In July of 2020, I published a book called 2028: The Rebellion. You can find it on Amazon at https://nlbrisson/author . If you subscribe to this newsletter, which is currently available at no charge, you will have access to the archives and there you will find the book published in my newsletter, chapter by chapter. Not every detail is correct, but it is a book of fiction, and it is disturbingly similar to events happening now. But, for the time being here is a reprise of the first chapter.
2028: The Rebellion
By N. L. Brisson,
From Chapter 1, New York Prison State
Donald Trump won in 2020 and again in 2024. At 77 many did not believe he could be reelected but the voting machinations of the Evangelical Council held, and Trump was elected again in 2028 at the age of 81. The Council formed in 1972 but was only named as an official Council to the President in 2021. You could still vote against Trump in an election, votes were still tabulated, but the vote totals reported in the media were ‘fake’ news and the electoral college math was fudged.
Most of the work done by the Evangelical Council in terms of figuring out election math and creating an extremely effective ground game was done before the 2016 election, but the numbers kept working for Trump and the Republicans.
After 2016 it became impossible for a Democrat to win. Democrats could not use the tactics developed by Republicans. They found broadcasting propaganda distasteful. People’s taste for right wing Talk Radio and Fox news made mainstream media sound staid and ‘fake’ even before President Trump ‘upped’ the drama.
Democrats believed that the founders were wise to try to keep religion out of government and did not back a theocracy, even if in name only. Given the diversity of religions practiced by those who tended to vote for Democrats there was no religious council on the left to stamp candidates with the ‘imprimatur’ of God. Democrats tended to want to speak the truth to Americans while Republicans had no qualms about saying one thing and doing another, making promises they had no intention of trying to keep.
Doug Waller headed up the Evangelical Council, whose members were pulled from at least eight influential Evangelical organizations with names like Family Research Center and American Policy Institute. The mission of these groups was to lift up white Christians as the true Americans and fight for turning old resentments into policy, like schools that are empowered to teach Creationism, states that allowed no abortions, and an immigration policy which ruled that only people whose roots were in Europe could be admitted to the United States as potential citizens. Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Kevin McCarthy were also members of the oversight body known as the Evangelical Council and they were avid Trump backers, not because they loved the man but because he had an uncanny knack for sheer political razzle-dazzle and survival of the greediest.
By 2028 Democrats were barely represented in Washington. Huge losses in 2022, 2024, and 2026 had driven the Democratic Party underground. Joe Biden, that old moderate, won the popular vote in 2020 but the strangle-hold the Republicans had on the Electoral College also held, and Trump was inaugurated, although proceedings more closely resembled a coronation, right down to the ermine tips along the lapels of a black plush jacket. Melania looked regal and annoyed in sable. It was a very cold day. They rode in a horse-drawn coach, no walking to solidify their solidarity with the common folk. Trump announced that he planned to build a more formidable White House, a virtual Trump palace to commemorate his second term mandate. It promised to be a modern Versailles. As Washington held bad memories for Trump the US Capital was being moved to Florida. Congress would remain in Washington, DC as would the rest of the government.
Trump appointed a Privy Council to closet with him in West Palm Beach, along with the eight key members of the Evangelical Council. The conversion of the people’s democracy/republic into Trump’s monarchy was just about complete. No reason to be slow about it, four years of absolute power lay ahead.
There were demonstrations, there was remorse, chest beating, and even tearing of hair but everyone understood what it meant to lose that key election in 2020. America had closed all its doors. You could leave if any other nation would have you, but you could not return unless your trip had official approval with a promise of readmittance. Liberals were pursued and beaten, and some heads did indeed end up on pikes. There was a nascent revolution in the works, the beginnings of the Underground Resistance which would eventually strengthen and pull in more and more citizens of blue.
Trump always gets revenge on those who oppose his will. New York State, Washington State, Oregon, and California were turned into prison states for anyone who spoke out against the Trump regime or expressed any but the most orthodox Republican right-wing doctrine. Dissent was suppressed easily since the military and the police decided to back President Trump, They found it hard to buck tradition.
Rebels were rebels, even if they seemed more sensible than the actual ruling set.
New England ended up being part of the New York State Prison partially by sentiment, but also by geography. You could be killed outright in a prison state if you voiced anger at Trump or his ‘court,’ for publishing (or perhaps even writing) a dissenting poem, song, essay, play, novel, or dissertation. Those who wanted to express displeasure at Trump’s illiberal monarchy were forced to become masters of deception and encryption. There was no way to add input to the internet in prison states. It was strictly a “read only” situation.
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