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A Brief History of Socialist America

The roots of the United Socialist States of America can be traced back to the labor disputes of the early 1900s, but the catalyst for America’s relatively brief transformation into a Communist power was the assassination of Theodore Roosevelt while he was running for President on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912. This allowed Eugene V. Debs to capitalize on populist sentiment and public grief at the former President’s death by claiming that Roosevelt had been a victim of “Capitalist conspirators”. He would go on to win the election and serve for two terms, successfully keeping America neutral during World War One, although his Secretary of State, Woodrow Wilson, would be instrumental in creating the League of Nations at the war’s conclusion and ensuring America’s membership in the organization until the 1930’s.

Transitional period, 1912-1920

Rather than declare himself an out and out Communist, Debs referred to himself as “Progressive,” and ran a fairly independent presidency. During his second term, the USSA (United Socialist States of America) was declared in response to the Russian Revolution, and the Debs administration actively supported the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Various Republican attempts to impeach him over this as well as unpopular laws such as Prohibition failed and, in the 1920 Presidential election, Robert M Lafollette followed him into the White House.

Depression and Uncertainty, 1920-1932


While the Debs years had been prosperous ones, the “Angry Twenties” as they would come to be known, were difficult times for Lafollette. After his sudden death in 1924, Vice President Al Smith took office. The “Happy Peoples’ Warrior” distanced himself from the Communists, whose infighting between various Party factions, which mirrored the split between followers of Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union, culminated in the election of the “Compromise candidate,” Norman Thomas, in 1928. This led to a split with the more conservative Communist Party as they followed the hard-line lead of William Z. Foster, who ran against Thomas in 1932. Support for the Communists was further eroded by the assassination of the popular Huey P. Long, who had widely been seen as the next Progressive nominee for the 1936 election.

New Deals and Decline, 1932-1940

With the nomination and subsequent election of moderate Progressive candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 following Long's shocking death, the Socialist faction found itself increasingly at odds with their more conservative Communist rivals, even as the Communists became divided due to continued infighting. Earl Bowder became the last truly influential spokesperson for the Party as he ran against Roosevelt and Republican/Populist candidate John L. Lewis. By this time, concerns over the rise of fascism and the onset of World War 2 (particularly the nonaggression pact between Stalin and Hitler) had seriously weakened the hard line Communists, while the Progressive Democrats, as they now called themselves, were actively outspoken against both Hitler and Stalin. A final split came as President Thomas, in one of his last acts in office, granted asylum to Leon Trotsky. The Communist Party effectively stopped being a mainstream organization after 1945, while the Socialists remained affiliated with the Democratic Party until the rise of anticommunist sentiment during the Cold War.

Later Years, 1940-1952

The resurgence of patriotism during the war years saw the official USSA flag replaced by the traditional Stars and Stripes. When Harry Truman became President, he distanced himself even further from the Progressives although he named Socialist Henry A. Wallace as his Vice President. In the early 1950’s, the National Committee of the Socialist Party was officially disbanded while the Communists went underground as a “Republican Revolt” led by Populist Joseph McCarthy and Republican Richard Nixon was able to capitalize on anticommunist feeling and lead to the election of Robert Taft in 1952. Upon his death the following year, Vice President Dwight D. Eisenhower became President, effectively ending America’s Communist era.

IMO, there was a real chance of a Communist/socialist revolt in America during the Great Depression, or perhaps even earlier. This is just my idea of what America in the early Twentieth Century might have been like had things gone more to the extreme.
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