- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
All good options, thanks dudes.
-
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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State
- Thread starter Mumby
- Start date
I'd be keen to see your take on Deep Impact, whether or not President Freeman's delusional optimism at the end was characteristic of a general feeling throughout the country or whether he was about to get ready to flee to Japan with a homeless starving mob on his heels when the credits rolled and how the world rebuilds after that.
Also, it would be interesting to see a follow-up to that Der Untergang '33 vignette you wrote on The Other Place.
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You know I've actually toyed with doing any number of 90s global disaster lists but I rarely think to combine them with the old "The Japanese are going to eat us alive" Cliché. Which is brilliant and all credit to you but I'm playing with that.
And yeah sure, I could do some follow ups on some of my old Vignettes which, thank you for reminding me I have to get around to bringing over.
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A Theoretical Look Forward: Deep Impact (@The Red )
1989-1997: George H. W. Bush / J. Danforth Quayle (Republican)
2000-2001: John Sculley III / William H. Taft IV ("National Reconstruction" Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2001-2005: Colin L. Powell / Lido A. “Lee” Iacocca (“National Reconstruction” Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2013-2017: William B. Richardson III / Allen B. West (National Reconstruction Council)
Full disclosure I have not read the book the film is based on but from what I understand Arthur C. Clarke expected the meteor to be spotted from scientific colonies on Mars so, well, here we go.
George Bush was a lucky man in 1992, the Democratic Party was able to chose the man it wanted but no longer agreed with, setting off a struggle that would end in the vote split, with Anti-NAFTA, economically conservative Democrats bolting in a weird mangle of hippie and yuppie politics under Jerry Brown, dooming Mario Cuomo in his effort for the high office, and ironically dooming him to his death in 1999. Had he been President there would be no way that he could have refused the offer of evacuation that he did in Albany, instead giving up his gubernatorial jet to get a few more refugees out. But George Bush would go on, and discontent with 16 years of Reaganism saw the Democrats turn left, selecting two term Mayor of New York David Dinkins after a contentious primary.
And then came the horror. Too much time to spot the meteor, the suicidal bravery of the astronauts on two separate attempts. Martial Law, the National Lottery, evacuations to the caves of Missouri. Captain "Fish" Tanner's act of incredible piloting, Instead of the world ender, 1.1 miles of strike in the North Atlantic and the wave that killed every living soul east of the Appalachians, in North America, with more then a Billion killed when combined with deaths in Europe, Africa and South America. But, as Dinkins would note in his famed speech on his return to Washington, the Waters receded. That was not enough for his Vice President, Zell Miller. He had been evacuated to the People's Republic of China in an exchange program to ensure continuity of government for various major nations. But in the aftermath of the crash there was panic worldwide and Miller would vanish into the pages of the history books along with many other members of the PRC's senior leadership.
What would follow was global chaos for more then a year. Dinkins initially sought unity by replacing Miller with the opposition Speaker of the House but in the end as famine gripped the planet, the winter in the Northern hemisphere lasted 5 straight months and chaos spread across North America, Gingrich got the idea that he need not wait a year to run for President. In the end his plot was foiled but the leadership of the United States agreed that Dinkins would have to go as well, not to a cell and a court marshal like Newt, but to East Asia where he could spend a few years away from a country that was coming to blame him for everything. And so would begin the system of years to follow, bipartisan, post-partisan cooperation to lead a nation that was short on food and who had seen one in three of its citizens obliterated.
In 2000 there was only one man the country was willing to follow, no matter how much he didn't want it. But his sense of duty was enough. Especially as the low scale civil conflict begain to run apace. The militia movement had been waiting for this for years. Christian Identity assumed divine will. Neo-Nazis saw a chance. And so across the country as food riots plagued cities, bands of hateful men bargain to shoot at Aid Convoys coming from East Asia, began to ambush the National Guard and started to carve out their own "Republics". In some ways it was hard to blame them. The Law seemed a thing of the past, for many the Yen seemed to be the only available currency with any value, and even David Dinkins had been forced to bring back gross old ways, like public hangings. And so Powell took office. There would be work to rebuild the economy, work to rebuild the cities of the East. Work to try and secure food and resources as needed. A new Civilian Conservation Corps tilled new fields, a dozen new Executive Departments managed everything from oil rationing to rolling brownouts. Technology was the key to managing this and keeping humanity alive. What could be spared, with great controversy was sent overseas to help any country that needed the aid. But while technology oversaw much it couldn't oversee it all. And there were regressions. The new National Police service would bring back mounted cavalry patrols to compensate for scare fuel supplies, the Air Force returned to prop planes, and the insurgency was a war of potshots with hunting rifles and improvised explosives. And it would drag on, endlessly, to the present day.
For twelve years political discourse in America was heated but united. Even the smallest of small government Democrats and Republicans had to admit that this was a time for action. Only the radical political front for the scattered insurgents, with a mix of paleoconservatism, libertarianism, hardline evangelicalism and far less pleasant ideologies stood against the government. To many they were raging fools who didn't care how many of their fellow citizens died in the name of their utopias, and as shown in many cases where they gained power, that did seem to be the case.
But eventually things would change. Powell would leave, his replacement, one of the brilliant technocrats that Democrats and Republicans could agree on would be killed by an Insurgent attack on the US government headquarters in Sacramento. Lessig's death would see tensions mount, with the only question being who would quit first the Democrats or the Republicans? In the end it was the Democratic Party, that quit, though with equal numbers in many ways of old Dems and old Reps in it while the same could be true of the other side. In 2012 the age of Technocractic government came to an end with the split, four years later, the dissidents would be in power themselves in an upset victory that stunned the world. But in the end Meg Whitman was another Whiz Kid, and while the Reform Party took a major hit politically with real opposition finally arriving, the insurgency continued on, with spring creeping back to its old starting time a bit more every year, and the rationing a little less tight, but none the less from Washington to Tennessee, every year it starts again, bombings, shootings, air attacks and shootdowns.
But there is hope, as shown just last week when the President visited "New York City" now built, in the name of smarter infrastructure on what used to be the New Jersey shore. And while the ruins of some of the skyscrapers of Manhattan yet remain, with scrapping going slowly, it is a great city. The driving heart of the Northeast Territory, and it is growing too, as its first democratically elected Mayor is able to announce that it has now hit a population of half a million, the largest City east of Pittsburgh. And it will keep on growing.
1989-1997: George H. W. Bush / J. Danforth Quayle (Republican)
1988: Michael S. Dukakis / Lloyd M. Bentsen (Democratic)
1992: Mario A. Cuomo / Albert A. Gore, Jr. (Democratic), Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. / Jack F. Kemp (Independent)
1997-1999: David N. Dinkins / Zell B. Miller (Democratic)1996: M. Stevenson Forbes, Jr. / Robert K. Dornan (Republican)
1999-2000: David N. Dinkins / Newton L. Gingrich (Democratic / Republican)2000-2001: John Sculley III / William H. Taft IV ("National Reconstruction" Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2001-2005: Colin L. Powell / Lido A. “Lee” Iacocca (“National Reconstruction” Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2000: Patrick J. Buchanan / James G. “Bo” Gitz (Reform)
2005-2009: Colin L. Powell / Thomas J. Vilsack (“National Reconstruction” Independent, Democratic and Republican)2004: Oliver L. North / Michele M. Bachmann (Reform)
2009-2011: L. Lawrence Lessig / Tommy R. Franks (National Reconstruction Council)2008: Helen P. Chenoweth-Hage / James P. Wickstrom (Reform), Bernard Sanders / Glenn E. Greenwald (Independent)
2011-2013: Tommy R. Franks / John G. Roberts, Jr. (National Reconstruction Council)2013-2017: William B. Richardson III / Allen B. West (National Reconstruction Council)
2012: Albert A. Gore, Jr. / John R. Thune (Independent Democratic), Daniel G. Patrick / M. William Cooper (Reform)
2017-2021: Margaret C. Whitman / Michael D. Huckabee (Independent Democratic)2016: Howard B. Dean / David R. Petraeus (Reconstruction and Republican), Vernon W. Howell / Kenneth R. Buck (Reform), Cornell R. West / Judith Butler (Compact)
Full disclosure I have not read the book the film is based on but from what I understand Arthur C. Clarke expected the meteor to be spotted from scientific colonies on Mars so, well, here we go.
George Bush was a lucky man in 1992, the Democratic Party was able to chose the man it wanted but no longer agreed with, setting off a struggle that would end in the vote split, with Anti-NAFTA, economically conservative Democrats bolting in a weird mangle of hippie and yuppie politics under Jerry Brown, dooming Mario Cuomo in his effort for the high office, and ironically dooming him to his death in 1999. Had he been President there would be no way that he could have refused the offer of evacuation that he did in Albany, instead giving up his gubernatorial jet to get a few more refugees out. But George Bush would go on, and discontent with 16 years of Reaganism saw the Democrats turn left, selecting two term Mayor of New York David Dinkins after a contentious primary.
And then came the horror. Too much time to spot the meteor, the suicidal bravery of the astronauts on two separate attempts. Martial Law, the National Lottery, evacuations to the caves of Missouri. Captain "Fish" Tanner's act of incredible piloting, Instead of the world ender, 1.1 miles of strike in the North Atlantic and the wave that killed every living soul east of the Appalachians, in North America, with more then a Billion killed when combined with deaths in Europe, Africa and South America. But, as Dinkins would note in his famed speech on his return to Washington, the Waters receded. That was not enough for his Vice President, Zell Miller. He had been evacuated to the People's Republic of China in an exchange program to ensure continuity of government for various major nations. But in the aftermath of the crash there was panic worldwide and Miller would vanish into the pages of the history books along with many other members of the PRC's senior leadership.
What would follow was global chaos for more then a year. Dinkins initially sought unity by replacing Miller with the opposition Speaker of the House but in the end as famine gripped the planet, the winter in the Northern hemisphere lasted 5 straight months and chaos spread across North America, Gingrich got the idea that he need not wait a year to run for President. In the end his plot was foiled but the leadership of the United States agreed that Dinkins would have to go as well, not to a cell and a court marshal like Newt, but to East Asia where he could spend a few years away from a country that was coming to blame him for everything. And so would begin the system of years to follow, bipartisan, post-partisan cooperation to lead a nation that was short on food and who had seen one in three of its citizens obliterated.
In 2000 there was only one man the country was willing to follow, no matter how much he didn't want it. But his sense of duty was enough. Especially as the low scale civil conflict begain to run apace. The militia movement had been waiting for this for years. Christian Identity assumed divine will. Neo-Nazis saw a chance. And so across the country as food riots plagued cities, bands of hateful men bargain to shoot at Aid Convoys coming from East Asia, began to ambush the National Guard and started to carve out their own "Republics". In some ways it was hard to blame them. The Law seemed a thing of the past, for many the Yen seemed to be the only available currency with any value, and even David Dinkins had been forced to bring back gross old ways, like public hangings. And so Powell took office. There would be work to rebuild the economy, work to rebuild the cities of the East. Work to try and secure food and resources as needed. A new Civilian Conservation Corps tilled new fields, a dozen new Executive Departments managed everything from oil rationing to rolling brownouts. Technology was the key to managing this and keeping humanity alive. What could be spared, with great controversy was sent overseas to help any country that needed the aid. But while technology oversaw much it couldn't oversee it all. And there were regressions. The new National Police service would bring back mounted cavalry patrols to compensate for scare fuel supplies, the Air Force returned to prop planes, and the insurgency was a war of potshots with hunting rifles and improvised explosives. And it would drag on, endlessly, to the present day.
For twelve years political discourse in America was heated but united. Even the smallest of small government Democrats and Republicans had to admit that this was a time for action. Only the radical political front for the scattered insurgents, with a mix of paleoconservatism, libertarianism, hardline evangelicalism and far less pleasant ideologies stood against the government. To many they were raging fools who didn't care how many of their fellow citizens died in the name of their utopias, and as shown in many cases where they gained power, that did seem to be the case.
But eventually things would change. Powell would leave, his replacement, one of the brilliant technocrats that Democrats and Republicans could agree on would be killed by an Insurgent attack on the US government headquarters in Sacramento. Lessig's death would see tensions mount, with the only question being who would quit first the Democrats or the Republicans? In the end it was the Democratic Party, that quit, though with equal numbers in many ways of old Dems and old Reps in it while the same could be true of the other side. In 2012 the age of Technocractic government came to an end with the split, four years later, the dissidents would be in power themselves in an upset victory that stunned the world. But in the end Meg Whitman was another Whiz Kid, and while the Reform Party took a major hit politically with real opposition finally arriving, the insurgency continued on, with spring creeping back to its old starting time a bit more every year, and the rationing a little less tight, but none the less from Washington to Tennessee, every year it starts again, bombings, shootings, air attacks and shootdowns.
But there is hope, as shown just last week when the President visited "New York City" now built, in the name of smarter infrastructure on what used to be the New Jersey shore. And while the ruins of some of the skyscrapers of Manhattan yet remain, with scrapping going slowly, it is a great city. The driving heart of the Northeast Territory, and it is growing too, as its first democratically elected Mayor is able to announce that it has now hit a population of half a million, the largest City east of Pittsburgh. And it will keep on growing.
This is a great piece of work and there really is a lot to dissect. Love the very nineties feel to it, I know that I'd mentioned Japan but militias, Christian fundamentalists, the Reform Party, maniacal Newt Gingrich and Colin Powell to the rescue all fit in really well. It would have been easy to just have the aftermath descend into perpetual chaos after such a cataclysmic event but you've created a good mix of hope and lingering despair in a world with annual outbreaks of violence that will hopefully come to an end once the seasons also return to normal. Perhaps one day soon, somewhere in New New York, a young Farnsworth may look at the stars once again as a source of opportunity rather than despair.
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
this is like when i watched the hunt for red october when very sleep deprived
i mean that in a good way japhy
i mean that in a good way japhy
sounds terrible
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thanks Guys. It means a lot to get feedback from you both, always. And I too know the feeling of being shaken awake by
The ham of "Who Said anything about Sabotage?"
And the double ham response of "CAPTAIN!" AT 4AM.
I will admit I've long been interested in the idea of doing a 90s apocalypse story to end with a Militia-Taliban insurgency in large parts of the country so that definitely helped. Basically it's the worst of reading about Oklahoma City, reading that excellent Black Sun that you recommended to me a few years ago Red, some deep reading of garbage like "The Postman" and reading and watching the Afghan War. The Yen thing though really made it all click as odd as that is to say, finally letting me piece everything together.
And yet, yeah I'm still an optimist at heart. Even The Postman has a (terribly constructed) happy ending. And no matter how big the OKC plot was (My one conspiracy theory) it still ended with the Alt Right pushed aside for nearly two decades. New York may not ever really be New York again, and America will probably be dependent on the Yen for decades to follow, but Deep Impact and myself both agree that things have to get better.
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh and not to put a feather in my cap but I think I did a damned good job balancing out Reform to be the right amount of Hard GOP Paleoright, Alt-Right and Bill Cooper.
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ewwwwwwwwwwwww
- Location
- NYC (né Falkirk)
- Pronouns
- he/him
Everything I know about the United States I learned from that film.
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I must admit that I got a bit of surprise when I searched the name "Vernon W. Howell", well played.
The gradual warping of the Wolverines into an American Taliban would be a good metaphor for John Milius' political journey.
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Operation Blackbeard
Presidents of the United States of America
1933-1942: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1932 (with John N. Garner) def. Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1936 (with John N. Garner) def. Alf Landon (Republican)
1940 (with Henry A. Wallace) def. Wendell Willkie (Republican)
1942-1942: Henry A. Wallace (Democratic)
1942-1945: Douglas MacArthur (War Government)
1944 suspended
1945-1949: Douglas MacArthur (National Reconstruction)
1949-1953: Irving Goff (Popular Front)
1948 (with James J. Braddock) def. Douglas MacArthur (National Reconstruction), Strom Thurmond ('Continuity' Democratic), numerous independent candidates
Reichskommissars of the Nordamerika Rassenstaat
1941-1941: Walther von Brauchitsch (Wehrmacht)
1941-1943: Fritz Kuhn (German American Bund)
1943-1945: Karl-Siegmund Litzmann (National Socialist German Workers')
In this world, Germany never breaks the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Due to a POD some time in the 20s, arguments within the Nazi movement over priorities in the path to world conquest, a different decision is made in 1941.
Britain falls to a version of Sealion, and the Empire partially fragments, the beginning of the so-called Warlord Period. Jan Smuts heads an Imperial War Cabinet that continues the fight in Africa and Asia. Canada declares neutrality and becomes a republic under Mackenzie King. The Germans are still tied up fighting the Resistance, but by and large the war is over in Europe. At this point, Hitler turns his eyes on America.
The objective in invading America was never about annexing it directly to the Reich, but was instead motivated by racial theory. According to Nazi racial doctrine, America was a mongrel state that had been dominated by a superior Germanic-Anglo-Saxon people who had been muddied and corrupted by interbreeding with lesser races. The Nazis objective in conquering the United States was to bind North America to her in a relatiosnhip supposedly similar to that of Britain and her former Dominions, and purge the country of those lesser races, allowing Americans to truly unlock their racial potential. With America at her side, and with access to her manpower and industry, Germany could then launch her invasion of the Soviet Union and win with ease.
The invasion went well at first, and by 1942 had occupied almost everything up to the Mississippi. Roosevelt dies from stress during the move to the emergency capital of Omaha and after a brief period under Henry Wallace, he is shuffled out and General MacArthur shunted into the top spot, with a mandate endorsed by both parties to achieve victory. A colossal population transfer is made from the East to the West and with it comes industry. Friction between the new arrivals and the original population of the West exists but the radical emergency is enough to force them to get along.
In the east, after a brief period of military rule, the 'North American Race-State' is established under the leadership of the German American Bund. The Race-State is composed of roughly three 'Gaue'. Almost immediately the Nazis begin the implementation of their racial theory. Jews, African-Americans, and other threats to racial purity are gradually stripped of their rights (what few they may have had) and are, ultimately, put on the path to extermination. An American Resistance is almost immediately established, which encompasses a wide range of political opinions from Communists on one end to even fascist sympathisers who don't like their country being invaded.
In 1941, the war takes a dramatic turn as the Japanese restart their border wars with the Soviet Union which soon grows into a much larger and more serious conflict. The Soviet Union swings into the war on the side of the Allies and while holding back the Japanese in the East launch an attack on German occupied Europe. This goes poorly at first, the Soviet military still suffering from the purges and the vozhd's own questionable qualities as a military commander. But Germany is tied up in North America and slowly but surely is pushed back. The British begin their own fightback in Africa and Southern Europe and MacArthur bloodily begins to retake North America. What they find as they march back toward Washington horrifies a generation. Not only the blackened buildings and rubble strewn streets but also the ramshackle camps filled with starving men, women and children and the chimneys belching human ash. Reprisals against collaborators are harsh and bloody but seem justified in the face of such horrors. When a census was held post war, it was calculated that approximately an eighth of the pre-war population had been killed, either in the fighting or in the exterminations. While some of the population displaced westwards would return, the East would never truly recover from what had happened.
By 1944, the Nazis had been pushed back to holdfasts on the Atlantic Coast and they were becoming desperate. Kuhn and any pretense of American independence had been kicked out and the news Reichskommissar adopted a new brutal attitude to the occupation. The Soviets had pushed into Germany proper, the Japanese were falling back to the Home Islands as American and British naval forces advanced, and Italy had practically collapsed. The presidential election of 1944 was suspended, in a similar fashion to the British, not without controversy. And in 1945 came peace. Not one that everyone in America was happy with. The British Empire finally gave out only a few years after the war, with Smuts humiliated by the victory of National Party in South Africa. The Soviet Union had practically conquered all of Nazi occupied Europe, aside from Italy and France and both those countries elected Communist governments in short order. And in America came the question of what to do next, with some calling for an immediate election. The decision not to do so would haunt MacArthur in the years to come as he elected instead to transform his War Cabinet into one of National Reconstruction.
The following years would be hard ones as America recovered from the travails of occupation. Similar measures to those used against former Confederates were implemented against collaborators, the worst criminals were put to death and the hard work of restructuring the East's infrastructure for a substantially lower population, and the West's for a much larger one began. Wartime austerity continued long after the end of the bloodletting and indeed became rather more strict as the wartime alliance fell apart. The ascendant Soviet Union did offer aid, but this was denied by MacArthur who took America into a new isolation. What popularity he had began to wear thin as the date for the next election approached.
The 1948 election was fought mostly on America's place in the world as MacArthur stood for keeping the United States free of foreign entanglements, especially with the Soviet Union. Other called for the establishment of an anti-communist alliance, while yet more called for engagement with the USSR. Chinks in the superpower's armour had appeared, as while Communist states had established themselves in France and Italy, the socialist government of Britain, where the Red Army's tanks could not reach, had not succumbed in such a way.
MacArthur's National Reconstruction stood again, continuing the ostensible Democratic-Republican coalition. There were breakaways of those who could no longer stomach coalition, generally more iconoclastic figures like Strom Thurmond who ran on a Democratic ticket and didn't agree with MacArthur's demolition of pre-war racial policies in the South. But the largest opposition grouping was the Popular Front, which like National Reconstruction was composed of multiple parties. The Popular Front presented itself as the party of anti-fascist resistance and the largest component of its support was the Communist Party which had enjoyed the benefits of economic dislocation and the ascension of the Comintern over much of the planet. At its head was Irving Goff, the veteran of war in Spain, and then an intelligence agent connecting the Resistance to the government in Omaha. The Popular Front's popularity soon became clear, but few expected the 'American Cincinnatus' to be thrashed. A close result was expected and many 'favourite' son candidates entered the race, hoping for a hung electoral college and a position as kingmaker.
As it was, that was unneeded. National Reconstruction acquitted themselves well but the Popular Front won a comfortable majority of electoral college votes. President Goff has opened the door to the Soviet Union, time will tell what this will mean for America and the world.
Presidents of the United States of America
1933-1942: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1932 (with John N. Garner) def. Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1936 (with John N. Garner) def. Alf Landon (Republican)
1940 (with Henry A. Wallace) def. Wendell Willkie (Republican)
1942-1942: Henry A. Wallace (Democratic)
1942-1945: Douglas MacArthur (War Government)
1944 suspended
1945-1949: Douglas MacArthur (National Reconstruction)
1949-1953: Irving Goff (Popular Front)
1948 (with James J. Braddock) def. Douglas MacArthur (National Reconstruction), Strom Thurmond ('Continuity' Democratic), numerous independent candidates
Reichskommissars of the Nordamerika Rassenstaat
1941-1941: Walther von Brauchitsch (Wehrmacht)
1941-1943: Fritz Kuhn (German American Bund)
1943-1945: Karl-Siegmund Litzmann (National Socialist German Workers')
In this world, Germany never breaks the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Due to a POD some time in the 20s, arguments within the Nazi movement over priorities in the path to world conquest, a different decision is made in 1941.
Britain falls to a version of Sealion, and the Empire partially fragments, the beginning of the so-called Warlord Period. Jan Smuts heads an Imperial War Cabinet that continues the fight in Africa and Asia. Canada declares neutrality and becomes a republic under Mackenzie King. The Germans are still tied up fighting the Resistance, but by and large the war is over in Europe. At this point, Hitler turns his eyes on America.
The objective in invading America was never about annexing it directly to the Reich, but was instead motivated by racial theory. According to Nazi racial doctrine, America was a mongrel state that had been dominated by a superior Germanic-Anglo-Saxon people who had been muddied and corrupted by interbreeding with lesser races. The Nazis objective in conquering the United States was to bind North America to her in a relatiosnhip supposedly similar to that of Britain and her former Dominions, and purge the country of those lesser races, allowing Americans to truly unlock their racial potential. With America at her side, and with access to her manpower and industry, Germany could then launch her invasion of the Soviet Union and win with ease.
The invasion went well at first, and by 1942 had occupied almost everything up to the Mississippi. Roosevelt dies from stress during the move to the emergency capital of Omaha and after a brief period under Henry Wallace, he is shuffled out and General MacArthur shunted into the top spot, with a mandate endorsed by both parties to achieve victory. A colossal population transfer is made from the East to the West and with it comes industry. Friction between the new arrivals and the original population of the West exists but the radical emergency is enough to force them to get along.
In the east, after a brief period of military rule, the 'North American Race-State' is established under the leadership of the German American Bund. The Race-State is composed of roughly three 'Gaue'. Almost immediately the Nazis begin the implementation of their racial theory. Jews, African-Americans, and other threats to racial purity are gradually stripped of their rights (what few they may have had) and are, ultimately, put on the path to extermination. An American Resistance is almost immediately established, which encompasses a wide range of political opinions from Communists on one end to even fascist sympathisers who don't like their country being invaded.
In 1941, the war takes a dramatic turn as the Japanese restart their border wars with the Soviet Union which soon grows into a much larger and more serious conflict. The Soviet Union swings into the war on the side of the Allies and while holding back the Japanese in the East launch an attack on German occupied Europe. This goes poorly at first, the Soviet military still suffering from the purges and the vozhd's own questionable qualities as a military commander. But Germany is tied up in North America and slowly but surely is pushed back. The British begin their own fightback in Africa and Southern Europe and MacArthur bloodily begins to retake North America. What they find as they march back toward Washington horrifies a generation. Not only the blackened buildings and rubble strewn streets but also the ramshackle camps filled with starving men, women and children and the chimneys belching human ash. Reprisals against collaborators are harsh and bloody but seem justified in the face of such horrors. When a census was held post war, it was calculated that approximately an eighth of the pre-war population had been killed, either in the fighting or in the exterminations. While some of the population displaced westwards would return, the East would never truly recover from what had happened.
By 1944, the Nazis had been pushed back to holdfasts on the Atlantic Coast and they were becoming desperate. Kuhn and any pretense of American independence had been kicked out and the news Reichskommissar adopted a new brutal attitude to the occupation. The Soviets had pushed into Germany proper, the Japanese were falling back to the Home Islands as American and British naval forces advanced, and Italy had practically collapsed. The presidential election of 1944 was suspended, in a similar fashion to the British, not without controversy. And in 1945 came peace. Not one that everyone in America was happy with. The British Empire finally gave out only a few years after the war, with Smuts humiliated by the victory of National Party in South Africa. The Soviet Union had practically conquered all of Nazi occupied Europe, aside from Italy and France and both those countries elected Communist governments in short order. And in America came the question of what to do next, with some calling for an immediate election. The decision not to do so would haunt MacArthur in the years to come as he elected instead to transform his War Cabinet into one of National Reconstruction.
The following years would be hard ones as America recovered from the travails of occupation. Similar measures to those used against former Confederates were implemented against collaborators, the worst criminals were put to death and the hard work of restructuring the East's infrastructure for a substantially lower population, and the West's for a much larger one began. Wartime austerity continued long after the end of the bloodletting and indeed became rather more strict as the wartime alliance fell apart. The ascendant Soviet Union did offer aid, but this was denied by MacArthur who took America into a new isolation. What popularity he had began to wear thin as the date for the next election approached.
The 1948 election was fought mostly on America's place in the world as MacArthur stood for keeping the United States free of foreign entanglements, especially with the Soviet Union. Other called for the establishment of an anti-communist alliance, while yet more called for engagement with the USSR. Chinks in the superpower's armour had appeared, as while Communist states had established themselves in France and Italy, the socialist government of Britain, where the Red Army's tanks could not reach, had not succumbed in such a way.
MacArthur's National Reconstruction stood again, continuing the ostensible Democratic-Republican coalition. There were breakaways of those who could no longer stomach coalition, generally more iconoclastic figures like Strom Thurmond who ran on a Democratic ticket and didn't agree with MacArthur's demolition of pre-war racial policies in the South. But the largest opposition grouping was the Popular Front, which like National Reconstruction was composed of multiple parties. The Popular Front presented itself as the party of anti-fascist resistance and the largest component of its support was the Communist Party which had enjoyed the benefits of economic dislocation and the ascension of the Comintern over much of the planet. At its head was Irving Goff, the veteran of war in Spain, and then an intelligence agent connecting the Resistance to the government in Omaha. The Popular Front's popularity soon became clear, but few expected the 'American Cincinnatus' to be thrashed. A close result was expected and many 'favourite' son candidates entered the race, hoping for a hung electoral college and a position as kingmaker.
As it was, that was unneeded. National Reconstruction acquitted themselves well but the Popular Front won a comfortable majority of electoral college votes. President Goff has opened the door to the Soviet Union, time will tell what this will mean for America and the world.
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