Literature / The World Turned Upside Down

The World Turned Upside Down is an Alternate History work written by Seleucus, a member of AlternateHistory.com.

Its point of divergence is that the Obama administration, during the 2016 election, has the intelligence community reveal that they are investigating Donald Trump for ties to Russia. Even though the reopening of the Clinton email investigation happens, sharing this information leads to Hillary Clinton picking up several states, ultimately winning the popular vote by a 5-point margin and gaining the electoral votes necessary to be elected president. She gets to work selecting her cabinet, while Republicans begin to resign themselves to Clinton's victory, approving Merrick Garland's Supreme Court appointment and criticizing Trump for his refusal to accept the election results.

And then, when the electoral college meets, two electors who were supposed to vote for Hillary Clinton switch their votes. This results in a hung electoral college and, when voting goes to the House, Donald Trump, despite losing both the popular vote and the electoral college, is selected as the president (although Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine, having gotten 270 electoral votes, gets the vice presidency).

Despite having no mandate, Trump gets to work implementing his policies. The country's polarization reaches new heights, anti-Trump Republicans break off to form their own party and foreign affairs get...messy. It's gonna be a long 4 years...

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This work provides examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: Not literally, but Trump's approval rating reaches extreme lows throughout the timeline (with a very rare boost usually caused by good luck). By the time of the 2020 election, he is polling at 19%, with Romney's third-party ticket ahead of him by double digits. By the time of the actual vote, he does a little better, but still comes in 3rd in the popular vote.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • However you feel about the real Trump, the one in this timeline is worse. Among other things, he gives Richard Spencer a pardon, celebrates South Korea going into an economic crisis as what they get for opposing him and worst of all claims Vice President Kaine (who was injured by someone trying to assassinate Trump) was responsible for the attempt in the first place and refuses to visit him in the hospital.
  • WikiLeaks also falls victim to this. Whereas in our timeline, they have been willing to leak against Russia and Trump, here they are simply a tool of the Kremlin.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Kaine is quoted, he is referred to as "former president Tim Kaine," thus implying he takes over as president at some point. While he does become president, it is only for a brief period between Trump resigning and Warren taking office, lasting less than two months, after which he goes back to being Vice President.
• Balkanize Me: Turkey ends up splitting in two after a coup attempt against Erdogan. West Turkey is allied to the US while East Turkey is a Russian ally still under Erdogan's control. The civil war that led to its division almost escalates to a nuclear war between Russia and the US.
• Defector from Decadence: Many Republicans turn on Trump for his erratic behavior and frequent flouting of both norms and legality. By 2020, at least 10 Republicans have voted in favor of impeaching Trump (though due to not reaching a 2/3 majority it still fails), Marco Rubio mounts a primary challenge to him and several moderate Republicans led by Mitt Romney have formed a third-party ticket for the presidency.
• False Flag Operation: A recording purporting to show Ryan and Kaine making a deal to remove Trump from office was in fact recorded using actors. Somewhat a complicated example, as the conversation did in fact occur and the recording was based on a transcript.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who works to back Trump solely for the purpose of destabilizing the United States. He even goes so far as to hack vote returns in 2020 to say Trump won 100% of the vote in some counties. However, it still doesn't work and Trump is defeated.
• Landslide Election:
  • The 2018 midterms are this for the Democrats. They win a majority in both houses of Congress and manage to even win Ted Cruz's Senate seat.
  • The 2020 elections also proves to be this, with Warren winning over 400 electoral votes and the Democrats sweeping Congress.
• My God, What Have I Done?: House Speaker Paul Ryan ultimately has this attitude towards his role in helping Trump become the president. While remaining defensive of what he did at the time, he ultimately concludes that Trump is unfit for the job and attempts to reach a deal with Kaine to get Trump removed. It doesn't work.
• Shout-Out: Vice President and ultimately future president Tim Kaine is frequently compared to fictional characters such as Batman, as well as badass characters who share his name such as Kane.
• Take a Third Option:
  • During the House vote for who should be the next president, three Congressmen, rather than vote for either Clinton or Trump, vote for Ron Paul (who had received an electoral vote and was selected as one of the three candidates House members could pick).
  • Later on, the Moderate Party ticket headed by Romney aims to provide voters with an alternative to both Trump and the Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren.
• Titled After the Song: The timeline is titled after the song British soldiers played after the victory of US forces in the Battle of Yorktown (which decided the outcome of the American Revolution).
• Villainous Breakdown: When Trump loses the 2020 election, he goes on a mad Twitter rant, pardons himself and then resigns the presidency, leaving Kaine to take over as president for a couple of months.
• Wham Episode: The update covering the 2020 RNC proved to be this, as Marco Rubio denounces Trump onstage, marches out to lead a protest and gets shot, provoking a violent clash between pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions of the GOP.