[[quoteright:349:[[http://www.sl-webs.com/deesillustration/artwork.asp?item=119&cat=politics http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/policeState_6567.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:349:[[BlatantLies Land of the Free]].]]

TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, or perhaps an AlternateHistory gone wrong, the United States is no longer the shining beacon of democracy that it once was. Perhaps {{civil|war}} [[DividedStatesOfAmerica war]] and/or an [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invasion]] has put the country into a dictatorship out of necessity, [[MegaCorp corporate influence has undermined]] the democratic ideals the nation once held, a [[CorruptChurch theocratic religious movement]] has taken control of the government, or democracy has been suspended in order to fight off external or internal threats, real and/or imagined. Whatever the reason, the nation is only a democracy in name, or sometimes, not even that if the regime is painfully honest.

Expect to see FEMA, DHS agents, cops that are always clad in riot gear, or even the [[YanksWithTanks military]] patrolling the streets, [[PoliceBrutality harassing innocent citizens for arbitrary crimes or by virtue of simply "being there."]] Civil rights have been suspended for the "greater good," and political dissidents are shipped off to concentration camps, never to be seen again.

A LaResistance of sorts will be featured usually, made up of fed-up citizens, and sometimes [[DefectorFromDecadence former or]] [[HeelFaceTurn dissenting]] military or police personnel that are following their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign '''and domestic'''. Regardless, they'll be dismissed as terrorists by the American government, and will usually be used to justify the oppression.

How they are portrayed depends on the work. Some may have them as [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified plucky heroes that still believe in idealistic American beliefs]] and are willing to die to restore them, whereas if the scale goes further towards cynicism, may have them portrayed as [[WellIntentionedExtremist well meaning rebels that commit some atrocities to fight against the system]], or even {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s (who turned out to be ProperlyParanoid after all) who [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized are little better than the system they are fighting]].

In a political work that is left-leaning, expect to see this trope overlap with {{Eagleland}} type 2. Right-leaning works will favor a CommieLand America.

Can overlap with FallenStatesOfAmerica, if the nation has become a dictatorship as a result of the fallen status, or is one of the reasons behind it, although it is possible for the US to still be a superpower, or at least still be a "first-world nation". DividedStatesOfAmerica is also a possible trope as well, as the remaining US government may be trying to keep what is left of the nation together at any means possible. InvadedStatesOfAmerica can count too when the nation goes dictatorial to protect against the enemy, or if the invaded sections are under a restrictive foreign government.

Compare to DayOfTheJackboot.

'''[[NoRealLifeExamplesPlease No Real Life Examples]] past the CivilRightsMovement of the 1960s.'''
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' the police are pretty corrupt and oppressive to begin with, carrying riot shields with SUBMIT printed on them and stomping of protestors' faces. When the Smiler takes over it gets worse, culminating in the City getting put under martial law.
* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' #44, the USA became an increasingly fascistic police state ([[ANaziByAnyOtherName complete with rounding up of blacks and jews]]) because of the influence of a jingoistic impostor CaptainAmerica... until the real one awakens [[SlidingTimescale in 1983.]].
* ''SupermanRedSon'' involves virtually the whole world becoming Communist thanks to Superman solving various economic problems. The US in an exception: its economy is on the verge of collapse and there is a mention of tanks in the streets of New York to suppress food riots. There's also a mention of a [[TakeThat President Friedman]].
* In {{DMZ}}, New York City is walled off and under Martial Law as the United States struggles in the midst of a new civil war. [[NeedsMoreLove Highly recommended.]]
* {{Liberality For All}} is set in a United States that has become a left-wing dictatorship under the UN thanks to [[AlternateHistory Al Gore winning in 2000]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Richard Nixon is closing in on his fifth term, crime is rampant all over the country and ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld are shown to be watching over all the streets.
** This example is not quite as extreme as some others, though - a free press of sorts still exists, and at the end of the comic it looks like Nixon is going to lose the election to RobertRedford.
* Quite a few of the ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' are set in these sorts of futures.
* In ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'', America has been [[{{balkanise me}} split]] into three independent mega-cities, each of which is a fascist police state.
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[[folder:Film]]
* ''CSAConfederateStatesOfAmerica''. In the Confederacy (which now includes even the Northern states and most of the Americas after their conquests) the entire black population is enslaved, gender equality is non-existent, sexual orientation is not a free choice, and there is not much political freedom.
* ''Film/DemolitionMan'': Set in a future where the US has gone totalitarian, banning virtually anything that could possibly be [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad considered unhealthy or offensive.]] Heavily implied to have come about after a period of [[MegaCorp mass privatization]] and civil unrest.
* ''Film/TheRunningMan''. The U.S. has become intensely repressive, including (among other things) slaughtering people who are protesting not having enough food.
* ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', the sequel to ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', has the U.S. going fascist when the Big One hits Los Angeles and a religious nut uses this as an excuse to get himself into power and declare himself PresidentForLife. Anything he considers to be against his new "Moral America" laws (read: anything he doesn't like -- tobacco, alcohol, red meat, guns, profanity, non-Christian religions, atheism, non-marital sex and more) is banned, with those who break the laws having to choose between getting deported to Los Angeles Island, which is every bit the hellhole that Manhattan Island Penitentiary was, or being executed in the electric chair. Snake lampshades it when he sarcastically calls the new states "the land of the free".
* Similarly, in ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future Part II]]'' an alternate timeline is created where Richard Nixon is still President in the 1980s following the repeal of the 22nd amendment, the Vietnam War rages on and crime and corruption are at endemic levels as Casinos spread nation wide.
* The corporation-as-government or MegaCorp in ''Franchise/RoboCop''.
* ''MinorityReport'': Set in a dystopian future where a police state has been established that uses psychic mutants ("[=PreCogs=]") to preemptively stop crime.
** Only murders and only in the D.C. area, although one of the main plots of the movie is the attempts to take Pre-Crime to the nationwide level.
* ''[[http://www.graystatemovie.com/ The Gray State]]''.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* In Sinclair Lewis' ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' a fascist government gets voted into office and proceeds to turn the country into an oppressive dictatorship.
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novella "If This Goes On-", the U.S. has become a theocratic police state.
* ''TheHandmaidsTale'': The fascist, theocratic Republic of Gilead is (one of?) the [[FallenStatesOfAmerica USA's successor states.]]
* In Allen Steele's ''Literature/{{Coyote}}'', the United States has degenerated into the fascist and theocratic "United Republic of America" where intellectual dissidents are rounded up with their families and carted off to forced re-education camps. After the Republic collapses, it is [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica effectively taken over by a united South and Central America]] to form the Western Hemisphere Union, a socialist/communist society. While it's quite a bit better than the Republic, they are ''very'' imperialist and seek to control the former U.R.A. colony of Coyote.
* Strongly implied in ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'', and would naturally come up in any work of fiction where TheIlluminati (or a similar AncientConspiracy) are the ones REALLY running the country.
* In the first book of Creator/JamesBlish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' series, America is rapidly becoming a totalitarian state ruled by the hereditary head of the FBI, Francis X. [[PunnyName MacHinery]].
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', after an unspecified collapse of civilization (possibly involving some major geographic changes) the U.S. has become a tyrannical autocracy renamed "Panem" and is split into twelve districts. This name is derived from [[GratuitousLatin the Latin phrase "panem et cicenses"]] or "BreadAndCircuses," hence Peeta being the son of a baker and the eponymous "Games" serving as circuses to entertain the masses and keep them in check.
* In ''[[Literature/ParableOfTheSower Parable of the Talents]]'' by OctaviaButler, the U.S. has become this. The United States is ruled by Jarrett, an Evangelical Christian who uses all non-Christians as a scapegoat and puts them in concentration camps. The country is in shambles and Alaska has seceded from the union and is at war with Canada.
* In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', all of Earth is an oppressive state to the lunar colony, but "North America" is the most vocal and aggressive.
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[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'''s 6th season has [[KidFromTheFuture Chris]] who comes back in time to help [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent an accident]] that causes [[spoiler: Wyatt]] to lose all sense of morality and take control via magic - it's not clear whether this is actually just America or [[CrapsackWorld the whole world]].
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': A smaller example featured The Sanctuary Districts, sections of cities walled off that housed the poor and unemployed. While their intent was to aid them, they later degraded into interment camps.
* This happened in an alternate universe on ''Series/StargateSG1'', after the Stargate program went public. [[TheWorldIsNotReady The world was not ready]], and a scramble for control over the Stargates led civil unrest and geopolitical power-mongering.
* The Series/{{Sliders}} visited an alternate-history America in which [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman J Edgar Hoover had become president]], leading within a few decades to a totalitarian US in which the government was woefully underfunded, organised criminals ran the economy, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the police wore kilts]].
** Those are skirts, thank you very much.
* Likewise, an alternate universe in ''LoisAndClark'' brought us President Charlton Heston. One person, one vote, one semi-automatic rifle! It's implied that the reason America has degraded into a wild west nightmare is because Alt-Clark married Lana Lang, who [[HenpeckedHusband forbid him from fighting crime]].
* The series {{Dark Angel}} is set in a world where the US was devastated by an terrorist EMP attack in 2009. Little more than 10 years later, the US has degenerated into a 3rd world banana republic kept in check by periodic martial law.
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[[folder:Music]]
* In [[Music/JeffersonAirplane Paul Kantner]]'s 1970 science-fiction concept album, ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'', the increasingly oppressive and fascistic government of the US, which has outright declared rock-and-roll illegal, inspires a rag-tag band of hippies to hijack a starship and set off on their own.
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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* In the ''TabletopGame/TrinityUniverse'', the United States of America will socially collapse due to conflicts with the super-powered aberrants. The military and key corporations take control from the broken civilian government and establish the Federated States of America, a fascist nation where the voting system is rigged to give the wealthy and corporations the lion's share of votes in all elections. All media is censored and civil rights are purely at government discretion. The FSA also annexed large chunks of Canada and Mexico as part of a resource grab.
* The 80s action movie-inspired free game ''TabletopGame/TheHardWay'' features an America much like the one from ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', with MICOM ('''M'''ilitary-'''I'''ndustrial '''COM'''plex) and the Yuppies controlling everything, Manhattan being turned into a state penitentiary, political dissent being considered treason under the "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Freedom Act]]," HOMSEC goons blackbagging people at night and sending them to FEMA camps, Chinese-Americans being interned because of the current war against China, survivalists, death cults and racial supremacists thriving outside the big cities; and everyone with slave wages, potato chips and TV sets -- basically a corporate-fascist America nightmare. All this in the backdrop of a three-way conflict between the US, the Chinese and the Soviet Union for the last remaining natural resources, with the [[CrapsackWorld rest of the world not being much better than America]].
* Prior to 2056, in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game-setting, elections in the [=UCAS=] had been conducted via a "remote-vote" system. That year, it was revealed that this voting system had been rigged to ensure a reelection; the incumbent administration was ousted, followed by an immediate Special Presidential Election in 2057 to restore legitimate democracy and avert this trope.
* The [=US=] is well into this trope in ''{{GURPS}} Cyberworld'' ... '''before''' the government gets around to formally suspending the Constitution. The Provisional President makes regular speeches about the upcoming end to the Permanent Emergency and a return to democracy, but no one with a working brain believes those speeches.
* The [=US=], as well as most of the world, have become this in the RPG ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World_%28role-playing_game%29 Brave New World]]'' (no relation to the novel) after a super-villain Delta nearly killed President Kennedy.
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[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''{{Sinfest}}'', Uncle Sam often appears in strips depicting this. Men In Black also show up.
* This is the entire premise of ''Webcomic/{{Remus}}''.
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[[folder:Web Original]]
* The AlternateHistory ''DecadesOfDarkness'' is about the development of the United States into this. The WarOf1812 spills into [[DividedStatesOfAmerica a much earlier civil war]] that sees every state north/east of Pennsylvania seceding and forming the Republic of New England. The remnant US, dominated by the [[DeepSouth southern states]] and their slave-holding elite, becomes an imperial power built upon white supremacy, expanding across Latin America and co-opting the local white elites while keeping the black, indio and mestizo masses in slavery and peonage. New England also goes through a period of fascism (known here as "vitalism") from the mid 1920s through the early '30s due to an economic crisis, fear of socialism spreading in Canada and Newfoundland, and a badly lost war with the US.
* The AlternateHistory "AWorldOfLaughterAWorldOfTears" explores a world where Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1952 and Walt Disney became President instead. Under him the United States maintains segregation and goes in an increasingly paranoid and authoritarian direction. Many celebrities flee to Europe as The Mickey Mouse Club and its eager children and parents use patriotism and accusations of Un-American activity to browbeat (or just beat down) 1950s counterculture. [[BetterThanItSounds Much better than it sounds.]]
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[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* JusticeLeague episode "A Better World" takes place in an AlternateUniverse where the Justice League has become the tyrannical Justice Lords after the death of the {{Flash}}, and the subsequent murder of Lex Luthor. The Justice Lords appear to have an iron grip on everything, even going so far as to lobotomize their enemies, and keeping them in a place that is decidedly ''not'' a CardboardPrison.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': Freedoms have been curbed to fight off "excessive terrorism." After the Northwest war before the game starts, parts of the nation are still under martial law. [[spoiler: As the world continues to go to shit, the nation goes under full-fledged martial law in order to control rising civil unrest.]]
* The {{Infocom}} game AMindForeverVoyaging shows the decline of the US from a democracy to a theocratic dictatorship over three decades. The player character is an AI who can see the future and must prevent the death of democracy.
* ''LiberalCrimeSquad'' begins with US either heading this way or already there (if you begin with nightmare mode on). [[BigBad The Conservatives]] are to blame, of course.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. Before the war, the United States government had become increasingly paranoid and militaristic in the face of the threat posed by China and the resource shortages. They also signed off on the amazingly inhumane "vault" experiments. [[AfterTheEnd After the war]], the last remnants of the old government form the Enclave, a brutal paramilitary organization that's willing to cause the death of almost everyone in the world to achieve its goals.
* [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] in ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''. One of Pravin Lal's quotes references a painful lesson about the importance of [[HarsherInHindsight free flow of information]] learned by Americans in Earth's [[AfterTheEnd final century]].
* ''{{Homefront}}'': Overlaps with InvadedStatesOfAmerica. Any area controlled by Korea is under military rule, where US citizens are killed left and right. Even before the war, the US wasn't doing so hot in terms of freedom, as it slipped into FallenStatesOfAmerica territory.
* ''MetalWolfChaos'' has the United States turned into a dictatorship after a takeover by the Vice President.
* The US in ''VideoGame/ShatteredUnion'' became this way under the Presidency of [[PresidentEvil David Jefferson Adams]], who put the West Coast put under martial law and sailed to a second term through a blatantly rigged election (because [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating there's no way he could've been re-elected]] under any other circumstances). The nuclear terrorist attack on UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC during his inauguration, and the ensuing decapitation of the federal government and the line of succession, triggers the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Second American Civil War]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* The Alien and Sedition Acts passed by President JohnAdams during the "Quasi-War" with Britain and France. This was a major factor in destroying Adams' presidency and getting ThomasJefferson elected President in 1800.
** President WoodrowWilson would later revive these as justification for the imprisonment of anti-war activists, socialists and other dissidents during WWI.
* Both sides during TheAmericanCivilWar engaged in oppressive actions. On the Union side, Maryland was put under martial law to prevent it from seceding, and suspected sympathizers to the Confederacy could be arrested without trial or warning. In the Confederacy, meanwhile, Union sympathizers (especially in Appalachia) found themselves terrorized by the secessionist governments, to the point where northwestern Virginia (a solidly pro-Union area in a Confederate state) [[RebelliousRebel counter-seceded]] and formed the pro-Union state of West Virginia.
* Being black during the [[CivilRightsMovement era of segregation]] in the US. In the South, this saw "Jim Crow" laws being passed in many states that restricted where black people could go, what jobs they could have, where they could live, etc. In the North, this was most often economic segregation, with black people being forced into ghettoes through discriminatory housing and real estate policies, and a thick glass ceiling preventing them from getting decent educations or careers. And across America, black people and other minorities were [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town not even allowed to live in certain towns]]. In certain parts of America, a black person who did or said the wrong thing (or was even accused or suspected of doing the wrong thing), especially to a white person, was pretty much doomed -- even if he or she was proclaimed innocent by the court, he or she was in very real danger of being [[VigilanteExecution lynched]] by an [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry white mob]].
* The two {{Red Scare}}s during the early to middle part of the 20th century. Holding differing opinions from the American mainstream could land you in a lot of trouble. The most notable was [=McCarthyism=] during the '50s, which was effectively witch hunts for suspected Communists. Those caught in the hunts, even if they weren't Communists, could and frequently did have their lives and careers destroyed.
* The Japanese Internment during WorldWarII. 110,000 Japanese-American citizens were relocated to camps with little warning, only being able to take the clothes on their backs. Conditions in the camps were horrible, and many would commit suicide rather than suffer.
** It wasn't just Japanese-Americans. Italian- and German-Americans were interned, too. However, they were free to leave the camps as long as they proved their loyalty to the U.S. and were able to get a job or go to school outside the defense zones, and many joined the military to prove their loyalty. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately, these camps pushed many Germans who were not previously sympathetic to the Nazis into the arms of what would eventually become the core of the modern neo-Nazi and White Power movements.]]
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