It's certainly difficult to get a Depression civil war, but I don't think it's impossible, if you have the right PoD. Before the Depression, to be sure, but of course late enough to still allow it to happen. Like Biden&Caesar'12 says, it would have to be something that strengthens extremist movements and weakens faith in the establishment/moderation/etc. We can imagine that there's going to be a moderate reformist movement but that doesn't mean that it needs to be a successful one--maybe FDR or some other leader gets discredited by scandal, or it has some notable failure if it's elected to office.
For sure, any sort of civil war would be a messy affair, with all sorts of different leftist and rightist and centrist factions fighting and allying and betraying each other. The best bet for sustained carnage would be to have parts of the army join with rebellious movements--Butler with the socialists, MacArthur with the nationalists, etc. I doubt that we'd see any formal secessions, attempts to revive the Confederacy or anything like that, more like different factions claiming to be the legitimate government of the entire US. Maybe a disputed election involving extremist parties in a time of heightened tension would do the trick? (Say, socialists win and someone pulls a coup, or socialists lose and start a revolution...)
Honestly even if we can't get a civil war this would be a very interesting TL in itself.
For sure, any sort of civil war would be a messy affair, with all sorts of different leftist and rightist and centrist factions fighting and allying and betraying each other. The best bet for sustained carnage would be to have parts of the army join with rebellious movements--Butler with the socialists, MacArthur with the nationalists, etc. I doubt that we'd see any formal secessions, attempts to revive the Confederacy or anything like that, more like different factions claiming to be the legitimate government of the entire US. Maybe a disputed election involving extremist parties in a time of heightened tension would do the trick? (Say, socialists win and someone pulls a coup, or socialists lose and start a revolution...)
Not a civil war. But without the New Deal (and this is the only way to make things worse) there could have been widespread radicalization to both ends of the spectrum and a state of severe unrest. Those who became voters for FDRs new vision for the country IOTL would have been vulnerable to the populist, communist and fascist mass movements sweeping the country. The two party system would have collapsed. Institutional integrity would have been compromised by opposing factions of radicals furthering their own agendas after being elected to all levels of government. Left and Right wing militants would have become a major American export to countries like Spain.
It could have been a mess, but in a democracy, some kind of moderate reformist force usually comes along to let off steam and provide solutions to problems. IOTL that was Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Honestly even if we can't get a civil war this would be a very interesting TL in itself.