Every Man a King: A History of the Long Presidency and Beyond

The Cabinet of Huey Pierce Long:

Vice President: Robert F. Wagner (SP-NY)
Secretary of State: William E. Borah (R-ID)
Secretary of the Treasury: James Couzens (R-MI)
Secretary of War: Smedley D. Butler(D-PA)
Secretary of the Navy: James Forrestal (D-NJ)
Secretary of the Interior: Lytle Brown (R-TN)
Secretary of Commerce: Jesse H. Jones (D-TX)
Attorney General: Frank Murphy (D-MI)
Secretary of Labor: Edward Heating (D-CO)
Secretary of Agriculture: Ernest Lundeen (SP-MN)
Secretary of Information and Broadcasting: Charles Coughlin (SP-MI)

Just a quibble, but I am fairly sure that several of these gentlemen were not members of Congress, which would mean that they wouldn't have a bracketed party and state. Also I'm fairly sure that Smedley Butler was initially a Republican before moving his sympathies to the Socialist party, so he probably wouldn't be a Democrat even if he was a Congressman.
 
Just a quibble, but I am fairly sure that several of these gentlemen were not members of Congress, which would mean that they wouldn't have a bracketed party and state. Also I'm fairly sure that Smedley Butler was initially a Republican before moving his sympathies to the Socialist party, so he probably wouldn't be a Democrat even if he was a Congressman.

I'm aware that plenty of them weren't congressmen, but I just did it to just give a brief picture of who each and every cabinet member was.
 
How can Long be the 34th President, if FDR has died before being inaugurated? He should be counted as the 33rd President, Garner being the 32nd.

It's just sort of a technical thing, isn't it? FDR was elected still, so you could count him, but you might not. There's no real precedent here, after all.

ITTL, it's an issue that historians like to debate.
 
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How can Long be the 34th President, if FDR has died before being inaugurated? He should be counted as the 33rd President, Garner being the 32nd.

I believe that presidents are considered presidents from midnight on the day of their inauguration.
 
Interesting TL so long:rolleyes:; frankly i always considered Long a populist strongman/Mussolini wannabe.

Just some question about the international situation:

- Greece is now revanchist, having basically aspiration against all his neighbourghs and Italy...unfortunely for her she don't have the strenght to back it up (except maybe against Turkey at the moment)

- Hitler has been killed in 1940 and Europe is now safe, but this can mean many thing:

1) France has fallen but now Germany is ruled by Goering/Military Junta and an agreement has been rechead with them (and Italy)
2) France has not fallen and Germany surrendered (in that case i don't see Italy join as Benny OTL invaded France just because believed things were ending

In any case this is a bad omen for Japan as 2 mean that Indochina has not fallen and both 1-2 mean that the Anglo-French don't need to fight Italy freeing a lot of resources. Naturally there is the possibility that Long will fight Japan alone due to some accident like the Panay.

In any case an european war ended in 40 mean a lot of butterfly.

- The USA will receive a lot less order from the Entente and will not become the premier economy of the world due to Europe being devastated (plus Bretton-Woods. Plus they will have already lost 4 years of economic rebuild due to Garner.

- The URSS will expand much much less; OTL the Baltic annexation and the ultimatum at Romania happend after the Fall of France without it Stalin will not try something so blatant for fear of repercussion.

- Europe will be much much less devastated and spent and this mean a decolonization process totally different from OTL, probably slower and with the various colonial powers retaining much more.
 
Very thorough! Yes, this is all about right. I hadn't thought much about decolonization, but I will now. WWII not happening will be interesting.
 
Very thorough! Yes, this is all about right. I hadn't thought much about decolonization, but I will now. WWII not happening will be interesting.

Thxs. Just tried to extrapolate something by the initial piece...but much depend on how reliable is the narrator

Well much depend on how multipolar this world will be; we will probably have:

- the Anglo-French entente plus allies and empires.
- The US plus allies/puppets, seem that Long had a anti-colonial streak (common at the time) and the general relations with the Empire will not be good. Long attitude/antic will not find the British and the French very impressed...plus any good populist/demagogue need an enemy.
Weaker than OTL due to no massive economic benefit of the war and the post-war enviroement. Grown can be achieved with internal military build-up maybe for war with Japan (without the rest of the OTL allies) but in that case Washington will need to pay all the toys alone.
- The Soviet Union, here at the same time stronger (no WW2 devastation) and weaker (no East Europe puppets...the contrary really, no OTL WW2 territorial gain and much less tech acquisition in general.
- Italy, depending on how come out of the Entente-Germany conflict, can form his own block with Spain and other Balkan nation or attach herself to France-UK as the ally you don't like it but still need it...or in general can be a wild card like an overgrow Gheddafi's Libya but with more capacity
 
"Huey Long? Don't talk to me about no hooey."

-Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx, in conversation, 1937

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"Heck, I'll say this. Huey Long sure does seem to be following one campaign promise - getting elected.

-Will Rogers, on his radio show, 1937

rogw001.jpg

From The Rise and Fall of the Social Populists (1933-1964), Eichiro Azuma, 1996, Pennsylvania Press:

Will Rogers' famous parodic quote about Huey Long's campaign promises was something that irked Long intensely. It wasn't that it mocked him, but that it was true: for the first 3 months of his first term, Long had really done very little. Coughlin still whipped millions of Americans into a zealous fury every night over the radio, but Long had not yet pushed any of his signature legislation. The job of President, which Long had been so intensely excited for, even to the degree of publishing a book, My First Term [1] Thus, in March (coincidentally the same month that Adventure Comics [2] became publishing) Long announced the Share the Wealth Act. An extension of Long's policies (limiting and distributing personal wealth, to a limit of 5 million dollars maximum per family, providing social safety and housing) the bill was not written by Long personally, as fisherman propaganda has claimed. It was actually drafted by the lawyers of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Gerald L.K Smith, chairmen of the National Share Our Wealth Committee, and merely revised by Long.

When the plan was announced, of course the nation reeled. Many socialists, Sinclair among them, called the plan insane and fascistic, which Long, of course, refuted. While some of the titans of industry, Ford chiefly among them, were content with the proposal, many, many protested it. When the legislation hit Congress in late March, nearly the entire Republican and Democratic wings protested it, calling it unconstitutional, as well it may have been. Thus, it went to the Supreme Court, in Long vs. People of the United States. Shockingly, the bill was found to be constitutional by the court, by a majority of 8-1 on April 24th. The fact that Long threatened all of the justices with bodily and familial harm, and that the one judge who voted against, Louis Brandeis, was found dead of a "apparent suicide" a week later was a factor as well.

Following the passing of the act, the titans of industry were shocked. A number of businessmen, led by William Randolph Hearst, plotted to overthrow Long. The "Gabriel Plot," [3] named after a film made by Hearst about a fascist president, had Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur lead a veteran's organization on Washington, which would have deposed Long. It very nearly succeeded, too.

From My Life in America: My Autobiography and Thoughts, Huey P. Long, 1962, Baton Rouge Press:

Seeing MacArthur, the damned traitor, pointing his gun at me, was, and I hope you won't take me as a yellow-belly for this, the most terrifying experience of my life. I'm sure it must have been pretty frightening for you, too, as good, honest Americans, who wanted honest, democratically-elected leadership, not some military putsch led by the elite, for the elite's interests. It wasn't until later that I learned that Hearst was going to assemble an army to depose me, but that MacArthur took matters into his own hands. I thank Smedley every day for doing what he did, taking the bullet and all. He was a true patriot. I wish I had been able to see him as Secretary of War, but I think that George [Patton] did a hell of a job.

Continued from The Rise and Fall of the Social Populists (1933-1964):

The country was shocked by the Gabriel Plot, which began and ended on May 10th, 1937. Hearst was imprisoned almost immediately after MacArthur's assassination attempt failed, and the two were killed together, by firing squad, which quickly became the way Long eliminated almost any dissidents. The Congress, with a large Social Populist constituency, allowed Long to issue an executive order suspending the Constitution for a brief period of time to destroy the putsch's leaders. This was its original intent, but Long soon found loopholes in the act. Executive Order 8034 was passed on May 11th, and was not suspended until July 4th, 1964, when Roosevelt defeated Rockwell in the Rebirth.

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Footnotes:
1. OTL, My First Days in the White House.
2. ITTL, DC Comics.
3. Based on the OTL Business Plot.
 
THE GEORGE LINCOLN ROCKWELL! HOLY ****!!:eek::eek::eek:

I can't help but paraphrase a scene from an OTL movie from the last update. Who can guess what movie it is?

Shady Businessman: Now we are willing to give you one s***pot full of money to get rid of him - more than you ever dreamed of.

Contact: Nobody is going to beat Long in '40. Not with all the money in the world.

[Conversational pause]

SB: Suppose Long doesn't run in '40.

Contact: Ha ha. Not a chance. Yeah
 
Oh, I see where this is starting to go. Fascinating.

You mentioned an alternate version of DC. With the increased anti-semitism in the American government, will Superman be decried as a Jewish creation?
 
THE GEORGE LINCOLN ROCKWELL! HOLY ****!!:eek::eek::eek:

I can't help but paraphrase a scene from an OTL movie from the last update. Who can guess what movie it is?

Shady Businessman: Now we are willing to give you one s***pot full of money to get rid of him - more than you ever dreamed of.

Contact: Nobody is going to beat Long in '40. Not with all the money in the world.

[Conversational pause]

SB: Suppose Long doesn't run in '40.

Contact: Ha ha. Not a chance. Yeah

I haven't the foggiest, which embarrasses me a bit, but oh well. And yes, the Rockwell.

Oh, I see where this is starting to go. Fascinating.

You mentioned an alternate version of DC. With the increased anti-semitism in the American government, will Superman be decried as a Jewish creation?

Suffice it to say that comics are different ITTL. I may cover them.
 
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This is awesome!!!!

Plus, with Patton as the leader of the army, the US army can switch from the firepower doctrine to the mobility one (like the german blitz) :D
 
This is awesome!!!!

Plus, with Patton as the leader of the army, the US army can switch from the firepower doctrine to the mobility one (like the german blitz) :D

Thank you very much! I love Patton, and I wanted to throw him an allohistorical bone with this position, even if it's not quite realistic.

So what is being done/will be done in regards to the negative income tax?

What do you mean by that?
 
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