A Tale of A World Gone Mad With Discord and Strife...
And Our Flag Was Not There is an Alternate History story created by Dab Master on Sufficient Velocity.
In late 2019, the Supreme Court rules that Trump's businesses constitute a conflict of interest and strip him of them. This would kickstart a series of events that would lead to the assassination of Bernie Sanders in December 2019 and Trump starting a war with Iran in January of 2020. This leads to leftist factions in America taking a much more militant turn than they did in our timeline, followed by the right doing the same. Coupled with a complete military and social disaster in the form of the aforementioned War with Iran, the collapse of the global economy, and political chaos, the US plunges into civil war after a disputed election in 2024. The flag that dominated the world for 100 years is no more, but what might replace it could be even worse...
The story is divided into two parts.
- 2020: Shots Fired
, which chronicles the increasing unrest in both America and the world caused by Sanders's death, and ends just as the Second American Civil War is beginning. - And Our Flag Was Not There, which documents the events of the Second American Civil War.
Tropes:
- Allohistorical Allusion: Many. Oh so many.
- The Second American Civil War differs form most timelines in that it is more closely based off of the insanity of conflicts like the Syrian Civil War, rather than falling into the trap of being a redux of the first Civil War.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Civic Nationalists are a downplayed example; while they profess to be tolerant of racial and sexual minorities, they also pressure minority groups in their territory to shed their culture in favor of WASP culture and have ambitions of conquering all of North America.
- Balkanize Me: By 2028, America has effectively balkanized into a zillion competing factions, many of which hate each other with a burning fury.
- Blood on the Debate Floor:
- While there is no riot in the US Capitol after the 2020 election due to tighter security, Marjorie Taylor Greene is able to smuggle a gun into the House of Representatives and kill Nancy Pelosi.
- None of the candidates in the 2024 US presidential election are able to get the required number of Electoral College votes, so the House of Representatives holds a contingent election on January 6, 2025. However, Congress is unable to reach a final vote and tensions eventually get so high that fistfights break out on the floor that only end when Qanon-aligned US military officers launch a coup.
- Chummy Commies: The global unrest caused by the Iran War leads of a resurgence of communism in many countries. When the United States splinters, the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast are taken over by leftist factions. They are generally freer and less autocratic than the remaining capitalist nations, which are becoming increasingly oppressive.
- Civil War: This TL is obviously about a Second American Civil War. But there are more civil wars that take place in the TL before SACW happened. Such as:
- Iraq being first to fall to this trope as the nation was intertwined in the Iran War that resulted in pro-Iran Shia militants fighting against the pro-American Iraqi goverment forces, American/Saudi forces, Sunni militants and an reinvigorated ISIS. However it changed dramatically mere days before the collapse of American war effort in the Iran War when an upstart Iraqi Communist Party stages an uprising against American/Iraqi Government/Sunni forces and managing to coerce the surviving Shia militants - realizing that Iran is now weakened after the American invasion of Iran - into joining them; leaving ISIS as the only one surviving into the second itineration of the war, with Turkomen Iraqi militants (which was later directly supported by Turkey) joining the fray.
- Saudi Arabia also fell victim to this, alongside Succession Crisis, between three princely contenders (Turkiists, Abdullahite and Abdulazizite) in the aftermath of an incident that killed both King Salman and Prince Mohammed; with Houthi invasion, Shia uprising in Turkiist's areas and Najran provinces and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula taking over the Empty Quarter thrown in. It later degenerated into an free-for-all conflict (with a dose of Balkanize Me) when the princely contenders fled due to minor factions getting an upper hand or overthrown that allowed major factions to take over the collapsed nation; with Al-Sanadid, reinvigorated ISIS militants, Jordanian-backed Hejazi State and independent/tribal armed groups joining in before calming down entirely after making peace with other factions and defeating of both AQAP and ISIS presence in the long gone nation. The Jordanian-backed Hejazi State would later fall into civil war between Hashemite forces and a group calling themselves the United Ummah Caliphate.
- Israel, in a technical sense, fell into one between them and an right-wing secessionist forces calling themselves Judea and Samaria after occupying nearly all of West Bank and the road to Tel Aviv.
- It would not be called the Latin American Wars without this trope:
- Bolivia fell into fighting between pro-MAS regime and Santa Cruz secessionists; which would later directly backed by Brazil after declaring war with Bolivia and Peru.
- Peru collapses into various groups fighting for the throne such as pro-government forces, People's Provisional Authority, Aymaran Nationalist, Ethnocacerists, MOVADEF, FREPAP, and Fujimorists. People's Provisional Authority would win out after managing to force the pro-government faction out of the country, crushing Fujimorists and MOVADEF, and forming an tentative alliance with FREPAP, Aymaran Nationalist, and Ethnocacerists (which was on the verge of collapsing).
- Same as Colombia with its own PPA (plus the support of FARC and other anarcho-communist groups) fighting against the Colombian government. Just like in Peru, Colombian PPA would also win the conflict as well.
- Chile also become a victim of this after an botched coup by the elements of Chilean Army/Chilean Police.
- Commie Land: The Red Lakes Confederation, the DSA Government, the FDSA, and The Cascadians. Outside of America are the members of Pan-America and the nations belonging to the 4th Internationale.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Donald Trump's death from COVID-19 leads to Qanon conspiracy theories gaining a lot of followers. After the collapse the United States, they're able to gain power in a handful of states before their deranged actions lead to their collapse.
- The Coup: A group of US military officers sympathetic to Qanon conspiracy theories launch a coup against the US government when the 2024 presidential election fails to produce a clear winner, kicking off the Second American Civil War in earnest.
- The National Unity Government, the remnant of the old US government, is overthrown by another coup in 2026.
- Crapsack World: Outside of America the Westphalian World Order is collapsing from all sides, as nations are torn apart in civil wars and revolutions, and capitalism increasingly desperately tries to prevent itself from collapsing by embracing authoritarianism and even outright fascism.
- Deconstruction: The Constitutionalist faction deconstructs the typical traits that are associated with right-wing factions (i.e: gaining an terrain and demographic in rural areas, generally united/professionalized, utilizing methodical tactics over flashier ones, etc.) in various 2ACW scenarios. Despite gaining near-total control of the rural areas, The Constitutionalists are completely hampered at the start thanks to internal divisions between Tom Cotton and the RRA, their constant sieges against several leftist-held cities in the Great Plains, their bloody campaign against the Qist faction…one that inadvertently helped the Constitutionalist’s enemies in learning tactics that would use against them in the future, and general mismanagement of their economic advantage. While the early problems were rectified thanks to Patriot Zero/John Smith staging a coup against Tom Cotton alongside several victories against leftist forces and entering an “unholy alliance” between them and the Civic Nationalists and Canadian Junta, the situation eventually changes and eliminates any hope of them gaining superiority over their leftist rivals. This results in the Constitutionalists dropping their methodical tactics by launching large scale offensives that not only result in their leftist rivals becoming more determined against them; but resulted in a complete collapse of the rural demographics that the Constitutionalists completely relied upon due to the fact that it hadn’t recovered from various crises before the 2ACW began. Such demographic collapse alone would have have ended the Constitutionalists' participation in the war, but countless prisoner revolts, the effects of Dust Bowl, and other right-wing factions (the white supremacist Aryan Bastion State and Christian fundamentalist Confederated Republic of Christian America) making moves against them completely seal their fate. In short, the Constitutionalists ended up getting defeated not by their leftist rivals; but by their internal problems that existed right at the start of the war.
- Divided States of America: Obviously what this TL is about.
- Disaster Dominoes: One event, The Assassination of Bernie Sanders causes multiple events that would lead to America collapsing.
- Did Anastasia Survive?: The Sabmyk
- Do Not Go Gentle: Surprisingly, Mitch McConnell has an adrenaline-fueled Dying Moment of Awesome of sorts against the Sabmyk, managing to wound him before being killed by one of the Sabmyk's attendants. And the whole time, Mitch is screaming his head off at him, Defiant to the End."THOUGHT YOU COULD SEND ME TO HELL THAT EASILY, SHITHEADS? I WON, YOU HEAR ME? I WON! HARRIS IS DEAD, PELOSI IS DEAD, CHRIST IS DEAD, TRUMP IS DEAD, I'M ALIVE! AMERICA COLLAPSED UNDER A DEMOCRAT AND ITS GRAVE IS BEING PISSED ON BY THE LIKES OF YOU! Y'ALL ARE THE POOR SPORTS, NOT ME! YOU THREW THE GAME! FUCK YOU, I WON I WON I WON! IF I DIE YOU DIE WITH ME! YOU WON'T WHOOP ME AND GET AWAY WITH IT! I'M A PART OF HISTORY NO MATTER WHAT! YOU'RE JUST NOBODIES!"
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Revolutionary Right Army is willing to accept minorities who share their beliefs into their ranks. This is also somewhat deconstructed, as non-whites in Constitutionalist territory who aren't active participants in the RRA forces suffer from unofficial discrimination.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While many of the surviving capitalist powers have become increasingly authoritarian and xenophobic, they still find the Aryan Bastion State distasteful and are horrified when the Aryans set off a nuke in California.
- Evil Cripple: The Revolutionary Right Army's leader, Jim Smith, is confined to a wheelchair due to injuries he received while serving in the US military in Afghanistan.
- Fallen States of America: After a prolonged series of crises America has fallen into a devastating civil war that has claimed millions upon millions of lives. At any rate it is unlikely that any one polity will be uniting the territory of the former U.S any time soon, especially considering that many factions are trying to build something new on the corpse of the country instead.
- The Famine: Food shortages are very frequent in parts of the world affected by war, civil unrest, and climate change.
- Fictional Political Party: After Donald Trump dies of COVID, his supporters break away from the Republican Party and form the America First Party, dedicated to continuing the ideas pushed by Trump when he was alive. After the United States splinters, they team up with the Revolutionary Right Army, dubbing themselves the Constitutionalist Government.
- From Bad to Worse: In spades.
- Lesser of Two Evils: While an oppressive regime based on the cultural annihilation of minorities that has sold its soul to unrestricted capitalism and oligarchs, the North American Union State (NAUS) winds up becoming this in comparison to most other right wing factions, especially after NATO intervenes to stop the neo-Nazi Aryan Bastion State and the Dominionist Confederated Republics of Christian America from threatening the entire world.
- Oppressive States of America: The National Unity Government starts out trying to uphold the US Constitution, but morphs into a military dictatorship after a coup by the Civic Nationalists.
- Our Presidents Are Different:
- Donald Trump (R-NY, 2017-2020) is President Corrupt, as he leads America into an ill-advised war with Iran and uses the increasing unrest at home to further his political power. He dies of COVID after losing the 2020 presidential election.
- Mike Pence (R-IN, 2020-2021) is President Focus Group, as he does very little policy-wise while serving out the remainder of Trump's term after the latter's death.
- Andrew Cuomo (D-NY, 2021-2021) is President Iron and President Jerkass, as he continues the Iran War despite its unpopularity with the American people and has an antagonistic relationship with Congress and the press. He is declared unfit for office and removed under the 25th Amendment after a Bungled Suicide.
- Pete Buttigieg (D-NY, 2021-2021) is President Iron and President Buffoon, as he also refuses to throw in the towel in the Iran War and his attempts to ease civil unrest at home come off as out of touch, and President Minority for being the first openly gay president. He is also removed from office under the 25th Amendment after suffering a mental breakdown from an assassination attempt that kills his husband.
- Kamala Harris (D-NY, 2021-2025) is President Minority, being the first woman president, and President Buffoon for her tone-deaf attempts to stop the American Troubles. She is killed when Qanon-sympathetic military officers take over Washington DC.
- Tammy Duckworth (D-IL, 2025-) is President Minority, being the first president of Asian descent, and President Focus Group for her attempts to keep the Democrats and Republicans in harmony under the National United Government. She is overthrown by the Civic Nationalists, but is rescued by a group of US Army officers opposed to the CivNat takeover and taken to Hawaii, where she becomes President Puppet.
- The Plague: Not only does the COVID-19 pandemic still happen in this world, an outbreak of pneumonic plague occurs in Africa that eventually spreads to America when the RRA smuggles plague-carrying rats into the US.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Revolutionary Right Army, which follows a strict paleoconservative ideology, is initially one of the major factions in the war. While they have some major success early on in the war, they eventually fall apart due to a series of fracturing within the leadership, demographic collapse in the countryside that powered their war machine, constant sieges against cities, and many other things that would culminate in a series of prison revolts in their territory.
- The Qist forces are a much more deranged example. They launch multiple pogroms against LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and other people they consider "Satanic". Their cruelty ultimately comes back to bite them, as wasting resources on terror campaigns allows their enemies to crush them.
- Second American Civil War: Well duh. Unlike most stories with this trope, there's also a prolonged period of violence before the "official" start of the civil war, referred to as the American Troubles.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite their ideological difference, the Revolutionary Right Army enters an "Unspoken Alliance" with the National Unity Government and later the Canadian military junta against the left-wing factions.
- The Theocracy: The Dominionist Confederated Republics of Christian America, centered in Colorado Springs.
- War Refugees: The scale of the instability from the multiple wars in the world leads to the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
- We ARE Struggling Together: While they still cooperate with each other against the right-wing factions, the alliance of leftist factions still suffers from tension between their members, especially after the Milwaukee Accords.
- Won the War, Lost the Peace: The government of Iran is able to repel the American invasion, only to be overthrown by members of its armed forces who have turned to socialism.
