Oscar Lachman

Oscar Lachman
56th President of the United States
Vice President	Joe P. Kennedy IV
Preceded by	Horace Fadel
Succeeded by	Rayleen Malakar
51st Governor of Colorado
Deputy	Tony Lesser
Preceded by	Bob Menendez
Succeeded by	Tony Lesser
Born	October 21, 2021 Redmond, Washington
Died	April 18, 2136 (age 115) Denver, Colorado
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Nationality	American
Political party	Horizon Party
Spouse(s)	Grace Huang (2063-his death)
Children	Avul Lachman
Profession	Businessman Politician
Religion	Hindu
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	8 years (January 17, 2048 - November 11, 2056)
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	Carrier Strike Group Three
Battles/wars	World War III

Oscar Lachman (October 21, 2021 - April 18, 2136) was the 56th President of the United States, serving from January 20th, 2081 to January 20th, 2089. President Lachman is widely remembered for the mass deportations of the 2080s. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 51st Governor of Colorado.

Lachman's business connections, particularly with Peter Teller, led him to become a powerful figure in the Horizon Party, and the Neo-Jeffersonian movement. He was persuaded to seek the Colorado governorship after delivering the commencement speech for the 2072 Horizon Party Convention, winning two years later and again in 2078. He was defeated in his run for the Horizon presidential nomination in 2076, but won both the nomination and general election in 2080, defeating incumbent Horace Fadel.

As president, Lachman implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. He advocated reversing the "Open Door" immigration policy and deporting all undesirable non-citizens, issuing national ID cards to streamline government services, and deregulating the economy to spur economic growth. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against migrant labor unions, announced a new War on Crime, and negotiated an immigration compromise with colonial leaders that insured the mass colonization of Mars.

He was re-elected in a landslide in 2084, leading the Horizon coalition to a majority in both houses of Congress. His second term was primarily marked implementing the immigration reforms passed in his first term. National ID cards issued over the previous four years were used to relocate millions of resident aliens in the Southwest to Mexico, though almost half of the deportees opted to move to the colonies and gain full citizenship. Lachman's policies were reviled in the Southwest, and US Army and National Guard forces had to be deployed to manage the deportations; however, in the rest of the country, the Deportations were hugely popular, as it freed up the economy and sparked job growth.

Early Life and Career

Early Life

Lachman was born to a upper-class family in Washington in the city of Redmond on October 21, 2021. His family once owned a small chain of general stores downtown. When the ice caps had melted and produced flooding around the world, the economy became damaged and Lachman's father was forced to sell off most of the business to keep it afloat.

Lachman attended Redmond High School and graduated with the class of 2039. As a freshman, he injured his right knee and developed a leg infection that extended into his upper thighs, and which his doctor diagnosed as life-threatening. Doctor recommended further extensive surgery, but Lachman refused to allow it, and surprisingly recovered. Lachman went to Washington State University in late 2039 and later graduated with a bachelors degree in business in 2043.

His mother soon developed leukemia and was kept in the hospital for the duration of her life. Medical bills had caused further strain on the financial situation of the family, it didn't help when Lachman's father was arrested and was sent to 3 years in prison in 2043 for charges of attempted bribery. His father died in 2046, 2 months before his release, when he developed a blood clot after a blow to the head in an incident. Lachman and his twin sister became the official owners of the last general store but the business failed due to economic conditions and the remaining family became impoverished.

Military Career

Lachman developed an interest in the military after playing several classic RTS video games that his father had left him and joined the US Navy in 2048, sensing opportunity to help his family's finances and to feed himself. By the outbreak of World War III, Lachman became a commissioned officer in Carrier Strike Group 3 aboard the USS William Halsey Jr. that saw action in the Pacific. At the end of the war, Lachman was a Lieutenant and retired from the Navy in 2056 before eventually moving to Colorado in 2057. He would later successfully restart his business career there.

Presidency (2081-89)

First term, 2081–85

When Lachman was inaugurated January 20, 2081, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history. A third of the workforce was unemployed, the nation was facing rolling blackouts and energy shortages that in turn led to a 40% decline in economic activity. The Department of Housing and Urban Development could not keep up with the need for affordable housing as more citizens lost jobs and homes. In his first inaugural address Lachman addressed the country's economic malaise, arguing: "This crisis cannot be solved by the government, when it was born of the government."

Philosophy

Main article: Neo-Jeffersonianism

Lachman entered office promising to radically restructure the economy from the social welfare system that had been in place since the Price adminstration and implemented policies based on a laissez-faire philosophy to promote freer markets and increase investment into the economy by private citizens. Lachman's first steps towards implementing this new economic policy was through a series of broad tax cuts, regulatory reforms to accelerate the formation of new businesses and the creation of the "Personal Liability Corporation."

Lachman's believed the solution to the economic crises facing the country lied in a hyper-localization and decentralization of economics. The disruption to American life created by automation would remain a detriment if power continued to consolidate around large conglomerates and the government. Lachman supported a series of sweeping anti-trust measures, deregulated financing and insurance industries, and generally making it easier for citizens to create their own means for wealth generation. Lachman famously declared in his first inaugural address, "Jefferson's dream is now more attainable than ever before," referencing the Jeffersonian Republican idea of individual citizens being self sufficient and independent from centralized power.

Closing the border

President Lachman's most radical policy was his push to reverse a half century of policies designed to encourage immigration to the United States. Lachman believed that for immediate relief to come to the US job market immigration had to be stopped and those residing in the United States on temporary work visas had to leave. Upon taking office, Lachman signed a series of executive orders instructing the Immigration and Naturalization Services to cease the processing of all new green card applications and ordering U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to radically reduce the flow of non-citizens into the United States.

Lachman pushed Congress to pass harsher punishments for immigrant offenders, end guest worker programs, and international student recruitment programs for universities. None of these efforts actually resulted in an increase to the workforce, but they did radically diminish the rate of unemployment growth. Lachman's executive orders closing the border would later be formalized into law with the Immigration Reform Act of 2082.

While these policies were supported by most Horizons, they were extremely unpopular among members of the Progress party and in the colonies. Leaders of the Mars Corporation and other colonial NGOs met with Lachman and Congressional leaders to negotiate a compromise with the Immigration Reform Act that would ensure the free flow of colonists to Mars, now that its population cap had been removed. Lachman and the leadership agreed to a compromise in the form of an amendment proposed by Congresswoman Elia Rosalind, that established the right of deportees to opt for resettlement on Mars in exchange for full citizenship. The Amendment also kept the door for immigrants open, so long as they were immigrating to Mars. This compromise ended the brewing Martian Revolution, and ensured the peaceful colonization of Mars.

Energy Crisis

By the summer of 2081 the United States was experiencing rolling blackouts across the nation as layers of energy grids failed to keep up with the demand for power. The rise of robotics in the workforce was putting too much strain on the nation's demand for energy and it could not be met with existing sources on the moon or renewable systems on Earth. This is partly what drove President Lachman to structure the trade agreement with the colonies to begin shipping Helium-3 from Neptune and Uranus to supply energy hungry Earth. Lachman agreed that the mining, processing, and transport of goods across the solar system would not be taxed until they reached markets on Earth or Cislunar Space, effectively treating the entire colonial economy as if it were a giant mine. The moon was exempted from this policy, however Helium-3 production on Luna had largely peaked and was already deep into Earth's economic center of gravity.

Second term, 2085-2089

Deportations

President Lachman's most controversial policy was the forced resettlement/deportation of "undesirable" non-citizens, most significantly to Mexico and Central-America through the Repatriation Act of 2084. The overwhelming majority of those effected were Mexican laborers living in the Southwest, some for the majority of their lives. Per the Rosalind Amendment, many of these Mexican expatriates were able to forego deportation simply by agreeing to relocate to Mars or the other colonies, however 11 million elected to return to Mexico proper. Lachman worked closely with Mexico to engineer a stable relocation of Mexican expatriates in the US back to Mexico, however public backlash to the flooding of Mexican markets with more laborers led to the election of Filipe Peña who sharply opposed America's efforts to deport Mexican nationals. Following Lachman's presidency, the deportations would be the most heavily-criticized aspect of his Presidency, with some going as far as to blame the Second Mexican-American War on his callous treatment of Mexican immigrants.

Turkish Collapse

With the collapse of Turkey near the end of his second Term, Lachman worked to contain the Intermarium invasion of the Caucuses, while supporting their claim to stop the Third Armenian Genocide by Azerbaijan. Tensions between Poland and the US were higher than they had been in decades, and as the war spread to every other Caucasian state, President Lachman worked to try to persuade Polish leaders to scale back the war.

After Presidency and Death

Shortly after his presidency, Lachman went on a 13 day vacation with his wife to France. After leaving office, Lachman did not completely retreat from political life. He flew to Seattle, Washington in 2100, where he had been stationed years earlier, to support a successful Tom Steele in his presidential campaign.  On January 20, 2129, the day Thang Levin was inaugurated as President, Lachman commented that Levin had "made his hero proud" by finally succeeding to the presidency, but silently criticized Levin's alliance with the Dignidad. At the outbreak of the Second American Civil War, Lachman secretly supported Lionel Halvidar over Thang Levin.

Oscar Lachman, aged 115, went to a walk at a park in his home city of Denver, Colorado with a couple of retirement friends. Suddenly a small group of Hispanic protestors attempted to grab Lachman in a more secluded area in the park. Lachman's friends attempted to hold off the attackers while Lachman began to flee, only to be suddenly shot through the chest and later died from wounds after a beating. First-responders were quick to arrive on the seen soon after sounds of gunshots and attackers were arrested. They were put on trial and sentenced to life in prison without parole two days later.

Legacy

Since leaving office in 2089, Lachman's popularity has heavily declined. While some historians (mostly Horizon ones, needless to say) had argued that he was one of the more successful presidents, the consequences of his policies resulted in him placing low in most historical popularity rankings. Lachman's economic recovery faded by the early 2090s, and the economy continued to decline throughout the end of the 21st century and well into the 22nd. The Second Mexican-American War--and by extension, the Third Mexican-American War--was largely seen as the result of Lachman's deportation policies, which caused his historical popularity to drop further. His is now consistently ranked, along with Donald Trump, as one of the least well-liked US Presidents in historical rankings. He was ultimately killed in 2136 by Mexican-American protestors who resented him for his role in starting the war between the two countries.

Although Lachman's focus on returning jobs to America made him popular early on in his Presidency, he was still criticized even in his own time. Former President Carla Anderson was one of Lachman's most vocal critics, publishing various articles and essays decrying his actions while he was in office. In her autobiography Sushi and Apple Pie, she later described his policies as, "the greatest act of cruelty ever levied by an American leader since the time of Andrew Jackson".

Quotes

"I saw wasted American potential. Job markets are shrinking every year, unable to keep up with the population. We refused to do the dirty work and preferred the lowly foreign-speaking non-citizens to do it for us while everyone else competes for higher jobs. We are not a caste system, nor a country divided by two languages. I say every job should be filled with American citizens again."

— Oscar Lachman, 2085 inauguration speech.

"I could care less about being popular. Most politicians promise things, only to back away once their reputation is on the line. While I would be concerned about my legacy, popularity shouldn't stop me from doing what seems practical to me, at least."

— Oscar Lachman, post-presidential interview.

"Is it.. is it safe to go now...?"

— Oscar Lachman, last words.