The Lonely Nation: How the Coup of '28 Went to Poo is a work about how a presidential election goes sideways for a sitting president, and he stages a putsch. Not any ordinary overthrow either. It happens in the States United of Association, a mature and sophisticated country. To make matters worse and more uncertain for its inhabitants, the Internet is shut down, and no cell phone service is available. President Darious Jupiter Romp was widely discredited at home and abroad. Though presidents were barred in running for a third term, the supreme commission had ruled the Twenty-Second Article of the Declaration invalid because it was meant to have said "thrice" instead of "twice" and thus the casino magnate could run again. His administration had used DICE to round up and deport millions of undocumented people, mainly of the brown hue and Hispanic surnames. Foreign policy was military adventurism run amok. Inflation was rampant, and the people were yearning for a fresh start. Rep. Linda Acaso-Cortes of the Blue Lot Party rose to the challenge and even proposed free veterinarian care for people's pets. This infuriated Romp. The architect of her campaign, Danny Cahill, undermined the Red Depot Party incumbent by cleverly sabotaging his pep rallies and, on one occasion, by releasing parrots into the air who mimicked the free vet cry while the song "The Age of Aquarius" rang through the president's chosen location. On Election Day that November of '28, the president took to the airwaves and declared an attempt had been made to steal the election and had ordered DICE and his Stump troopers to secure the nation. Acaso-Cortes flees with Ron Pritchette, the president of the Sewage Workers Union and Cahill to the hills of Sylvania, where Pritchette works at a waste disposal site. A poo factory. In a desperate attempt to take the reins of power to the fair, square, and legitimately elected new president, he opens the vault of the Safety Valve and releases the country's poo into the air. The week of Thanksgiving no less. Will this do the trick and force Romp's hands into submission? Or will America's greatest con man prevail? Neither politician had anticipated the ultimate Joker card in this lethal battle for power: the people. How they decide is in these pages.
