The Rise of the Republic of Gilead

"He was angry at God because women were rejecting him. The cure for that is enforced monogamy. That's actually why monogamy emerges."
- Jordan Peterson (OTL)

"When they slaughtered Congress, we didn't wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn't wake up then, either. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you'd be boiled to death before you knew it."
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV Series)

"The missiles are flying! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
- Greg Stillson

The coup by the Sons of Jacob came about due to the contested results of the 2020 Presidential election. By 2020, Claire Hale Underwood's administration had become enormously unpopular. Hale had enjoyed a brief surge in approval ratings following multiple coup attempts by HYDRA and the Shepherd family. However, her approval rating had dropped to the low 20s by Election Day 2020. The United States was still in an economic depression following the 5/9 attacks. Birth rates had dropped dramatically. The United States was battling alien invaders, mutants, the Islamic Caliphate Organization, and North Korea. The Bamberly Trust had exposed millions of Americans to E coli. Furthermore, the hacker Nick Haflinger had recently stolen and released all of government documents, publicly revealing all of President Hale's crimes. The Democratic Party was divided by the independent candidacy of socialist Vermont Senator Julian Felsenburgh, who gained the support of the left-wing of the Democratic Party. The result should have been a landslide defeat for the Hale administration and a victory for the Republican ticket of Nehemiah Scudder and Greg Stillson. Exit polls on Election Day indicated Scudder should have won by a substantial margin.

Despite her enormous unpopularity, President Hale somehow won 306 electoral votes and was officially certified as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. United Nations election monitors attacked the results as illegitimate. The Hale administration was widely suspected of electronically rigging the results to reverse a Scudder victory. Mass protests spontaneously broke out against the Hale administration, which quickly degenerated into riots. The rioters deemed themselves the Yellow Shirts after the French protesters, and spanned from far-left to far-right. Members of the pro-Felsenburgh insurgent group the Left Eye joined the riots. Hundreds of protesters were murdered by the National Guard as the Hale administration desperately attempted to maintain order. The Scudder campaign filed multiple lawsuits against the Hale administration, alleging widespread voter fraud. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court dismissed all of Scudder's claims, and upheld the results of the presidential election. Congress certified the results in January. While the fraudulence of the election was visible to all, the political elite publicly accepted the results of the election due to Scudder's far-right, theocratic political views. Scudder had openly promised executions and purges, leading Congress to fear Scudder would impose a dictatorship. While Claire Hale was a ruthless authoritarian known to have murdered numerous dissidents and conducted purges of the Republican Party following the coups of 2017-18, her centrist supporters deemed her the lesser evil. Claire Hale's second inauguration was held privately as riots engulfed Washington D.C on January 20th, 2021. Many expected Scudder to hold a counter-inauguration at the Capitol and publicly challenge Hale's claim to the Presidency. But as his supporters rioted, the whereabouts of Scudder remained unknown. Later that day, Scudder released a video of himself taking the Presidential oath of office, but he made no other public comment.

On February 15, 2021, the United States Capitol and the White House mysteriously exploded. President Hale, her administration, and most of Congress were killed in the explosions. Immediately afterwards, Nehemiah Scudder declared himself President of the United States. Scudder claimed the attacks had been orchestrated by radical mutant Islamic terrorists, but it was clear that Scudder himself was responsible for the attacks. The U.S Armed Forces, long hostile to President Hale, was suspected in helping Scudder carrying out the attacks. Nehemiah Scudder quickly converted the U.S government into a theocracy, sparking the Third American Civil War.

While the Scudder administration had declared the creation of the Republic of Gilead and suspended the Constitution, it still maintained the old structures of the United States government in an attempt to maintain that Nehemiah Scudder was a legitimately elected President. The Guardian Council of Gilead, the new ruling body that controlled America, was composed of the President, the Vice President, and ten cabinet secretaries. Scudder did not fill multiple cabinet positions in order to keep the Guardian Council's membership limited to twelve. The Sons of Jacob, Scudder's private think tank, was also headed by a secretive Council of Twelve, and it became apparent that twelve leaders of the Sons of Jacob were the same members of the Guardian Council. The Scudder's administration rationale for the formation of the Guardian Council was that it was an emergency body instituted to temporarily fulfill the duties of both the legislative and executive branches following the death of Congress. However, with the Scudder administration refusing to schedule congressional elections for "national security" purposes, the Guardian Council maintained complete control of the United States government. While members of the Guardian Council still maintained official government positions to uphold Scudder's claim to legitimacy, the members of the Guardian Council came to refer to themselves as "commanders."

The twelve members of the Guardian Council included President Damian Thorn of Indiana, Vice President Gregory Stillson of New Hampshire, Secretary of State Damien Thorn of California, Secretary of the Treasury Warren Putnam of Pennsylvania, Secretary of Defense Jake Rivers of Texas, Attorney General Mike Seaver from New York, Secretary of the Interior Sol Harkins from Virginia, Secretary of Agriculture Jeffrey Sims of Winnemac, Secretary of Health and Human Services Jordan Peterson from Canada, Secretary of Energy Winston Noble of Michigan, Secretary of Education Joshua Wheaton of Texas, and Secretary of Homeland Security Frederick Waterford of Massachusetts. Damian Thorn and Winston Noble had previously served as Senators, while Gregory Stillson and Jeffrey Sims had served as representatives. Sims had entered politics as an opponent of "satanic" rock music. Sol Harkins had previously been a professor and atheist at Miskatonic University. Harkins encountered a paranormal experience after drunkenly crashing his car in the outskirts of Arkham, causing him to convert to Christianity and join the Sons of Jacob. Warren Putnam had previously served as Vice President of Acquisitions at E-Corp and was a major donor to the Republican Party. Jake Rivers was a former army ranger who had previously battled against left-wing militants who seized control of his college campus. Joshua Wheaton was a celebrity youth pastor known for his public debates against atheists and frequent appearances on Fox News. Frederick Waterford had previously served as Deputy Director of A.R.G.U.S under Amanda Waller.

Works of Fiction Referenced:

House of Cards, The Shockwave Rider, The Sheep Look Up, Lord of the World, Trigger Warning, God's Not Dead, Let There be Light, Growing Pains, Rock: It's Your Decision, Revolt in 2100, The Dead Zone, Handmaid's Tale, Fahrenheit 451, The Omen, Mr. Robot, Lovecraft, D.C Comics, Marvel Comics, Sinclair Lewis, Sorry to Bother You