Authoritarian America

[RGM2609]

TL description: in this TL the Founding Fathers did not create for some reason the U.S. Congress, and the legislative role of it was taken by the Cabinet - which has 8 Secretaries and a Chief Secretary which has a lot of power - the Vice President is also involved in this body. Presidential elections still happen, and if a candidate doesn't get 50% of the votes, he needs to make a coalition with another candidate to govern the country, but except those few cases, the Court is the only thing that keeps the growing power of the White House and the U.S. Cabinet in check - and they want to mess with it too. Starting date: 1940
Coming out soon

[RGM2609]

1940 Election - Democrats

For the Democratic Party, the primaries were rather a formality: President Franklin Roosevelt was renominated easily despite a challenge from his own Vice President, John Nance Garner, who, backed by the Southern wing, made the case that the Democrats were going too far to the left under Roosevelt and his Cabinet's leadership. This case fell on deaf ears as Roosevelt was seen as the rightful leader of the Party and of the nation by most of the party members. After renomination, Roosevelt made sure to kick out Garner of the Vice Presidential position, however he couldn't afford to kick him off entirely, being afraid that this would lead to him launching an independent run for the Presidency, and as such he promised him to be Secretary of War in the Cabinet. However, he was not promised to be Chief Secretary, which was the most powerful office in the United States after the Presidency, to his great disappointment. Roosevelt preffered to promise it to staunch leftist Henry Wallace, something that deeply enraged many Southern Democrats, but not enough as to defect to the Republicans. As to the Vice Presidency, Harry Truman was nominated, again to appease the Dixiecrats.

The entire Democratic ticket:

Franklin Roosevelt for President
Harry Truman for Vice President
Henry Wallace for Chief Secretary and Secretary of Labour
Cordell Hull for Secretary of State
John Nance Garner for Secretary of War
Sam Rayburn for Secretary of Commerce
Claude Pepper for Secretary of the Treasury
John McCormack for Attorney General
Millard Tydings for Secretary of the Interior
Alben Barkley for Secretary of Agriculture

Many noticed that it would be difficult for the proposed Wallace Cabinet to speak with one voice, and even more so to act in a single direction.