AH Challenge: A Piece of the Action

[robertp6165]

In the STAR TREK: TOS episode, "A Piece of the Action," Captain Kirk and crew encountered a planet whose culture had been contaminated by a history book, left by an Earth expedition, detailing the activities of the organized crime gangs of the 1920s in Chicago. The people of the planet had modeled their entire society on the book, and the planet was ruled by a group of crime "families" which had taken the place of organized government on the planet.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a similar situation...i.e. collapse of organized government with Mafia-like organized crime families fulfilling the role normally played by government...actually take place in the United States. Your POD may be anytime after the year 1900. Extra points if it happens during the 1920s-1940s and either Al Capone or Lucky Luciano end up as the equivalent of President of the United States...or maybe we should say, "The United Families of America."

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Very Simple....

In the STAR TREK: TOS episode, "A Piece of the Action," Captain Kirk and crew encountered a planet whose culture had been contaminated by a history book, left by an Earth expedition, detailing the activities of the organized crime gangs of the 1920s in Chicago. The people of the planet had modeled their entire society on the book, and the planet was ruled by a group of crime "families" which had taken the place of organized government on the planet.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a similar situation...i.e. collapse of organized government with Mafia-like organized crime families fulfilling the role normally played by government...actually take place in the United States. Your POD may be anytime after the year 1900. Extra points if it happens during the 1920s-1940s and either Al Capone or Lucky Luciano end up as the equivalent of President of the United States...or maybe we should say, "The United Families of America."

Just like the RPG and video game Crimson Skies and the novel Archangel by Mike Connor. In both ATLs, consider the 1918 Spanish Influenza Plague, which in OTL killed 100 million people, killed many more people. In the ATL, consider the damage done if 33% of the world's population had been killed off by the plague.

Another idea is to increase the corruption and racism of the 1920s. Consider that President Warren G. Harding was a member of the Klan, and actually attended a meeting in 1923, in full Klan regalia. In 1924, the KKK sparked riots outside the Democratic National Convention in New York City, NY after they announced Catholic governor Al Smith (D-NY) as the candidate. In the ATL, consider the idea that the Mafia being welcomed as a "moderate" influence over that of the KKK....

 

[NapoleonXIV]

In 1940 Roosevelt is narrowly defeated by Huey Long. Long, a populist but also somewhat corrupt and out of his league is by this time dominated by a cabal of German based American fascists and big business, who are trying to make the same deal the German business made with Hitler, with about the same results.

As a result, there is no Lend-Lease or other American aid to England in 1939/40 and England sues for peace with Germany as result in late 1941.

American racism and a populist president still, however, feel obligated to 'save' China (and the Asian markets) from Japanese domination. So we still have Pearl Harbor, and a more powerful Hitler still declares war on the US as in OTL.

But w/o England as a base America is handicapped in a war with Germany and unable to repeatedly bomb Hitler's atomic facilities. The Germans acquire the bomb in May of 1945, while still holding an uninvaded Western Europe. That and the other terror weapons enables the war to drag on into 1947 and leaves Europe and most of Russia an atomic blasted ruin.

In 1943, however, there was an invasion of Italy much as in OTL, but delayed. In this ATL, however, the assistance of the Mafia, led by Lucky Luciano, was instrumental instead of peripheral. The Mafia becomes a dominant factor in the postwar govt of Italy.Luciano, however, due to byzantine machinations at the head of the Mafia, only narrowly escapes Italy with his life. He returns to the USA and a hero's welcome in 1946.

In America, there is an existential crisis in the government as the people turn against the Populists and their fascist allies, blaming them for the defeat of England and the consequent long war. One of the more prominent anti-fascists even in prewar Italy were the Mafia.

Luciano, now restored to full citizenship with a pardon, is a "natural" to head this anti-fascist movement. In 1948 the Republican party nominates him as their candidate and, as an Act of Congress has overturned the prohibition of foreign born Presidents in late 1947, he is inaugurated as President in 1949.

Incomplete and with a little too much handwavium, but workable as a first draft?

 

[Grey Wolf]

I loved the episode but did wonder what had happened to the rest of the planet. The implication seemed to be that the whole planet's society was based on this model, but the action all seemed focused in one city. The problem with scaling up the concept is that you very soon run into ideas of ownership of areas (one mob's stomping ground) and in the end how much is this different to a load of dictators carving up the world between them ? The only factor to note would be they all speak the same language and are of the same race, so the geographical divisions would have no ethnic basis.

Grey Wolf

 

[Prinz Richard Eugen]

Napoleon - Mr. Long is dead well before 1940.

 

[NapoleonXIV]

Napoleon - Mr. Long is dead well before 1940.

That's the POD, he's not assassinated.

 

[robertp6165]

I loved the episode but did wonder what had happened to the rest of the planet. The implication seemed to be that the whole planet's society was based on this model, but the action all seemed focused in one city. The problem with scaling up the concept is that you very soon run into ideas of ownership of areas (one mob's stomping ground) and in the end how much is this different to a load of dictators carving up the world between them ? The only factor to note would be they all speak the same language and are of the same race, so the geographical divisions would have no ethnic basis.

Grey Wolf

Those are all good points. I would imagine that your statement about it not being very different from "a load of dictators carving up the world between them" is pretty accurate. In fact, given how the Mafia supposedly operates, I would think it would almost be kind of like a feudal system...with the little "Bosses" swearing loyalty to the big "Bosses" right on up to the "Don," with all of them looking for the first opportunity to stab their overlords in the back, of course, and take over.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Something Else...

-Something that might be interesting is to have a situation similar to Kung Fu Hustle wherein the Chinese Triads and the Japanese Yakuza also take over their appropriate governments. Just remember that organized crime and drive-by shootings with "Tommy Guns" were not the exclusive venue of the United States.

-According to the Untouchables (1993/1994), syndicated series, there is the idea that prior to his arrest, Al Capone (D-IL) was planning to run for the State Senate in Illinois. In the ATL, imagine the damage incurred if Al Capone is elected to high office in 1932.....