How Washington, D.C., Became the Capital of Fan Fiction

Fan fiction went mainstream in 2012. That was the year that a Twilight fan’s stories about Edward and Bella were given new names to avoid copyright issues and published as the immensely popular Fifty Shades of Grey.

Washington, D.C. fan fiction is about to have a similar breakout year.

Like its counterparts in literature, D.C. fanfic uses a familiar cast of characters (Donald Trump, John Kasich, Paul Ryan) and traditional settings (swing states, the Electoral College, the House of Representatives) to create whole new plots that often stretch plausibility. Instead of online fan forums, though, it’s shared in newspapers and talk shows.

If you keep up with the news, you’ve been reading D.C. fanfic for years. It’s there in the newspaper columnist’s about “the speech that I would give as president.” Or on the Sunday show when the pundit explains how a losing candidate could turn everything around with a new tax policy. Or on Twitter when the political journalist throws out some crazy constitutional scenario.

(Here are just a few examples: Al Gore should run for president. Barack Obama should be Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Ben Carson can win the presidency. Obama should nominate Elizabeth Warren to the Supreme Court. Marco Rubio should pick John Kasich as his running mate. Paul Ryan could become the Republican nominee at a contested convention.)

But in 2016, it’s getting harder to tell the fanfic from the sober analysis. After all, even the most ardent fanfic aficionados would not have penned a scenario where a reality TV star becomes the Republican front-runner as a contested convention becomes a major possibility.

That said, there have been some outlandish storylines floated over the past few months, and not just from pundits. In many cases, that amounted to what psychologists call “magical thinking.” After all, it’s one thing for a pundit to throw around an outlandish scenario. It’s another thing entirely to spend time and money trying to make it happen.

Here’s a small selection:

• Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, best known for his efforts on gun control and soda taxes, could run a successful third-party campaign for president as a centrist against two other New Yorkers.

• House Speaker Paul Ryan could be drafted into running for president by a million-dollar effort led by the former ambassador to Finland and a couple of political consultants based in New York.

• Ohio Gov. John Kasich could win the Republican nomination at a contested convention despite coming in a distant third in delegates and only winning his home state in the primary so far.

• Real estate mogul Donald Trump, who began his campaign by arguing that many Mexican immigrants are rapists and is viewed unfavorably by eight in 10 Hispanic voters, could win the Latino vote in November.

• Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose two presidential campaigns ended ignominiously, or former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who is being treated for cancer, could run as a third-party candidate.

These scenarios are all possible, in the sense that your basketball coach tells you that anything is possible when your team is losing by 50 points at halftime. And in a topsy turvy year where a two-term swing-state governor with $100 million to burn flames out before a real-estate-mogul-turned-reality-TV star, it’s tempting to think that anything can happen.

But while fanfic might sell well, D.C. fanfic is almost certainly still just poorly written fiction—even in a year like this one.