John Winston (2048-2056)

John Winston, 51st President of the United States

John Winston was a Democratic senator from New Jersey, one of the few to be able to survive the 2040 bloodbath, and held onto power during the chaotic years of the Victoria Cortez administration. Following 8 straight years of highly accelerative reform during Cortez's administration, John Winston was largely elected as a sane, reasonable alternative to bring America back to normal.

Having to fight with a highly divided Congress, he had little time to push through any substantial policies, and instead in many cases was the "status quo" candidate. It was during his tenure when the echos of the 5th Great Awakening occured, when the Futurist Party originally began, and little did he know, eventually overthrow the entire system.

In many ways, he was the last of a long string of fossils. Perhaps his most substantive move was to attempt to tackle the American Automation issue, which while having started under the Cortez administration had blossomed into a full blown crisis by the time Winston ascended to power.

## Background

John Winston was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Known to be quiet, but able to act quickly and effectively behind the scenes, he was able to win his first elections by having many connections in the right places, and being able to call in many favors. This would be reminiscent of his eventual governing style; quiet, though able to pull in favors and foster relationships all around the spectrum as a way to work through government gridlocks.

Generally thought of to be a moderate, or a heavy pragmatist, he was the kind of no-nonsense, middle of the road person the Democratic Party thought was needed to reunify a nation so divided. After the Cortez presidency, the American political scene had never been so polarized, the right was further right than ever, the left was hysterically demanding that the reforms of Cortez be rolled back, while the right demanded they remain, or even more extreme, expanded upon. The fracturing of both the left and the right meant a total of 6 political parties were now competitive in the polls, including the New Founding Fathers and the newly formed Futurists.

The Democrats, finding themselves as the increasingly center-right party of America's status quo, believed they needed someone to knit the nation back together, to be able to pull the fringes back towards the center, so the nation can move onwards and upwards. John Winston, who had become known as "The Great Negotiator" was believed to be a perfect fit for the job, and America agreed. He was abnormally good at talking his way out of trouble, completely reasonable and agreeable, and is often said to be utterly teflon.

In 2048, the moderates and suburbanites of America gave him a chance, wanting a return to normalcy after 8 years of pure, constant stimulation from their smartphone screens and news feeds. Despite vote splitting in nearly every state, and a chaotic frenzy for the finish line, the Democrats were able to prevail by winning many of the white, affluent suburban districts on the East Coast, as well as a healthy margin of suburbanites everywhere.

Of note was that he was never married, but also strongly denied allegations that he was gay, leading to many to speculate that he was asexual. (because of course you can make massive sweeping assumptions about something as complex as sexuality through a casual glance.)

However this would prove extremely important down the line.

## Presidency

Heading into a Congress with no majority in sight, with the Democrats only controlling slightly more than a third of the seats, and even allying themselves with the Progressives wasn't enough to secure a majority. Looking towards their coalition options, Winston decided that the best shot he had was either to convince the Futurists, or to set up a centrist Democrat-Republican coalition.

Almost immediately Congress went into lockdown. The Futurists were not interested in the Democrat's timid centrism, believing that they needed to accelerate automation, if anything, and found more in common economically with the Republicans, though their social policy actively repulsed them. It seemed at least for now, the Futurists seemed content with being alone, away from either a center-left or a center-right coalition.

The Republicans were not interested in being grouped in a center-left coalition, and instead countered that the Democrats should ally with the Republicans into a center right Democrats-Republican-Patriot Coalition, and further drag it to the right. Winston haggled and he negotiated, but he could not get a deal which would be deemed acceptable.

Around the world, things were escalating into a moment of deep tension. Eurasia and China had been waging a proxy war over the Middle East, and a series of revolutions had begun in North Africa, before eventually becoming what we now know as the Internationale. Inheriting Cortez's policy of communist containment, he played a game of intrigue against the Internationale as the fires of revolution strengthened.

Fighting against a coalition known as the Internationale, which consisted of Algeria, Mexico, the India Commune, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia at the time, he successfully quelled communist revolutions in Mauritania, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and various other locations. In a great game for South America, they were also able to stomp out communist movements in Brazil before they could attain a critical mass. Winston's one failure was in Argentina, where the nation was too far from America's influence to be successfully quelled, and became the People's Republic of La Plata.

The Internationale had eyes and fingers everywhere, their influence stretching far and wide, through the power of their message, millions of workers in the 3rd world were swayed to their side by their ideology. Even the US itself wasn't safe, for they operated at least one terrorist cell in the Sons of Marx. Spies and leftist infiltration of every nation south of the equator made communism an ever-present menace.

Luckily, where the Internationale had their working class agents, the United States had their economic ties. And with help from a bottomless supply of capital, the US could throw endless resources at the problem. The game was on.

As well, in 2048, the Antarctic Treaty expired, and the Scramble for Antarctica begun. Though it had taken a few years, the Americans had signed a deal with the British full access to their slice of the Antarctic claim, and competed fiercely over the disputed zone between Britain and Argentina, attempting to secure all Antarctica for the League and the free world. Meanwhile, Eurasia seized Marie Byrd land, which the US could do little about, lest they spark an international incident with a major superpower.

In the domestic policy realm, Winston began peeling back some of Cortez's reforms, such as reinstituting healthcare and parts of social security, albeit with a more sustainable budget in mind. Winston also became a early promoter of the transhumanist movement, though did so quietly, and somewhat in private. These small victories were needed if the nation was ever to return to normalcy.

In his first midterm, the citizens were moderately pleased with his actions and his reforms, though the hard right was lusting for blood as he tried to inch back from Cortez's reforms. He was attacked in 2051 when a group of hardcore Christian fundamentalists attempted to assassinate him. Thankfully, the secret service was able to escort him out quickly after the incident, and no injuries were sustained.

At heart, Winston had always been a foreign policy president, where he retained full control, and didn't need to wrangle with an uncooperative Congress. He played a great game with the Internationale, as they funded rebellions all across the 3rd World, often only put down with American blood and American steel.

By 2051, the automation crisis had taken a major toll on president Winston's approval ratings. Having many plans in front of him. The Bring America Back initiative, inherited from the Cortez administration, the Yang Proposal, supported by the populists on the left and the right, the Preparing America Plan, supported by libertarians on both wings, and the Economy of the Future, pushed by the rising Futurists. His own reforms not working, he took a gamble and chose the Yang Proposal. Which began a policy of funding UBI through land taxes, as envisioned by Senator Andrew Yang, and Georgism.

In 2052, Winston had to deal with the fallout of the Automation Insurrection, a communist insurrection which had taken control of several parts of California and New York, leading to what many described as a minor civil war as federal troops were sent to quell the insurrection, which was found to have been supplied by the Worker's Internationale, and sentencing the traitorous governors who displayed criminal negligence of the insurrection to swift hanging.

Also in 2052, John Winston had been able to secure a victory by the skin of his teeth, winning several states by less than 10,000 votes over the Republicans. The race eventually came down to a close race in North Carolina and Florida, which had been heavily Republican at the beginning of the vote count, but had leaned Democratic by the end of it, leading many to claim election fraud to this day.

By 2053, the Chinese government had collapsed, leading to great chaos. Even though the fall of China was celebrated all throughout the states, as an authoritarian superpower had fallen, the subsequent chaos and loss of life in the ensuing gruesome civil war would greatly unsettle the American populace, becoming more aware of the unstable state of the world. Many had wondered that if the dragon hegemon could fall, perhaps so could the American eagle.

Beginning in 2053, John Winston would have to deal with a 2nd echo of the 5th Great Awakening, as an echo boom of the Evangelical movement only further strengthened their grip on society. John Winston around this time was informed about a ticking demographic timebomb for him and his party in general. The younger, evangelical voterbase of the Republicans were reproducing at a faster rate than the now older voterbase of the Democrats, and due to shifting demographics in part due to the influx of Republican-friendly Hispanic migrants from the southern border, it became a real possibility that the Democrats, and the left in general would be out of power indefinitely.

John Winston would continue to wrangle with Congress with little avail, now with an even smaller minority and a right wing coalition thirsty for blood. In 2056, after a series of conflicts in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. The Eurasian Union began making vague threats at the United States, pitting the two nations at odds, and heralding the start of what would eventually become WW4. Immediately, America looked for a wartime leader.

In 2056, the Democrats and Republicans would lead the polls until the sudden leaking of the Delaware Papers in the last 2 months of the election. The so called L Leaks, leaked by an anonymous whistleblower detailed the extreme corruption which had become commonplace in both the Democratic and Republican parties, detailing how both were constantly bribing the media, Big Tech, large corporations and megachurches constantly to suppress information they deemed harmful, and extensive evidence of extraordinary corruption not only to American corporations, but allegedly even Eurasian oligarchs.

The Democratic and Republican candidates would fervently deny the allegations, but the damage had already been done, the FBI had opened investigations into both parties, and the results were absolute bombshells. Though the FBI had never confirmed the more extreme claims of the whistleblower, the fact that dozens of party officials had been convicted for corruption was enough for both the Progressive and Patriot Parties to both latch on and attack both furiously.

Many members of the Democratic and Republican parties jumped ship to the Progressive and Patriot Parties respectively. Though a deep-seated emergency reform and transparency reforms were carried out by both parties after the bombshell, it wasn't enough to elevate themselves back to popularity. When it election happened, the Futurists had won a surprise victory in the chaotic aftermath, positioning itself as a pseudo-centrist technocratic party.

The Patriots, Progressives and Futurists united under a coalition to overthrow the existing two party system, united behind a rising leader, Futurist Amir Xerxes. Winning by overwhelming landslide, they won the largest victory since the days of Reagan.

This led the way for Amir Xerxes to succeed John Winston following the 2056 election, after 2 terms spent mostly in foreign policy.

## Later Life

John Winston would be the first and so far only president to eventually be convicted of pedophilia, after stashes of child porn was found on his computer. In what became known as the Winston Scandal, the president, along with 10 representatives; 7 Republicans and 3 Democrats, were arrested and charged of child pornography distribution and consumption. The judge threw the book at them and sentenced all of them to immediate execution.

He was accused of sexual assault at least a dozen times during his presidency, by dozens of right-wing women, none of them ended up being correct, as they were all too old for his taste.