Political History and Climate

=Overview= During 2012, the fiscal crisis that had been developing for the previous five years finally produced a slow death-knell for the American economy. The last man standing, so to speak, was WalMart, alternatively, Sam's, and soon, the country found itself listening to a bunch of talking heads standing for WalMart's objectives.

This dystopian reality didn't last very long. History will eventually misremember, but it's just recent enough for your characters to know that a group of eight courageous individuals began to attack the system through seemingly unknown origins. These eight eventually dwindled to two remainders, but through their investigative work and the help of two moles within the WalMart corporation, it found its end in 2020.

The two who survived: Winter Johnson and Stephanie Cruiser. These two became the first Presidents in a wave of political reconstruction. The constitution officially barred several of the things that lead to the corruption in the first place: no more campaign contributions, more power to the executive cabinet, mandatory four party system, regulated airwave monopolies. These names are known, well-known, and the political change seemed to create a situation of hope.

The embattled, embittered American people, having spent roughly fifteen years working for President Cruiser and Vice President Johnson to get into power couldn't see the hope through the haze. They, along with Cruiser and Johnson, were too steeped in their own silly history. They immediately began ratifying the recreation of "re-evaluated" institutions that lead to the original mess.

Currently, several very violent outbursts are occurring across the nation. Journalism sources, now closely monitored to provide accurate and non-manipulative reporting, have begun to speculate they may be tied together. They are protesting what is the same-old, same-old... roughly twenty-five years after the historic inauguration of Cruiser/Johnson, the country is starting to look and feel the same it did in 2010.

Education
Student Loans were revised as student grants, but because there was no fund set up to permanently allow their dispersal, college is sometimes seen as an elitist institution. Instead of "everyone gets to go," now it's "only the best twenty-five percent get to go." Despite the establishment of several technical schools and trade schools meant to re-direct the flow of applicants into jobs that needed them, the bitterness that not everyone could go study if they chose to has become noticeable.

High School was modified to include two final years of technical prep. This means your character had the option to graduate at 17-18 but most likely graduated at 19-20. Those going to college unilaterally graduate at 18, but several choose to stay in high school to cover the "general requisites" that used to be covered in college. Those extra two years allow for the "mandatory degree" to be removed from several positions, and so it is perfectly plausible for your character to work in a job that used to require a degree that now does not.

A note about China
China owns a mother-eff-tonne of our nation right now. They've got us on Fiscal Lockdown. Most "liberal" identified individuals want fiscal independence from China, but note the lack of cultural dominance that typically accompanies empires. There is a growing amount of tension between the idea of the Chinese and China and America, and it should show in your character's political opinions. Uneducated, racist, or slanderous opinions about China are common on the internet, and usually indicate someone who is far right-wing, far left-wing-nut, or an idiot.

Briefly, about the President
The current president is a muslim woman named Nessa Akwal. She is very competent and held in high-esteem. Her vice president, a gay black man named Frederick Costs, is also competent and held in high-esteem. The situation of the country is blamed largely on Congress and several higher-level interest groups.

Republican
Probably more closely related to "Conservative" than ever, the Republican party lost its marbles officially at the end of 2020 and continues to be pretty loose around the gills. They're anti-tax, anti-government, anti-regulation, pro-illegalization of just about anything you can think. The only thing they seem mum about are lgbtq rights... perhaps it's because once they were finally put through, a lot of Republicans could stop living a double life.

Democrat
Known for being permanently wishy-washy, the Democratic party is the favorite of most of your character's parents and is aligned with the most centric of doctrines. They're not insane but they're not sane, refusing to pull the trigger on important human right's legislation while at the same time passing moronic legislation governing cell phone pornography. Look out, world. It's the micro-managers.

Center
Another name for Socialist, they preach far left dogma and LOVE it. They're the ones responsible for a lot of the social law advances, and President Cruiser was their founding member. The issue: they're often short-sighted financially, and have sat on their laurels while our finances were directly controlled overseas. The favored party of most younger characters.

Libertarian
Where the Tea Partiers ended up. This is also a favored party of younger characters, and operates under the assumptions that unhappy people will flock to those promising to solve their woes. Preaching veiled racist dogma and offering solutions that don't hold fiscally or socially, the Libertarian party looks much the same as it always did, except now has opinion based commentary to back it: what once was FoxNEWS is now FoxRHET, mandated by the Center party presidencies to change.

(For the record, it's also MSNBC RHET and CRN, for "Rhetoric.")