The Commonwealth of America
The Commonwealth Flag.
The Commonwealth flag was adopted upon the ascension of the Civic Party after the end of Segregation in the late 1890s; it constitutes the American eagle, in all its infallibility, dominating one half of the flag, astride a string of five stars representing -arguably- the five predominant ethnicities of the Commonwealth; Whites, Blacks, East Asians (specifically Japanese), Indigenous and Hispanics (that last one being a fucking can of worms given the multiple disagreements as to what exactly constitutes ‘Hispanic’). As to the veracity of this purveyed intention one might be sceptical, but what is certain is that the country is as interesting as the flag proposes.
Politics in the Commonwealth are not too different by design from OTL, but far removed in practice. Specific changes include compulsory voting, ensuring that, rather than an average of about 55% voter turnout per election, the number is closer to 75% and regularly breaches 80% of the population. Voting on a state and national scale utilises instant-runoff voting, as opposed to first-past-the-post, meaning that politics are not dominated by an entrenched two party system(though this is more prevalent in the House of Representatives than the Senate, which is dominated by the technocratic Civic Party).
As there are 37 full states, the Senate possesses 74 full members, though since 1922 there have been two representatives for the territories (one for those of the contiguous Commonwealth and another for the overseas territories) and another for the Special Administrative Region of Katanga, which has historically been filled by the presiding Chief Managing Officer (CMO) of the
Katanga Heavy Industries Corporation[1]. Unlike regular Senators, these members serve four year terms in line with the Commonwealth presidency, and have limited voting rights especially where fiduciary matters are concerned.
The Parties, Civic (61); National Federalist (4); Diversitarian (4); Libertarian (2); Agrarian Bloc (1); Worker’s Bloc (2). + the 3 Special Representatives for the Territories and the SAR of Katanga.
The House of Representatives possesses 525 seats(no equivalent to the Apportionment Act of 1911 was ever implemented, meaning the number has steadily increased over time; contractors are finding increasingly creative ways to fit them all into the existing Capitol chamber, including introducing staggered, raised seating), and nine non-voting members for the territories. Though the Civic Party possesses over 200 seats this does not constitute enough to unilaterally pass legislation and they have traditionally had to ramshackle various voting coalitions together depending on the type of legislation they want to pass, which has contributed to the pragmatic and realpolitik philosophy of the Party as a whole. This isn’t helped by the fact there are 8 major parties in the House aside the Civic Party themselves and multiple independents, and as parties don’t typically bind their members to vote a particular way cross-floor and partisan antics are common.
The Parties, Civic(215); National Federalist (33); Totalist (18); Diversitarian (111); Libertarian (74); Agrarian Bloc (31); Worker’s Bloc (26); Africa Party (8); United Commonwealth (4); Independents (5).
Overall, however, this is a strong trend towards what we would recognise as an ‘ordoliberal’ regime, whereby there is a strong social safety net and government intervention is common where private enterprise fails(the rails, much more prevalent than OTl, are nationalised), but the market is free and the largest sector is that of small to medium businesses, though regional monopolies exist, especially in industrial sectors. Legislation is generally built on the basis of deploying commissions composed of legislators and experts in the field being discussed, and thus the Commonwealth has been at the cutting edge of technological innovation since the end of Segregation, though are often criticised for perhaps possessing too many commissions for rather frivolous subjects, such as the House Commission for the Regulation of Dimensions of Residential Log-Burners.
The largest single employers are in the public sector, followed by small firms usually specialising in high tech manufacturing and services. Construction, agriculture and chemical refineries are important industries, and big oil is especially prevalent among the Gulf states. Mass manufacturing reached a peak a decade ago but with wages steadily rising and cheaper alternatives being sought overseas in countries as India, Padèchai[2] and the Mexicos, the Civic government has dedicated its resources to transitioning the economy to more sustainable industries. Much of the agricultural industry is still done on a plantation basis but are increasingly automated and most employees are of Japanese or Caucasian ancestry, and plantation owners are uncomfortable hiring Blacks for obvious reasons.
Current political issues in the Commonwealth include the naval arms race developing with the British; terrorism on the part of Lefki Leski[3], a white supremacist organisation operating on the Mississippi; the gradual winding down of state-run agricultural centres in the Dakota Territory as agriculture in Rio Grande and California is intensified, putting many Dakotans out of the job; and the passage of the Congolese districts from territorial to state status.
The Commonwealth has a population of some 221’000’000, slightly larger than OTL due to the contributions of their Congolese and Japanese territories even without the Northeast. A plurality of the population, approaching some 43% of the population, is ethnically mixed in some way due to the intermingling of Africans, Whites(Including Europeans[4], Anatolians & Levantines), Japanese and the Indigenous, followed by Whites who account for some 29% of the population, Africans at 16%, then Japanese at 11%, and Indigenous at 1% (which are more to do with the Commonwealth’s Pacific Islanders than Native Americans, unfortunately, a cruel legacy of their slavocratic origins).
The most widely spoken first language is English, followed by Spanish and then Japanese, French[5] and Lingala. A strand of English, a creole really, combining the gendered aspects of French and Spanish languages with pluralistic noun prefixes found in Lingala and, in its latest iteration, the Japanese rule of placing verbs at the end of a sentence (more as a suggestion however) has emerged, entitled Lonparlèr[6]. In its most advanced form, found primarily in Tejas and Rio Grande and especially in the important city of Port Isabella[7], it would be incomprehensible to the average Englishman. As such, the sentence “What are you
women up to this evening?” becomes “Lés
mòjémmes this evonechè
huastá?”[8] Of course, this appals the elderly of most ethnic groups within the Commonwealth but is seeing widespread acceptance among the country’s youth as a crux through which they can all communicate.
The most widely practiced religion is in fact Catholicism, which was proselytised in the days of the slavocracy among pretty well everyone who wasn’t the oligarchic and Baptist plantation owners of the old South, including the Japanese. This is followed by Baptist Christianity, centred in Dixie, and then Molimo[9], a religion devised among African Americans combining elements of Catholicism and traditional African religions, with its modern core centred in Cuba. Some more traditionalist and isolated elements of the Japanese states still practice Shinto, and it is commonly syncretised with Christian theology. There is also a notable Muslim presence in the industrial state of Arizona, where just over half the predominantly black population professes Alevism as their religion, the fairly liberal (or heretical, depending on the perspective) branch of Islam being popularised among the Freemen when the industrial parks of the state first became active[10].
Due to the incredibly multiethnic makeup of the state culture is rich, and the state is known for its vibrant media, exotic cuisine, sports and arts. Spice dominates the palette and rich, meaty meals of goat, beef and fish are widespread throughout the Commonwealth, complimented by the wines of Arizona and often barbecued in the Southern fashion. Gumbo, in all its myriad forms, is the country’s national dish[11]. The most popular sport in the country is baseball, though the national sport is charreada/rodeo which has undergone many questionable permutations due to the equestrian antics of the Southern-Criollo elite. Also popular are boxing, football and, unfortunately for many, bullfighting, supplemented in some of the more wild areas of the Commonwealth with often fatal wrestling[12]. Literature is widespread, in part due to the fact television does not yet exist beyond military applications, and radio shows of poetry, book readings and lectures are a popular past time of an afternoon and evening. This has been undergoing a bit of an evolution at current as the Japanese states become more interconnected with those in the US and Congo, and the Haiku is seeing a renaissance. Fashion, however, is still rather conservative, but takes into account the fact that most of the country is quite humid; women’s fashion constitutes long, patterned gowns made of light, often translucent materials, with oriental habits incredibly prevalent. In particular, a form of colourful head scarf inspired by the Alevi ladies of Arizona has become the latest fashion craze; among older women this is complimented by a bejewelled battoulah[13]. The primary fabric is flax linen. Men are less lucky, expected to wear a suit albeit a lax one, with the colours being various shades of white or grey, though they get a pretty extensive selection of hats to pick from. The fez is particularly popular.
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[1] – Without a Soviet Union to highlight the excesses of capitalist theorem there is a more muted response to corporate bodies wielding political power; people are more willing to have them play a role, albeit a regulated one.
[2] – OTL Tanganyika, a corrupted, Frenchified form of the Swahili term for ‘tea coast’, ‘Pwani ya chai’.
[3] – Lefki Leski is a corruption of Lefkí léschi, Greek for ‘White Club’. The precedent lies in the theory that Ku Klux Klan comes from the Greek word Kuklos, which is Greek for ‘Circle’.
[4] – And this, in turn, includes ‘Criollos’ and other white Latinos, which doesn’t really exist as a term ITTL.
[5] – Due to no Civil War, French instruction wasn’t abolished in Louisiana and it remained the first language of most of the city, which has remained one of the largest in the Commonwealth -the seventh, in fact- at some 7’700’000 people in its greater metropolitan area. Furthermore, several cities in the Midwest have adopted the language, and it remains one of the official languages of the state of Omaha(located around Oklahoma-Kansas area).
[6] – From French Longue Parler, meaning quite simply ‘long speak’, referring to the fact that it is actually a complication of the English language as opposed to a simplification.
[7] – This is an alternate version of the actual city of Port Isabel, which in OTL has but 5’000 people and is a satellite of Brownsville, but ITTL has grown to become the sixth largest city in the Commonwealth.
[8] – Maybe a bit of a stretch, but I think it’s more reasonable in a state that’s even more multicultural and more importantly multilinguistic than the OTL US.
[9] – Literal Lingala term for ‘spirit’, in a positive sense as opposed to bad spirit, which is known as Elima.
[10] – The flipside of this is that Alevism is the more exposited branch of Islam to the West, and so Sunni and Shia Muslims are constantly grumbling about how everyone thinks that the heretical branch is the mainstream.
[11] – Have I told anyone that I fucking love gumbo? No? Well I do, it’s the best hot damn shit I’ve ever eaten.
[12] – This universe is a little wilder than ours, perhaps due to the lack of World Wars shocking everyone into a more humanitarian perspective of life.
[13] – the average woman in this America would look bizarre to a visitor from our world, wearing what appears to be a combination of a 1910s evening gown, a modern hijab and the various pretensions of Japanese kimono. It works in my head, alright.
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So this is a part of my retcon of the Worlda map of Vox Populi, which I'm gonna replace in earnest when I have time to rewrite all it's notes. Until then, enjoy this.
