Roscoe Pasquale

From Wikimerica, the United States encyclopedia

**Roscoe Pasquale** (September 9, 2108 - January 6, 2278) was an American politician and Farmer who served as the 85th President of the United States from 2165 to 2173. Hand picked by the Imperialist Party to be their candidate for President for his classical American values background. He is the first President in American History with no Political, Military or Business background and the first with no schooling of any kind.

Pasquale despite being uneducated was seen as a strong leader with upright moral values who often came to blows with the Imperialist Party to the point of nearly losing his chance at a second term. Historians compare his Administration often to a Washington style one, light on substantive policy and mainly focused on keeping the office stable. Pasquale grew up a farmer and had seen that as his life's passion. A native Kansas man living in isolation he was cut off from the politics of the world before entering office, not having ever heard of the Imperialist Party that had come into power 15 years earlier.

Historians rank him as one of the best Imperialist Presidents for his ability to stand his ground and take on the entire Party over matters he held moral disagreements over and win, his isolation from the rest of the party and their beliefs. His strong ability to lead and inspire people, even successfully putting down several early rebellions by his words alone. He gets criticism for his naivety with regards to the Party itself, in which he still held a generally positive view and while being a vocal advocate and supporter of Democratic values failed to see the party sliding into authoritarianism with even his own election to the Presidency seen as widely a sham.

## Early Life

Roscoe Pasquale was born on September 9, 2108, just two years before doomsday. His isolation in Kansas allowed him and his family to survive the devastation of doomsday and remain alive. His farther intended for him to go to school and become a lawyer but since ever major city in the State was incinerated the plan was scrapped and he was raised as a Farmer.

## Time as a Farmer

Roscoe had inherited his farther, Madigan Pasquale's farm after his death and worked on its upkeep. In 2140 he met a stranded woman who's own farm had burned down. Moving in with him they were married in 2141. In 2148 their first child was born. Roscoe and Mary Pasquale worked on their farm and maintained it for years. It's success came down to the wide variety of foods grown enough to sustain the entire family.

## First Meeting with the Imperialist Party

In March, 2164, the imperialist Party Conference in Lexington to decide on their strategy for the election. They had wanted an outsider should be nominated President. To keep in line with their at the time ongoing "anybody can be great" campaign. The majority of the conference favored freshman representative Harold Stanton Jones, however he would decline the nomination feeling that the presidency did not suit him.

By may, the conference set their eyes on political activist and mayor of Julian California, Jessica Garcia. However they would withdraw their support for her candidacy after it was learned she was taking political bribes in exchange for not cracking down on gang activity. By June it was decided that a total and complete outsider would give the party a better image to the people and so scouting teams were sent out to find the perfect embodiment of an outsider.

On June 13th the conference came across a Kansas farmer named Roscoe Pascal, he was well-spoken and considered intelligent but had absolutely no experience or desire for politics. The first meeting with him went well but he declined their offer to be President. A second meeting was set up and after 2 hours of convincing he eventually agreed to lead the ticket after hearing the parties stance on Farm protections and their desire to begin distributing land for Americans to start their own farms.

## Presidential Campaign

*See: 2164 United States Presidential election*

After agreeing to be the top of the ticket the party asked him to campaign around the Nation to jump up support. In secret he was asked to do it to make the sham election more believable. Roscoe however did nearly zero campaigning and spent most of the campaign at home with his family working on his Farm. He would be frequently visited by actual supporters and paid actors who would come to meet Pasquale. When questioned on policy he would bluntly state "I have no agenda, I won't pretend I do. I am not going to promise you anything except i'll put my best foot forward if i win."

### Election Night and Victory

On November 7th Roscoe Pasquale won a narrow victory against Polybius Waymaker with 734 - 654 in the electoral collage. This election like most during Imperialist Rule was widely fraudulent. The Party successfully rigged elections in secret to ensure their Party always won. For a long time the American people were so in the dark that even Roscoe Pasquale had no knowledge of any fraud occurring. The Party did a good job making it seem as if everyone supported their candidates thus making their overwhelming or narrow victories believable.

# Presidency (2165-2173)

## First Term

### Train Ride to Washington

Roscoe Pasquale would decline to use Air Force One to travel from Kansas to Washington for his Inauguration instead opting to use the out of date and long abandoned Ferdinand Magellan railcar to travel to Washington by train car so he could make frequent stops on his trips to speak to the American people and write down their thoughts on the elections and thoughts on how to make the Country better as a whole.

### Inauguration

Roscoe Pasquale would be sworn in as President on January 20, 2165 at 12:00 AM. In his inaugural address he said:

"My dear and fellow Americans, I will tell you now I did not seek this job nor do I have any wish to hold power in this nation. I am here because you have chosen me to be your President. So I shall do that. I shall act with dignity and honesty and shall act as a faithful servant of the Lord and ensure his teachings are upheld and this Nation shall remain strong. That is my only promise. Thank you. God Bless these United States of America."

### Feuds with the Imperialist Party

During his Administration President Pasquale would frequently fight with the Imperialist Party when they would hand him down bills to pass through congress or executive orders for him to sign and he would refuse either or both on moral grounds. On one occasion he was given an executive order to sign that would raise tariffs on Chinese goods of steel and rice. He refused fearing that if a trade war broke out China could retaliate by hitting American Farmers and lowering their ability to make profit.

### Nullification Rebellion

On December 23, 2166 Pasquale would sign into law a bill that would raise taxation on Columbian Tech. Columbia Tech as a response cut the pay of their workers and requested less materials than they usually would and blamed doing so on the new law. This would leave many now out of work and others now not being able to make ends meet and pay rent. This would cause the State Legislature of Taiwan to pass an ordinance to nullify the law as a means of ignoring the federal law.

Pasquale would mobilize the National Guard to enforce the new law and threatened to arrest members of the legislature if they did not repeal the ordinance. Taiwan refused many of their legislators were arrested. Riots broke out and a section of the Taiwan National Guard broke with rank to join the rioters and by February 23rd a state of emergency was declared in the Taipei Metropolitan Area. Pasquale would head to Taipei himself and put himself in harms way to meet with the rioters. After getting them to stop the violence he gave an hour long speech about the need for unity and peace where he promised that he had heard their pain and would work to repeal the new law. This convinced most of the rebels to stand down and as a show of good faith he released and pardoned the members of the Taiwan legislature.

## Re-Election

*See: 2168 United States Presidential election*

The past four years of the Roscoe Administration were highly popular with the people and he was the considered a "shoe-in" for re-election. However the Imperialist Party were not so easy on granting him re-nomination as he was constantly standing in the way of the Parties central agenda and had greatly slowed down their acquisition of power by vetoing legislation to grant the President more power and the party certain powers.

After failing to find an equally popular replacement for Pasquale the Party did not have the confidence to spark outrage by replacing him and thus he remained their begrudging candidate. Come election day Pasquale won victory overwhelmingly and was sworn in for a second term January 20, 2169.

## Second Term

Pasquale was sworn in for a second term at the Capital building on January 2169.

### Imperialist Party Investigation

On January 31st, FBI Director James Gabriel met with President Pasquale to discuss with him the necessity of opening up of an investigation into the Imperialist Party and it's possible meddling into the 2164 Presidential Election. He told Pasquale that there were whistleblowers who had come forward claiming that the Imperialist Council had engaged in direct election fraud to put Pasquale into Office.
Pasquale took these issues to Vice President Elvis Cantu to gage his opinion, Cantu in turn reveled these discussions to Imperialists Party Leader Joshua Harkness who then asked Pasquale to fire the FBI Director as to halt any possible investigation.

Pasquale saw the request as suspicious and refused outright. Harkness threatened Pasquale with retribution should he not reconsider, Pasquale ignored the threat and ended the meeting early.

### Burning of Pasquale's Farm

On February 3rd, Pasquale's farm was set a blaze and burned down. Pasquale was furious and demanded the Department of Justice open an investigation into Harkness, accusing him of ordering the farm burned. Attorney General Jasmine Jones began an investigation on February 6th but abruptly ended the investigation on February 10th, stating that the DOJ could not find a substantial link between Harkness and the farm burning. The official report stated the perpetrators were most likely political activists protesting the opening of the Red Sea Pipeline.

Documents found in Pennsylvania in 2216 at the end of the Second American Revolutionary War revealed that Harkness did order the burning of the farm and that the Department of Justice conspired with the Imperialist Party to cover it up.

# Post Presidency (2173-2278)

Pasquale left office in 2173 historically popular, he retired to his rebuilt farm and would remain quiet in politics for several years after. Pasquale would at several points briefly return to public life to speak out against Imperialist Presidents, Barron Dietrich, Mohammed Dockery and Thorton Echevarria. He protested the inauguration of Echevarria.

# American Revolution

By 2200 Pasquale had entirely abandoned the Imperialist Party and openly supported the resistance against Echevarria, he spoke out against states succeeding from the Union but was sympathetic to the struggles of states in active rebellion against the Party. When the Commwatch became the official resistance to the party set out to remove it Pasquale openly supported the cause and was present during the march on Washington, helping keep peace in the city and making sure residence were not afraid of the liberation as he still held enormous support and trust across the United States.

After the liberation of Washington Commawatch General Scott Fisa approached Pasquale about the possibility of him being sworn in as President for a third term to guide the Nation during the post war era. Pasquale rejected it on the basis of it breaking the two term tradition, which he actively supported.

## Death of Echevarria

When Pasquale learned that Thorton Echevarria had been kidnapped and executed he was furious with the Commawatch and resigned his position within the group. He called the act "an insult to law and order and the very idea of due process".

## U.N. Negotiations

Pasquale along with a delegation of Former Presidents Otto Cromwell and Donte Alighieri II were sent to Belgium to negotiate the United States's regaining international recognition.