User:Copelonian

The 1996 United States presidential election was the 53rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1996. The newly founded Unity Party candidate Paul Tsongas defeated incumbent Ross Perot in a landslide. This election is widely seen as not being free and fair. Many political historians marks this election as a turning point in American politics where an totalitarian regime is established.

The leadership of the Democratic and the Republican parties after losing the 1992 presidential election, merged to form the Unity Party in an attempt to defeat Perot's Reform Party. The Unity Party suspended primaries and caucuses and started a campaign of suspension of civil rights and political violence leading to the landmark Texas v United States decision which ruled that the suspension of civil rights is constitutional if it is used for "public safety."

The suspension of civil rights and violence continued even to election day where Perot supporters were murdered and Reform Party staff and volunteers being massacred en masse. Many voting station were closed and even in open voting stations, electoral fraud were common.

After election day many prominent politicians and academics were arrested such as Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, Noam Chompsky, Angela Davis among others but many of them managed to evade capture and were able to flee across the border to Canada or Mexico. The ones who had not managed to escape were killed by the secret service shortly after their arrest. It is estimated that at least 10,000 people were killed in this purge.

This election marks the end of American democracy as following the election, a totalitarian regime is established in the United States. All other political parties were banned and martial law declared across the United States, it is still in effect today. A systemic campaign of repression which included forced disappearances, assasinations, censorship and massacres which continues to this day.

Background
The leadership of the Democratic and the Republican parties after losing the 1992 presidential election, merged to form the Unity Party in an attempt to defeat Perot's Reform Party in 1993. The Unity Party suspended primaries and caucuses and started a campaign of suspension of civil rights and political violence leading to the landmark Texas v United States decision which ruled that the suspension of civil rights is constitutional if it is used for "public safety."