The United States of America as we know it has gone through a lot of turmoil since the second half of the twentieth century. The lost Vietnam War and the growing competition with the reformed Soviet Union greatly undermined the people’s trust in its leaders. Ronald Reagan was successfully assassinated by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30 1981, and instead of a strong figure, Americans were left with a vast void of incompetence and indecisiveness. The Cold War was nowhere near its end, the economic boom faded away leaving many with little hope for a brighter tomorrow.
In 1986 the final nail was hammered down into the coffin - the complete disaster that was Operation Last Lullaby. According to convincing evidence, the Soviets caught CIA agents red-handed while sabotaging the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor. The outrage and response was obvious, and a nuclear armageddon was only narrowly avoided thanks to hotline negotiations that dragged on for 96 hours. This event was later dubbed “ten seconds weekend”, for how close humanity's extinction was on the Doomsday Clock.
The price of peace paid by the United States was high - they were forced to leave NATO and withdraw all military units from countries bordering the USSR. On top of that, the bewildered American society reached its limit of patience.
When the old millennium began to fade away into the depths of history, people became more and more disgruntled with the two-party system, as it silently devolved into an unspoken agreement between rich politicians. Several progressive notions started to appear and demand changes, and a sizable group of democrat senators, disillusioned with the constant fighting with the republicans, with the corporate lobbying, with the fate of repressed minorities, decided to create the Liberal Party in 1988. This caused a major breakup in the Democratic Party, as several members defected to the new camp that would better represent their ideals.
They preached tolerance and righting all the wrongs done within and beyond the country, promising social benefits for the poor, punishment of corporate greed, end of the racial segregation and support of the feminist and homosexual movements. While some were openly against this process of reforms, continuous polls proved that a significant part of democrat citizens and the majority of underrepresented minorities supported the activities of evergrowing liberal movements, pursuing better life prospects.
It only took a few years for Democrats to fall into complete disarray, unable to cope with internal disagreements over party policies. Republicans couldn’t benefit from this crisis for a very simple reason - they were hated even more, as they were responsible for the Chernobyl incident. With both old parties weakened, the unstable political scene was exploited by Liberals to rise to power. After the 1996 presidential elections, the United States would welcome the new century not as a hand that holds the world in its grasp, but as a hand that would reach out to everyone.
However, those who were stripped of power and those whose views were marginalised in the new US have sworn to protect the legacy of the American empire. Dubbed themselves the “Patriot Party”, those former democrats and republicans, whose opinions were found politically incorrect by the modern notion, united to conserve and revive their vanishing strength. This desperate assemblage would remain in the shadows like other splinter parties created after the implosion of the Democratic Party, but it was saved by some influential American corporations graciously funding and bankrolling the initiative.
Top capitalists, who were fearing oncoming labor unions and massive government-imposed restrictions, would rather buy their own political agents than give up their share of wealth, wealth taken from the masses. With full pockets, Patriots kickstarted their campaign and started to cater to the rejected, marginalized or driven to bankruptcy by the rampant leftist organizations. Stalwart in their agenda, they were promising the return to the former glory, conservation of withering American traditions and a true free market.
To further establish their position on the still fragile political scene, they created a mass opposition movement called “America’s Blessing” that would “preserve the American traditions and culture from decay”. As an ‘officially unaffiliated’ organisation it engaged in a wide array of citizen activities, ranging from funding neighborhood watches, local marketplaces, fundraisers and cultural meetings to organised militias, enterprises and even a private media network, “Information War” with its famous host Jon Alex.
Coordinators of the movement proudly declared estimates of 9,000,000 registered members in 2004 and over thrice that amount by 2015, although the reality most probably differed from the claimed statistics. Membership was theoretically available for every registered "true" American citizen, but the overwhelming majority was represented by lower and middle class white christian families, especially of entrepreneur or military backgrounds. Polls conducted over the years never showed Patriot party support under 80% among the members of America’s Blessing.
To be continued...
I look forward to seeing this second civil war, you have me intrigued. Keep up the good work.