Picking up the Pieces: A TLIAM

yamatokreig

Banned
So what's this?

something the cool kids do I guess to build up hype.

What's this TL even about anyway?

it's a little bit of Kaiserreich, a little bit of my own ideas, and several other separate political scenarios that I've been thinking about in my head all mashed up.

You sure you can accomplish this?
I was born ready.
 
I

yamatokreig

Banned
curtis_with_fan.jpg


Charles Curtis

(Republican)

The Right Man for the Wrong Time
1937-1937
President Curtis is perhaps, for all his faults one of the most fascinating presidents of the 20th century. He had risen to the top of the American Political Sphere despite his non European ancestry in a time of great racism in the USA and presided over the end of the First Republic and the opening days of the seminal tragedy of the 20th century. The Second American Civil War. Despite the dire state of the nation, He nevertheless held out in hopes of a peaceful solution between the radicals and yearned once more that America would be a stable beacon of democracy, instead of a currently defeated nation being torn apart by vultures. Such was his loyalty to liberty and democracy that he refused time and time again pleas from General Macarthur for a “temporary suspension of the election” believing firmly in the sense of the American People. It was not to be. The election was deadlocked and sent to the house, Curtis and Reed being the only contenders as the Democrats held their noses once more voting for Curtis and by extent the Republicans, the America First Party and Syndicalists organizing a mass walkout in protest.


It would be a the most chaotic first month in office ever seen. Curtis quickly invited Reed and Long on his first day in office to meet with him in the white house and come up with a solution to the present crisis at hand. Curtis planned to take the rug from underneath the two men with his Fair Deal, a series of governmental programs and regulations that aimed to end the great depression and to prevent another one from ever happening again. he hoped that these reforms were enough to convince supporters that the president had their well being in mind and with that, the radicals would dissipate and civility be restored to America However, his expected peaceful meeting would turn out to be a violent screaming match between Huey Long and Jack Reed with Curtis desperately trying and failing to keep order between the two. After over five days of negotiations, Huey Long would storm out of proceedings declaring that “if the president wants to embrace syndicalist filth, then that is his choice. I however, will have no part in it.” Jack Reed would leave only a day solemnly saying to his supporters in a meeting that “ Long has crossed the Rubicon, the hope for a peaceful solution has been lost.”


With the epic failure of his meeting, Curtis fell into a deep melancholy, often looking aimlessly at the windows in the following weeks whilst meetings were happening. But Reed and Long did not sit on their hands whilst Curtis moped. The general strike had still continued, American industry and commerce was on the tipping point of complete collapse. The Minutemen was gaining more and more volunteers and supplies by the day. Something had to give. It was here that he was approached one last time by General Macarthur on February 26th along with several military generals and US Senators.


It was a coup in all but name. America, Macarthur said, was on the verge of collapse. There was only one hope left to bring order and stability against the radical hordes of Longists and Syndicalists. And that hope, unsurprisingly, rested with the American Caesar. Curtis flew into a rage, screaming that this was a “coup d'état” and that Macarthur sought the “utter declaration of all we hold dear.” Macarthur responded in turn accusing Curtis of being so wedded to Idealism that he’d rather America Burn than be a realist.


Then, a telegram arrived. In it , it described the first shots of the Second Civil War that rang out in Chicago. A drunken brawl between Minutemen and Wobblies had escalated into a full fledged shoot out with more men joining in on both sides. Police presence had disintegrated or was too stretched out to do anything of note.


It was this that caused Curtis to slowly relent. And a hour later, he would sign a bill authorizing “Emergency Powers” for Mac Arthur. He would die 3 days later on February 29th.


He is considered by the American public as being second only to James Buchanan in terms of being the worst American President of all time. Historians are more charitable, though not by much. they point out his age of over 75 years old at the time as a sign that he simply was never fit for the job in the first place. And recently, his pre war efforts to pass the Indian Citizenship Act has received some acclaim. However, these are but small congratulations for the man who ultimately ended the First Republic with the stroke of a pen.






 
Top