Franklin Delano Roosevelt - The Father of American Socialism (Democratic-Socialist Party)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is a name well recited not only across the United Syndicates of America but across the Internationale. His name is recited not only by school children in America but in the Commune of France, the Union of Britain and even in the more recently liberated East Bloc nations, freed about three decades ago from the yoke of reactionary monarchism and into the light of Syndicalism.
Surviving a nasty bout of polio which knocked him out of politics for a decade as he recuperated, FDR made a triumphant return to the American political scene in 1930 when he won the Gubernatorial election as a Democrat. Much like Governor Long in Louisiana, FDR eschewed the conventional laissez fair economics and called for unemployment insurance and state-led public works programs. Unlike Governor Long however, FDR was considerably more friendly to Socialism, calling for increased trade relations between New York and the Syndicalist powers and relying on crossover support from Socialist voters to win the election.
Despite having similar state programs, the two politicians clashed fiercely and often with the first major battle between the two being the 1932 Democratic Convention where the two fought against each other to get the respective leaders nominated. FDR was a strong surrogate for Senator Al Smith and Long was a strong supporter of former President William McAdo. Ultimately, the latter's experience and deeper connection with the party base triumphed over Smiths progressive bonafides and while the Democrats did better than in 1928, the House decided the election and ultimately awarded it to President Hoover.
The fractured American landscape continued to shatter further with the Dust Bowl storms of 1933 worsening the still sputtering American economy. Large movement between the countryside into the city exacerbated tensions even further and the Federal government remained powerless and ineffective as President Hoover pledged repeatedly that the country would turn the corner soon. In the wake of effective central government leadership, states and local governments undertook their own programs. Governor Roosevelt, having comfortably won re-election in 1934 and 36 worked closely with New York Mayor Norman Thomas and developed a strong relationship with the American socialists as a result. In the South, many Democratic Governors formed strong relationships with the developing American Union Party, and while Governor Long was not part of the America Union Party yet - he was actively developing it as an alternative, should the Democratic nomination not land in his lap in the 1936 convention.
The 1936 Democratic Convention was the last Democratic convention in history. The party simply splintered, unable to nominate a candidate the Southern democrats simply resolved to run Huey on their own ticket and the Northern Democrats resolved to run Roosevelt. Leveraging his personal relationship with Thomas and the Socialist Party to full effect, Roosevelt managed to negotiate a fusion ticket, selecting Senator Reed of Oregon to be his running mate under the Democratic-Socialist Party banner. Winning a narrow plurality against the ticket of the Democratic-American Union led by Long and the Republicans led by Alf Landon, the Roosevelt coalition of Northern Democrats, Plains Populists and Socialists managed to eke out a narrow electoral college majority.
The newly inaugurated President faced an immediate crisis when a clique of Army officers led by Douglas McArthur attempted a coup in the first days of the Roosevelt administration. Citing voter fraud and other irregularities in the close election, they attempted to seize the capital. At the same time, a group of Southern governors led by Long - citing the chaos engulfing Washington proclaimed a new government centered in Baton Rouge. To compound his worries - a mobilization order was issued to Canadian troops.
President Roosevelt rose to the occasion - issuing a famous radio address in the White House where he denounced the exiled tyrant Monarchs, the petty generals, the financial monopoliers and stated that he welcomed their hatred and called on all Americans to defend their democracy. The effect of this radio broadcast was electrifying, military men like Eisenhower who were on the fence about the McArthur coup immediately sided with Roosevelt and the attempted putsch was put down by Maryland National Guard units mobilized by Governor Henderson as well as loyalist military units led by General Smedly Butler. General McArthur managed to flee South to Longist controlled territory.
After the immediate threat passed, President Roosevelt was able to federalize the bulk of the federal guards and gave the orders to mobilize the US Army in preparation for an incipient civil war. Just in time to meet the Canadian military that was invading from the North. Down South, less Governors than expected had sided with Long - Louisiana and much of the deep South had gone with Long but the bulk of the border states remained loyal, as did Texas and some surprising holdouts in the Deep South such as South Carolina Governor Olin D Johnston. These men - Democratic governors who had sided with Roosevelt instead of Long out of a combination of patriotism and personality clashes with Long would be key in the post-civil war order and the faustian pact Roosevelt would make.
But that was a problem that would need to be confronted later. For now Roosevelt had a two front-war to fight. It is beyond the scope of this summary to describe the full extent of what would be known alternatively as the Second American Civil War or the Second American Revolution or even the American Theater of the Second Weltkrieg but Roosevelt's exemplary war leadership led to the last remnants of the Longist government defeated by 1939 and Canada surrendering by 1940.
Roosevelt's leadership was not only in the firm, decisive air of action he displayed, it was also in the New Deal policies he pursued, concurrent with the overall efforts to mobilize the economy. The Four Rs - Relief, Revolution, Recovery and Rearmament guided efforts to mobilize American society into a war winning machine. Labour direction was imposed through a war office and businesses were mobilized for use of the war efforts - with syndicates being formed from non-cooperative business owners. The effect of the mobilization of labor was dramatic, unemployment was eliminated and despite the war, real GDP expanded considerably across the Second Weltkrieg.
After the Canadian collapse and Roosevelt's landslide re-election against the Progressive-Republican challenger Thomas Dewey in 1940, Roosevelt had a critical decision to make. America had found itself at war with Germany in 1938 after Chancellor Schleicher declared war on America after the US Navy sank a German ship allegedly carrying arms and supplies for the Longist government. Afterwards, the French Commune and Union of Britain had - depending on who you ask - either loyally proclaimed its solidarity with the oppressed peasants and workers of America or opportunistically sought to graft a local conflict into a destructive revenge mission of nationalism. The tough question on Roosevelt was whether to make a separate peace with Germany so he could concentrate on seeing out the ambitious social and economic reforms to truly remake America - articulated in his Four Freedoms Speech into a Commonwealth for All or whether he should continue on the wartime path and assist the British and French allies who had sacrificed so much for America with nearly 300,000 British and 200,000 French casualties - just in American soil and waters alone.
As we know - he committed fully to the war cause, disappointing African American allies like Baynard Rustin and General Law who had hoped that with the South defeated, that a new order - one of justice and equality would sweep the South. That would have to wait until after the war - for now equality was too disruptive to the war effort and Roosevelt sought to pursue a lenient Reconstruction to the South, leaving much of the pre-war Democratic Party apparatus in charge. America would become the Arsenal of Socialism with American factories and dockyards providing tanks, bullets, airplanes, guns, shells and ships to the Commune of France, the Union of Britain, the Socialist Republic of Italy, the Peoples Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Spain. A smaller trickle of resources - particularly oil and pig iron would also make its way to the Empire of Japan as it fought against the Reichspakt and the Entente in a bid to carve out its own Co Prosperity Sphere off the carcass of the old Empires. Later on as the war effort expanded to include the Russian Empire and the unsavoury Cairo and Belgrade Pact as co-belligerents - guns and munitions would flow to these comrades-in-convenience. The Arsenal of Socialism was open to all - the only thing that America asked in return was membership in the Union of Nations (UN) and to unban the various syndicalist and socialist movements in the countries receiving aid. And of course - countries that were formally Socialist would receive more aid - a fact that countries like the Empire of Japan took advantage of in a stunning 180 with the military releasing the imprisoned leadership of the Japanese Socialist Party and ordering them to form a cabinet - still dominated by militarists but nominally headed by Socialist Prime Minister Tetsu Katayama.
Perhaps even more crucially - American troops, ships and planes would also directly confront the Reichspakt with a hastily dispatched American Expeditionary force blunting and then destroying a German offensive on Paris on May 1941. But despite the guarded optimism the Reichspakt would not collapse until 1947 with the hardline stance of the Union of Nations for Unconditional Surrender being blamed for many more casualties - with evidence that the Kaisrreich was more than willing to entertain peace talks from 1943 onwards with the catastrophic defeat of the German-Ukrainian army at the Battle of Kursk.
But Roosevelt would not live to shape the post war world. Before the San Francisco Conference in November 1947, Roosevelt would pass away peacefully in his sleep - leaving his vice President to run the show and oversee the post-war world.
The whole country mourned the passing of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a country which less than a decade ago was engaged in a brutal fratricadal civil war had emerged as the world's foremost titan in the aftermath of the Second Weltkrieg. From North to South and East to West Americans - Black, White and Brown mourned the man who had led them - and wondered what the uncertain future would hold.
