History Literature / AGiantSuckingSound

* * DiedDuringProduction: An in-universe example with [[spoiler: Stephen King, who is killed in his June 1999 car accident, leaving the Dark Tower series incomplete.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Instead of working with the two-party system, Perot chooses to create a third party instead. Unlike many works that portrayed it as MarySuetopia, the author seems to provide a more nuanced commentary that it made the choice as [[LesserOfTwoEvils the least-repulsive option]] at best, and being similar in flaws and notoriety as any established parties at worst. Up to eleven in the 2000 election, which see third party runs by not only Freedomite [[spoiler: Angus King, but Pat Buchanan on the Constitution Party ticket, and Jerry Brown on the Green Party ticket after he loses the nomination for Freedom Party candidacy]].

* PositiveDiscrimination: Subverted with [[spoiler: President Ann Richards. A lot of people in-universe note that being the first female President is an important accomplishment. However, being a woman doesn't make you immune to the battleground of American politics, which is even more tumultuous because of the rise of a third party. Richards has to endure a Freedomite-Republican coalition against her agenda]], not to mention an increasingly chaotic world scene and Stormfront terrorism. [[spoiler: She struggles to prove herself to be a legitimate president.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Instead of working with the two-party system, Perot chooses to create a third party instead. Unlike many works that portrayed it as MarySuetopia, the author seems to provide a more nuanced commentary that it made the choice as [[LesserOfTwoEvils the least-repulsive option]] at best, and being similar in flaws and notoriety as any established parties at worst. UpToEleven in the 2000 election, which see third party runs by not only Freedomite [[spoiler: Angus King, but Pat Buchanan on the Constitution Party ticket, and Jerry Brown on the Green Party ticket after he loses the nomination for Freedom Party candidacy]].

''[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=208277 A Giant Sucking Sound]]'' is an ongoing AlternateHistory series on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom in which H. Ross Perot's third party bid in 1992 succeeded. It was significant in how it highlighted the hypothetical rise of a successful modern third party, and a [[FromBadToWorse dystopian 1990s]], and in the process showed just how close we could have had either.

-> "To those of you in the audience who are business people, pretty simple: If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, hire young -- let's assume you've been in business for a long time and you've got a mature work force -- pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care -- that's the most expensive single element in making a car -- have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south."

* TakeAThirdOption: Instead of working with the two-party system, Perot chooses to create a third party instead. Unlike many works that portrayed it as MarySuetopia, the author seems to provide a more nuanced commentary that it made the choice as [[LesserOfTwoEvils the least-repulsive option]] at best, and [[NotSoDifferent being similiar in flaws and notoriety as any established parties]] at worst. UpToEleven in the 2000 election, which see third party runs by not only Freedomite [[spoiler: Angus King, but Pat Buchanan on the Constitution Party ticket, and Jerry Brown on the Green Party ticket after he loses the nomination for Freedom Party candidacy]].

** Like Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo, this work seem to take a nuanced approach on the idea of a major contender of two-party system. While it allowed implementations of reforms--namely campaign and political donations reforms--that were found hesitant by both Democrats and Republicans; it turned out to be NotSoDifferent once it became established with all benefits and warts of a major party, and the radical members from both sides of political spectrum began to assume power with focus towards their own goals even forgoing any forms of compromise.

* NotSoDifferent: Former Vice President Hill Harper jokes about the comparisons between the liberal Creator/WarrenBeatty and the conservative UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, two actors who became the Governor of California.
--> '''Harper Hill''': We should really stop remembering Warren Beatty as the liberal version of Ronald Reagan as the actor-turned-politician, with the womanizer option. First, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments he had won an Academy Award]].

* AuthorExistenceFailure: An in-universe example with [[spoiler: Stephen King, who is killed in his June 1999 car accident, leaving the Dark Tower series incomplete.]]

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: The stress of the presidency on [[spoiler: Ann Richards drive her to smoke more and more]]. [[RealityEnsues She dies of lung cancer in 2003]].