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Khan and American Politics

T'Girl

T'Girl

Vice Admiral
Admiral
If we merge Trek history on top of actual world history.

Would the rise of Khan sometime in the year 1992, have resulted in the re-election of George H W Bush? Assuming that Khan came to power at least several weeks prior to the November 3, 1992 Presidential election. Would the American people rally behind a sitting President, one who was successful in the Persian Gulf War, and was good in the area of foreign affairs, if faced with a perceived threat like Khan.

And also the possibility of more "supermen" gaining power in multiple other countries.

Might Ross Perot have not re-entered the Presidential race in October of 1992. What effect would the rise of Khan have had upon Bill Clinton's campaign strategy.

I can see the American people shifting their support to Bush, conservatives certain would have moved away from Perot and his singular emphasis on domestic policy changes.

There was a 55.2% voter turnout.

43.0% (370 electoral votes) Clinton
37.5% (168 electoral votes) Bush
18.9% ( 0 electoral votes) Perot

What say you?
 
We could, but Trek shows us a 1996 US with nary a touch of superman wars. Odds are, then, that those were fought on other continents, leaving the West Coast just as untouched as it would have been in 1945.

a perceived threat like Khan
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Would Khan be a threat? Or rather a potential ally capable of thwarting evil Chinese plans of expansion, a welcome change to the politics of India and Pakistan, and a massive thorn in the tender underbelly of an already shattered Russia?

For all we know, Khan was created by the United States. With a degree of deniability, though, again because the US doesn't seem hurt or much affected by the Eugenics Wars.

Timo Saloniemi
 
uniderth said:
Why couldn't we assume a "superman" rose to power here in the US as well?
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Because what little evidence we have about the wars, suggests the US (and possibly Canada and Mexico) stayed out of it. I doubt any of Khan's ilk were American or involved in American politics.

Indeed, as the Eugenics Wars seem to have been largely confined to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, this may explain how the Eastern Coalition was able to arise there, decades later. With so much instability wrought by the Eugenics Wars, that would be a fertile breeding ground for the ECON (and for the eventual third world war).
 
In the ENT episode "Future Tense", one of the database images that Archer and T'Pol gloss over is an article about U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003. That part of real life is present in Star Trek.
 
In another word, I tend to think that most independent voters that slipped away from Clinton in this scenario would have gone to Perot - and Clinton would still have won. Which neatly avoids the problem of Trek writers needing to keep up with more details of a divergent contemporary history when they seemed to have *enough* trouble keeping up with just the in-show 23rd and 24th century continuity. ;)
 
Perot was never a contender. It's my opinion that he came in as a spoiler to take votes away from HW, something to do with a beef with Bush (real or perceived).

Regardless, Bush was not a strong wartime President. His limited goals in Desert Storm were met, but left a lot of business undone. Clinton was not a strong wartime President either. The entire 92 campaign was all about "the economy, stupid." If any of them had talked about the clear and present danger of what was to come, it could have been a real game changer.

If the Trek timeline had played out, there would have been another, much stronger candidate that was hawkish on diminishing the threat of the "supermen." If that candidate was not elected before the wars started, there would have been another one in 96 with an even stronger platform, and he would have been elected.

We'll never know for sure.
 
From Memory Alpha:

The Eugenics Wars (or the Great Wars) were a series of conflicts fought on Earth between 1992 and 1996. The result of a scientific attempt to improve the Human race through selective breeding and genetic engineering, the wars devastated parts of Earth, by some estimates officially causing some 30 million deaths, and nearly plunging the planet into a new Dark Age. (TOS: "Space Seed"; ENT: "Borderland")

The Augments rose to power and held dominance over a large portion of Humanity, beginning in the early 1990s. Among the most notorious of these superhuman conquerors was Khan Noonien Singh, who in 1992 became the "absolute ruler" of more than a quarter of the planet, from Asia through the Middle East. (TOS: "Space Seed")

The following year, a group of fellow "supermen" followed in Khan's footsteps, and simultaneously seized power in over 40 nations. Some people were treated as little more than slaves by the Augments. Khan considered himself a prince "with power over millions," and unlike some other nations ruled by Augments, under his rule there were no massacres and no wars of aggression until he was attacked; he was thus among the most admired of the so-called "tyrants" into the 23rd century, being called the "best of the tyrants" by James T. Kirk. (TOS: "Space Seed"; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; ENT: "Borderland")
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So, as T'Girl is pointing out, odds are the wars began prior to November 1992. However, I wonder if there would have been first Gulf War. If the Middle East political situation was such that a major series of wars could break out in 1992, wouldn't that mean the political situation in 1990 and 1991? Had these supermen already taken steps and made moves to facilitate their rise to power?

Personally, during that time period I thought of the Bosnian conflict as one of the Eugenics Wars. Perhaps the Gulf Wars could fall under that umbrella as well. Perhaps the Augments began their takeover initially in 1979 with the Iranian Revolution.
 
This thread makes me nostalgic for the 90's.

Grunge. Dot-com companies. Windows 3.1. My 401k balance only ever moving in one direction: up.

It was a glorious time.
 
urbandefault said:
Perot was never a contender. It's my opinion that he came in as a spoiler to take votes away from HW, something to do with a beef with Bush (real or perceived).

Regardless, Bush was not a strong wartime President. His limited goals in Desert Storm were met, but left a lot of business undone. Clinton was not a strong wartime President either. The entire 92 campaign was all about "the economy, stupid." If any of them had talked about the clear and present danger of what was to come, it could have been a real game changer.

If the Trek timeline had played out, there would have been another, much stronger candidate that was hawkish on diminishing the threat of the "supermen." If that candidate was not elected before the wars started, there would have been another one in 96 with an even stronger platform, and he would have been elected.

We'll never know for sure.
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Far from "not being a contender," Perot was leading in the polls when he left the race. Also, exit polls showed that, contrary to myth, he did not take votes from Bush significantly more than from Clinton. Clinton was well ahead in the polls the majority of the time when Perot was gone from the race. All of that is accurate, btw, and can be checked against polls at the time.
 
Heck, we know even the Big Bang was different in the Trek universe! That doesn't stop that universe from paralleling our own very closely at select points.

Indeed, as the Eugenics Wars seem to have been largely confined to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, this may explain how the Eastern Coalition was able to arise there, decades later.
Click to expand...

We have yet to hear of any fighting in Europe. As for the ECON, it could be anything from China coalescing with Taiwan to Washington D.C. and the original thirteen allying against the rest of the US. Or it could be the name chosen in that universe, instead of Commonwealth of Independent States, when the USSR split up.

What were the Eugenics Wars about? We don't really know if these involved the supermen at all - Spock just says that the 1990s were the era of the last world war, which apparently is an error that McCoy corrects by saying they were the era of the Eugenics Wars instead. But did these wars start with the rise of the Augments? Culminate in the rise of the Augments? Consist of the Augments fighting each other? Consist of various muggle nations crushing the supermen?

The name itself would suggest the fight was for and against eugenics, but it might be folks called "Eugenics" (for their supposed origin and nature, if not for their policies) fighting each other or outsiders.

OTOH, Eugenics Wars might be a catchall name for lots of 20th and 21st century wars, starting with WWII which definitely was about eugenics in 23rd century pious hindsight, and possibly extending all the way to the aftermath of WWIII. It's never said to be something specific to Khan, nor something limited to the 1990s - instead, the 1990s apparently is a subset falling within the Eugenics Wars. Lots of events paralleling our reality may have been affected by those wars, and lots of those may have taken a darker or perhaps lighter twist, only to return close to "our normal" for a reference or two. Although thankfully we cease to have real-world-related references after the 1990s (there's some undated and unexplained imagery of the twin towers falling, but perhaps because two supermen bash each other in the head with them in 1995?).

Cool comic, btw. Thanks!

Timo Saloniemi
 
Right now, in the comic Maurice has thoughtfully posted, I'm turning the Eugenics war into a reason for the US to be involved in the Middle East in the way we pretty much are now. Much like the Afghan war the Eugenics conflict may have been noble at first, but has kept the Americans there past their reasonable welcome.
 
Interesting question.

Bush 41 had a huge surge of popularity in America coming out of the Gulf War, but most of that had dissipated a year later because of the bad U.S. economy. The ongoing Eugenics Wars could've counteracted that effect somewhat & encouraged Americans to stick with the known quantity. And, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you don't change horses in midstream.

So yeah, I think if Khan was invading and ruling other nations and warring against other genetic supermen at that time, it could very well have led to a re-election of George H.W. Bush.
 
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