An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government

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The Free German Reich

As I step into the streets of Nuremburg, my eyes are greeted with whimsical Romanesque spires cloaked with shimmering glass and Swiss granite. Ice cream sellers greet a band of Hitler Youth while policemen in green clothes play a friendly game of kickball. Across the multiverse, the Free German Reich has built itself a strange reputation for its whimsical cities, its friendly people, and most of all, its unusual system of government. To get to the bottom of this, I’ve scheduled an appointment with Zoltan Dietrich, the Chairman of the newly formed Reichstag Committee on Trans-Universal Affairs. The thing that makes this one of my most unusual interviews isn’t Mr. Dietrich’s politics or his relative lack political experience. The strange thing about Zoltan Dietrich is that he’s only sixteen years old. To understand the government of this so-called Jungenreich, one must first understand the downfall of Third Reich. As the German economy suffered throughout the “Screeching Sixties”, Adolf Hitler would blame the economic downturn on the “old leaders” of the Reich such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering.

To weaken the influence of the old leaders, Hitler began plans to militarize the Hitler Youth, the largest Nazi youth organization in Germany. After the Führer’s death, President Rudolf Hess attempted to stop the Youthful Revolution, only to be replaced by Foreign Minister Alfred Rosenberg. As the revolution continued, Rosenberg declared Hitler to be the “Eternal Führer” of the Third Reich, an act that managed to unify the politically fractured nation. However, this would not be enough as a cabal of Wehrmacht generals attempted to overthrow Rosenberg in a swift coup during the Iron Putsch of 1984. Upon hearing this, Rosenberg ordered the nuclear annihilation of the “Provisional German Government” in Cologne, plunging the Reich into a period of warlordism. During the war, forces loyal to the Hitler Youth, led by Reichsjugendführer Paul Schäfer publicly denounced Rosenberg and established the Free German Reich in Munich.

While some Nazi states turned to occultism or militarism during the war, Schäfer would begin a new path for German fascism by creating the doctrine of Jungenfaschismus. Schäfer believed that the downfall of the Third Reich (and most countries) was due to the corruption and greed that perverted the nation’s leadership. To solve this, the government would be led by a pure and incorruptible body of children between the ages of fourteen to twenty-one, giving a whole new meaning to Hitler’s campaign against the “old leaders”. Meanwhile, Schäfer continued to revere Adolf Hitler as the savior of the German people and the position of Eternal Führer remained within the Free Reich. Across the world, Free Reich would be met with a mix of suspicion and ridicule by the international community. However, Schäfer managed to defy all expectations after the war as living standards skyrocketed while the Free Reich saw one of the highest GDP rates in Germany. However, this success would not be credited to the Reich’s unusual system of government. Journalists and ambassadors across the world would instead praise the Free Reich for its efficient bureaucracy of economists, diplomats, and generals, all of them fully grown adults. As of today, the Free Reich continues to prosper economically despite accusations of wealth inequality, government corruption, and political violence.

However, I put these thoughts aside as I enter the Reichstag building to hold my first interview in this strange world. The inside of the building has a sleek design with rainbow walls, despite looking like a medieval fortress from the outside. Soon enough, I come face to face with my contact, who greets me with a firm handshake and a pearly white grin. Zoltan Dietrich is a blond smiling youth a head taller than me dressed in the uniform of the Hitler Youth. After introducing myself to Mr. Dietrich, I began my interview by addressing the elephant in the room, his age.

“You know, people from outside this world love talking about that when they meet me. Their jaws will just drop open and they’ll something like “you’re just a kid!” or “my son is older than you!” It might seem strange that most of the government is too young to drink but the thing is, we don’t really deal with things that some might consider serious. Things like… foreign policy. When ambassadors come through the Nutshell, they go to the Office of Trade or the Office of Foreign Affairs. But when tourists come to our world, then they go to us.”

I joke with Mr. Dietrich about how it would be safe to assume that the Reichstag mostly deals with public relations.

“Well, Mr. Chana you’re a hundred percent right! Reichstag members mostly lead rallies and hold interviews with the media and people such as yourself. You see, Schäfer made sure that the Reichstag would be a tool of the German people to represent their desires to the government and right now, we’re continuing his legacy. We have sessions with the other bodies of government to discuss laws and policies every week or so. And unlike other “democratic” nations, these sessions are all transparent and televised.”

I then ask why it is best that the young should be chosen to represent the nation.

“It can be a bit strange to see someone as young as myself in the government. But what you have to remember is that the government doesn’t choose Reichstag members, the people choose them. They know that the young can provide a new point of view for the civil servants and the government officials so they elect us to represent the future. Another thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that there aren’t any age limits for a member of the Reichstag. Most Reichstag members just choose not to run for office again when they become adults to make way for the next generation.”

I then refer to another elephant in the room. Namely, a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler next to the smiling face of Paul Schäfer.

“Now, Hitler did have some… outdated views, the Free Reich doesn’t deny that. But we also recognize that he was a product of his times. Joseph Stalin and President Kennedy made plenty of anti-Semitic remarks in private and they weren’t very kind to racial minorities. And of course, the Holocaust was an incredibly tragic event, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove that Hitler played any role in the whole affair. You see, Hitler gave orders to transfer the Jews and Slavs back to their “homelands” in the far east. Now, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but Hitler truly believed that he was helping them.

You see, in our world, it was Himmler who ordered the construction of concentration camps and the extermination of minorities without Hitler’s knowledge. Originally, Himmler was supposed to be Hitler’s heir, but when Hitler found out about the Holocaust, he did everything in his power to stop him. I know that there are plenty of other worlds where Hitler ordered the Holocaust, but there are also worlds where he became a communist and worlds where he became an American president. But in this world, Hitler was the man who rebuilt Germany from the ground up and improved the lives of millions of people across Europe.”

Despite my concerns regarding the educational curriculum of the Free Reich, I nod my head and ask Mr. Dietrich if he has any parting words before I end our interview.

“Some countries think that the young shouldn’t be given a say in what goes on inside the government, but we just don’t believe that. The Free Reich allows all of its people to share their opinions on politics and the country. It may seem strange, but our system works and frankly, it’s far better when you compare it to the other Reichs. We’re not some tyrannical government that sells slaves or dresses up as knights, we’re a democracy that lets its people choose the future of the country.”

I bid farewell to this young politician and take a bullet train to Paris to meet my next contact, Valentin Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt began his career as one of the first French journalists to travel to Burgundy and later gained popularity for his exposes on government corruption in the Free Reich. With a blue neon jacket and a cigar between his teeth, Mr. Schmidt greets me with an eager shake of the hand before asking a few questions about my “adventures across the multiverse”. It appears that his years as a journalist have made him think like the interviewer of this conversation. After warming up to my curious host, I begin my interview by referring to Mr. Schmidt’s critical views on the Jungenfaschismus system.

“You see Mr. Chana, child politicians shouldn’t be seen as your congressman or a member of parliament. Think of them as a child actor employed by the government. Now, the Free Reich calls itself the most democratic country in Germany, but that’s just another lie from the Hitler Youth. The Reichstag basically has zero say on what goes on inside the government and most of the sessions you see on the TV are scripted. This is because the bureaucrats know that is because the younger a person is, the more… erratic they can be. But what they also know is how easily children can be influenced. Whenever a child runs for the Reichstag, their campaign is always run by family members who use their connections to make sure that their kid can get into office.

They may call themselves democratic, but it’s very hard to get a candidate of the Reichstag approved by the government. They have to be a member of the Nazi Party and go through these weird tests, so the parents need a lot of money or influence to put their kid on the ballot. Most of the time, it’s some kind of oligarch who’s running the whole thing from behind the scenes. That kid you interviewed, Zoltan Dietrich? His father is the President of German Railways. Honestly, it’s depressing that there are people who are sacrificing the freedom of their own children just so their companies can get a few more government contracts. The stress really takes a toll on these children and when Reichstag members grow up, some of them turn to drugs and crime. However, most of them end up becoming another cog in the machine.”

I ask Mr. Schmidt if he could elaborate.

“When the politicians are too old to be in the Reichstag, they end up using their connections to get a government job with a lot of influence or they use their connections to build their own companies in the private sector. Nowadays, that’s becoming a lot more common. After getting themselves money and a family, they start to use their influence to get their own children on the ballot for the election and the cycle repeats itself again and again. The people know the system is corrupt, but generally speaking, they’re too apathetic to do anything about it.”

I then ask why apathy seems to be the norm for the everyday citizen of the free Reich.

“Even though the wealth inequality is appalling, the people have no way to change the system democratically. And of course, a revolution is out of the question. The Hitler Youth has the power to go after anything they see as anti-government whether it’s a rival business or a local government. Another big reason why people don’t care about changing the system is because of Paul Schafer. Schafer claimed that any German could become powerful if they had the right genetics for intelligence and compassion. Obviously, this isn’t true, but the rich believe it and so do the poor. The Free Reich may not be as anti-Semitic as it was under Schafer, but the country still has the same obsession with eugenics it had the 1930’s. The elite marry their kids to other members inside the party, and the poor are unwilling to change their situation because they think that it’s the system they deserve. They may not dress up as knights, but the society of the Free Reich is just as much of a hierarchy as Burgundy.”

As our interview continues, I refer to Mr. Dietrich’s claim that Hitler had no role to play in the Holocaust.

“Honestly, the idea Hitler of all people didn’t know about the Holocaust is laughable. Himmler and Hitler didn’t fall out because Hitler suddenly had a crisis of conscience! It was because Himmler was even crazier than him and he wanted Hitler to use nukes against the British! Besides, even if Hitler had no idea that millions of innocents were being killed, then why did he cover up the concentration camps? And sure, some argue that Hitler stopped the Holocaust, but the reason why he did that was because he realized that the economy needed a bunch of cheap labor to recover. I mean how else did Germany recover from the Screeching Sixties? You have to understand that entire generations have indoctrinated their children into seeing Hitler as some kind of German demigod instead of the monster he truly was. They’ve been fed this twisted version of the Holocaust and the Youthful Revolution until the whole country believes it.”

Curious, I ask about Mr. Schmidt’s version of the Youthful Revolution.

“Another thing they don’t tell you Mr. Chana is that the Hitler Youth have always had a bloody history. The Free Reich loves to paint the Youthful Revolution as this time when the German people came together to make their country a better place. What they don’t tell you is that the Hitler’s Youth greatest enemy was itself. After they got guns, the youth groups split into factions that shot each other over petty feuds that had nothing to do with preserving fascism. Schafer didn’t want this to happen again so he used the Reichstag as a peaceful way for the different factions to represent themselves. But when the veterans of the Civil War grew up, the power of the Reichstag was weakened and their bickering took place in the backrooms instead the streets.”

I then ask Mr. Schmidt if he would like anything else to say before I return to the Nutshell.

“You know, people from other worlds love traveling to the Free Reich because of how… weird it is. They come here so that they can say “Look at me, I visited a country where their parliament is a bunch of kids and their leader is a crazy artist who’s been dead for fifty years!” What they don’t realize that beneath all of that is something sinister, it’s a system that abuses the young and weak so the powerful can keep on ruling. People from across the world visit so they can take pictures of those weird castles and brag about it to their friends. But I tell you, if they found out what was really going on, no one would ever visit the Free Reich again.”

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So it's a Nazi Cultural Revolution combined with a kidocracy? Very creative! One question-how was a dude named Rosenberg anywhere outside camp walls in Nazi Germany, let alone being the Foreign Minister?
 
So it's a Nazi Cultural Revolution combined with a kidocracy? Very creative! One question-how was a dude named Rosenberg anywhere outside camp walls in Nazi Germany, let alone being the Foreign Minister?

This is the Rosenberg mentioned to in the entry. He was one of the Nazi Party's ideologues and Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories (basically the parts of the Soviet Union that were occupied by Nazi Germany and placed under civilian administration). Sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials and hanged.
 
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This is the Rosenberg mentioned to in the entry. He was one of the Nazi Party's ideologues and Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories (basically the parts of the Soviet Union that were occupied by Nazi Germany and placed under civilian administration). Sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials and hanged.
Thank you for replying!
 
I've just thought this up at lunch at some restaurant: a government that relies on self-hatred of its own majority ethnicity and an extreme distaste towards nationalism/extreme xenophilia, basically OTL's post-WWII Germany's take on pre-war nationalism cranked up to eleven.
I could see a religious basis for such an ideology. The nation's historic actions are Original Sin
There's a similar anti-German ideology as I recall, composed of Germans who want Germany to be destroyed and annexed by its neighbors.
It seems, as if the Japanese equivalent to the German "Anti-German" movement are far more fringe. I'm not surprised, that a radical anti-nationalist left emerges in countries after horrible fascist regimes. I'm rather surprised, that they developed in really bizarre directions in Japan.

Anti-German ideology developed due to the realization, that your parents or grandparents participated in the Holocaust and fought for the most horrible fascist regime which ever existed. Germany failed for a long time to reflect and realize their recent past after World War 2. It is a logic conclusion of this perspective to reject nationalism, especially your own nationalism.

Anti-German ideology combines anti-capitalism with anti-nationalism. They often combine Antifa-Symbolism with the Star of David.
(For example they use Flyer depicting the Antifa Flag next to the Flag of Israel with the Slogan "Antifa means Solidarity with Israel")

The German Anti-Germans managed to influence various discourses among the German left, and left a significant impact. While most German leftists are not Anti-Germans, they adopted some of their ideas in a more moderate form. "Nie wieder Deutschland!" (Germany, never again !) is a common slogan among the German left. At every major football world cup, there is a sport among various leftists to collect and destroy as many German flags as possible to combat nationalism. Still it is unclear, what they want to build after abandoning the German national identity.

Many differences between the German and the Anglosphere left can be explained by "Anti-German" influences. For example, the German left is far more concerned about Antisemitism than the Anglosphere left. Similar the German left has partially different views on the Middle East.
While their are parts of the American or British left, which criticize imperialism or racism, I doubt that they would use the slogans "Down with the USA" or "Never Britain again!"

Anti-Germans and large parts of the German left believe that Antisemitism isn't just a problem of the right and extreme right, but a structural problem, and that leftists need to be aware about leftist antisemitism. Anti-Germans usually support a harsh foreign policy against Iran.
Anti-Germans where highly skeptical about the reunification of Germany, since they feared a new German nationalism after reunification.

An important intellectual of the Anti-Germans was Eike Geisel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eike_Geisel ). They often use the Frankfurt School in their rhetoric and argumentation.

Anti-Germans are clearly leftists who want to overcome capitalism and oppression. They want an emancipated society.
But there is also a more bizarre fringe fraction of the Anti-German left which entirely abandons the criticism of capitalism and is highly skeptical about refugees. This fraction moved far to the right.

There are today some disagreements between more intersectional leftists, traditonal leftists and anti-german leftists. Still, I guess, that it is possible, to combine intersectionality with a more moderate form of the arguments of the Anti-Germans.

There was no point in history where Anti-Germans emerged as a major political force. They are more influential among intellectuals and in university cities. They could influence some positions of other political movements, but an Anti-German dominated government is impossible with a plausible POD.

Maybe I should write a short entry about an Anti-German German government.
( Central-European Administration, Capital Bonn, Anthem: NONE, Flag: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Merchant_flag_of_Germany_(1946–1949).svg , planned economy with some council communism, foreign policy: good relationship with the US and Israel, hostile to everything fascist, hostile to other communist regimes)
I could also see a religious basis for such an ideology. The nation's historic actions are combined with the concept of Original Sin.
 
So I've been doing a lot of reading about post-1919 German politics lately and I've been contemplating on turning one of my favorite proposals to reform German politics during the Weimar era, the so-called Reichsland solution, into an EEUSG entry. The basic idea of that plan was to turn the Free State of Prussia, as well as the smaller states of northern Germany, into a Reichsland under the direct rule of the national government, albeit subdivided into provinces slightly more powerful than Prussia's provinces at that time.

Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and Saxony would remain member states of the German Empire and keep their priviledges.

Now there are two aspects which aren't in that proposal which I've been considering, namely the questions on how this proposal would deal with the Prussian-governed but geographically distant Hohenzollern, which was a de facto province and had a very small population compared to other Prussian provinces (~74k in 1939, compared to Schleswig-Holstein at ~1.6 million or the then-still-existent Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck at ~154k, which likely would cease to exist as its own entity in this proposal).

The second question is about how that proposal would deal with issues of expansion. When that proposal was made the Saar Area was still a LoN mandate and the border province Posen-West Prussia (1925 pop. ~332k) was seen as a placeholder province in the hopes that Germany could re-adjust its border with Poland. So how would this proposal deal with these issues? Should the Saar Area [1933 pop ~812k) just become a province within the Reichsland Prussia or should it become its own member state? And should Posen-West-Prussia also be its own province, be partitioned between adjacent provinces (like it was by the Nazis post-1938), or should the proposal account for the hopes of border readjustments?

Basically the entry would concern a three-tiered German state, with the mostly-centrally goverened provinces of Prussia, the autonomous four states mentioned above, and three Reichskommissariate, which have no autonomy whatsoever and get all their governing done via a Berlin-appointed commissar.

It'd mix themes of periphery vs metropole, centralism vs federalism, and inequal votes (since the Reichskommissariate would lack voting representatives in the Bundesrat and only elect voting delegates for the Reichstag, plus the president, while Prussian voters are basically subject to the West Lothain question but instead it's idk the Oberpfalzfrage).

Does that sound like a good idea for an entry or is it a bit too generic or similar to prior entries?

In terms of territory, I already have the WorldA patch ready, albeit without surrounding states.

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A Peculiar Institution
My world map cover of General Lemarc’s EEUSG entry, the Confederate States of America. Includes the writeup, which was mostly provided by General Lemarc but with formatting edits and some additions by myself.

The POD is the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Sharpsburg, which is what we know as the Battle of Antietam IOTL. The Confederate leadership realizes that they just lost their best chance to win, and need to do something in order to even the odds. A program is initiated that promises large payments to slaveowners for the sale of their slaves to the Confederate government, and freedom for the slaves upon completion of military service "for the duration of the war” (translation: start fighting from now until we win, and if you're still alive you're free). History stays roughly the same until Gettysburg, where a slave soldier kills Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, allowing the Confederates to take Little Round Top and win the battle. Faced with a dagger pointed at their metaphorical heart, the Union is forced to the negotiating table.

The ultimate results of the treaty include recognition of Confederate independence and sovereignty by the Union, the rescinding of the Emancipation Proclamation, as it was an unlawful infringement upon Confederate sovereignty, and referendums in Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. These last were insisted upon by a Union negotiating team flushed with victory and assured of the loyalty of those within the border states. The results were a total defeat for the Confederates, save in Kentucky, where Confederate agents were able to pull off more vote-rigging than their Union counterparts. The Indian Territory was also "sold" to the Confederacy as a means of the Union getting them to pay off their portion of the pre-war national debt, along with provisions that the Union could dump any tribes it didn't want into the newly Confederate territory. This was sold as "being rid of the Indian problem once and for all" to the Union public and was generally accepted as a smart play after the fact, though more than a few politicians lost their careers, and one lost his life, over "giving the damn traitors more land.”

The Confederacy enters a period of national glee, while the Union enters a period of deep depression similar to the Union in Timeline-191. A new paranoia over secessionism and "un-American mindsets" leads to a harsh crackdown on Mormonism in Utah, leading to a cycle of resistance and oppression that ultimately results in most of the southwest and Pacific coast rising in rebellion. The Union immediately blamed the Confederates and invaded, with no plan beyond "kill the Rebs!" The Confederates' network of border forts and the strong leadership of President Longstreet lead to the Union Army being bogged down and ultimately defeated, with the establishment of the Republic of California, a left-leaning junior partner of the Confederacy, and the Free State of Deseret, a totally-not-theocratic democracy that has become the Israel of TTL thanks to its long border with a nation which wants it dead. Thanks to the increased contribution of slaves and free blacks to the war effort, along with increasing pressure from Britain and France, the Confederacy manumits its slaves in a long, legally complicated process that amounts to the government “buying”[1] all slaves from their owners and then frees them.

The remaining 19th and early 20th centuries see the Confederacy expanding its industrial base, diversifying its crops, and doing its own version of dollar diplomacy in Latin America, while the Union devolves into a bitter, angry nation that grows more authoritarian by the day against any and all who could conceivably oppose it, now including those "traitorous negroes" who helped the South win two wars against them. The fact that pretty much all the blacks in the Union have little connection to the Confederacy is not factored into this assessment. Paradoxically, the Union finds itself drawn towards the British sphere of influence, as the British didn't appreciate the fact that the nation they supported specifically to break American influence has begun exerting influence of its own in Latin America and even Africa, with Confederate support and threats of embargoes being the primary reason why Liberia was spared colonization. This, along with other squabbles, leads to the Confederate economy becoming disengaged from that of the British and moving closer to the German-led Central Powers, seeing them as a fellow power that was denied their rightful place in the sun.

One thing leads to another, and the Great War kicks off in 1935. The Entente mobilizes their colonies and the Central Powers mobilize their junior allies, leading to odd scenarios such as Canadian and Mexican troops clashing with each other in Missouri, or an aerial skirmish between planes from Australia and Brazil above the skies of California. In the East, Japan seized the opportunity to get in on the China scene, granting much-needed aid to the Qing remnant in Manchuria that had been on the verge of being wiped out by the British-backed Republic of China, snapping up a few islands in the East Indies, particularly from the Entente-aligned Dutch, and giving some help to some Indian rebels. Thanks to contributions from its Latin American allies as well as colonial revolts in the British and French possessions, the Central Powers are victorious. The victors take some land, slap some penalties on the defeated powers, and establish a league of nations, moralizing about how such a disaster will never happen again while completely ignoring the remilitarization of their enemies.

The detonation of an atomic device on a remote island in German New Guinea would forever change the face of warfare and diplomacy. The nationalist regimes of the former Entente put their remilitarization plans on hold until they themselves could get such a device, and by the time they did, traditional war between the great powers was already dead in the water. A new age of saber-rattling and brinksmanship descends over the world, with the conservative, old-style democracies of the CSA, Germany, Japan, and their allies and freed colonies facing off against the autocracies and "democracies" of the USA, Britain, France, and Russia. Eventually the British and French overthrow their dictators, leading to a relative thaw in global tensions. However, the Restored British Empire continues to rule from Australia, the French have elected a new President with autocratic tendencies and a dislike of term limits, and the Russians have only moved further into authoritarianism and isolationism as a reaction to the new order. The forces of stability, tradition, and honor still have a long way to go if there is ever to be true freedom on Earth.

France and Russia removed their aristocracies, and during the Shadow War were theoretically democratic autocracies on the model of Putin's Russia, but with a commitment to nationalist revanchism similar to that of a right-wing USSR, along with a heavy dose of religiosity. The fact that their alliance was a mixture of all four major branches of Christianity, all of which purport to hate each other, somehow never comes up at the negotiating table. While the French have replaced old government, moving back to the strongman model, the Russians have become a full-blown theocracy which distrusts and is opposed to its former Entente allies.

Britain had hybridized its regime into a dictatorship of both the aristocrats and the "people," with the House of Lords still being allowed a say in government. Of course, all the real power is held in the National Union Party, from whose name the Entente's charter ideology of Unionism takes its name. Unionism is a right-wing collectivist ideology: work for the sake of the family, the people, and the nation, and the vanguard class rules in the name of the people. Any and all races of the Empire can be good British subjects and Unionists, provided they work diligently to further the Empire's goals and support her leaders unflinchingly, but inevitably some subjects will be more valuable than others. Whether this inevitability extends to those "good" subjects being concentrated in British Isles and Australia and away from the "colonial" parts of the Empire is not discussed in polite company. The National Union Party fled to Australia after democratization, with their French counterparts pulling a similar trick with Algeria.

The glorious United States of America is and has always been the only nation worthy of the name of America, and anything else is pure sedition. After the disastrous defeat in the Great War, the Americans finally realized what the problem was: themselves. Specifically, the parts of themselves that did not follow the Unionist Party (founded by disillusioned, revanchist Republicans after the death of their old party) or were a member of those racial or religious minority groups the damn Rebs were so fond of taking i). Under the leadership of Compatriot President General Daniel MacArthur,[2] the faultless hero of the Missouri campaign[3], the United States has become a dictatorship more reminiscent of Joe Steele than TL-191: opposition parties can win a few minor elections here and there, there are token votes against the President in the electoral college, but say one wrong thing about the President and it’s off to northern Dakota with you. Federalism is a dead letter, thanks to backlash against states’ rights. Individual freedoms, religions that aren't acceptable denominations of Protestantism, and generally everything that's not "American" are disappearing more and more in the USA, which is entering the 21st century and the Information Age with weapons drawn and eyes peeled for anything that could possibly threaten it.

The Confederate States of America has, by the estimates of just about everyone that isn't the Union, inherited the original mandate of the Founding Fathers, and all the responsibilities that come with it. One of the leaders on the world stage, the CSA holds itself up as a model for other aspiring democracies, and even uses its "peculiar institution" of segregation as an example of how racial assertion can be done right as opposed to certain other nations. This has the effect of spreading democracy and segregationist policies around Latin America and Africa; in the former, the old Spanish caste system has been reinforced, while in the latter, old colonial hierarchies remain in place with what remaining Europeans on the absolute top. An exception is Liberia, where the descendants of freed American slaves rule the country as a new aristocracy.

Germany and the other states within its sphere are full constitutional monarchies, with free and fair elections. The Kaiser is more or less a figurehead, although unlike the British monarchs, held in great esteem. Still, the Kaiser (or Kaiserin) is expected not to speak on political issues. Likewise with the Japanese monarchs, the country having avoided a stint with military dictatorship.

The Republic of China is a corrupt military dictatorship, and once the junior member of the Entente. It is quickly growing in power and wishes to challenge Japanese power in Asia.

The Ottoman Empire remains under the old system, now buoyed by its oceans of petroleum.

India is a corrupt oligopolic democracy, where a rich, Anglophone minority which gained control of the original Indian independence movement continue to rule the country. Most political parties revolve around language and religion.

[1] Many slaveowners took the issue to court, on the grounds that the mandatory sale of property to the government amounts to an unconstitutional taking of property by the government. The Confederate Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government: while it agreed with the plaintiffs that the mandatory sale of slaves is a taking, it ruled the taking constitutional because the slaveowners were given “fair value” for their slaves by the government. The case, Wagner et. al. v. Confederate States Manumission Commission, is still used in law schools to illustrate that while it is unconstitutional for the government to take property without due process of law, no citizen has the right to demand particular compensation.
[2] General Lemarc originally had him named Douglas MacArthur, I changed the name to indicate that this is an alternate history “sibling” of the historical figure we are familiar with.
[3] The Missouri campaign was ultimately a failure for the United States, but the Unionists blame this defeat on the politicians and not MacArthur’s leadership.

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Does that sound like a good idea for an entry or is it a bit too generic or similar to prior entries?

I like it! I think if the three tiered system is the focus, it's rather distinct, since most entries focus more on how leaders are selected and what they can do, not the actual administration.
 

Deleted member 107125

EBR approved

The People’s Republic of Bangladesh


The drive from Kolkata is short and relatively smooth. The current Indian Government had been elected on a promise of massive infrastructure spending, and it seems as if West Bengal had gotten its fair share of the pork barrel spending. But I am not here for the Indian government, which is a reasonably stable democracy in line with a great many countries in the multiverse. No I am here for the borders.

I ask my driver what he thinks of Bangladesh.

“A bunch of freeloaders” He grumbles before rolling up his window. I suppose not every cabbie can be talkative.

The Partition of India was, as is sadly often the case, a horrifically bloody and messy affair, that left what had once been the Raj as two separate states. The largely Hindu India and the largely Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan was separated into two regions. East Pakistan and West Pakistan. These regions were quite different, being from opposite sides of the continent.

The new Pakistan fought with India over border disputes in Kashmir (bordering West Pakistan) several times, and the matter remains officially unresolved. The border with East Pakistan was also a mess, although it initially produced far less violence. The dividing lines in the area had always been something of a muddle before independence, with a mess of feudal overlordship and strange landholdings, and partition removed British imposed unity. There were now Pakistani enclaves in India, and Indian enclaves in Pakistan. And enclaves within enclaves. And, in one notable example, an Indian enclave inside a Pakistani enclave inside an Indian enclave inside Pakistan. While New Delhi and Islamabad despised each other, and were typically loath to give even an inch, even they agreed some sort of land swaps needed to be done. But nothing ever was. Wars and internal squabbles kept getting in the way.

East Pakistan, meanwhile, began to resent being part of Pakistan at all. Despite having a smaller population, West Pakistan was dominating the new state. Bengalis were suppressed in favor of those from the West, and the East was viewed as nothing more than a distraction to divert India away from the “real fight” in the west. Whenever East Pakistanis seemed to be gaining politically the thoroughly Western Military stepped in to stop them. In 1971 the central Pakistani government began what can only be called a genocide in an attempt to retain control of the wayward region. Armed revolt was inevitable, and although the rebels scored some early successes and even declared the independence of “The People’s Republic of Bangladesh” Pakistani forces gained the upper hand. For a time it seemed India would intervene, but the United States sent a naval task force to prevent this from happening. Indira Gandhi could not prevent the defeat of the rebels in East Pakistan proper.

She could, however, protect the enclaves.

Crossing the border into East Pakistan would be impossible without extensive preparations and bribery. However crossing the border into Bangladesh was as simple as passing a sign and a shoddy wire defense. This is the largest enclave and de facto capital, Dahagram–Angarpota. I am told that smaller enclaves are even less delineated.

I pass by a few dilapidated homes, but not many before I reach the Palace of the Republic. There are, however many more people that one would expect in such a place. Although the total size of the Republic is less than 50 square kilometers, tens of thousands still live here, mostly refugees. The Palace of the Republic is not terribly impressive. In many other places it would be a small courthouse, maybe not even that. But it is home to both the President and the National Assembly of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Nominally the Republic is a parliamentary one with a weak President. In reality the President plays an important role. The National Assembly acts more like a de facto city council, passing laws and ordinances governing the 92 separate units forming the Republic, as well as distributing what meagre funds the government takes in. The President is in charge of “external affairs.”

This seems to mostly consist of haggling with the Indians.

This observation greatly amuses Partho Kar, President of the People’s Republic. He is a tall man built like a barrel. His hair is greying, but he still looks as if he could take on a prizefighter and win. He is dressed in military camouflage.

“True, very true.” He says while laughing. “But it is the best damn haggling you will ever see Mr. Chana, I will tell you that. The Governor will complain that our citizens our stealing his people’s food. I will complain that he is not respecting our right to transit. Then some firebrand will denounce us as Muslim spies and demand the annexation of Bangladesh. I will counter perhaps, with a vague promise to try and stimulate some kind of industry that I will never keep.” He laughs again, fully aware of the absurdity of the situation.

Even more so than other Governments in exile, Bangladesh is dependent on its host’s good graces. The original republic never received any recognition outside India and so it is a remenant of something that never existed in the eyes of many countries.

“We get by,” admits Kar. “Youth groups, the diaspora, some philanthropists in India. A few groups I will not mention.”

Relations with the Indian neighbors ranges from so peaceful you can’t even tell they’re supposed to be from two different countries to outright ethnic violence, often exacerbated by Indians feeling as if the Bangladeshis are being given favorable treatment.

“Nonsense to that,” says Kar. “They just want us to be a thorn in the side of Pakistan.” He spits after saying the name.

While no longer genocidal Islamabad still maintains a tight military grip on the East, stationing thousands of troops there to enforce as racial caste system, alongside a nuclear deterrent.

This brings me to the other great difference Bangladesh has with most governments in exile. It is very, very, close to the homeland. They are not cowering in a European capital. They are not holed up in a cushy embassy. They are so close, well inside shooting distance.

Rockets are occasionally fired, although this raises the specter of a nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan. Night raids across the border are more common, and arms smuggling is a major industry in the area.

As President Kor is commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Some are members of the “Border Protection Service” which serves as a police in areas the Republic controls. The “Army of the Interior” however is actually the largest anti-Pakistan guerrilla organization in East Pakistan. Promising boys wishing to avoid the poverty of the exile community often join up. The program is so successful that India has at times requested that the Army of the Interior be used in operations in Bhutan in lieu of Indian forces. Kor was elected on the back of his stellar record, and is proud to confirm he is still an active member.

“Not many Presidents can say that they have led their nations troops into battle while in office.” He proclaims happily. “But I can. This is the kind of commitment we expect from our men. And this is why we shall win.”

The Bangladeshi Parliament is divided between the People’s Revolutionary Party, Kor’s Party, which favors more aggressive action and independence from India, and the Awami League which favors aggressive action at the current level combined with closer ties to India. At the present the Parliament is chaired by the intractable Durba Baij, a 45 year old washerwoman with a sharp tongue. I do not normally do audio interviews, but in this case I will make an exception.

“Don’t belive a word that damn fool Kor says. He’s a starry eyed idealist.” She says, followed by a hiss of static.

Baij is chairing the meeting via radio, as she does every meeting.

In 1971, with India sheltering rebels in the enclaves the Pakistani government made moves to occupy the Indian enclaves in Pakistan. India however, stated in no uncertain terms that this would mean war, US backing or not. So Pakistan backed off, having just received intelligence indicating that they would lose any war badly.

The Indian enclaves were placed under siege, and remain so to this day. But this had the effect of protecting the 21 Pakistani enclaves inside the Indian enclaves from the Pakistani government, and these enclaves soon joined Bangladesh. Communication is difficult. Sometimes pigeons or couriers can get through, and sometimes humans are able to be smuggled across. But radio remains the primary way that those behind the Indo-Pakistani border remain informed.

“Kor thinks his merry band of rebels will topple decades of dictatorship. He’s wrong. Pakistan will only fall due to internal chaos or Indian action. We need a close relationship,” She says. “Not bullshit posturing.”

I ask who she’ll support in the next election.

“Kor of course. He is a great military man, and the Interior Army is a good negotiating chip. Besides he’s a fool but not an idiot, he won't do anything that will really harm us.”

I wonder if there is any hope that one day Bangladesh will expand beyond its current borders.

“I sure hope so. I’ve lived my entire life in this enclave. It’s not that big and I would like to leave at some point.”
Seems very interesting
 

xsampa

Banned
A Peculiar Institution
My world map cover of General Lemarc’s EEUSG entry, the Confederate States of America. Includes the writeup, which was mostly provided by General Lemarc but with formatting edits and some additions by myself.

The POD is the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Sharpsburg, which is what we know as the Battle of Antietam IOTL. The Confederate leadership realizes that they just lost their best chance to win, and need to do something in order to even the odds. A program is initiated that promises large payments to slaveowners for the sale of their slaves to the Confederate government, and freedom for the slaves upon completion of military service "for the duration of the war” (translation: start fighting from now until we win, and if you're still alive you're free). History stays roughly the same until Gettysburg, where a slave soldier kills Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, allowing the Confederates to take Little Round Top and win the battle. Faced with a dagger pointed at their metaphorical heart, the Union is forced to the negotiating table.

The ultimate results of the treaty include recognition of Confederate independence and sovereignty by the Union, the rescinding of the Emancipation Proclamation, as it was an unlawful infringement upon Confederate sovereignty, and referendums in Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. These last were insisted upon by a Union negotiating team flushed with victory and assured of the loyalty of those within the border states. The results were a total defeat for the Confederates, save in Kentucky, where Confederate agents were able to pull off more vote-rigging than their Union counterparts. The Indian Territory was also "sold" to the Confederacy as a means of the Union getting them to pay off their portion of the pre-war national debt, along with provisions that the Union could dump any tribes it didn't want into the newly Confederate territory. This was sold as "being rid of the Indian problem once and for all" to the Union public and was generally accepted as a smart play after the fact, though more than a few politicians lost their careers, and one lost his life, over "giving the damn traitors more land.”

The Confederacy enters a period of national glee, while the Union enters a period of deep depression similar to the Union in Timeline-191. A new paranoia over secessionism and "un-American mindsets" leads to a harsh crackdown on Mormonism in Utah, leading to a cycle of resistance and oppression that ultimately results in most of the southwest and Pacific coast rising in rebellion. The Union immediately blamed the Confederates and invaded, with no plan beyond "kill the Rebs!" The Confederates' network of border forts and the strong leadership of President Longstreet lead to the Union Army being bogged down and ultimately defeated, with the establishment of the Republic of California, a left-leaning junior partner of the Confederacy, and the Free State of Deseret, a totally-not-theocratic democracy that has become the Israel of TTL thanks to its long border with a nation which wants it dead. Thanks to the increased contribution of slaves and free blacks to the war effort, along with increasing pressure from Britain and France, the Confederacy manumits its slaves in a long, legally complicated process that amounts to the government “buying”[1] all slaves from their owners and then frees them.

The remaining 19th and early 20th centuries see the Confederacy expanding its industrial base, diversifying its crops, and doing its own version of dollar diplomacy in Latin America, while the Union devolves into a bitter, angry nation that grows more authoritarian by the day against any and all who could conceivably oppose it, now including those "traitorous negroes" who helped the South win two wars against them. The fact that pretty much all the blacks in the Union have little connection to the Confederacy is not factored into this assessment. Paradoxically, the Union finds itself drawn towards the British sphere of influence, as the British didn't appreciate the fact that the nation they supported specifically to break American influence has begun exerting influence of its own in Latin America and even Africa, with Confederate support and threats of embargoes being the primary reason why Liberia was spared colonization. This, along with other squabbles, leads to the Confederate economy becoming disengaged from that of the British and moving closer to the German-led Central Powers, seeing them as a fellow power that was denied their rightful place in the sun.

One thing leads to another, and the Great War kicks off in 1935. The Entente mobilizes their colonies and the Central Powers mobilize their junior allies, leading to odd scenarios such as Canadian and Mexican troops clashing with each other in Missouri, or an aerial skirmish between planes from Australia and Brazil above the skies of California. In the East, Japan seized the opportunity to get in on the China scene, granting much-needed aid to the Qing remnant in Manchuria that had been on the verge of being wiped out by the British-backed Republic of China, snapping up a few islands in the East Indies, particularly from the Entente-aligned Dutch, and giving some help to some Indian rebels. Thanks to contributions from its Latin American allies as well as colonial revolts in the British and French possessions, the Central Powers are victorious. The victors take some land, slap some penalties on the defeated powers, and establish a league of nations, moralizing about how such a disaster will never happen again while completely ignoring the remilitarization of their enemies.

The detonation of an atomic device on a remote island in German New Guinea would forever change the face of warfare and diplomacy. The nationalist regimes of the former Entente put their remilitarization plans on hold until they themselves could get such a device, and by the time they did, traditional war between the great powers was already dead in the water. A new age of saber-rattling and brinksmanship descends over the world, with the conservative, old-style democracies of the CSA, Germany, Japan, and their allies and freed colonies facing off against the autocracies and "democracies" of the USA, Britain, France, and Russia. Eventually the British and French overthrow their dictators, leading to a relative thaw in global tensions. However, the Restored British Empire continues to rule from Australia, the French have elected a new President with autocratic tendencies and a dislike of term limits, and the Russians have only moved further into authoritarianism and isolationism as a reaction to the new order. The forces of stability, tradition, and honor still have a long way to go if there is ever to be true freedom on Earth.

France and Russia removed their aristocracies, and during the Shadow War were theoretically democratic autocracies on the model of Putin's Russia, but with a commitment to nationalist revanchism similar to that of a right-wing USSR, along with a heavy dose of religiosity. The fact that their alliance was a mixture of all four major branches of Christianity, all of which purport to hate each other, somehow never comes up at the negotiating table. While the French have replaced old government, moving back to the strongman model, the Russians have become a full-blown theocracy which distrusts and is opposed to its former Entente allies.

Britain had hybridized its regime into a dictatorship of both the aristocrats and the "people," with the House of Lords still being allowed a say in government. Of course, all the real power is held in the National Union Party, from whose name the Entente's charter ideology of Unionism takes its name. Unionism is a right-wing collectivist ideology: work for the sake of the family, the people, and the nation, and the vanguard class rules in the name of the people. Any and all races of the Empire can be good British subjects and Unionists, provided they work diligently to further the Empire's goals and support her leaders unflinchingly, but inevitably some subjects will be more valuable than others. Whether this inevitability extends to those "good" subjects being concentrated in British Isles and Australia and away from the "colonial" parts of the Empire is not discussed in polite company. The National Union Party fled to Australia after democratization, with their French counterparts pulling a similar trick with Algeria.

The glorious United States of America is and has always been the only nation worthy of the name of America, and anything else is pure sedition. After the disastrous defeat in the Great War, the Americans finally realized what the problem was: themselves. Specifically, the parts of themselves that did not follow the Unionist Party (founded by disillusioned, revanchist Republicans after the death of their old party) or were a member of those racial or religious minority groups the damn Rebs were so fond of taking i). Under the leadership of Compatriot President General Daniel MacArthur,[2] the faultless hero of the Missouri campaign[3], the United States has become a dictatorship more reminiscent of Joe Steele than TL-191: opposition parties can win a few minor elections here and there, there are token votes against the President in the electoral college, but say one wrong thing about the President and it’s off to northern Dakota with you. Federalism is a dead letter, thanks to backlash against states’ rights. Individual freedoms, religions that aren't acceptable denominations of Protestantism, and generally everything that's not "American" are disappearing more and more in the USA, which is entering the 21st century and the Information Age with weapons drawn and eyes peeled for anything that could possibly threaten it.

The Confederate States of America has, by the estimates of just about everyone that isn't the Union, inherited the original mandate of the Founding Fathers, and all the responsibilities that come with it. One of the leaders on the world stage, the CSA holds itself up as a model for other aspiring democracies, and even uses its "peculiar institution" of segregation as an example of how racial assertion can be done right as opposed to certain other nations. This has the effect of spreading democracy and segregationist policies around Latin America and Africa; in the former, the old Spanish caste system has been reinforced, while in the latter, old colonial hierarchies remain in place with what remaining Europeans on the absolute top. An exception is Liberia, where the descendants of freed American slaves rule the country as a new aristocracy.

Germany and the other states within its sphere are full constitutional monarchies, with free and fair elections. The Kaiser is more or less a figurehead, although unlike the British monarchs, held in great esteem. Still, the Kaiser (or Kaiserin) is expected not to speak on political issues. Likewise with the Japanese monarchs, the country having avoided a stint with military dictatorship.

The Republic of China is a corrupt military dictatorship, and once the junior member of the Entente. It is quickly growing in power and wishes to challenge Japanese power in Asia.

The Ottoman Empire remains under the old system, now buoyed by its oceans of petroleum.

India is a corrupt oligopolic democracy, where a rich, Anglophone minority which gained control of the original Indian independence movement continue to rule the country. Most political parties revolve around language and religion.

[1] Many slaveowners took the issue to court, on the grounds that the mandatory sale of property to the government amounts to an unconstitutional taking of property by the government. The Confederate Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government: while it agreed with the plaintiffs that the mandatory sale of slaves is a taking, it ruled the taking constitutional because the slaveowners were given “fair value” for their slaves by the government. The case, Wagner et. al. v. Confederate States Manumission Commission, is still used in law schools to illustrate that while it is unconstitutional for the government to take property without due process of law, no citizen has the right to demand particular compensation.
[2] General Lemarc originally had him named Douglas MacArthur, I changed the name to indicate that this is an alternate history “sibling” of the historical figure we are familiar with.
[3] The Missouri campaign was ultimately a failure for the United States, but the Unionists blame this defeat on the politicians and not MacArthur’s leadership.

View attachment 543871
How independent is Qing China from Japan? And shouldn’t the RBE be colloquially referred to as Australia or Oceania?
 

dcd

Banned
All characters outside of Mr. Chana are to be read with a strong southern accent. Any pronunciation of the word Confederacy by said characters is to be heard as "confedracy".
******************************************************************************************************************************************
Confederate States of America
While the existence of a nation known as the Confederate States of America is hardly a new event in the multiverse, this particular version's downright odd claim to fame struck me as particularly interesting, resulting in a somewhat hasty trip that landed me in their financial capital of Atlanta, Georgia rather than their governmental capital of Richmond, Virginia thanks to a translation error. However, this soon proved a blessing in disguise, as I was able to sample first-hand the country's rather unique way of doing things.


My ticket on the Southron Pacific 12:30 to Richmond was for first class, which gained me incredibly gracious treatment by all staff, after a second's hesitation to confirm that their eyes didn't deceive them. My car had luxurious seats, impeccable service by the waitstaff who brought lunch, and an expansive selection of movies or electronic books should the view not satisfy me. Nearly everyone in my car chose one or the other, allowing me several surreptitious glances at the passengers to confirm that my eyes didn't deceive me. They were dressed in either formal business wear or what they would call 'their Sunday best', were all at least in the middle class, if not downright wealthy, and were all, to a man, woman, and child, black. There were some who appeared to be of mixed race or a darker Hispanic skin color, but that they were racial minorities was plain as day. Wondering if all I'd heard was really true, I went to briefly look into the car ahead of us. The staff tried to return me to my seat, albeit politely, but the signed letter my contact had produced for me made them even more deferential to me than before. I was allowed to enter the foyer of the next car and confirm that it was exactly the same as mine, save for a slightly larger number of white and other light-skinned occupants. Though I had seen it with my own eyes, a small part of me refused to believe it for the rest of the trip.

Upon arrival at Richmond, I was chauffeured to the confederal capitol building, which, like many buildings in the city, was built after the style of the old United States in the first half of the 19th century, though as I was later told it was slightly bigger than the original capitol building which stood unused in Washington D.C. I was guided(ushered would have been too strong a word given the level of politeness my guide used) into the office of Jackson Stuart Lee, senior senator for Virginia and one of the highest figures in the Whig Party. He smiles wide as he shakes my hand.


"Welcome to the great state of Virginia, Mr. Chaná” He exclaimed, in a voice that managed to have the force of a shout with only half the volume. "I trust you enjoyed the journey?"


I nod, still not having fully wrapped my head around the situation I was in. Fortunately, he both acknowledges and understands my reaction.


"I knew you'd react this way, but I just couldn't resist. After all, from all I've seen of those other Confederacies, I knew you'd never expect a black man in government, let alone one so high. Figured it'd be the best statement I could provide on our great country here."


Having recovered from my brief shock, I ask him how he believes his nation managed to be so different than its other counterparts.

"Well now, I see we're starting out strong. The way I see it, it's all a matter of tradition. Once something makes its way into Southern tradition, its damn hard to get out. And that tradition started not even two years after our founding. When ol' Bobby Lee got whupped, and yes, that's what happened at Sharpsburg, he knew that the Confederacy couldn't just keep going on doing what it was, or we'd be licked. We needed a knockout blow, and the only one we'd got, at least to his eyes at the time, had been taken away by nothin' more than bad luck. We needed to start evenin' the score, counter the Yankee advantages. And their biggest advantage was men. They had more, plain and simple. But we had a source we hadn't used yet. Our secret weapon", and here he smiles, "my ancestors."


"The slaves?" I asked


"Yer damn right! President Davis didn't like it, but he liked his best general losing to an idiot a hell of a lot less, and Congress was just scared enough to agree with him. After that, it was just a matter of sendin' out word, and soon the army had more men than you could shake a stick at. Sign up for the duration and you're free. They even paid 'em towards the end, though it wasn't near what they should've got. Of course, we almost lost anyway. Took a year for things to really get going. We were just like our 'counterparts', always fightin' in our own land, never bein' able to take it to the damnyankees. But then" he pauses for dramatic effect "Gettysburg came along. Two days of fightin' in the heart of yankeeland, two glorious days of us givin' our all. We might've lost even then, if Fred Turner hadn't shot that damnyankee officer on Little Round Top and given us our opening to break their line." Fred Turner was a slave-turned-soldier, who became the first black man to be given the Medal of Courage, albeit posthumously 50 years later. "After that, the Union had a dagger inches from its heart, and ol' Abe Lincoln didn't have a choice but to talk peace."


"But I know what you really wanna hear. You wanna know how folks like me got to be here instead of some pampered Wade Hampton the 10th or whoever" he says as if referencing a common joke. "Well, after the war, we didn't quite know what to think. Slavery was still a big part of the economy, but the slaves had saved the whole nation, and by proving they could fight just as well as any white man to boot. We might've kept wondering forever if the Union hadn't come back for more. The 80s War Of Aggression just proved again how a black man could fight, and even lead in some cases, like a white man, and England demanding we manumit our slaves as the price for aid was just the last step, not the only one like the damnyankees keep saying. That technically resulted in equality right there, though it took a couple decades for economic equality to really get going, and a couple more after that for political equality."


I ask if the current state of affairs can really be considered equality.


"Three words, Mr. Chana. Separate but equal. No man can be treated differently on account of his skin, and that's in the Constitution. I can tell you saw it on the Southron Pacific, and I can guarantee that its the same elsewhere, if not as luxurious. Why, the Gala Theater Company based right here does things the same way, and its got nothin' but praise from all but the most radical Progressives. Here, all men are created equal. We are the true America" he says, warming to the theme behind his speech "not those damnyankee bastards up in Philadelphia. Our three main parties battle it out every six years, three for representatives and half the senate. Their Unionist Party gets a few protest votes against it every time they decide to run a show election. Our president is bound by the Constitution and the will of the states, theirs has the army bully everyone into doing what he wants. The historians can say what they want, but the so-called United States of America is the biggest slave state on Earth, and it ain't manumitting any time soon."


I spend the next ten minutes attempting to end the conversation as politely as I could, for he had been so genuinely ingratiating in spite of, or perhaps because of, his earnest rhetoric that I genuinely didn't want to offend him. I finally managed to say my goodbyes and hurried to my next appointment.


Gabrielle Semmes, Progressive nominee for the presidency, boasted just as strong a political pedigree as her ideological opponent. A firebrand representative from South Carolina, she recently became the first mixed-race woman to declare candidacy for a party nomination for president. While her race has helped her in some areas, her gender has raised eyebrows, and her platform has kept them there, forcing her to lean on her family name to counter accusations of going against the Confederate way of life. Granddaughter of President Gabriel Semmes and great-granddaughter of Confederate war hero Raphael Semmes, she leveraged that into a campaign bursting with patriotism. As she explained to me, she needed all that she could get.


"Segregation is a damnfool idea-always has been. But its been so ingrained into the Confederate consciousness that you can't lay a finger on it without looking unpatriotic. I'll bet the good Senator told you about Southron Pacific and Gala Theater, didn't he?" I nod, and she continues. "Of course he would. They're probably the only two segregating institutes in the country that practice what they preach. Oh sure, its not nationally mandated anymore, and most of the states got rid of it in the parks and buildings and such that they owned directly, but so many companies hold to it that it's still like it hasn't changed at all in some places. And you should see some of the excuses for "equality" we have here. Most airlines find excuses to charge their colored customers more if they try to buy a ticket above economy class, and far too many companies seem to overlook upgrading their colored facilities while ensuring their white ones are always top of the line. And don't even try to take a ship somewhere unless you're willing to either get ignored by everyone or pay them to pay attention to you. The fact that it works in some places doesn't excuse its failure in others, and we've been willfully blinded to those failures for too long."


"Well, no more. Once I'm in office, we'll come down so hard on standards that those two examples will be the only ones left from sea to glorious sea!" She has risen from her seat during her monologue, and embarrasedly composes herself upon noticing. "But that's not even the worst problem we have, not anymore. I'm guessing you got a few looks on your way here? Well, it's cause you're an Injun" I had previously been assured that the word had no negative context here, in the same vein as Negro in reference to a black man "and they don't tend to leave the Territory on account of most of 'em bein poor, at least by national standards. Trust me, if you'd fit the stereotype, you'd have had a damn sight more trouble with people. I've read up on those other Confederacies, and while most of 'em would've kept me out of this here race for my color or gender(not that it stopped those monocle-wearing sexists here from trying,)" she muttered, "this one would have tossed me out on my rear if I hadn't had the cash to put me in the top 10 percent. We brag about how we got rid of our racial divide, but we just replaced it with a class one. If you're born poor, you live poor and you die poor. Sure we're getting better about helping folks get higher education and training, but it’s too few too slow. And what welfare we have is only enough to keep people where they are; they need a boost, not a holding pattern. This party was founded on a dream of doing more for the people, not just keeping things the same as they always have been. We offer something the Democrats and Whigs never could and never will-change. No stubborn old conservatism, no high-and-mighty liberalism, just a desire for progress."


I wonder if she believes the south should take some cues from its neighbor to the north.


"Hell no! I know that question might make sense in some of those other worlds, but here yankeeland can keep its way of doing things. We've got more than our fair share of problems, but I'd take that monster Lyndon Johnson and his promise to resegregate the whole damn nation over them any day." She treats this name like a curse, her animosity towards both him and the Union clear. "I know what I said about how this country treats its Negroes and natives, not to mention its poor, but I'll tell you somethin'." She leans closer to me. "Up there, if you're born with skin like you and me, if you're unlucky enough to be born a descendent of those 'traitorous slaves and redskins' who helped the south break free, you consider yourself lucky if you go a week without being spit on, beat up, or harassed by a security officer for 'vagrancy'. The Confederacy needs change, and it needs it now, but we're downright perfect compared to the USA.”

iAWsgef.png
3' x 5' Confederate Heritage Not Hate Flag – The Dixie Shop
 
Ideas I've had that I mean to write up and see if they're up to snuff one of these days:
--A country run by its health care ministry, dedicated to ensuring the health of the populace first and foremost. I'm thinking this is some kind of weird hybrid regime where theoretically there's a democratic government that can appoint the head of the health care ministry but that head can then do basically anything in the name of protecting public health.
--A full-on IWW style One Big Union democracy, where every adult is automatically enrolled in a labor union and voting is organized by profession rather than location. (thinking I'd use Kaiserreich's Union of Britain for this)
--a YA dystopia state where people are theoretically given jobs based on their scores on a silly test or personality test or something, which is in practice something of a songbun system like North Korea has.
--A Strasserist/nazbol state with a crazy caste system that practices extensive wellfare for the higher castes in a sort of staggered, hierarchical manner. (tbh it'd probably be a decaying wreck and even the higher castes would live shitty lives, but still)
--A state with two separate governments simultaneously; the idea is basically that during an independence struggle, this country was divided between radical nationalist republicans and those who wanted a staggered severing of ties with the old regime, and even now that they're fully independent they can't agree on who's in charge, so people basically voluntarily associate with one state or the other based in large part on family history and there's a byzantine mess of laws so that criminal justice is at all possible.
 
--a YA dystopia state where people are theoretically given jobs based on their scores on a silly test or personality test or something, which is in practice something of a songbun system like North Korea has.
Maybe add elements of China's Social Credit System to this?
--A Strasserist/nazbol state with a crazy caste system that practices extensive wellfare for the higher castes in a sort of staggered, hierarchical manner. (tbh it'd probably be a decaying wreck and even the higher castes would live shitty lives, but still)
Maybe this could be a Communist India gone horribly wrong?
 
Maybe add elements of China's Social Credit System to this?

Maybe this could be a Communist India gone horribly wrong?
1. Good idea.

2. Honestly it could work with strasserist Germany too. Or various Americas and Confederacies. (mashup of the communist Confederacy and separate-but-"equal" Confederacy, with shades of WMIT, kinda thing)
 
Ideas I've had that I mean to write up and see if they're up to snuff one of these days:
--A country run by its health care ministry, dedicated to ensuring the health of the populace first and foremost. I'm thinking this is some kind of weird hybrid regime where theoretically there's a democratic government that can appoint the head of the health care ministry but that head can then do basically anything in the name of protecting public health.

I do have a similar idea, the Singapore Pandemic Response one. That one is significantly more dystopian, though.

--A full-on IWW style One Big Union democracy, where every adult is automatically enrolled in a labor union and voting is organized by profession rather than location. (thinking I'd use Kaiserreich's Union of Britain for this)

That works!

--a YA dystopia state where people are theoretically given jobs based on their scores on a silly test or personality test or something, which is in practice something of a songbun system like North Korea has.

Maybe something based on the MBTI test. I’ve seen employers require it as part of the hiring process, so I can see a state going overdrive on it.

--A Strasserist/nazbol state with a crazy caste system that practices extensive wellfare for the higher castes in a sort of staggered, hierarchical manner. (tbh it'd probably be a decaying wreck and even the higher castes would live shitty lives, but still)

This is very similar to my Thai idea on the index. I’m down for a collaboration.

--A state with two separate governments simultaneously; the idea is basically that during an independence struggle, this country was divided between radical nationalist republicans and those who wanted a staggered severing of ties with the old regime, and even now that they're fully independent they can't agree on who's in charge, so people basically voluntarily associate with one state or the other based in large part on family history and there's a byzantine mess of laws so that criminal justice is at all possible.

I really like this. Maybe a French Revolution gone even weirder.
 
--A state with two separate governments simultaneously; the idea is basically that during an independence struggle, this country was divided between radical nationalist republicans and those who wanted a staggered severing of ties with the old regime, and even now that they're fully independent they can't agree on who's in charge, so people basically voluntarily associate with one state or the other based in large part on family history and there's a byzantine mess of laws so that criminal justice is at all possible.
I think a similar idea was done with a panarchist Belgium
 
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