Honestly, who's Mark Early? No one like Sanderson could really exist until "far in the future", right?
Mark Earley was the GOP Attorney General of Virginia who ran for governor. He's the man who instituted "Project Exile" in Virginia, and the GOP tried to pass him off as a "conservative" candidate for governor. The guy is a lifelong member of the NAACP, and a consistent gungrabber. Conservative Virginians gave him the bird in the election and now we have a democrat carpetbagger for governor. The VAGOP pompom shakers on FR are blaming conservatives for the fact that we now have a democrat governor. Conservatives knew good and well what would happen if that stealth commie got the governor's job with a GOP majority in the legislature. Our rights are safer with a governor and legislature who will be at war with each other.
Earley is exactly the type who would push a program like the one your character pushed while naming it something patriotic sounding.