The Empire Parnell Built
- Thread starter Rattigan
- Start date
Most AH writers (including me) have basic ideas of “oh what if Stassen was successful” and leave it at that. Our friend @Rattigan goes much further and has Stassen be not just successful but do it while *still* being a perennial candidate.
Very unique take
The question that must be put-will.the job of president become a more ceremonial one, considering the " Stassen experiment" ?
I would say Tukhachevsky would be a good candidate as well, considering he ruled over Russia for half a century and turned an agrarian country in the midst of a warlord era into a thriving superpower.
That’s a really interesting question. In terms of political figures, I think Stassen, Tukhachevsky or the Guangxu Emperor would each have good cases. In terms of scientists then guys like Mark Oliphant, as the father of the British nuclear program, or the 9th Earl of Ilchester, as an important engineer for the nuclear program and the Ministry of Space, would also be in with a shout. As a kind of public intellectual, when I was planning this TL I had this idea for J.K. Galbraith to have been this kind of economic guru to the Indian government during its march from colony to economic powerhouse, so he might also be in with a shout.
It’s an interesting question. My brief answer would be to say “it’s complicated.” His presidency undoubtedly saw prosperity and security but, certainly with him gone, his autocratic tendencies do attract more criticism. I think by 1980 a lot of people are pretty excited to elect a new president…
I kind of wanted to keep that to a minimum actually, in order to give myself more flexibility in choosing politicians for European elections…
Originally my plan was for him to keep on winning until he died in office but I decided that would get boring after a while…
Meaning he would be the second-longest non-royal leader ITTL as US President for 47 years (the first being Tukhachevsky, who rules Russia for 49 years) in such a scenario.
TBH, I doubt Stassen would live as long as he did IOTL; the presidency is a stressful job, and doing it for 24 years straight can't be good for your health.
What unfortunate minority did Operation Absolute Loyalty target, considering it is the Anfal Offensive equivalent as this is the Iran-Iraq War expy?
In theory it was designed to weed out "subversives" but in practice it mostly Macedonians, Orthodox Christians and, you guessed it, the Jews (because why not, eh?).
This actually raises a good question: How are the Croats and Bosniaks faring ITTL?
OTL Croatia is still part of the Danubian Federation so Croats and Bosniaks generally find themselves living in the subdivision called the Grand Duchy of Herzegovina. I'll do an update on Yugoslavian self-government soon(ish) as now seems a good time.
I imagined they'd be more into Byzantine LARP than copying a Catholic order for said elite paramilitaries, but yeah, that works.
More seriously, the idea was that it was a Byzantine revivalist thing
Well, deification of a modern-day ruler in the style of Roman Emperors was something I did not expect, though it does fit with how Tukhachevsky radically changed Russia ITTL.