Kaiserreich: How to make the American Unionist State sympathetic?

Strategos' Risk

Besides jettisoning Fritz Kuhn and the racists, of course.

The AUS is very interesting to me because as per canon its power base is the South due to the Kingfish's home. Yet it's the direct opposite of the Confederacy, looking to create a unitary government. How would that even work, in a stable postwar non-dictatorial way: devolving state powers to the level of European styled provinces or departments?

I saw one AAR on the Paradox forums for HOI2 KR which had the AUS be reasonably reasonable and not out and out fascist which did that. Sort of like Fallout pre-war, redividing the US to commonwealths and capital zones and districts and the like.

Oh and to answer the original question: kick out racists, make Coughlin the Papal ambassador to gain entry into the Catholic Alliance instead of spreading anti-Semitism at home (leading to intervention in Mexico to back the Sinarquistas), build upon Long's historical economic populism (and his allies like Townshend and Reno) and fairly colorblind rhetoric, and my own twist: bring in Howard Scott and Technocracy Inc. to be his brain trust administering the AUS. They were a contemporaneous movement and would fit well with an authoritarian state of ideological loonies.

Any other ideas? The AUS is interesting because it's a KR country that's villainous by default like Mittelafrika, Totalist states, Mongolia, but it need not be. There's ambiguity.
 
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HongCanucker

HongCanucker

If the Kaiserreich meme culture is any indication, having William Dudley Pelley take the Silver Legion to usurp Long's rule and then institute D I R E C T R U L E F R O M A T L A N T A

In all seriousness, I think a good deal of it might end up being relative to the actions and policies of their opponents. A United States led by an ineffectual Garner administration or MacArthur's military cabal is going to be unpopular to a great extent, no question about it, and if they fail to do enough to break the syndicalists or show some indication of strong government the AUS could see its ranks swell. A more stubborn CSA in which Reed is more inclined to the orthodox syndicalists and Totalists like Foster could also give the AUS a vacuum to fill if the federal government plays their cards in such a way that the CSA is discredited by way of Long sending scabs to get the factories running and Washington approving of it.
 

Strategos' Risk

Well I don't think the AUS needn't only look good by comparison. It could also merely look not as bad as it could have been. It could end up as a culturally conservative corporatist authoritarian state, like prewar Fascist Italy, or Salazar's Portugal. Which isn't sympathetic but is different from the default villain in the Second Civil War scenarios.
 
Ynnead

Ynnead

Honestly under Long it's pretty sympathetic. Yeah Long is a dictator in all but name but the Racists are largely gone and Long makes it clear he has no issues with Race.
 

chankljp

Donor
The best way to do so will be for either the CSA under Jack Reed to win the 1936 US Presidential Election, and proceed to radically re-align the country towards syndicalism; Or if the Federal government decided to invite in MacArthur's military to cancel the election and suspend the Constitution. That way, whatever action Long and the AUS takes will be seen primarily as a response to a syndicalist/military takeover of the country. And therefore will be viewed as a symptom of, and not the cause of, the situation leading to the Second Civil War.

In addition, 'out-of-universe', there should be a way for the Civil War to be averted by working with Long. Right now, he will go out of his way to sabotage any attempt by either Garner or Curtis, making it really hard to view him as anything BUT a villain that is willing to throw the country into a civil war in order to take power, compared to Reed, who is actually open to compromise.

I mean, if the Spanish Civil War can be be averted by getting both the far-right Carlists and far-left CNT-FAI to act in good faith, I am sure that there must be SOME way for Long to work with the Federal government without the need for bloodshed.
 

Strategos' Risk

The AUS seems to be inherently authoritarian state; maybe under Lindbergh it'd be the Yankee equivalent to a South American populist caudillo state with democratic trappings, and maybe if Coughlin isn't around Jefe Lindy wouldn't be very anti-Semitic. But I'm wondering if they could still be authoritarian and fairly "okay" without merely making them look good in comparison to a Totalist CSA or the MacArthur Junta U.S. or Bloody Baron Mongolia.

Even beyond moral judgments what I'm interested is in how the AUS would look, a unitary state just seems so inherently un-American that it's interesting to think about. I wonder how it would work in practice without simply being "Nazi Germany except in America and not as bad." Well maybe it's more like Fascist Italy except American.

I'm also hoping that eventually the modders will pick up my suggestion for a weird Gernsback Continuum scenario where the Technocracy movement allies itself with Long, creating a Futurist AUS based in the South!
 
GDIS Pathe

GDIS Pathe

chankljp said:
The best way to do so will be for either the CSA under Jack Reed to win the 1936 US Presidential Election, and proceed to radically re-align the country towards syndicalism; Or if the Federal government decided to invite in MacArthur's military to cancel the election and suspend the Constitution. That way, whatever action Long and the AUS takes will be seen primarily as a response to a syndicalist/military takeover of the country. And therefore will be viewed as a symptom of, and not the cause of, the situation leading to the Second Civil War.

In addition, 'out-of-universe', there should be a way for the Civil War to be averted by working with Long. Right now, he will go out of his way to sabotage any attempt by either Garner or Curtis, making it really hard to view him as anything BUT a villain that is willing to throw the country into a civil war in order to take power, compared to Reed, who is actually open to compromise.

I mean, if the Spanish Civil War can be be averted by getting both the far-right Carlists and far-left CNT-FAI to act in good faith, I am sure that there must be SOME way for Long to work with the Federal government without the need for bloodshed.
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Yeah I agree with you there. You literally have no way to avoid the civil war without shooting the guy and considering Reed can actually work with the feds why can't long?
 

Strategos' Risk

Is the AUS innately too fascist or pseudo-fascist to be considered sympathetic?

What if Kaiserreich Long was more like IRL Long who did want a chicken in every pot and every man a king?
 

Magnimik

Strategos' Risk said:
What if Kaiserreich Long was more like IRL Long who did want a chicken in every pot and every man a king?
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Isn't he already like this in KR? As far as I know, Long still supports populist economic policies (Share our wealth and stuff) together with racial equality (especially if he kicks Pelley out), but because of him being a dictator, and not the most benevolent one, he looks a little worse in comprasion with other sides in the Civil War (USA, CSA, PSA), who can start as fairly democratic.
 
History Learner

History Learner

Banned
Faeelin said:
Not launching a violent revolution when they lose an election?
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To my knowledge, there is no cannon result to the 1936 election. Therefore, their revolt could thus be entirely justified, given it could be in response to MacArthur usurping power, removing a President Long from Office, or in response to Jack Reed getting elected and attempting to spread ATL Bolshevism.
 
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