BTM 2.0: The Eighth Party System

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

2068 Presidential Election: Final Map and Results

Governor Ariana Ward (R-WI)/Governor Wyatt Kelly (R-UT): 49.23%, 245 electoral votes
Senator Nayara Bustos (D-NV)/Governor Madison Barnes (D-KY): 48.51%, 305 electoral votes
Former State Senator Mila Thompson (CON-NY): 1.21%, 0 electoral votes
Businesswoman Zoey Kelly (S-MO): .88%, 0 electoral votes
Other: .17%


Senate Final Results

Senate Majority Leader Nick Gonzalez (R-TX): 61 (+4): 55.39%
Senate Minority Leader Sean Miller (D-WI) : 47 (-4): 42.78%


House elections (these aren’t the actual seats, but the figures and rough pattern are true)
Speaker Gabrielle Thomas (D-MI-5): 49.96%, 230 seats (+15)
House Minority Leader Anthony Bennett (R-NY-12): 49.04%, 212 seats (-15)

Not a resounding win, but a win nevertheless for Democrats.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

It Begins

On a unnaturally warm Sunday morning, on the 20th of January, Senator Nayara Bustos stood at a podium. Half a million and more people were there before her, packed between her podium and the waves lapping at the Washington Monument. Her running mate, now Vice President, was standing by her side. And she was here, about to take the oath of office. She had never expected it, and yet it had happened anyway. Seven years ago, she was a perfectly ordinary office worker in Las Vegas, with no idea she would become president. Now, seven years and as many campaigns later, she was standing here, about to take the oath of office. Chief Justice Thomas Russell, a wizened old man, seem to say something. Nayara was shocked out of her thoughts.
   “Senator, do you have something you wish to take your oath on?”
   Nayara handed him the old, cracked bible, once ornate, a relic from her grandparents, and before, back in the old country. It wasn’t grand, or classy, but it made an impact. She wasn’t Alex Williams, she wasn’t Northeastern old money on his book of laws. She was Nayara Bustos, and she was here to change Washington, for the better.
   “Very well.” Russell said, vaguely grimacing. “Repeat after me. I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States”
   “ I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.”
 “and will to the best of my Ability”
 “and will to the best of my Ability”
 “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
 “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
   “Very well. Congratulations, Madam President.”
There was a wave of applause, and she turned to the podium. “Thank you. Thank you to everyone who voted for me, all across America. I am incredibly grateful you have given me this opportunity, and I promise to do my absolute best. Now, onto business. We have become weak, and we have become corrupt. America has opened it’s borders to the world, and Africa has come flooding in. When my grandparents came to this country, they came here to work. They come here to take. America has become weak, and weakness leads to corruption. Dawson, Ward, and Williams all have shown what our weakness has wrought. No more! No more shall we be weak, no more shall we bow to the Chinese or the Africans. Now is the time for a renewed American greatness, a greatness like that of the Cordray era. As your President, I will Make America Great Again. I will root out the corruption in this country, root and branch. I will return us to an era of glory, not kowtowing before Chinese unbelievers. This is my solemn vow toyou."
   There was scattered applause, quickly growing into a roar. She had not spoken for long, but she had already made an impact.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Oh sh!t wait what

Also, waves lapping at the Washington Monument...

The IPCC vastly underestimated sea level rise.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Daedalus Delenda Est

   Daedalus. Perdix. Hipparchus. Ships half a mile long, enormous shells of helium around a tiny core. Ships powered by engines the size of destroyers, with power enough to burn cities to the ground in minutes. Ships traveling between the stars at tens of millions of miles per hour, Ships with robot wardens to repair them in flight, probes half machine and half something else, telescopes and spectroscopes and everything else. These three had been sent already, to the three nearest solar systems. They would not arrive for decades to come. A fourth, Hyperbius, was under construction, a framework of metal and machines inside the orbit of Mimas, circling far distant Saturn. Thousands of people worked on the project there alone, many more providing the materials, fuel, and much else needed to make these immense ships. An international consortium, American and Chinese led, but with with involvement from nearly every nation on Earth, was building them, out there in the endless black. And if Bustos had her way, it would all grind to a shuddering halt.
   It was obvious, really, three birds with one stone. Contracts for it had been the object of corruption in the Williams administration, ending them would end that at a stroke. Daedalus, too, the product of an international consortium, was a potent symbol of the emerging global world order, something Bustos stood defiantly opposed to. Finally, it was expensive. Talk of dollars and cents may seem crude among the stars, but, well, “a trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Eliminating the program would solve the deficit at a stroke. In Nayara Busto’s imagination, it was an easy, obvious, solution to the problems ailing the United States. Reality didn’t oblige.
   It passed the House easily enough, given the majority Speaker Thomas commanded. The Senate was the real sticking point.
   To call Senate Majority Leader Nick Gonzalez angry would far understate the issue. Indascent, furious, enraged. The towering Texan was currently yelling at Senator Kayla Young.
   “What the hell are you doing? Do you want me to pull your funding for re-election? Do you want to get kicked off every single committee? Because you will if you vote for this.”
   “I am not your lapdog, Nick. I will not vote to keep this debacle.”
   “Debacle!? Debacle? Really? This is one of the greatest achievements ever, and you’re going to end it just because Bustos twisted your arm a little?"
   “She won my state.”
   “She won my f-ing state too. No one f-ing cares that Nayara f-ing Bustos won your state. Hell, Alabama gets forty billion dollars from the government for this.”
   “And it costs us forty-five. Not worth it, Nick. Ending this will close the deficit. Plus, we won’t have to kowtow to the Chinks and the Kafirs anymore. Don’t you want that?
   “Great, now you’re an f-ing bigot too. Any more unpleasant surprises, Ms. Young?”
   “It isn’t bigotry to support America.”
   “And you plan to support it by ending the greatest achievement we have ever made.”
   “Greatest achievement? Nick, it’s a giant lump of gas.”
   “You ignorant little-“
   C-SPAN cuts out.

   The vote was incredibly close. 4 Democrats, one each from New York, Washington, California, and Luna, voted against. Republicans from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and 1 each from the Carolinas voted for it, 11 in total. In the end, it was 54-54, dead even when Vice President Madison Barnes cast her vote.
   It passed.
   The Daedalus project, the grand achievement of humanity, the work of a lifetime for millions, would no longer be funded by the United States. Within a month of that fateful September day, the project had collapsed, the launch of the UNS Hyperbius to Sirius delayed indefinitely. Nayara Bustos had won.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Request to Jalawest.  Can we get a map of Current Control in the 2070 Senate?  Before the Midterms.  Gubernatorial control would be cool as well.

This is the map of the 141th Senate

And this is party affiliation and % of the Governor from 2065-2068.

Mars has a republican governor and two republican senators, Luna a republican governor and a senator of each party. Puerto Rico is solidly democratic everywhere.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

   To describe the economic situation around Saturn in late 2069 as dire would be to far understate the gravity of it. There were, in total, 60,000 people living and working around it, supported by millions of robots. Then, with one stroke of a pen, a third of them were laid off. Prices collapsed across the solar system. Thousands of jobs were lost, tens of thousands retreated back to Earth. The Helium industry in the outer solar system dried up like a puddle in the sun. Demand for mining vanished, the Martian economy collapsed and state support for terraforming died. A deep malaise grew everywhere from solar power stations around Earth to aerostats in Neptune. The economy of the American space territories declined by double digits per year, in a seemingly endless death spiral. And all the Bustos administration did was laugh.
   Who cared if millionaires on Ceres were temporarily out of work? Who cared if overpaid scientists on Titan faced pay cuts? Certainly not them. Hell, the collapse of resource prices helped them. Things were cheap, and the economy was still growing here, where it really mattered.
   The Administration pushed through a bill to impose a tariff on things made or mined off Earth, to help “protect real American industry and American workers.” They cut government support for any off earth activities, and used the money to raise the UBI again. Bustos delighted in her measures, dead confident she’d produce an economic boom on Earth, and be remembered among the likes of Reagan, Cordray, or Robinson.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Chaos in the wake of Eva

The superstorm is gone but not yet forgotten.
Arina Roscoe | Sep 22, 2070 | Politics

   The rains have finally stopped down in the aptly named Hurricane neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama, says Layla Lewis, but the water is still high on the shores. For four days the eye of the Category 7 Hurricane parked in the middle of the Gulf, and it rained. Ten feet, altogether, at her home. In parts of what was once Louisiana, the average was even higher. Rainfall records dating back, in some cases, all the way to Hurricane Harvey, have been shattered. Mobile has been hard hit, and the running feud between Republican Governor Bell and Bustos has not helped the recovery. Compared to New Orleans, however, it has gotten off easy.
   This is not the first time the levees have been breached and the city flooded, but it is very likely the last. Back when Hurricanes Katrina, Aubrey, and Aiden hit, the city recovered relatively quickly, and the water was drained back. Those days are over. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the seas have risen nearly five feet, and are still rising. Draining the city of 65,000 would be an immense project, and political opposition to a 5th New Orleans appears overwhelming. Eliza Castile, former chair of the Republican Governor’s Association, echoed the party line when she stated “The time for rebuilding in flood lands has passed. New Orleans is no longer tenable as a city, and the quicker we realize that, the less time and money we’ll waste rebuilding it after every superstorm.”
   President Nayara Bustos has already proposed a eight trillion dollar rebuilding project to help those in the South, but sticker shock seems to be afflicting congress. House Minority Leader Anthony Bennett and Senate Majority Leader Nick Gonzalez released a joint statement condemning her bill as a “profligate waste of government resources we can ill afford, especially in this time of recession.” Gabrielle Thomas too appears opposed to desperately needed aid for the South, reportedly attempting to bargain Bustos down in a meeting.
   Many in the Republican party appear to be coalescing around a two trillion dollar rebuilding plan, a plan that would fall far short. There are fifty three million people and nearly twenty trillion dollars worth of property down there, almost all of it wrecked by Eva.
   CEO Angel Phillips says that the losses his facilities have suffered will take years, maybe longer, to rebuild. He owns and operates a hypersonic plane launch facility in Miami, worth, pre-Eva, nearly a billion dollars. Or perhaps it would be better to say he owned and operated. For half of it is under flood water now, and the rest was underwater as recently as this weekend. The Bennett/Gonzalez plan would allocate him four million dollars. The rest of the fortune he has lost would have to come out of his pocket.
   Eva has hit hard elsewhere, too. Logan and Mia Barnes run the Barnes Fish market in Natchez Mississippi, providing a easily available cheap food source to their local community. Or, well, they did. The market is now wrecked, surrounded by floodwaters, their inventory all lost and home on the top floor destroyed. The livelihood they have worked for their careers is wrecked. Logan Barnes said in an interview “I don’t what I can do. We’ve lost everything. My home, my store, everything. Zheng Insurance won’t cover s**t and the government doesn’t want to help. I’ve spent my life working my way into the middle class, and that all vanished in an instant.” The Bennett/Gonzalez plan would not give them a dime.
   Though Eva is at long last gone, the South is still bleeding, and it remains to be seen whether the richest, best nation in the world will rise to the occasion.
   UPDATE: As the floodwaters finally subside, the Mississippi seems to be changing course, an event that has been coming for a long time. The Mississippi may no longer run through New Orleans by the end of this year, reports the US Army Corps of Engineers. The RNC has refused to respond to the crisis.

Arina Roscoe is a former representative from California’s 21st Congressional District, and a current staff writer for The Atlantic.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

The 2070 Elections

   As the long hot fall of 2070 drew to an end, as all of America began to vote, the Democratic party prepared for disaster. The economy was in recession, the party in chaos, fractured and depressed against a resurgent, angry Republican party. Special elections and polling both foretold a disaster for the Bustos Administration. Political prognosticators predicted a 31 seat gain in the house and 5 seats in the Senate. The Democratic party was bracing themselves for another wave.

What they got was not a wave.

   

Vermont. Washington. Oregon. Both seats in Nevada. Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Connecticut, and Luna. 10 Senate seats picked up by the republicans, a massive, sweeping victory. Only 16,000 votes in South Carolina separated Gonzalez from holding a veto proof majority. 

Senate Majority Leader Nick Gonzalez (R-TX): 71 (+10), 51.90%
Senator Matt Lee (D-MS): 37 (-10), 46.69%

In the house, too, it was bloody for Thomas’s thin majority.
House Minority Leader Anthony Bennett (R-NY-12): 274 (+62), 54.21%
Speaker Gabrielle Thomas (D-MI-5): 168 (-62), 45.04%




As the temperature began for the first time to dip below freezing, the Republican party was back in power. Gonzalez and Bennett had an ambitious agenda on the plate, and Bustos could go to hell for all they cared. In the end, it wouldn’t be that simple.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

The GOP regaining strength in SoCal, NOVA, the Tidewater, and the Collar Counties?  Cool!

The house elections do have a broad pattern of GOP gains in more urban and suburban areas versus democratic rural gains.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Thurstan vs. The State of Mississippi

Ophelia Jason Thurstan was not quite twenty eight years old, and she was already a partner at her firm, a wealthy, successful, and broadly respected figure in her Memphis suburb. She was also, currently, staring a 50,000 dollar per year cost straight in the face, for nothing more than her genes.
   It had been coming for years, now. The state party had ran on it in 2063 and 2067. Still, it seemed impossible, until, faced with the specter of the looming elections, it suddenly became all too possible. It had happened last night. The Governor had signed the bill, there had been a celebration among the state Democrats, and there it was. From May 18th forward, every Mississippi resident who had been genetically modified would face a 3% yearly tax. Check and mate, all in one move for them. They would get money in the coffers, desperately needed, especially among Governor Simmond’s Delta base, and for the puny cost of angering a few wealthy Republicans. In terms of political calculus, it was precisely and brilliantly calculated on Simmond’s part.
   Constitutionally, however, the law was iffy. And Ophelia Thurstan had never been a woman to take things lying down.

In the case of Thurstan vs. The State of Mississippi, this court, the Fifth Circuit Court of the United States of America, finds in favor of the State of Mississippi.

No one had ever said that bringing a case to the Supreme Court would be easy.


Thurstan vs. Mississippi, rapidly seeming to become one of the biggest cases of the century, is still surrounded by a cloud of confusion. Arguments have been ongoing through much of this spring, and the ultimate decision still seems uncertain. We here at Vox have prepared this handy guide to how we think the Justices will vote.


In order of seniority.
Justice Gregg Costa: Costa has been on the Supreme Court since 2025 when Richard Cordray appointed him, and that decades long span appears to have taken a toll on the 98 year old man. He has been notably quiet during oral arguments, and indications on his vote are lacking. However, his few opinions appear to indicate that he favors MS in this case. We are marking him as Leaning MS.
Justice Caroline Bennett: A Castro appointee, Justice Bennett has been a staunch liberal voice on the court for decades, but she appears to frown on Thurstan’s case. She appears Undecided.
Chief Justice Thomas Russell: Russell, a conservative on a liberal court, has always been out of place. However, his opinion on this case is very clear. He solidly sides with Thurstan.
Justice Jasmine Flores: A Robinson appointee but a strong constitutionalist, she appears to decidedly side with MS in this case.
Justice Lexi Scott: Scott has been a radical liberal voice on this court for decades, and here she is strongly siding with Ophelia Thurstan.
Justice Evan Collins: Evan Collins, a Robinson appointee, has excoriated both sides, and appears truly Undecided.
Justice Victoria Ward: Ward has not been very friendly to MS or Derrick Simmonds, and we can mark her down as leaning towards Thurstan.
Justice Eliana Martin: Martin, like Ward, appears to frown on Mississippi’s case. She is also leaning towards Thurstan.
Justice Austin Zheng: Zheng, a recent Williams appointee, has been quiet so far on the court, but we believe he favors the state of MS.

Summing this up, then, our best guess is a 5-4 vote in favor of Ophelia Thurstan, but anywhere from 8-1 in her favor, down to 2-7 against her, appears possible. The outcome is truly up in the air.




SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
OPHELIA THURSTAN v. THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Held: The judgment of the 5th Circuit Court is affirmed. 

JUSTICE COSTA delivered the opinion of the Court, with Justices Bennett, Flores, Collins, and Zheng concurring.




Thurstan vs. Mississippi and Nayara Bustos (550.com)
The Supreme Court has made their weight felt, and now so has Bustos. Whether this was wise is being hotly debated by pundits. Looking at the polls, however, a clear truth emerges. In the United States as a whole, 50% of adults disapproved of the decision, with only 38% approving. Among Democrats, 49% disapprove, with 50% disapproving in Republicans. The bill is unpopular in both parties, albeit by narrow margins. With this in light, Busto’s decision to publicly endorse the decision makes little sense as a move of political calculus, especially given her embattled position. However, Bustos appears to have favored this for decades, and a source close to Former Speaker Thomas leaked that she wanted to push a similar bill back in 2069. It may seem puzzling for a president to take a position unpopular among both their own party and the nation at large, but for Nayara Bustos, it appears that moral convictions override politics.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Freefall

   Freefall. noun. Downward movement under the force of gravity only.    The movement of a spacecraft in space without thrust from the engines. The United States Economy in the fall of 2071.
   Prices fell through the floor, and kept falling. Demand collapsed, industry dried up. The economy edged into recession then plunged straight into it. Jobs were lost in the millions, and government action was halting and starkly divided.
   The President, besieged in the White House, tried to fix the problem with the methods that had worked in the Cordray era. Bustos attempted to expand benefits and raise taxes, hoping to set off a virtuous circle. It had worked then. But the economy of the 2070s bore little resemblance to that of the 2020s. Consumer demand in mainland America was not the beating heart of the economy anymore, and her failure to recognize that fact made her effort futile.
   In the house, the Senate, and in state governments, the Republican party had their own plans. The future of humanity was not industry in the Yukon or Michigan. It was not consumer demand in Shanghai or Los Angeles anymore. It was Up. The boom up there had been happening since the Dawson years, but it was only recently approaching overwhelming. And it was not nearly done. The belt that minted plenty of newfound trillionaires, but the staggering wealth up there had the quantity to do far, far, far more. Presidents before Bustos had seemed blind to this. Bustos was actively hostile, vetoing programs from a Daedalus renewal to a space elevator. But a new, energetic, angry Republican Party planned to change all of this. A new macroeconomic order seemed certain as a preordainly doomed presidency drew to a close. Seemingly the only question left was who was would lead it. And for that, there was one name on everyone’s lips. 


[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

The Democratic Heart and Soul

If the 2068 Democratic parties had set a new record for nastiness, then 2072 smashed that record. Senator Sean Miller had been Senate Majority Leader until William’s ethical issues forced him out. He had attempted to move to the presidency, only to be denied this honor by Nayara Bustos. He was then forced to work with, then edged of his position by Bustos after a personal feud. And as Bustos faltered, he began to make his move.

The Democratic National Committee was not keen on two straight presidents being primaried, and they pulled out all the stops to prevent it from happening again. Attack ads bathed the airwaves, Miller was smeared and scandals were found. And still he rose. The polls as election day approached showed them within the margin of error. It seemed a war for the heart and soul of the democratic party, and no one knew what would happen. The world was changing at an unprecedented rate. Whether the Democratic party would change with it remained unknown.


The Results of the 2072 Democratic Primary

Nayara Bustos: 55.20%
Sean Miller: 39.86%
Other: 4.94%

The numbers were counted, and even as Miller screamed fraud, Bustos had won. The Democratic party was hers to lead against Castile. And with that, the last election of the 7th party system began in earnest.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

The 2064 Presidential Election

   The GOP had not won three presidential elections in a row since HW Bush, all the way back in 1988. Nonetheless, they were hopeful in January of 2064. Max Overton boasted a 55% approval rating. They held a trifecta for the first time since the Pence Administration. And, of course, they had a promising candidate in Vice President Adam Davis. Davis, a former three term Senator from the hills of East Tennessee, was popular among the nation as a whole. He did, however, have a few issues. Chief among them was that Davis was two months short of 81, and had acquired a reputation as a dinosaur, a man who was in office during the Pence Administration and still bore the stain of that time. His age and general indisposition broadly prevented him from campaigning, and his run for the nomination had more of the stench of a coronation than any real enthusiasm. Third, his relationship with Overton was rough. Overton had picked him more to balance the ticket than out of any real fondness, and it showed.
   Still, Adam Davis was the sitting Vice President, a well respected and enormously experienced figure, well liked by nearly everyone who met him. Sure, Overton refused to make an endorsement in the primaries. Sure, other candidates ganged up on him during debates. Sure, polls consistently showed him falling short of 50%. Still, surely the Republican party would make the right choice? Right? Right?

   Wrong. No candidate would clear 50% in the first round. Davis was close, but he had not cleared it. There were two months left, and he was in a race for his political career against Maya Wilson. He had age, decades of experience and broad respect. But Overton still refused to make an endorsement. Davis seemed adrift, his campaign overflowing with money and yet running on fumes. His voice seemed to tremble every time he spoke. He was a representative of a time long since passed, of the ghost of Ronald Reagan, the man whose shadow he was born under. And the party was not Mike Pence’s GOP anymore. Maya Wilson was young, energetic, relentlessly active on the campaign trail. She held rallies in every state, and her crowds overflowed stadiums. With the Democratic race long since settled, she made a play to the old school Obama Democrats who had propelled her to two gubernatorial victories in Washington. The gap closed, day by day. In March, Davis had beaten her out by 16%. There were three weeks to go, and it stood at 6%.
   Then, the unthinkable happened. At a campaign rally in New York, Adam Davis suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to a hospital in front of the crowd. It took two weeks for him to get back on the campaign trail. Maya Wilson temporarily ceased campaigning out of respect for her opponent’s troubles. It did not matter. Adam Davis was a dinosaur, a man who had been in politics for a lifetime. Wilson was the future, and the Republican base heard that siren call.
   
   The convention bore the air of triumph, but failure was all that awaiting. Wilson was new, energetic, exciting. She was also the most conservative Republican nominee since Barry Goldwater a century ago. She proposed to slash tax rates by 20%, to fundamentally dismantle the welfare state and reshape America’s role in the world. In 2064, she was a radical.
   Alex Williams, for all of his faults, could not be accused of the same. A Connecticut atheist turned Tennessee good ole boy, he was a moderate to the core, a pragmatic and transparently ambitious man. He had plans for a issues based campaign against his friend Adam Davis. That was long gone. Williams saw an opportunity for a mandate, and he was not the type to shy away from the jugular. Adam Davis had not made an endorsement, but that did not stop Williams from airing images of them together. He had not been planning to win this election using the South as his base, but if he needed to, Williams would.
   Then, as sweltering July slowly faded, the race received a shock. Evan Jenkins Jr, the Republican institution of West Virginia, a notorious red dog and influential politician, was launching a run for president as an independent. He immediately lit a spark within the electorate. Red Dogs across the nation were not on board with Wilson or Williams.
   Through the fall, the race stayed surprisingly constant. Jenkins was hovering between 10% and 15% of the electorate, Wilson around 30-35%, and Williams around 40-45%. It was clear throughout that Williams would win, and that the coalitions in this election had shifted. Thus, Williams concentrated more on boosting down ballot performance than gaining a larger margin of victory.

   

Ultimately, Election Night was unsurprising. Although Wilson had done surprisingly well for such an extreme candidate, she had lost in a landslide. Jenkins had made little difference in the election, failing to win even WV. Down ballot democrats, predictably, managed substantial victories. They gained 8 seats in the Senate, and nearly 55 in the House. The election was not a shock to those who followed politics. It was, however, a seismic shift in the party coalitions, one that would reverberate for decades to come.