Some elements of this series was guessed at being references to Peter Parker being "Self-Loathing Emo-Man" during the Steve Ditko era, without Stan Lee's dialog making him a bit more optimistic.
It looks like New York City is completely cut off from the rest of the country in this story. You have to wonder why anyone stayed, unless they figured the smiling fascists at least kept the trains running on time.
(Warning: political rant.) You have to wonder if someday comic historians will look back on this decade and think, "All comic creators and readers thought the Bush/Cheney Administration was unrelentingly evil and they were the only ones who knew it." I mean, comics continued being dark and depressing under the Clinton Administration, with only the artwork more colorful and Liefeld-esque. (Political rant over.)