While the United States is most well known for its many, well, states, it also has amassed a large amount of territories. Lodge, also largely known as the "Island of Pines", has had a stranger history than most. Sold by Spain to Belgium during Belgium's attempts at building an empire, it was exploited for its large amounts of pine trees, and lumber, along with marble, became a profitable industry for Belgium. However, by the 1890s, the colony had become more trouble than it was worth, and with Belgium seeing a new shiny object in the Congo, they sold the island to the United States after the United States, under President Levi Morton, went to war with Spain, and obtained territory in Cuba. Originally, the island, named after Secretary of State Henry Lodge, was put in the Cuban Territory, and then in the East Cuban territory, after West Cuba was split off to become a state. However, the territory would also be split from East Cuba, and has not gained statehood since, remaining one of the United States' many territories. Since then, Lodge territory has had a controversial history. Tales of long-lasting exploitation and imperialistic sentiment were common, and much of the population (which itself was often only there for penal reasons) would flee the territory, and so-called "Lodgers" make up a large population of Havana and other major cities in the Caribbean states.
Like most territories, Lodge had only very minor elections (although their territorial elections were some of the first to utilize D'Hondt in the United States), and all of its governors were appointed. However, during the 1960s, American policy towards territories shifted (largely due to the Hawaiian Revolutions), and elections began to be held in Lodge. While the introduction of elections was widely-praised, issues began to emerge, largely over languages spoken in the territory. Spanish, French, and English were all spoken at high rates across the territory, however, Secretary for Territorial Affairs Hunter S. Thompson largely ignored said differences, and due to the ballots and most of the campaign being entirely in English, and as such, the governing coalition became dominated by English-speakers, particularly from the southern portion of the island, which was populated by Dominican (as in Dominica), and Jamaican immigrants to the territory, and as such, the 1967 elections were won by the so-called "Lumber Coalition", led by Republicans, originally the dominant party in much of the Caribbean, which was led by white lumber executives in the major cities of Nueva Gerona and Santa Fe and Dominican/Indigenous lumber workers largely voting out of interest. French and Spanish speaking parties were largely shut down by heavy linguistic differences in the state, although the (surprisingly right-wing)
Partido de los Trabajadores de la Madera, or Lumber Workers Party was allowed to participate in the coalition. Meanwhile, miners in the state's northern quarries became infatuated with the Labor and Communist parties, who both sent bi and trilingual delegates to the territory in the hopes of expanding their political power into the Caribbean. Miners, who largely spoke French, were shut out of elections, and politics became entrenched based on language and region. Republican propaganda accused the left wing of the state of wanting to shut down the lumber industry, and force everyone into mining. As such, the Republicans and their scattered allies maintained political power for a decade, largely due to a higher population in lumber-based areas and the cities they dominated.
However, in 1978, Republicans began to collapse. A so-called "citizens movement" within the southern lumber-based Republican wing began to have strained relations with the northern urban and suburban wing. As such, when original state Republican leader Louis "Skip" Bafalis (himself a white transplant banker from New Hampshire who only moved to Lodge after being stationed there in the Second Great War) retired, a battle ensued. Jamaican-American Ronald Blackwood, himself not a logger (instead working for a small electronics company in south Lodge before becoming politically active), but a Republican who many felt represented loggers interests, was backed by Jamaican and Dominican leaders in the state against William F. Poe, the mayor of Santa Fe and another transplant who ironically had been chosen by "Reform Republicans" led by nonwhite interests when running for mayor to challenge Santa Fe's long systems of oppression. However, Poe utilized every inch of the Republican machine in 1978, even shutting out delegates from attending the leadership convention and placing restrictive limits on how many delegates could be sent from the southern portion of the state. Blackwood and his supporters, outraged at what had occured, formed the "Citizen's Republican Committee", or CRC, which split off completely from the Republicans. The result was a political revolution. The Citizen's Republicans, after dropping "Committee" from their name, swept the 1979 elections, bringing with them a large number of nonwhite members of the territorial assembly, something that had been rare under the Republican rule. However, margins in the Santa Fe-Nueva Gerona metro area and vote splitting led to a hellish Citizen's Republicans-Labor-Partido de los Trabajadores de la Madera coalition being formed. The coalition was unstable and collapsed, but the Citizen's Republicans were able to gain a much more stable plurality two years later, which was propped up by their Spanish and new French "feeder parties", the
Partido de los Trabajadores de la Madera and the
Parti de la Liberté, which were used to split the Labor and Communist parties in their home territory.
The Citizen's Republicans, largely under Blackwood's rule, had an extremely successful period of rule, as the original Republican Party, still led by Poe, even changed their name to the Reform Party. However, in 1983, Blackwood revealed his
Modernization Plan, in which he called for Lodge to "jump into the 21st century". Blackwood abandoned much of the policies of his party, beginning to promote high subsidies and tax breaks for tech corporations, while cutting the income and property taxes massively in order to "encourage business" to enter the state. While this was originally quite popular, as the "Blackwood Boom" began as companies saw the island as perfect for tax breaks, it began to hurt many of the citizens within the state. First of all, marble mining, an already barely-profitable business even with it being propped up by subsidies and the island's monopolization of it (as white leaders feared a "miners revolt"), was seen as a waste by Blackwood, and the mines were "cut free" of government intervention, and as expected, they completely collapsed. Thousands of people lost their jobs, and small mining towns became heavily depopulated. This led first to the destruction of the states' Labor Party, but also the flooding of people to major cities and lumber corporations, who then utilized the new workforce to lower wages, fight unions, and generally exploit. As such, income inequality exploded in the territory, and thousands of people either became unemployed or fled the island.
By 1994, Blackwood was extremely unpopular, but the fact that his opposition was destroyed and his machine was still kicking, allowed for him to maintain power. A coalition with the Reform Party kept him in office, but fate eventually got to him, and Blackwood, once known as the "man of the people", who now boasted a 23% approval rating, was killed during a speech. The resulting political chaos led to the collapse of the Citizen's Republicans, but Labor and the Reform Party were both too split and had lost too much political territory to take their place. The Communists had a base, but one that had little space to grow outside of that, and the Spanish and French parties (or basically just the
Trabajadores de la Madera and
Parti de la Liberté) were obviously very limited, especially the
Parti de la Liberté, as they were so unpopular among the remaining French-speaking miners that many of their leaders and campaigners simply "went missing". The question of who could fill such a massive political void needed an answer, and one was given to them by a new face, Independent Seward County-Mayor Juan Cobb[1]. Cobb, a man of mixed descent, had risen to form the "Independent Alliance" in Seward County, a major mining county, and, on a platform of opposing the Blackwood reforms, became extremely popular within Seward, largely by promoting an ideology of "Community Development".
With the pieces needed to be picked up after modernization, Cobb's strange mix of libertarian, left wing, and right wing ideals became quite popular within the territory. Cobb proposed a territory of "self-governing" territories, or basically communes, with a mix of direct and workplace democracy, while a bigger, overarching government would protect said territories from "outside intervention", which was extremely popular. Meanwhile, Cobb was also very right wing socially, proposing government bans to "vices", such as alcohol (which ravaged small communities after economic collapse), gambling, pornography, homosexuality, and abortion. This, along with Cobb's populist campaign, allowed for the Independent Alliance to sweep the territory. In office, Cobb stated that he would "not allow Lodge to become Havana", and saw widespread reforms. Major companies left the territory, taking jobs with them, but in response, Cobb created "Citizens Committee Jobs" out of factories and workplaces abandoned by large companies. While many on the left saw this as a successful political victory, the police force of the territory began to "terrorize" the public, leading to large shutdowns of public areas seen as promoting "vice". Across the political spectrum Cobb received both scorn and praise, but to the population of Lodge, he has remained a popular figure, establishing a machine that rarely loses.
Today in Lodge, Juan Cobb and his Independent Alliance have remained a powerful force, with opposition largely existing only within Citizens Republican strongholds in the South and some suburban areas. The Labor Party is dead, a rarity in most Caribbean states and territories, but the Communist Party, campaigning in decimated mining areas, is stronger in Lodge than anywhere else. A growing big-tent "Statehood Party", which feels that Cobb, in attempts to win support among independence activists, has taken the "middle line" between statehood and territorial autonomy, and are most strong in the west of the territory. However, no group has been able to truly challenge Cobb's power, and a "united front" has consistently failed. That was until 2019, where the Independent Alliance finally failed to procure a majority, leading to an extremely unsteady coalition with the Communists, who share Cobb's social and much of his economic views. The coalition has left Cobb unpopular among many of his constituents, and there is rumors of him retiring and potentially joining the International General Assembly, which many say Cobb has been aiming for for decades.
Parties:
Government:
Independent Alliance - The party of Juan Cobb, the Independent Alliance is a weird fusion of politics that rarely make sense to outside observers. Praised by some for economic left-libertarianism and yet praised by others for their draconian social policies, one thing is for sure, the IA helps make Lodge "stand out" among other Caribbean entities, as it lacks the libertarian gambling culture of West Cuba or the more centralized ways of life in Dominica, East Cuba, and Santo Domingo. Instead, the IA has created a nation-within-a-nation, and Cobb is often treated as a president, both by citizens and outside companies. However, the growing coalition and friendliness with the Communist Party has made him even more controversial, and Cobb has now taken a PR beating from conservatives nationally who once praised his social policies. Many expect him to step down, but Cobb remains in office, at least for the time being.
Communist Party - In power in a territory for the first time since the 1950s and in Lodge for the first time ever, the Communists of Lodge are very different from the national party. Strict social conservatism and a base largely in old, depleted mining communities has given them a strange form of politic that places them among some of the most radical Communist parties internationally on economic issues, but close to even the Christian Values Party on social issues.
Opposition:
Citizens Republican - Once thought dead, the party's resurgence has occured as newer, younger populations begin to get fed up with the IA, and as such they maintain their support among Jamaican, Afro-Lodger, and Dominican populations, and as such they seem on the cusp of power, with suburban and logger communities backing them heavily.
Statehood - There is no true uniting factor within the Statehood Party other than vague calls for statehood and frustration with the Independent Alliance. Fortunately for them this appears to be extremely popular at the moment, and they have begun to control much of the west of the territory. Calls for statehood are still consistently made, but Cobb's position as a lightning rod for controversy have made them harder. As such, they rejected a coalition with the IA, and now seem ready to lead the opposition.
Reform - The old Republicans, the Reform Party only exists in
extremely cranky old white locations, and are therefore not very relevant. However, they maintain some seats, largely in Santa Fe, and if a coalition between the Citizens Republican and Statehood parties needs more backing, they can easily provide.
Labor - Once powerful, they are extremely insignificant, falling behind the Communists and doing almost nothing. They won no seats in 2019, and do not expect to win any in the future.
[1] Made-up person.