The Revival of Americanism

[anthonyjg]

November 3 2020

It was over. America was finally done with Donald Trump. It had been a long four years, filled with bitter partisanship and a deteriorating standard of living at home, but it was over. After Trump had abandoned much of what he originally campaigned on, by turning into a Bush Republican, many of his supporters became disillusioned and lost the fervor that they had had just four years ago. Trump had touted himself as the second coming of Andrew Jackson, but he turned out to merely be America’s Silvio Berlusconi. Poisoned by incompetence and corruption, Donald Trump would go on to be remembered as a failed president who was unable to solve the problems in the American psyche that he adequately identified.

Throughout his presidency, Trump was blocked at every turn. The moderates prevented conservative legislation and the Freedom Caucus prevented moderate legislation. The 2018 Midterms saw the Republican House majority fall to 221-214 while the senate composition stayed the same with the GOP picking up Indiana and losing Nevada.

The general election was fairly close in the early going, with Warren holding a slim lead. Then, reminiscent of the 2008 campaign, the stock market crashed in late September. Soon after, Warren repeatedly hit Trump for his repeal of Dodd-Frank and it quickly became clear who the next president would be. However, despite Trump’s many failings, the Republican’s avoided complete disaster in 2020. Trump was able to hang onto most of his base from four years prior by painting the Warren/Ellison ticket as too far to the left for America, an attack that had moderate success as Trump was able to earn tepid support from reliably GOP voters.

Warren/Ellison: 54.1
Trump/Pence: 44.8
Petersen/McAfee: 0.6
Stein/Turner: 0.3
Others: 0.2

Warren was able to break the glass ceiling by riding a wave of anti-Trump resentment into the White House. Backed by Bernie Sanders since she entered the race in May, Warren cruised through the primary, only losing a few Southern states to Cory Booker. Once nominated, Warren and Ellison campaigned as reformers who would restore the American identity. Similar to the New Deal Democrats of years gone by, Warren sought to save capitalism from itself. She promised to bring back the American Dream through increased spending on education, jobs, and an expanded safety net. Also, after four years of an administration that was viewed by the public as dishonest and corrupt, Warren embraced Jacksonianism, promising to return power to the common people, this strategy paid dividends because many populists felt that their calls went unanswered by President Trump.

However, despite the advantages that she held, Warren would enter her presidency with a number of troubles at hand, most notably being how she would govern with a divided Congress. Democrats failed to get the numbers in Congress that they wanted as many Republicans found it easy to run away from Trump. The Democrats won the senate with a 52-48 majority and the House saw a 219-216 Republican majority.  But even with the coming challenges, Democrats celebrated their victory and embraced what they saw as a new American era.

[anthonyjg]

Inauguration Day

Early on Inauguration Day, all seemed well. An unpopular incumbent was going out and Warren’s optimistic, progressive message was about to take hold. The transition was relatively peaceful. Trump seemed like he was done with the job and most of the country was ready for a change too. Many, eager to be done with the Trump era, watched in excitement as Vice President Ellison and President Warren were sworn in.

At the Capitol, only Speaker Ryan sat glumly, regretting his decision to not resign from his post. Ryan wasn’t ready for this battle. Deep down, he felt certain that he was heading for the same fate as his predecessor, John Boehner. Trying to balance the hardline conservatism of his base with the moderation needed for governing in a newly Democratic world was going to be impossible.

But for the rest of the country, it finally seemed like everything would be alright. With a Warren presidency would come a renewal of the Jeffersonianism and Jacksonianism that the nation seemed to had recently forgotten. Once she was sworn in as the 46th President, Elizabeth Warren approached the podium, ready to deliver her speech, greeted by a raucous crowd of 2.5 million. Warren smiled and waved, ready to begin her presidency. At the moment, Warren had a sky high favorability rating at 77%, surpassing that of Barack Obama in 2009. As the country awaited Warren’s administration, optimism was running high in anticipation of the return of the American Dream. The country was ready to start a new and eagerly awaited the first speech from its new president.

Warren began to speak, full of the same optimism and confidence that the rest of the country felt at the moment. “My fellow Ameri-” but as soon as Warren started speaking, she collapsed. A rogue secret service officer had shot at and hit the President and Vice President. Later that officer would claim that he wanted to “protect liberty from the grip of socialism”. At the very moment that it seemed like a savior had arrived, America was thrown back into chaos. Warren and Ellison were both rushed to the hospital, where they died later that day. Somewhere in the absolute mess that was Washington, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.

[anthonyjg]

The Fallout

The country wasn’t ready for it. Morale took a beating as millions became disillusioned with politics. The whole scene was reminiscent of 1968. Warren played the part of Bobby Kennedy, the hero that the country needed, gone too soon. The world’s apparent savior was gone, replaced with a symbol of everything wrong with the Reagan era. Bitterness consumed the public, overtaking America’s trademark optimism.

The streets were flooded with protesters, it was 2017 on steroids. Ryan was called an illegitimate president and the public felt that their will had been completely ignored. Conspiracy theories flew about how the “bourgeois establishment” had put the officer up to it. Even without sufficient evidence to back up this claim, distrust towards the government grew. A Gallup poll found that 52% of Americans believed that there was some sort of conspiracy behind Warren’s death. Many on the far left were eager to embrace this. In a show shortly after the inauguration Cenk Uygur said, “There’s no way in hell he wasn’t put up to it. All that prep, security, extra precautions and still, a candidate viewed favorably by an overwhelming majority of Americans ends up assassinated. The establishment just couldn’t stand to see the people get a president that they wanted”.

But regardless of what the protesters wanted, Paul Ryan was the president. A man viewed as illegitimate, dishonest, and elitist was about to take over for a candidate that ran on stopping everything that Ryan stood for. America's longstanding affinity for Jeffersonianism and Jacksonianism seemed to be under attack. Inside the White House, the 47th President prepared to address a bitter nation that didn’t want to hear him.

[anthonyjg]

‘Not Nostrums, But Normalcy’ Finds No Sympathy Here

President Ryan wasn’t ready, but he started anyway. In his address to the nation, Ryan solemnly read off of a teleprompter. Symbolic of the state of the nation, Ryan stared  into the camera with lifeless, tired eyes. The man who was set to lead the nation didn’t appear to be capable of leading. Ryan’s condolences for Warren and the outline of his vision for the nation did little to console the grieving nation.

“In closing,” Ryan said, “as we grapple with the challenges that we face, let us remember the words of former President Warren Harding, ‘America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration’. I ask that you join me, in moving forward, in healing, and in bringing back hope and prosperity. Thank you, goodnight, and may God bless the United States of America.” On CNN, the camera cut to anchor Anderson Cooper who had a bit of a stunned look on his face. He turned to his panel and said, “an interesting quote, but kind of an odd choice to quote Harding when you’re already viewed as a dishonest and ineffective president, don’t you think?”.

 It was a very minor gaffe, much more focus was placed on Ryan’s anemic delivery, but it was still symbolic of the tone-deafness of the Ryan administration. First of all, Ryan had just quoted a man with whom he shared many of the same negative qualities. If people were already afraid of what the new administration would bring, then that speech didn’t do a whole lot to help ease their concerns.

But more importantly, the quote wasn’t even as applicable as some inside the beltway thought, at least not in the way that Ryan used it. The Reagan era was over and the public was ready for a change, especially once it saw that Reaganism hadn’t helped to preserve the American Dream. The progressive movement was similar to the New Deal coalition in many ways. They sought to restore old ideals with revolutionary practices. To preserve the principles of Jefferson and Jackson, America needed radical change to overthrow the grip of Reaganism.

[Confused Democrat]

Love it! Keep going.

[anthonyjg]

Love it! Keep going.

Thank you!

[anthonyjg]

Ryan’s Cabinet: An Island of Misfit Toys

Tasked with commanding a shattered majority and rebuilding a distraught nation, Ryan carefully set out in building his administration. For the role of Vice President, Ryan chose moderate senator Susan Collins of Maine. In his ideal world, Collins would not be Ryan’s first choice, but President Ryan did not live in an ideal world. The Democratic majority in the senate, coupled with a public that had repeatedly rejected movement conservatism, left Ryan with no other choice. With his limited political power, Ryan simply needed a Republican that could get confirmed. Collins passed through the senate, 72-27. Back in Maine, governor Terry Hayes succumbed to pressure from the growing progressive movement and appointed Troy Jackson to fill the vacant senate seat.

Ryan’s cabinet largely avoided ideologues and was largely dominated by moderates from both parties. Ryan merely sought to get his choices through the Democratic senate and picking people like Meg Whitman for Secretary of Treasury or Ed Rendell for Transportation Secretary allowed him to do just that. But while Ryan was able to hastily appoint his cabinet, the lack of ideological cohesion doomed the administration from the start. Reports of infighting would surface throughout Ryan’s tenure, helping to explain much of the ineffectiveness of his administration.

Perhaps most consequential of Ryan’s cabinet choices was his pick for Secretary of State, Tom Cotton. One of the few hard-line conservatives in the administration, Cotton was able to scrape together enough votes in the senate as the age of neoconservatism hadn’t quite come to a close. While many expected it, Donald Trump did not remove America from the world, that much had been clear since his use of tomahawk missiles on Syria in 2017. The chaos present throughout the world always had Americans coming back for more. However, with Cotton’s appointment came some of the first real, and more importantly, substantive, opposition to neoconservatism. Since its inception with the Bernie Sanders campaign, the ‘political revolution’ had largely focused on domestic affairs. But the selection of Cotton changed that. No longer could the Mattis’ of the world fly through the senate virtually unopposed. In fact, Cotton only made it through by a margin of 57-41. Prior to his appointment, the progressive message on foreign policy was fairly simplistic and, often times, uniformed. But opposition to Cotton caused progressives to take a much closer look at foreign policy. Despite his efforts in the name of neoconservatism, this became Tom Cotton’s most notable legacy.

[Captain Chaos]

Since Warren and Ellison were assassinated after their swearing in, wouldn't she have already nominated people for cabinet positions back in November and December? And with a Democratic majority in the Senate, I assume that most of her cabinet picks would be confirmed on or before January 20. Thus, President Ryan would inherit a cabinet of mostly Democrats and unless anyone resigns, he will think twice before firing anyone especially in this political environment.

[anthonyjg]

Since Warren and Ellison were assassinated after their swearing in, wouldn't she have already nominated people for cabinet positions back in November and December? And with a Democratic majority in the Senate, I assume that most of her cabinet picks would be confirmed on or before January 20. Thus, President Ryan would inherit a cabinet of mostly Democrats and unless anyone resigns, he will think twice before firing anyone especially in this political environment.

Similar to the situation this year, Warren had named most of her cabinet by inauguration day, but none were sworn in. This allowed Ryan to make his own picks.

[anthonyjg]

A Crack in the American Psyche

With Warren’s death came a major blow to the optimism that many once felt. In articles that would gain infamy in future years, like “Maybe We’re All Doomed Anyway” and “The Fall of the Western American Empire," journalists made the case that Warren’s death would not prove to be a cause of America’s downfall. Rather, it was the result of the growing partisanship and stagnation that had plagued the country for the past few decades. In short, Warren’s death would merely speed up America’s decline and the country was bound to fall anyway, whether or not she was president.

This fear was not confined to inside the beltway either, it was a feeling shared by many Americans. One month after Ryan took office, an ABC/Washington Post poll found that 56% of respondents had a pessimistic outlook on the country’s future. This was a stark contrast to the optimism of past generations and it showed in the streets. Thousands of protesters marched throughout the country in response to the bleak future that they saw in front of them.

However, it is important to note that this was a crack in the American psyche, not a break. After Warren’s death, the populist left once again began to speak of the timeless creed that former President Obama often spoke of, albeit in a new way. The future certainly looked bleak, but many argued that it was still possible for America to make a comeback. It was a new kind of patriotism, one that was more focused on potential rather than the current status of the country. Optimism and confidence didn’t run high in America during this time, but hope certainly did. Nobody was nationalistic in regards to the current state of America, or even for the principles that the country had operated on since 1980. Yet, a deep underlying affinity for the country and its people remained. It’s the reason that protesters continued to flood the streets. They weren’t happy, they weren’t even sure that they going to be happy, but they still had some fight and hope left inside them. It was a subtle message, one that struggled to be heard through all the heartbreak, but it would later prove to be instrumental to the rise of progressivism. The doctrine of “Yes, we can” would live on, even if it was more of a “So you’re telling me there’s a chance” type of feeling.

[anthonyjg]

No Country For Poor Men

For the past few hundred years, capitalism thrived in the United States as a result of a lack of class-consciousness among Americans. The views of those like Horatio Alger had long been able to keep change at bay. But, with the continuing stagnation and a turbulent political climate, class was becoming more important than ever.

Anti-elitism had long been a pillar of American thought, dating all the way back to Jackson, but it seemed to be at its strongest during Ryan’s presidency. It really began in the 2016 election, with the rise of populists Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Their campaigns, although very different, both waged a war against the elites in society. Politics quickly became a game of “us versus them.”.

This change in rhetoric was not entirely unwarranted either, the growing concentration of political and economic power into the hands of a select few had helped to weaken the Horatio Alger myth. It was becoming apparent that the current status of things didn’t allow people to rise above the class that they were born into. This is why terms like “socialist” or “leftist” no longer had the same punch that they once did. Americans came to decide that the neoliberalism that had defined the era of Reagan had failed to promote the fluidity of class. Therefore, they turned to other options, making a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, one of the most popular politicians in the country.

Americans mainly adhere to principles, they largely have no attachment to specific methods of economic governance. Once it appeared that Reaganism had failed to uphold the ideals of America, people had no issue with it being abandoned for a social democracy. The main threat to Ryan’s political standing was that he was the head of dying movement and a country ready for change. The continued presence of the Reagan doctrine infuriated the working class, who overwhelmingly backed Warren in 2020. When their realigning president was robbed from them, right before their eyes, they grew bitter at what they saw as the work of elites. The continuation of conservative economics, along with the conspiracies surrounding Warren’s death, helped to promote the view that the system was rigged against the little man.

[anthonyjg]

A New Enemy of the People

One major consequence of the Ryan administration was a growing sense of trust from the American people towards the media. For the first few months of his administration, a tense relationship was building between journalists and Ryan. However, unlike the situation with former President Trump, the media largely had the trust of the public.

In one his first interviews as president, Ryan appeared on ABC News, roughly a week after taking office. Ryan’s unlucky streak continued as the interview was largely panned by the media for being tone-deaf and ineffective. Pressed for answers on what his agenda would be going forward, Ryan defaulted to the doctrine of movement conservatism that had long defined the Republican party. But what was crucial wasn’t his policy, it was his reasoning. Ryan came across as elitist and unconcerned with the struggles of the working class.

As Ryan continued to be viewed as a borderline aristocrat, he lost the support of the people, and the media was waiting in the wings to gain it. Without the brash personality of Donald Trump to generate headlines, journalists had to turn to actual policy. Thorough investigations into Paul Ryan’s administration became a regular occurrence. Journalists consistently deconstructed the neoliberal approach of Paul Ryan and through their passionate arguments, the media evoked sympathy for the working class, a group that was viewed as ignored by the administration. The media had shed its elitist image, handed it off to Ryan, and in doing so, won back the trust of Americans. This increased trust for news organizations resulted in a more informed and politically engaged public, helping to continue Ryan’s downfall.

[Kingpoleon]

We don't really view people as "aristocrats" in America today. Perhaps you meant out of touch elitist?

[anthonyjg]

We don't really view people as "aristocrats" in America today. Perhaps you meant out of touch elitist?

I mean, it's probably not the word that regular people would use to describe him, but I think that it summarizes what the view of Ryan would be: an out of touch elitist who was born rich and had life handed to him on a silver platter.

[anthonyjg]

The Face of the Opposition

For the second time in two years, the Democratic Party was left looking for a leader. However, unlike the situation four years prior, there was no identity crisis. The Bernie wing had won over the party and the deaths of Warren and Ellison had left them angry and fired up. At this point, the ideology of the party was largely agreed upon, there just wasn’t an apparent leader to take over.

There was, of course, Bernie Sanders himself, who had proven to be an excellent spokesperson for progressive causes. Sanders remained quite popular and energetic, but his age meant that while he could continue to lead his movement, he couldn’t be the long term leader for the Democratic Party. Other, more youthful, names were floated but they all seemed to have some fatal flaw in the eyes of the base. Kamala Harris didn’t prosecute Mnuchin. Chris Kennedy was an establishment rich businessman. Sherrod Brown was boring. Cory Booker was an opportunist. Gavin Newsom was weak on class issues. It seemed that no matter who it was, they just weren’t good enough.

However, there were a number of names out there that had great potential, but were virtually unknown. Pete Buttigieg and Jason Kander had just been elected governor in their respective states, and they both had the ability to be fairly popular with all wings of the party. Troy Jackson had generated some waves when he was appointed to the senate, a move that President Ryan had not anticipated. Jackson, similar to Sanders, had a resume that looked like it would be able to appeal to rural populists and millennial progressives. The same went for Virginia Governor Tom Perriello. There were certainly options out there for Democrats, even if none seemed obvious.

But, the progressive movement was alive and well even if it did not have an apparent leader for the future. Generic congressional ballot polls showed Democrats well ahead of Republicans. Additionally, Millennials were now a large political force and with the presidencies of Bush, Trump, and now Ryan, there had never been a Republican President in their lifetime that they respected or even remotely liked. Protests continued to grow, progressive causes were being pushed, and Democrats looked forward to a fight in 2022.

[anthonyjg]

A Reaganite in a Leftist World

From the start, Paul Ryan was hampered in terms of what he could actually get done as president. The last president to take office with a Congress controlled by the other party was George H.W. Bush and even then, Bush at least had a mandate following his decisive victory over Dukakis during the Reagan era. Ryan had none of the same luxuries. He wasn’t elected, his party had been rejected at the past election, and Reaganism was losing its hold on America.

However, there were some things that Paul Ryan was able to get done while in office. In the same way that it took a Democrat, Bill Clinton, to get welfare reform passed, it was going to take a Republican, Paul Ryan, to get immigration reform through. It was merely a game of optics, but with one of their own at the helm, Paul Ryan was, for the most part, able to get the Republican Party to steer away from a hard-line position on the issue. Some credit for this is also due to the failures of Donald Trump who had caused nationalism to turn sour.

Ryan had never really shared the same concern over border security as the populist wing of the Republican Party. This allowed him to pivot towards a bipartisan goal on immigration reform. A law that was very similar to the one written by the “Gang of Eight” back in 2013 was quickly passed and signed into law by Ryan.

But just as important as the laws that Ryan pushed were the ones that he didn’t. Ryan, who claimed to have dreamed of cutting the safety net since he was in college, made no attempts to do so. Part of this was the split Congress and part of it was the surge in public opposition towards cuts to public services. Ryan largely ignored the issue and it quickly became clear that changes to the safety net would only come from the left.

[anthonyjg]

The Lingering Alt-Right

In achieving some reform, Ryan largely ignored the group that had recently been the basis of his party. Following the failures of Donald Trump, many on the right had abandoned the strict nationalism that they had once adhered to. Yet, there was still a group that held some influence and believed that Trump was robbed of success by the political establishment. There were also those, along similar ideological lines, who didn’t see Trump as one of their own. Rather, he was someone who entered office on a lie and never even tried to achieve what he said was his agenda.

With Ryan in charge, these anti-establishment nationalists began to split with the GOP. It began with the nomination of Cotton, whose neoconservative agenda angered many in the alt-right. But angry as some were at Cotton’s nomination, it did not compare to the backlash to Ryan’s immigration reform.

While popular with the general public, those who had made up the base of the Republican Party for the past four years felt betrayed. Right wing media outlets like Breitbart railed against the president, saying that his policy harmed the United States both economically and culturally. The shaky alliance between the alt-right and the Republican Party had been broken.

Kicked out of power, some on the alt-right became disillusioned and abandoned the political scene. Others, the more isolationist of the bunch, sought to either build up the Libertarian Party or lay the groundwork for a Rand Paul run in 2024. But most maintained their beliefs and continued fighting. But, without the brash Donald Trump at the helm, the ones remaining in the alt-right struggled to achieve any sort of political or electoral success. Their influence on the Republican Party was gone and the party had largely reverted back to its pre-Trump form.

Many inside the beltway celebrated this transition. Republican insiders believed that any other nominee would have crushed Clinton in 2016 and staved off Warren in 2020. But this was a fairly inaccurate view of the situation. While it was true that Trump’s proneness to gaffes was a major liability throughout his presidency, it was equally true that Trumpism had come to be more popular with the electorate than Reaganism. The losses of Romney and the 2016 primary challengers to Trump showed that even in the Republican Party, many were ready to move on. Reaganism was an agenda that had grown old and something new was needed to rejuvenate the party, something along the lines of Trumpism. But, with Ryan in power, Republicans went down a risky path as they reverted back to their old routine.

[jojoju1998]

This seems very familiar to another Timeline, I was a big fan of. TD's Between the Two Majorities.

Reaganism or Neoliberalism does not work for Today's Economy. With Automation, And a New Scientific Age.

I would think that a Populist Governor with some Establishment Backing would usher in the New Democratic Realignment. If you took a look at the Presidents who ushered in the Previous Majorities : Reagan and FDR, you would see that they were Both Governors.

[anthonyjg]

This seems very familiar to another Timeline, I was a big fan of. TD's Between the Two Majorities.

Reaganism or Neoliberalism does not work for Today's Economy. With Automation, And a New Scientific Age.

It's definitely based on ideas similar to the ones shown in TD's excellent timeline. The interesting thing to me about realignments is that we've never really had one that's been delayed. There are usually bitter transitional periods between them (like Nixon/Ford/Carter and Obama/Trump) but those periods never see a resurgence of the old ideology. I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at what would happen if external events prevented the electorate from getting its realigning president and, in doing so, held America back in the Reagan Era.

[anthonyjg]

Progressive Traditionalists
   
For years, the left had struggled to gain traction as it failed to appeal to the patriotism that many Americans felt. The way that the left had fought the culture wars had proven to be a gift to the right as progressives had never even tried to link Americanism with social liberalism.

There is a myth of rugged individualism in America’s past. This myth had long plagued the left as they relied on it to justify their positions on social issues. However, as historian Charles Beard pointed out in 1931, rugged individualism has largely never existed in America. Beard’s analysis was focused on economics, but it still helped to prove the larger idea that there isn’t an innate opposition to government intervention on certain issues, if that intervention promotes Americanism.

But the left ignored this, choosing to argue their position on social issues from a rugged individualism perspective rather than from an Americanistic perspective. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s shift away from the “safe, legal, and rare” mantra partially accounted for her loss to an incompetent candidate. In 1972, McGovern could have avoided a complete blowout if he wasn’t the candidate of “amnesty, abortion, and acid,” as Eagleton had described him.

Those who opposed the candidacies of Clinton and McGovern did so mainly because their positions on social issues seemed to go against the sort of compassionate capitalism that many Americans embraced. It was reasonable to ask why someone who supports Americanism would also support taking away opportunity from a fetus or ruining the lives of addicts through the legalization of drugs. This sort of rhetoric was bound to resonate more with a public that had already demonstrated a greater care for values than for specific ways of governance.

However, around the time of Ryan’s inauguration, there was a noticeable shift in the rhetoric that was used by progressives. America’s past was brought up much more frequently as the left argued that the principles that they were fighting for could be seen in the Great Society, New Deal, Square Deal, and Jeffersonianism. Also, the left’s rhetoric was changing. The “safe, legal, and rare” viewpoint was making its way back into popularity, the money used in the war on drugs was scrutinized to a greater degree, and opportunity for immigrants was promoted more than potential racism was condemned.

Perhaps it was gutless for many progressives to change their justification for their positions, but nobody could reasonably argue that it wasn’t electorally sound. Approval of the Democratic Party jumped, Democrats continued to lead generic ballot polls by a large margin, and support for many socially liberal positions continued to rise. The balance of continuity among change in the left’s agenda proved to be a valuable asset.

[TheLeftwardTide]

Continue this please!

[anthonyjg]

The Wrong Arm of the Law

Following Warren’s death, there was an increased sense of suspicion towards law enforcement. Part of it certainly had to do with the fact that Warren’s assassin was a secret service agent, but it was a sentiment that had been growing for a long time. Americans never rejected a majority of police officers and they always had an affinity for law and order, but increased caution was noticeable. This shift provided a much needed boost to the Black Lives Matter movement and civil libertarians.

Similar to the declining influence of Reagan, Warren’s death helped to spur this development more than it did to start it. The deaths of young black men like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown helped to bring helped to bring the issue of police brutality into the mainstream, but it still remained a largely partisan issue.

However, things shifted slightly with the presidency of Donald Trump. Throughout his presidency, Trump continued to show nasty undertones of racism and authoritarianism that outraged his political opponents. Enthusiasm was high on the left side of the aisle.

Then came the death of Warren. As the President was taken down by a member of law enforcement, any Americans who were on the fence jumped onto the side of police skeptics. “All cops are bad” never came close to being a mainstream position, but it was widely accepted that there were problems in the legal system that needed fixing. It quickly became evident that the powers that be were not inherently good.

BLM activists found success in the new skepticism towards the law and so did civil libertarians who argued that police militarization and the extended power of authority had led the nation to such a point. Republicans found themselves in a need to either backpedal or face the consequences of an angry electorate. The Democratic Party continue to see its positions pushed further and further into the mainstream, much to the dismay of the lingering right.

However, the issue of race had not been solved. It was not the death of young black people that pushed the nation over the edge, but that of a white woman. Trump's racism and authoritarianism fired up the liberal base of the Democratic Party, but wasn't as persuasive to Trump-Warren voters as economic issues were. Racial animosities still existed, even if they had calmed for the time being. The fact of the matter is that many took different routes to reach the same conclusion. Issues with law enforcement had been dealt with, but racial tension had yet to subside.

[Captain Chaos]

Glad this back

Now can we get to the 2022 elections already?

[anthonyjg]

Glad this back

Now can we get to the 2022 elections already?

Yeah, I know, it's a lot of backstory, but I fear that the rest of the timeline wouldn't make sense without it. But, I'm like three, maybe four, posts away from the midterms, so I'll be there shortly.

[anthonyjg]

Decision 2021

Being an odd number year, 2021 didn’t see many elections, but the ones that it did have gave the world a clue to the extent of the electorate’s anger. Ryan had mainly filled his cabinet with figures from outside of Congress, so he was able to avoid losses and potentially politically damaging special elections.

However, there was one notable special senate election that garnered attention: the race to replace Secretary of State Tom Cotton. It pitted Republican congressman Tim Griffin against Democratic State Senator, Larry Teague. Griffin ended up winning the election, but by a mere 4 points, far below what Cotton had received the previous November. It wouldn’t be fair to extrapolate the national sentiment from one race, but the result did coincide with what elections at the state level showed: Republicans were underperforming by wide margins everywhere.

In Virginia, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax won by 10 points and in New Jersey, Phil Murphy was re-elected by 30. Put all together, it was clear that the national mood was heavily on the side of the Democratic Party heading into the midterms the next year.