No W
is a dystopian alternate history work by Lost Freeway, posted on AlternateHistory.com.The POD for the timeline is George W. Bush dying suddenly in a car accident on August 1, 2000. From that point on, one disaster after another strikes the world.
Unfortunately, the author was banned in September 2017 for posting a racist meme in the chat. However, he re-posted the timeline on Althistoria, and loyal fans have taken to transcribing new posts from there to the existing timeline on AH. However, Althistoria shut down in July 2020 (it's still available for viewing, but existing members can't make new posts), throwing the future of the TL into question.
No W contains examples of:
- Apocalypse How: Pakistan and the north of India gets subjected to a class 0 after the Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange.
- Assassination Attempt: William Calley Jr guns down Santorum, critically wounding him, while being killed himself by the Secret Service.
- The Coup: a group of officers in Venezuela launch one against Hugo Chavez, which ends in a civil war.
- Civil War:
- Venezuela, after a coup against Hugo Chavez.
- Russia, after Moscow is targeted by a nuclear attack by Chechen terrorists, which results in the death of most of the top government. After that Russia falls into a civil war between several rival factions.
- In Egypt, one breaks out after Mubarak's death, and the Muslim Brotherhood being blocked from the subsequent elections. Eventually, they nuke Cairo, and take over the country.
- As the author has confirmed that Santorum will get a second term, several users believe the United States is heading towards one, much worse than the first due to the massive advances in military technology since the 1860s.
- Crapsack World: Nuclear weapons are used with reckless abandon by nations and terrorists alike, planes are frequently bombed (though not all of them go down), and Rick Santorum is slowly turning America into a theocratic dictatorship (that one user labelled the "Holy American Empire") who silences his critics by framing them for crimes (such as child pornography) or discreetly having them assassinated, heavily censors the media by banning violent video games and shows with even an iota of adult situations, and actively promotes bigotry against Muslims, going as far as to put them into internment camps supposedly to protect them from racial hate crimes, but may actually be extermination camps.
- Defector from Decadence:
- Abdul Qadeer Khan (in OTL the father of the Pakistani nuclear program) fled to Iran after the Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange.
- Donald Rumsfeld serves on President Santorum's cabinet, and partakes in many of the latter's power-solidifying schemes. But once Rush Limbaugh is "disappeared" for speaking out against the administration, he quits in protest and flees to Canada.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Very common in this timeline. Three presidents die in this way, two in aircraft accidents.
- Eagleland: Santorum's America is becoming a truly nasty type 2.
- Enemy Mine: When running for president as an independent in 2008, Donald Trump recruits Jerry Brown as a running mate in order to secure support from liberal voters.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Dick Cheney is a shifty politician willing to exploit people's fears but he was appalled by the Indo-Pakistani war, condemns hate crimes against Muslim Americans, and deeply resents the Radical Right, after his daughter Mary is attacked by a gunman, and Jerry Falwell claims she deserved it for being lesbian.
- Even well known strong voices of the right wing, like Donald Trump and even Donald Rumsfeld, eventually decide that the Santorum administration is going too far.
- Santorum signs a bill ordering that all homosexuals be treated for what he believes is a mental illness. Several users theorized that this was actually a cover-up for a "Gay Holocaust", but
Word of God states that Santorum actually does want to set the homosexuals straight, not exterminate them like Hitler. - Speaking of the anti-homosexual bill, Bud Cramer (the Democrats' 2008 Presidential candidate) makes it clear that he doesn't like gays, but that he still finds the bill to be a massive violation of their constitutional rights.
- Evil Cripple: While he survives the assassination attempt, Santorum is left paralyzed below the waist and in his left arm. It's later suggested that he also suffered brain damage as a result.
- Evil Is Petty: Santorum practically runs on this, from assassinating a senator for rejecting his Supreme Court Justice nominee to funding far-right terrorism in Israel to punish the Israeli government for negotiating with the Palestinians.
- False Flag Operation:
- When the Senate Judiciary Committee rejects Santorum's first nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he retaliates by assassinating Senator Chuck Grassley by having the Secret Service sneak a bomb on his private jet, then blames Grassley's death on Islamic terrorists.
- To try and discredit the Continental Army, the Santorum administration orders the FBI to bomb July 4th celebrations and pin the blame on them. It's noted that aside from the hardliners who support the administration anyway, no one buys into the propaganda.
- Fictional Political Party: By late 2007, President Santorum's administration has grown so hardline and fundamentalist that more mainstream conservatives (led by Mitt Romney and Colin Powell) break away from the Republicans and form the Heartland Party, to provide an alternative.
- Foregone Conclusion: Several posts contain transcripts from a "Sotomayor Commission" of 2011 investigating the corruption of the Santorum administration, making it clear said regime is going to fail in the long run.
- For Want Of A Nail: George W Bush dies of a car accident just a few months before being nominated, setting in motion the dystopian events of this timeline.
- Heteronormative Crusader: The Santorum regime is not very friendly to homosexuals to say the least, allowing state governments to pass laws that discriminate against them before finally passing a law forcing them to undergo conversion therapy or face prison.
- Knight Templar: Santorum is determined to restore America to its "Christian roots" by any means necessary. If some people have to die or disappear under suspicious circumstances for that to happen, then so be it.
- La Résistance: The Continental Army, a domestic militia group that emerges in 2008, composed of Americans of all stripes opposed to the Santorum administration.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Santorum tries to assassinate Charlie Crist by having his plane sabotaged. It backfires when the pilot manages to successfully ditch the plane.
- Moral Guardians:
- Taken to extremes by President Santorum. Not only does he pass bills censoring television and video games, he goes as far as to frame Bill Gates by planting child pornography on his computer...just because he protested the bill banning violent video games.
- The bans result in many game developers, as well as Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park, moving to Canada.
- Comedy Central gets its broadcasting license revoked after an episode of MADtv (1995) mocked Santorum by portraying him and Vice President Lott as secretly gay.
- No True Scotsman: President Santorum has no problems killing or disappearing other right wingers who don't agree with his objectives, like Rush Limbaugh.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo:
- Forever and completely broken with the Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange.
- Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, is targeted with a nuke by LTTE.
- Moscow and Tbilisi are also targeted with nukes by Chechen terrorists.
- The Muslim Brotherhood nukes Cairo in order to take over Egypt.
- Oh, Crap!!:
- President Cheney upon being informed of the Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange.
"They did it! The sons of bitches actually did it!."- And then upon hearing the Colombo attack.
"God-fucking-dammit!" - Oppressive States of America: The US quickly turns into this under President Santorum.
- Our Presidents Are Different:
- Dick Cheney is President Schemer, pursuing an aggressive neoconservative agenda and using plane crashes, even ones not caused by terrorism, to push his agenda.
- President Santorum is mixture of President Evil and President Lunatic.
- Running Gag:
- So many political opponents of President Santorum are killed in engineered plane crashes, that every time someone speaks out against him, timeline commentators suggest that another plane crash is in store.
- Commentators are also really hoping for a Ron Paul presidential run.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- As President Santorum grows in power and tyranny, many conservative voices in the public sector flee to Canada. Rumsfeld eventually resigns from the government in disgust and joins them.
- The passing of anti-homosexual laws leads to members of the LGBT community also fleeing to Canada in droves.
- Guam ultimately votes to secede from the US in disgust at what the country's become, with the Northern Marianas following shortly after.
- After the United States passed it's anti-homosexual law that forces LGBT people into conversion therapy, the United States left the United Nations and kicked the United Nations out of their headquarters in New York City when the United Nations criticized the bill.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When the US Navy is ordered to blockade the seceding Guam and Marianas, many officers and seamen sympathetic to their plight ensures that the contents of any ships seized while trying to breach the blockade still makes its way to the islands.
- Shout-Out: In an update describing a James Bond film, the antagonist is a CIA agent named Riggs.
- Suicide Attack: Very commonly used by Islamist terrorists.
