Theodore Riddley

From Wikimerica, the United States encyclopedia

**Theodore Bartholomew Riddley** (June 3, 2052 - September 26, 2110) was an American Politician who served as the 73rd President of the United States from 2097 to 2105. He was the second Speaker of the House to become President after Kevin McCarthy and the first to win a term of office in his own right. His Administration oversaw the collapse of Third Position, the revival of George Washington, the first successful use of time travel, and the outbreak of World War Four.

Riddley is often considered one of the greatest Presidents in American history for his ability to restore confidence in the American Government following the Kaminski and Rowell Administrations. Riddley died during Doomsday as his plane attempted to escape the devastation but failed and was sent spiraling out of the sky. In 2123 his remains were recovered 13 years after his death. On June 24, 2123 he was finally allowed to rest in peace by being given a proper funeral. In 2149 his remains were once again exhumed to be secured in the Hall of Presidents.

## Early Life

Riddely was born in 2052 to a middle class family in Baja California. Riddley would live a fairly average childhood and would graduate from UCLA in 2074, whereafter he would move back to his home state of Baja California.

## Entry into Politics

Not closely affiliating with either the Democrats or Republicans, Riddley remained independent yet decided nonetheless to involve himself in politics. In 2076, he declared his candidacy for the state's House of Deputies and promised to implement reforms that would crack down on gerrymandering. Although he was an independent, party politics was not as prevalent in Baja California as it was in the northern US, which allowed him to win with a minority of votes.

## Baja California House of Deputies

In the House of Deputies, Riddley passed reforms successfully implementing the voting system of Single Transferable Vote for both the House of Deputies and Baja California's representation in the US House of Representatives, thus making the state far less susceptible to gerrymandering in all elections.

Come time for Riddley's second term, which began in 2081, Riddley announced his intention to run for Speaker of the House of Deputies. Due to his policies, Riddley was seen as a moderate figure who could work with people on both sides of the aisle, and was thus elected. Upon becoming Speaker, Riddley vowed to remain impartial in legislative debates and votes, yet noted that he would not recuse himself from drafting and proposing new bills. Riddley would be re-elected Speaker for two more terms, once in 2083 and once in 2086.

Throughout Riddley's tenure in Baja California's House of Deputies, he consistently pushed for populist legislation. In 2081, when the United States declared war on the Republic of West Africa, Riddley proposed a bill which would see the state lower its taxes, Riddley's reasoning being that the war would put enough of an economic strain on the American people on the federal level and that the state shouldn't burden them with anything extra until peace was made. This bill, however, would not pass, leaving Riddley to realize that there was little he could do about the economic burden a potential war would bring; in Riddley's mind, it had to end.

This disdain for the war and prior disdain for the two major parties in the United States would breed fertile ground for Riddley's association with the Nationalist Party. Riddley believed that the party's isolationist policies were necessary for the American people and that both the Democratic and Republican Parties had gone too far in their agendas. Because of this, he declared his candidacy for the US House of Representatives in 2088 as a Nationalist candidate.

## Representative

Riddley would be easily elected to Congress. Upon being elected, Riddley would declare his candidacy for Speaker of the House of Representatives, using his prior experience as an impartial and fair Speaker of the Baja California House of Deputies to his advantage. Due to the Nationalists' majority in the House of Representatives, Riddley would successfully obtain the position.

## Speakership

Riddley would serve for two terms as Speaker in a similar manner to how he did in Baja California; although he would support most if not all of President Cardona's policies, he would maintain impartiality in House proceedings. Despite the fact that he had a high approval rating among Congressmen and the general public, however, he would lose the position to Globalist Mitch Part in 2093.

Riddley would serve the next two years in the Joint Committee on Taxation. Due to his service as Speaker of the House of Representatives, he would easily become Chairman of the committee. Although Riddley opposed the agenda of President Kaminski, he acted as Chairman as he acted in his Speakerships; impartially.

In 2095, when the Nationalists regained the majority, Riddley was once again elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus continued his tenure in Congressional leadership for the next two years; one month into his fourth term as Speaker, however, the catastrophic actions of President William Rowell would cause him to take drastic measures.

### Siege of Washington

To be safe from the chaos that Washington DC was enveloped in and ensure that the government would still have a functioning legislative branch, Riddley successfully relocated the House of Representatives to Philadelphia, which housed the Continental Congress during the American Revolution. Over the next week and a half, the House would work tirelessly to discuss proposed solutions to the crisis created by President Rowell. Riddley had moved back into D.C. on March 2nd. Rowell would be removed from office on March 3, 2097, and Riddley himself would ascend to the Presidency.

## Presidency (2097-2105)

### Inauguration

When the Defenders of Liberty managed to breach White House defenses and capture President William Rowell it wasn't clear if they intended to kill him. During the one hour standoff it was becoming clear no matter what Riddley was becoming President. Riddley had phoned the head commander James Cannon and demanded that Rowell not be harmed.

A motorcade of Liberty Defender vehicles headed for the capital tp pick Riddley up and escort him to the White House lawn where Marine One had parked. After arriving one of the Defenders took out a pistel and held him at gunpoint forcing him to resign his office. After such Riddley was sworn in as President of the United States.

### Early Actions

One of the first acts of the Riddley Administration was to increase military spending drastically with bipartisan support. With the military now more effective than it already was, Third Position was routed from Washington DC and sent into exile by March 10, 2097. Insurrections would spring up along the east coast over the course of the next month and a half, yet by April 22, 2097, Third Position would be defeated and its members would be prosecuted.

Following the defeat of Third Position, Riddley shifted his focus to rebuilding the broken economy that was left by the Kaminski Administration. Riddley started by severing funding to international organizations and working on rebuilding the treasury. Once the national debt was at a manageable level, Riddley cut taxes for everyone (Although, the rich still paid considerably more than everyone else) and made it so that money spent on employing others could be deducted from taxes. Finally, once the unemployment rate began to drop, Riddley provided stimulus checks to those who were still struggling, so that they could afford basic needs while the government was unable to effectively provide them. This three step plan proved effective, as by the end of Riddley's first term, the wealth gap was shrinking, the wealth held by the average American family was increasing, and unemployment dropped to 9%.

### Re-election Campaign

In the Presidential Election of 2100, Riddley ran for a second term and easily won the Nationalist primaries. In the General Election, Riddley just barely managed to edge out Globalist nominee Charles Roltech.

### Hawaii Crisis

Towards the beginning of Riddley's second term, the United States would face pressure to release the State of Hawaii from the United Nations, which declared that the State of Hawaii did not exist and that the United States was legally occupying the sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii, as there was no treaty annexing Hawaii. Due to the movement of Third Position to decrease the size of the American Empire, support would be low to fulfill the United Nations's demands, especially not within the Riddley Administration. Therefore, Riddley met with Noelani Kalakaua, who was now recognized as Queen of Hawaii by the UN, to attempt to come to a resolution, failed as Riddely refused any idea of independence or further self governance. This caused negotiations to break down and Kalakaua sought help from the U.N. who ultimately failed to sanction the United States.

### Revival of George Washington

Towards the end of Riddley's second term, it would become evident that no person was ready to replace Riddley for the Presidency. Because of this, Riddley met with other leadership of the Nationalist Party (Which was now the sole major party of the United States) and discussed what to do. Ultimately, it was decided that the United States was in need of someone as heroic as a selfless Founding Father; and so, the Nationalist Party began efforts of bringing former President George Washington to the future. Technology was already advancing so far to the point where time travel was almost successful, so President Riddley decided to divert government funding to finish the job. While this was occurring, he also proposed and successfully passed a Constitutional amendment expanding the amount of terms a President can serve, so that Washington would be able to run for President again. By mid-2104, Riddley and the Nationalists were successful, as Riddley would recuse himself from re-election so that Washington could take office once again.

### Final days in Office

Following Washington's unopposed election to the Presidency, Riddley proceeded to retire, ending his Presidency with a 90% approval rating.