of all.

By June, the insurrection had spread through the Rocky Mountains and much of the Great Plains. Assisted by radical Mormon militias, the Coloradan rebels and Vince Foster Brigades seized Salt Lake City from U.S. control on June 10th.

The American forces were on the defensive through the beginning of Summer. By the end of July, Colorado and its allies controlled all of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; all of Nevada except for Las Vegas; all of New Mexico except Albuquerque and Santa Fe; the northern half of Arizona; the western halves of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; southeastern Idaho, and even a large chunk of northwestern Texas. In late July, they had even planted the Coloradan flag in Death Valley, before being pushed back by Federal forces.

Nor were the actions of the rebellion wholly limited to this vast geographical block. On August 1st (the anniversary of Colorado's statehood), members of the Vince Foster brigade drove a truck full of dynamite into the West Wing of the White House. Unbeknownst to them, Hillary Clinton and her staff were being briefed in the Pentagon at that time, so none of them were killed in the attack, but the event caused great public unrest nonetheless.

Until this time, the upcoming Presidential election had been largely overlooked due to the more pressing matter of the war, and no Republican had declared a candidacy, lest they be perceived as challenging the Commander-in-Chief during an unprecedented crisis.



However, on August 6th, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham decided it was about time to throw his hat into the ring. In his announcement speech, he declared that Clinton had not "prosecuted our fight against terrorism efficiently." He boldly promised that if elected, he would "crush this wicked Rebellion into the dust and restore the integrity of our Union." Graham would run to the right of Hillary Clinton on national defense and civil liberties. His campaign slogan, borrowed from Daniel Webster, was "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable." Even as the building was still being repaired, the race for the White House was on.

[VPH]

Ahh, Kansas is always in the crossfire. Haha

[Thunderbird is the word]

Chapter III: Colorado Strikes Back

The Federal Armies next struck from the north, invading Larimer County (home of Fort Collins) on February 20th. Here, resistance was as stiff as in Yuma, but this time the Coloradans were more prepared. They held back the Federal assault, and by April 11th (after thousands of casualties on each side) they had expelled the invaders and not only chased them across the Wyoming border, but actually seized control of much of Albany and parts of Laramie County, Wyoming. On April 20th came the news that the Republican Guards had recaptured Yuma.

This news, celebrated throughout Colorado, spurred the soldiers of Colorado to seize Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming. The people of Wyoming were almost as anti-Clinton as the Coloradans themselves; some treated the Coloradan forces with open arms, some stood by passively, but very few resisted.

Soon, Operation Boa Constrictor fell apart completely, as the Coloradan rebels pushed the Federal forces away from their borders, and actually seized territory in the neighboring states.

Nor were Coloradans fighting for their own cause alone. By May, thousands of foreign fighters -- mainly Americans from Utah and Wyoming, but including individuals from every U.S. state and even Canada, Mexico, and beyond -- had flocked to Colorado to aid the rebellion. These foreign fighters, organized in militias which were informally known as "Vince Foster Brigades," quickly established themselves as some of the fiercest fighters of all.

By June, the insurrection had spread through the Rocky Mountains and much of the Great Plains. Assisted by radical Mormon militias, the Coloradan rebels and Vince Foster Brigades seized Salt Lake City from U.S. control on June 10th.

The American forces were on the defensive through the beginning of Summer. By the end of July, Colorado and its allies controlled all of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; all of Nevada except for Las Vegas; all of New Mexico except Albuquerque and Santa Fe; the northern half of Arizona; the western halves of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; southeastern Idaho, and even a large chunk of northwestern Texas. In late July, they had even planted the Coloradan flag in Death Valley, before being pushed back by Federal forces.

Nor were the actions of the rebellion wholly limited to this vast geographical block. On August 1st (the anniversary of Colorado's statehood), members of the Vince Foster brigade drove a truck full of dynamite into the West Wing of the White House. Unbeknownst to them, Hillary Clinton and her staff were being briefed in the Pentagon at that time, so none of them were killed in the attack, but the event caused great public unrest nonetheless.

Until this time, the upcoming Presidential election had been largely overlooked due to the more pressing matter of the war, and no Republican had declared a candidacy, lest they be perceived as challenging the Commander-in-Chief during an unprecedented crisis.



However, on August 6th, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham decided it was about time to throw his hat into the ring. In his announcement speech, he declared that Clinton had not "prosecuted our fight against terrorism efficiently." He boldly promised that if elected, he would "crush this wicked Rebellion into the dust and restore the integrity of our Union." Graham would run to the right of Hillary Clinton on national defense and civil liberties. His campaign slogan, borrowed from Daniel Webster, was "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable." Even as the building was still being repaired, the race for the White House was on.

This is starting to sound like The Turner Diaries minus the racism, or maybe the Talking Heads "Life During Wartime."

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter IV

The last weeks of Summer represented perhaps the nadir of the American war effort. The rebel forces continued to expand their territory, into southern Montana, southwestern South Dakota, and southeastern Oregon; and in Portland and Seattle, massive draft riots had to be violently put down.

The first week of Fall, meanwhile, saw two new Republican entries into the 2020 Presidential race. The first was New York Representative Peter King, while the second was former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee.



Lincoln Chafee, a liberal Republican who had voted against the Iraq War in 2002, left the party in 2007, endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and finally become a Democrat in 2013, had returned to his original party in 2016 after his crushing defeat by Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Presidential Primary. Since the outbreak of the Coloradan Rebellion, Mr. Chafee had reinvented himself as a war hawk critical of Hillary Clinton's "weak handling of the insurrection."

In his announcement speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial on September 25th, Mr. Chafee declared that it was time for "the Republican Party to once again become the Party of Lincoln." "If the American people elect me," he proclaimed, "I will see to it that the Rebellion is crushed into the ground never to rise again! This is not a time to take prisoners; this is not a time for weakness or compromise; this is not a time to negotiate with terrorists or traitors. This is a time to exterminate the enemies of our Republic by any means necessary. Only the Party of Lincoln can preserve America and destroy our enemies; therefore, it is time for the Republican Party to become the party of Lincoln, by nominating me, Lincoln Chafee. God Bless our sacred Union! Death to the rebels!"

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter V: Gettysburg


Colorado-held territory as of December 1, 2019

As Fall progressed and gradually gave way to Winter, the war devolved into an ever more grueling stalemate, with neither side being able to make any long-lasting or meaningful territorial adjustments. In December, though, the Coloradan Northern Expeditionary Force made a sudden surge through South Dakota, arriving at Gettysburg in the north central part of the state.



The town, founded in 1884 and possessing a population of about 1,100 by 2019, was named after the famous 1863 Pennsylvania battle, considered by many a turning point in the First American Civil War; and, in a bit of historical irony, this Gettysburg was now to prove an important phase of this Second Civil War. The CNEF arrived in the town on the early morning of December 17th and captured it with little difficulty. It was not until a week later, on Christmas Eve, that American military forces launched a counter-invasion of the town.

After nine days of fierce fighting, in which more than ten thousand soldiers on each side (and more than one hundred civilians, nearly a tenth of the small town's population) perished, the American troops -- to their and the country's surprise -- drove the Coloradans from the town on January 2nd. It now became apparent that Colorado had over-extended itself, as their forces began to crumble everywhere along the wide periphery of the territory they held.

By February, American forces had recaptured all previously rebel-held territory in South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and California; and were routing the Colorado Republican Guards in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. On February 9th, 2020, one year after the first shots were fired at Four Corners, American troops once again set foot on that monument, though they were expelled and driven back across northeastern Arizona two days later.

The tide had finally turned against Colorado.

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter VI: The Race for the White House

Even as these momentous events were occurring out West, the 2020 Presidential race was heating up back east. On February 3rd, the Iowa caucus was held. Lindsey Graham won with some 40% of the vote, narrowly beating out Peter King who received 38%. Lincoln Chafee, still seen with suspicion by voters due to his repeated party switching, won only 22% of the vote. In New Hampshire, Peter King got 43% to Graham's 32% and Chafee's 25%. The third primary was South Carolina (with most of Nevada still under rebel control, the caucus could not be conducted in that state). Favorite son Lindsey Graham got a whopping 65% to King's 24% and a paltry 11% for Chafee.

Lincoln Chafee subsequently dropped out of the race, joined the Democratic Party and endorsed Hillary Clinton's re-election bid. On Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020) Lindsey Graham won every state except for Vermont and Peter King's home state of New York. King suspended his Presidential bid, leaving Lindsey Graham to claim his party's nomination. He would eventually select political commentator Charles Krauthammer of New York as his running mate.

Of course, by the time he did that, at the Republican National Convention in New York City in late July, the Coloradan Rebellion was nearly on its last legs. They had been driven back almost entirely into Colorado itself, with the Oklahoma panhandle and a chunk of western Kansas as their only remaining extra-territorial possession. American planes bombed Denver on a daily basis.

But if Colorado was down, it was not yet out.

[JonathanSwift]

Chapter VII: Colorado's Last Stand

In June, Vice President Tim Kaine surprisingly announced that he did not wish to serve a second term as Vice President, and would refuse his party's Vice Presidential nomination. The Clinton Administration scrambled for a replacement, and found one in the form of Lincoln Chafee. Since his return to the Democratic Party, no one had campaigned more ferociously on Clinton's behalf than he. He was well known for "waving the bloody shirt," denouncing the Republican Party as "the Party of Treason" and implying that the Graham-Krauthammer ticket were elected, they would go easy on the defeated rebels, if not outright cave in to their cause. He would make the perfect attack dog running mate.

The war looked all but over in September, with the beleaguered Colorado Republican Guard fighting tooth and nail just to defend their borders and suffering overwhelming casualties against the superior American forces. Then, on September 20th, a surprise reversal occurred, with the Coloradans cracking through the American lines and blazing in three days through central Wyoming as far as the Montana border. Now, Lindsey Graham's previously preposterous-seeming narrative that Clinton wasn't conducting the war with enough strength suddenly became more credible, and the South Carolina Senator surged ahead in the polls.

Clinton knew she had to crush Colorado before November 3rd if she were to win an easy re-election. So, at 4:29 a.m. on the 15th of October, American planes dropped an atomic bomb on Denver. Two hours later, Aspen met the same fate.

Later that day, the bulk of the Colorado Republican Guard surrendered to the United States Armed Forces. On October 16th, the Colorado Northern Expeditionary Force, trapped in southern Montana behind enemy lines, knowing that victory was impossible and possessing an overwhelming desire to be allowed simply to survive and make it home to their families, mutinied and surrendered to the Americans.

On October 17th, American Navy SEALS stormed President Gardner's compound in Yuma and assassinated the rebel leader. All remaining Coloradan Republican Guard forces surrendered by October 20th, and the handful of diehard Fosterists were wiped out by the 30th. The rebellion had been crushed.

[JonathanSwift]

2020 United States Presidential Election

President Hillary Clinton (D-NY) / Former Governor Lincoln Chafee (D-RI): 72%; 525 Electoral Votes
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) / Pundit Charles Krauthammer (R-NY): 27%; 13 Electoral Votes

Colorado Electors appointed by Hillary Clinton, rather than determined by popular vote.

[JonathanSwift]

AYY LMAO

Please don't tell me that SC is next in line lol. And why did RI go Republican?

Rhode Island went Republican because they hate Chafee. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they are the next to secede.