Peter's American TL Master Thread

[Peter the Lefty]

      The Boston Tea Party was the closest to revolution that America would come for many years.  Widespread anger in the North American colonies at the Stamp Act and Sugar Act, both of which imposed taxes upon the North American colonists in spite of their lack of representation in the British parliament.  Upon seeing this anger, the British parliament decided to mitigate the rates of the acts and annul them in much of North America.  The political figures agitating for Revolution fled to France, where they helped fuel an Englightenment which would, in 1794, overthrow a hated monarchy and install the First French Republic.  In America, however, colonial assemblies continued to be the highest form of self-representation held by British subjects as the British empire pushed Westward thanks to wars with this new French Republic (and very soon, empire), and set up new colonies.  
      In 1852, the young, tall, and skinny Justice Minister of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, was elected to the leadership of the Liberal Party of Illinois, thus assuming the highest office any politician in Illinois could achieve at the time: the Premiership of the province.  
      Upon assuming power, he began to organize a group of Liberal Premiers in the cause of greater Home Rule for the British colonies in North America.  With Premiers Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, William Seward of New York, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, Benjamin Wade of Ohio, John C. Fremont of California, and Francis Hincks of Canada East, Lincoln co-authored a petition to Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister, advocating a federal parliament and government of all of the North American colonies.  It also pushed the abolition of slavery in all British territories in North America.  While he'd been one of the holdouts on including the demand for abolition, Lincoln did most of the wording for the letter, and having been the one who organized the movement, he emerged as its unofficial leader.  
      As the Premiers announced their petition to Queen Victoria, it was widely laughed at.  White Southerners were enraged by the demand for the abolition of slavery.  True to her imperialist ideology, the Queen sent a rejection to the Premiers' proposal.  It came as a major defeat to the new Premier, especially one year before the next provincial election.  And it took its toll.  In the 1853 provincial election, Stephen Douglas's Conservative Party swept to power.  Douglas derided Lincoln as "anti-royalist," "radical," and "republican."  Douglas was also a dynamic leader, and the status of Illinois politics soon became a gauge of the national zeitgeist.  
      In 1857, Lincoln and the Liberals surged back to power in Illinois.  He reorganized all of the Liberal Premiers of the British North American colonies, and another petition was sent to the Queen, demanding Confederation and an end to slavery.  The British government again rejected it.  Another petition was sent a year later, with the same requests, and was rejected yet again.  Yet Liberals were now consistently winning North American provincial elections (except in the Southeast), and it was clear that Lincoln's movement now had the support of the majority British subjects in North America.  In 1861, the Liberals in Illinois (and many other provinces) scored smashing majorities, leading London to give in to both demands.  
      The British government then declared that a gradual, 18-year phase out of slavery would be introduced in the North American colonies, and replaced (over the protests of Stevens and his followers) by a system of racial segregation.  Then, there would be a one-year period in which the dust would settle.  Then, two separate Commonwealth governments would be created: one including Quebec, the far-Atlantic provinces, Canada West, and British Colombia (and all territory in between).  The other would include Washington, Florida, California, Texas, Maine, and all British territory between, which, by this point, had expanded due to the British defeat of France in the War of 1812, and the Mexican-British War of 1848 (which had been triggered by British settlers in Texas seeking acquisition of the territory by the British Empire.)  The reason was simple: Quebec and the Southeast were both regions which had cultural and historical bitterness bottled up within, and should they join together, they'd pose a major threat to any single-Commonwealth government that included both of them (and the possibility of the then-pro-slavery Irish Catholic population of the American Northeast joining such an alliance could have made it lethal.). Therefore, they had to be in separate "countries," so to speak.  Both "Canada" and "America" would have enough people from the rest of the country to keep their respective "trouble regions" in check.  
      Before the deal was made, however, the Queen made it very clear to Lincoln that he must agree never to become involved in federal American politics.  She mistrusted him, believing he was an upstart, a man who was too intelligent to be trusted, and someone with hidden radical tendencies.  In truth, he was a secret republican.  Yet he was very pragmatic.  He secretly saw the Commonwealth concept as a stepping-stone to a republic, since he felt it could prove that the "primitive" colonists could be trusted with self-governance.  And for it, he was willing to sacrifice his political aspirations.
      Thus began two new nations.  In America, Conservative Leader James Blaine became the first Prime Minister after the country held its first federal elections in 1880.  His ideological and partisan counterpart, John A. MacDonald, took charge in Canada.  Both forged conservative programs for their respective countries, but competed frequently with Liberal parties for power.  

Prime Ministers of America
1. James G. Blaine–Conservative–1880-1889
2. Thomas F. Bayard–Liberal–1889-1892
3. James G. Blaine–Conservative–1892-1893
4. William B. Allison–Conservative–1893
5. Thomas F. Bayard–Liberal–1893-1895
6. William B. Allison–Conservative–1895
7. William McKinley–Conservative–1895-1900
8. Grover Cleveland–Liberal–1900-1901
9. Theodore Roosevelt–Liberal–1901-1908
10. Alton B. Parker–Liberal–1908-1909
11. Joseph G. Cannon–Conservative–1909-1913
12. Woodrow Wilson–Liberal–1913-1920
13. Joseph G. Cannon–Conservative–1920-1923
14. James E. Watson–Conservative–1923-present

Leaders of the Opposition:
1. Thomas F. Bayard–Liberal–1880-1889
2. James Blaine–Conservative–1889-1892
3. Thomas F. Bayard–Liberal–1892-1893
4. William B. Allison–Conservative–1893-1895
5. Thomas F. Bayard–Liberal–1895-1898
6. Grover Cleveland–Liberal–1898-1900
7. William McKinley–Conservative–1900-1907
8. Joseph G. Cannon–Conservative–1907-1909
9. Alton B. Parker–Liberal–1909-1910
10. Woodrow Wilson–Liberal–1910-1913
11. Joseph G. Cannon–Conservative–1913-1916
12. Eugene V. Debs–Labor–1916
13. Robert La Follette–Labor–1916 (party expelled from House.  Position vacant until 1918)
14. Joseph G. Cannon–Conservative–1918-1920
15. Al Smith–Liberal–1920-present

Governments of America
1. Conservative–1880-1885
2. Conservative–1885-1889
3. Liberal–1889-1892
4. Conservative–1892-1893
5. Liberal–1893-1895
6. Conservative–1895-1896
7. Conservative–1896-1900
8. Liberal–1900-1901
9. Liberal–1901-1905
10. Liberal–1905-1909
11. Conservative–1909-1913
12. Liberal–1913-1916
13. Liberal-Conservative Coalition–1916-1918
14. Liberal–1918-1920
15. Conservative–1920-1924
16. Conservative–1924-1928
17. Conservative–1928-present

The Party Leaders:
Leaders of the Conservative Party
1. James G. Blaine–Conservative–1880-1893
2. William B. Allison–Conservative–1893-1895
3. William McKinley–1895-1907
4. Joseph G. Cannon–1907-1923
5. James E. Watson–1923-present

Leaders of the Liberal Party
1. Thomas F. Bayard–1880-1898
2. Grover Cleveland–1898-1901
3. Theodore Roosevelt–1901-1907
4. Alton B. Parker–1907-1910
5. Woodrow Wilson–1910-1920
6. Al Smith–1920-present

Leaders of the Labor Party
1. Eugene V. Debs–1900-1916
2. Robert La Follette–1916-1925
3. Morris Hillquit–1925-present

Leaders of the Farmers' and Workers' Association
1. James B. Weaver-1885-1894
2. William Jennings Bryan-1894-1911
(federal party disbanded in 1911)


Leaders of the Communist Party
1. Alfred Wagenknecht–1918-1923
2. C. E. Ruthenberg–1923-1928
3. William Z. Foster–1928-present

[Peter the Lefty]

      The 1900 election had seen the Liberals surge into power under the leadership of Grover Cleveland.  A classical liberal, Cleveland lowered tariffs, but made no radical changes to the political landscape.  In 1901, however, a single bullet would forever change the course of American history.  Cleveland was assassinated, and the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Theodore Roosevelt, was given the Liberal leadership, and thereby, the Premiership.  Roosevelt decided immediately to seek a mandate from the American people for his policies, which were markedly different from those of his predecessor.  
      Roosevelt hit the campaign trail calling for the regulation of large trusts and railroad companies, worker compensation schemes, the outlawing of child labor, a Crown Commerce Commission, and conservation legislation.  He spoke particularly to the concerns of the middle class, who did not want to see the capitalist system replaced, but were worried about the squashing of competition by corporate giants, the horrific conditions in which the working class lived, and the strong possibility that working class discontent could result in the rise of radical ideologies.  To them, Roosevelt was what they had been waiting for.  Together with farmers who hoped to see tariff reductions, they gave Roosevelt an overwhelming victory.  
      Roosevelt immediately embarked upon his agenda.  A number of court cases against powerful trusts were filed by the young and energetic young Prime Minister within the first months of his new government.  His style of mediating labor disputes was markedly more balanced than those of his predecessors.  Regulation of railroad rates also saw much greater enforcement.  Indeed, there was a sense that even if Roosevelt was not radical enough, he was a major step up from his predecessors.  
      After a landslide re-election victory in 1905, Roosevelt passed a slew of environmental legislation.  After the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in 1906, Roosevelt (more reluctantly than the history books would later tell) passed several pieces of legislation which mandated federal inspection of all meats and general guidelines which regulated the food industries.  In 1908, however, his reforming era would come to an end.
      Classical liberals loathed Roosevelt.  They had been hoping to overthrow him since the day of his ascendancy to the Premiership.  In 1907, rumors that Roosevelt was turning further to the left were used to sway many of the softest progressive liberals to the classical side.  Justice Minister Alton B. Parker unexpectedly won a leadership challenge to the rough rider that year.  Roosevelt angrily went to the backbenches.  
      Roosevelt was a keen and aware political tactician.  As awareness of new working- and middle-class discontent arose, it was clear that Parker was disliked by a majority of the American public.  Roosevelt quietly began to speak with his most trusted allies on the Liberal benches, plotting a return to the Premiership.  It was clear
that the current Liberal caucus would not return him to the top.  Roosevelt therefore began to plot with Liberal MP's for the creation of a new Progressive Liberal Party.  Yet he had it planned in a way that would ensure Parker's defeat at the next election.  
      With the best secrecy possible, Roosevelt and 47 other left-leaning Liberal MP's plotted to break away from the Liberal caucus and form a Progressive Liberal Party within a week of Parker's probable dissolution of parliament in the summer of 1909.  Remarkably, the rough rider's sneaky plan worked.  Word of it never reached any classical liberals.  Until the formation of the new party was announced.  
      Roosevelt had secretly been in contacts with social reformers, artists, and activists who might be interested in running for parliament on behalf of his new party, and by the time the dissolution was announced, the Progressive Liberals were ready to contest the resulting election.  
      With the Liberal vote split, the Torries, now under the leadership of Joseph G. Cannon, returned to power easily in spite of being the first government in American history to be elected with less than 40% of the vote.  The Liberals suffered a disaster, and the Progressive Liberals won a strong third place.  Labor, however, continued to gain under the charismatic leadership of Eugene V. Debs.  
      Everything had gone according to the Rough Rider's plan.  He had supposed that the Liberals would realize that they would have to reinstall him as their leader and reemerge their two parties.  Yet they were still so bitter towards him that they would not accept him as their new leader.  Instead, they proposed the academic former Constitutional and Commonwealth Affairs Minister Woodrow Wilson.  TR firmly rejected the idea, but most of his fellow Progressive Liberals wanted to oust Cannon's government as soon as possible, and were willing to accept the egghead from New Jersey and sacrifice their beloved Rough Rider in order to do so.  Roosevelt finally gave in after several months, taking solace in the fact that at least Parker would be removed from power.  
      Woodrow Wilson took charge of the newly-reunified Liberal Party with an academic air and a unifying personality.  As the two factions had won more than 50 percent of the vote in the last election, it was clear that the party appeared set to defeat the Conservatives come the next election.  And it did.  
      Under the tall intellectual's leadership, the Liberal Party won the 1913 election quite overwhelmingly.  The new Liberal government immediately went to work with new Progressive reforms, establishing a decentralized and half-private Royal American Reserve.  Child labor was also outlawed, and collective bargaining rights were federally recognized.  Farm relief bills were passed, and tariffs were lowered to a huge degree.  Price discrimination was banned, and an eight-hour workday was put into place.
      This reforming zeal was halted in 1914.  With the outbreak of war in Europe, and Britain's entry therein, America as a Commonwealth was required to send troops to support the mother country.  Wilson's lack of passion for the war, however, was quite evident.  Considering it to be the result of a "senseless European entanglement of alliances," he only sent enough troops to meet the requirements set by the mother country.  Roosevelt, now the War Minister, resigned in protest, and soon baffled all political forces by crossing the floor to join the Conservatives.  
      Still, Wilson had no tolerance for dissenters who opposed his decision to enter the war.  The leader of the Labor Party, Eugene V. Debs, was imprisoned in 1916 for a series of anti-war speeches.  Authoritarian legislation was soon passed to criminalize any dissent against the war, or even against conscription, putting Wilson squarely at odds with the Laurier Liberals of Canada.  
      Upon full American entry into the war late in 1916, Wilson formed a wartime coalition government with the Torries.  The coalition became increasingly authoritarian, and came apart after the war had ended, and as the Treaty of Versailles was being negotiated.  Wilson rejected calls for new elections after the fighting had ended, stating that "as long as a state of war exists, a state of national emergency exists."  Newspaper editors who called for new elections were imprisoned.  MP's were afraid to call for new elections in parliament.  Indeed, even Conservative MP's were afraid to do so.  
      After the Treaty was negotiated and signed, Wilson still refused to call new elections and lift wartime censorship.  Finally, in 1920, New York's charismatic Liberal Premier, Al Smith, was elected to parliament in a by-election on an anti-Wilson platform.  Immediately after taking his seat in the House of Commons, Smith announced a leadership challenge to Wilson.  Wilson (who was recovering from a stroke) then promptly asked the Governor General for a dissolution of parliament before the leadership election was to be held.
      The 1920 election saw Wilson's government ousted overwhelmingly. Cannon's Conservatives stormed back into power.  Immediately after the results had been published and printed in the newspapers, Wilson resigned the Liberal leadership.  Smith was elected to succeed him unopposed.

[Peter the Lefty]

      The 1931 election was held under miserable circumstances.  The economy was in its worse condition yet seen in the history of the American Commonwealth.  With a quarter of the population unemployed, constant bank and business failures, and discontent with the government at its most widespread at any point since Confederation, Prime Minister James Eli Watson had been seeing his Conservative government's majority shrinking at an alarming rate.  He soon asked the Governor General for an early dissolution of parliament, which was granted out of a fear of creating another constitutional crisis similar to the one witnessed by Canada some six years prior. 
      The Conservatives had been in power since 1920, and had been re-elected in landslides in both 1924 and 1928.  Joseph G. Cannon had lead them to an overwhelming victory in 1920 and returned to Number 16 (he had previously served as Prime Minister from 1909 to 1913).  His second Premiership, which lasted until his retirement in 1923, was marked by drastic immigration restrictions, witch hunts against suspected "radicals", tariff hikes, withdrawal from the League of Nations, reductions in income taxes and expenditure, and a tough line against labor unions. 
      After Cannon's retirement, the Conservative Party elected James E. Watson as its second leader.  A Conservative's conservative, Watson continued the policies of deregulation and reductions in government expenditure and personal taxes.  The economy went into an era of business prosperity and low unemployment.  In foreign relations, Watson continued Cannon's isolationist policies in spite of officially remaining very pro-British. 
      Watson won landslide re-election victories in both 1924 and 1928.  He remained quite popular throughout most of the decade, and was assumed to be set to go down as the most successful Conservative Prime Minister yet seen in America's short history.  His popularity among industrialists, white Southerners, and skilled WASP workers were enough to keep him very secure.
      Watson did not, however, have harmonious relationships with all sections of American society.  African-Americans were frightened by his cozy relationships with white supremacist politicians.  Catholics and Jews, both generally urban working-class electorates, were frightened by his nativist rhetoric and policies.  Western and Midwestern farmers, who were left out of the economic boom of the 20's, despised him for his apparent apathy toward their struggles, as well as for the tariffs which he installed. 
      Most Catholic workers and urban, middle-class social reformers voted for the Liberal Party during the decade, which was lead by the New Yorker Al Smith.  Smith, who took over the Liberal Party's leadership after the electoral debacle of 1920, was in a constant battle to improve upon his party's standing in that election.  To do so required shaking off the image of the last Liberal Prime Minister.

[Peter the Lefty]

The 1931 Election

Party (Leader)-Seats-Popular Vote
Labor (Morris Hillquit)-281-32.3%
Conservative (James E. Watson)-257-29.7%
Liberal (Al Smith)-115-22.3%
Communist (William Z. Foster)-71-14.8%
Independents-26

      Labor swept up the Catholic working-class vote that had previously propped up the Liberals.  Irish- and Italian-American boroughs in New York and Boston turned red overwhelmingly.  The Liberals, meanwhile, gained a few seats in Appalachia which had previously rejected emphatically the Catholic Smith.  Yet it was not enough to save the Liberals from their catastrophic showing, which saw Smith lose its own seat.  The Torries themselves also suffered huge setbacks, as Northwestern, Midwestern, and West Coast ridings previously held by Conservative MP's swung to Labor.  Yet this was something of a bittersweet victory for Hillquit. 
      Many Labor supporters had now been so radicalized by the economic experiences of the past two years that they no longer believed that mere democratic socialism could work, and now believed that only communism could be trusted as a force for social justice.  William Z. Foster went from being the only Communist MP in the House to leading a caucus of 71.