Outside of being racist against Asians/Jews and his contributions to the post-WW2 deportations/massacres in the Northern Caucuses, Ivan Serov afaik had absolutely none of the views he is ascribed in TNO otl. Which is about what the TNO Russia dev said to me on discord when I asked him.
Let The Eagle Scream Version 2: Star-Spangled-Boogaloo
- Thread starter Murica1776
- Start date
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Imperial 1914
Banned
which power has the best record on treatment of the locals/natives post ww1 and balancing them with their own people moving to the colonies?
Yeah, I really don't think this TL ought to lift things from TNO so blatantly as was suggested.
I just read through this Murcia. I have to say your a great writer and have written a great story (so far). I’m excited to see where this goes.
The only questions I have are:
1. Who’s served as president of the USA? The only ones we hear of are Johnson (1865-1868), Colfax (1868-1877?), Grant (1877-1884?), Blaine (1884?-1894), McKinley (1897-1905), and our man Roosevelt (1904-1920?).
2. How well are the Dems doing? With blacks gaining civil rights it seems unlikely they’ve won the presidency.
best of luck on the TL!
The only questions I have are:
1. Who’s served as president of the USA? The only ones we hear of are Johnson (1865-1868), Colfax (1868-1877?), Grant (1877-1884?), Blaine (1884?-1894), McKinley (1897-1905), and our man Roosevelt (1904-1920?).
2. How well are the Dems doing? With blacks gaining civil rights it seems unlikely they’ve won the presidency.
best of luck on the TL!
One thing which im potentially seeing in the future is a Italianized France. After being defeated for the third time by the Germans/USA,they will be torn up on identity and the like with radical political ideologies ready to fill the gaps. Croixist remnants and Communist insurgents trying to over throw the Goverment.
I'll make a list of Presidents soon. Dems aren't doing well, but the Depression is about to change that.
Presidents of the United States of America
Presidents of the United States of America
16. Abraham Lincoln (R) (1861-1865)
17. Andrew Johnson (D) (1865-1868)
18. Schuyler Colfax (R) (1868-1876)
19. Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1876-1884)
20. William B. Washburn (R) (1884-1888)
21. James G. Blaine (R) (1888-1896)
22. William McKinley (R) (1896-1904)
23. Theodore Roosevelt (R) (1904-1920)
24. Calvin Coolidge (R) (1920-1928)
25. Charles Dawes (R) (1928-1932)
26. William Talbot Richardson (D) (1932-1948)
16. Abraham Lincoln (R) (1861-1865)
17. Andrew Johnson (D) (1865-1868)
18. Schuyler Colfax (R) (1868-1876)
19. Ulysses S. Grant (R) (1876-1884)
20. William B. Washburn (R) (1884-1888)
21. James G. Blaine (R) (1888-1896)
22. William McKinley (R) (1896-1904)
23. Theodore Roosevelt (R) (1904-1920)
24. Calvin Coolidge (R) (1920-1928)
25. Charles Dawes (R) (1928-1932)
26. William Talbot Richardson (D) (1932-1948)
Hey folks! I kinda fell behind on school b/c I was wrapped up in all the election craziness. Now that that's over, y'all are priority #2 after I get caught up with school! Expect an update this week
What time frame? Or is it a surprise?
Personally, I'm guessing about 1988/1992
Strongman or Savior? The Election of WTR
Strongman or Savior? The Election of WTR
WTR rally in Indianapolis (1932)
WTR rally in Indianapolis (1932)
The 1929 Stock Market Crash was the worst financial catastrophe in modern history. In the third week of June, the Dow Jones lost 13% of its value. The decline continued for another week, shaving off more points, before stabilizing somewhat. Life savings and huge portfolios were wiped out in a few days. Lives were irrevocably ruined. On June 29th, the Wall Street Journal ran the headline "It's Raining Men: Jumpers on Wall Street Damage Cars, Hotdog Cart." Bank runs occurred across the country, bankrupting many institutions. Unemployment skyrocketed with every report. The Golden Twenties had just lost their sheen.
The federal government, under banker turned President Charles Dawes, refused to help. Dawes, like many Yankee financiers, subscribed to an almost worshipful belief in the invisible hand of the market. He viewed the Crash as an inevitable result of "morally bankrupt avarice, funded on credit." So strong were his beliefs in this that he almost forcibly dispersed the so-called Bonus Army, composed of veterans of the Mexican War who wanted their government promised bonuses. When word got out that Dawes nearly used force on them, the public was infuriated. This most publicly came to a head when Dawes went to Lexington, Massachusetts, to honor one Hezekiah Johnson, an 86 year old Civil War veteran, on July 4th, 1931. Johnson was invited to speak, live on newsreels and radio. What happened next was unprecedented in American history.
"Thank you Mr. President, esteemed guests, fellow citizens of our great Republic. I have words ready for all of you to hear, which I believe most of you will agree with. I must preface my remarks by reaffirming my utmost respect for the Presidency as the highest office in the land. That being said, I must strongly condemn President Dawes as a President, for his anti-American thoughts concerning the Bonus Army. Abraham Lincoln, may Almighty God rest his soul, once said of our troops, "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." The Great Man of our Republic knew the importance of caring for those who have borne the burden of protecting American liberty. As Christians, we believe that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead we are faced with a government neglecting our veterans and soldiers to protect the interests of industry. If things do not change, I fear for the future of the Republic. Thank you, God Bless you all."
The optics of having your administration eviscerated by a Civil War veteran in full Union Blues were.... bad. "For Old Man Johnson" quickly became a rallying cry for any number of anti-administration forces. Dawes essentially became a lame duck President from this point. To top off the humiliation, he was successfully primaried by one Herbert Hoover, and wasn't even on the GOP ticket. The Republicans were on the verge of falling apart. On the other side of the aisle, a very unconventional candidate would emerge.
Ever since Reconstruction, the Democrats were essentially a zombie party. The Republicans had kept control of the House, Senate, and Presidency since Andrew Johnson's impeachment. They barely even bothered with the Presidential side of things, instead being content to function as a vessel for the interests of White Southerners. That too was starting to deteriorate. The Party of Jackson was only a couple decades away from going the way of the Federalists. Until WTR, that is. WTR, or William Talbot Richardson, was a colorful character. Born the 3rd son of a shopkeeper in Wilmington, NC, in 1882, he lied about his age to enlist in the Spanish-American War. He was shipped to the Philippines where he remained for six years (1898-1904) helping tamp down insurgencies, winning a Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross for bravery. He met his first wife, a pretty blonde girl from Minnesota named Suzanne Erikson, while she was in the Philippines on a mission trip. After the war, they took advantage of veteran's benefits to acquire a sugar plantation in Cuba. WTR was by all accounts a firm but fair boss, who treated all his workers with respect regardless of race. His time in the Philippines had shook him of most of the racial ill will that still festered in the South, albeit at much lesser levels than in the old days. Suzanne and him lived in Cuba for 10 happy years, during which she gave him 4 children. Unfortunately, in 1914, tragedy struck. Suzanne fell ill with tuberculosis and died. WTR fell into a deep depression, sold the plantation, and moved back to Wilmington to be closer to the family.
Trying to get her son out of his funk, and remembering his childhood obsession with Washington and Jefferson, WTR's mother Anna Mae urged him to run for mayor in 1916. A wealthy war hero certainly wasn't a bad brand. He campaigned enthusiastically as a "New School Democrat" and won a convincing victory. He would quickly become famous in state Democratic politics for his charisma, booming voice, and excellent managerial skills, which helped make Wilmington become one of the fastest growing cities in the South. He won re-election in 1920, as his deft management of the Canadian Flu made him even more popular. In 1922 he was tapped to run for the US House, which he again did well in. Finally, in 1924, with the old Senator retiring, WTR won the open NC Senate seat. In the period between his senatorial win and inauguration, he vacationed in his old Cuban stomping grounds where a peculiar thing happened: he fell in love. Maria Gonzalez was the daughter of a prominent old Cuban family and 12 years his junior. Although accusations would swirl that she only married him because he was a budding Senator or because her family was having money troubles, the reality is that by all accounts, Maria deeply loved her new husband. They would go on to have 3 children as well. She was extremely beautiful and media savvy, and greatly helped her husband deal with the national media. WTR quickly got a reputation as dealmaking firebrand in the Senate, and for being surprisingly chummy with the Black Republican Caucus in the House, which was overwhelmingly Southern. He also befriended jingoistic newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful media tycoons in the country. In 1930, he cruised to re-election in a crushing landslide, but he wanted more. In 1931, he entered the ring for the Democratic nomination. Deflecting criticism that he was a power-hungry climber, WTR gave the party something it desperately needed: vision and enthusiasm. His platform was nationalistic, economically populist, and surprisingly unfocused on narrowly White Southerners. As he put it to a critic arguing he should focus on the White South "We're running for the Presidency of the United States, not the South." WTR won the Democratic nomination in a landslide thanks to his ability to fire up voters and bosses alike. To show his thanks to the NC Party, which had unilaterally pushed for him from the beginning, he nominated ex-NC governor Angus Wilton McLean as his running mate, marking it as the first ticket where both of those running were from the same state.
When it came time for the general election, WTR called his good friend William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had been expecting it for sometime and was already prepared. Virtually overnight, the entire Hearst newspaper empire became a de facto arm of the campaign. Hearst papers from sea to shining sea exalted WTR as "the man we need to save the Republic." WTR's wife Maria became famous for her great skill in playing off the newsreels and cavorting with Beaconsfield it girls. WTR himself had thundering, roaring rallies and gave interviews to every radio station that would have him. This was a totally new way of doing politics, and caught the Hoover campaign off guard. They tried to punch back with the oldest trick in the book: call WTR a white supremacist closet Confederate. This line, cliche as it was, had proven remarkably effective. The fact that the Democratic Party was still mostly a vehicle for White Southerners didn't exactly help disprove this stereotype. WTR shattered it forever. He requested and received an invitation to the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, the oldest Black church in the country. In a 90 minute speech, WTR laid out a vision of a Democratic Party that embraced Black people, supported Jamaican statehood, hammered his economic message, and utterly eviscerated the Confederacy and Redeemers, declaring his belief that most involved were burning in hell. After he finished speaking, the church erupted into a standing ovation.
When the votes were counted, it was clear that WTR had obliterated the GOP. He won in a landslide 475-56 electoral college victory. A breakdown by demography also shows that WTR won 1/3rd of the Black vote: no Democrat had ever polled higher than 1-2% previously. The 1932 Election completely altered the political dynamics of the country. However, not everyone was overjoyed by this victory.
There were concerns by many folks, including some Democrats, that WTR was a budding strongman. His close relationship with the Hearst empire, and the media savvy both he and his young wife exhibited, helped him build a cult of personality of sorts. In his attacks on the GOP and his nationalist rhetoric he often flirted with demagoguery. Some of his campaign centered around being willing to do whatever it took to get his agenda through, including packing or ignoring the Supreme Court. Although history would judge WTR well, the debate over whether he was an authoritarian of some sort would linger.
WTR in an airplane (1931)
WTR at the DNC (1932)
Maria Richardson (nee Gonzalez) stumping for her husband in Texas (1932)
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