Oh, Franklin Roosevelt. What potential he had: No FDR in politics

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas's next move is a $10,000,000 education investment package, which includes new schools and teacher trainings.  A particular emphasis is put on black neighborhoods, though the effects of the project are felt throughout the country. 

[Peter the Lefty]

Overall, the public sector grows substantially as doctors are hired to train others for the PHC, teachers are hired to train more for the Education Initiative, and workers of all skill levels are hired for the PEC, COLP, the CWA, and the AHA.  He then passes a repeal of prohibition and enacts a bill forcing integration of all public restaurants, parks, other public places, and, most importantly, all public schools.  The part which bans school segregation is then struck down by the Supreme Court soon. 

[Peter the Lefty]

Thomas then turns to raising taxes on the wealthy.  The new tax code has a top tax rate of 85% for all earning over $3 million a year. 

[RogueBeaver]

How involved is SCOTUS so far? Or are they just waiting for the right moment to pounce? Enjoying the TL thus far!

[Peter the Lefty]

How involved is SCOTUS so far? Or are they just waiting for the right moment to pounce? Enjoying the TL thus far!

Thanks again!  SCOTUS at this point is more than aware that almost all of the measures which Thomas is enacting are so popular that striking them down would spark unrest, especially since the "Militant" faction of the SPA (who are for all-out revolutionary socialism) would take the opportunity to call for a revolution against the Supreme Court.  But there is a sense that a lot of the bank and steel nationalizations which didn't pass Congress would've been struck down by the SCOTUS had they passed.  The civil rights bill is the first time that they feel that they have enough support among the public to strike down one of Thomas's measures.  And after that, they start to get more involved.  Stay tuned...

[Peter the Lefty]

Soon afterward, another case is brought to the Supreme Court: American Medical Association vs. United States.  The American Medical Association sues the federal government for creating the PHC on constitutional grounds.  A Gallup poll shows that 71% of Americans consider the PHC to be constitutional, and shockingly, 55% believe that "a revolution is necessary if the Supreme Court strikes it down."  Already, large protests erupt throughout every major American city, including a few in the South, against the anticipated strike-down of the PHC.  SCOTUS then upholds the program by a vote of 3-2, with 4 abstentions, prompting Senator Robert Taft to accuse the four abstainers of "cowardice." 

[Peter the Lefty]

By July, the unemployment rate, which has been increasing rapidly since 1929( when it was 21% after the stock market crash, to 45% when Thomas took office), has now stabilized, and shows signs of decreasing.  A poll shows that 70% of Americans approve of Thomas's performance thus far. 

[Peter the Lefty]

A November report shows that unemployment has fallen to 40%.  Poverty rates are also shown to be lower than they were at the beginning of the year.  

      December 7, 1941: The Japanese Navy conducts a naval attack on the Base of the US Pacific Fleet in San Diego.  The attack has mixed-to-positive results, after a key sighting of the fleet in the Pacific causes an alert to be sent to the San Diego base at almost literally the last minute.  Having been a  "surprise attack" (only due to a communications failure), the attack causes a massive shift in American political opinions.  Congress immediately passes a declaration of war, and it is signed at 4:10 pm by President Thomas.  Self-Defense Secretary La Follette also abandons his previous outright pacifism.  The next day, Thomas makes a speech declaring war on the Japanese Empire, with Vice-President Wallace and House Speaker Clarence Senior behind him.
"Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives,
      Not in the past 22 years have we fired one bullet at a fellow nation, or her military.  Not in 22 years have we made a single provocation.  Yesterday, Sunday, the 7th of December, 1941, a provocation was made against us, and the amount of bullets which were fired at us is probably too great to ever be counted.  And, I regret to tell you, that many American lives were lost to those bullets.  But the men, and the women, (the nurses), who were lost from physical form, will never be lost from our hearts and our memories.  May God bless their souls.  They were killed because of an unprovoked, indefensible, and vicious attack which was carried out by forces with no motive besides aggression.  We have not declared war.  We have declared defense.  We have declared that should any of our boys in uniform, or any of us who are not, be intentionally killed or wounded, we will not hesitate to strike back.  We will not hesitate to defend our sovereignty, our security, our livelihoods, and our dignity, against an attack which threatens all of them...."

Germany and Italy both declare war on the US the same day. 

[Peter the Lefty]

      December 9, 1941: Secretary of State Hiram Johnson resigns at the bequest of President Thomas after he unveils plans to round up all Japanese immigrants living in the United States and relocate them into "internment camps."  Washington Senator Homer T. Bone is nominated and confirmed as his successor.  

[RogueBeaver]

Somehow I'm not surprised at Thomas aping FDR here. Question: is Hoover still running the FBI or did Thomas get someone more to his ideological liking?

[Peter the Lefty]

Somehow I'm not surprised at Thomas aping FDR here. Question: is Hoover still running the FBI or did Thomas get someone more to his ideological liking?

It's the Congressional arithmetic that forces him to.  Oh, and I totally forgot about Hoover.  Thomas replaces him with Miles Poindexter.  

[Peter the Lefty]

January 20, 1942: An Gallup poll shows that 82% of Americans approve of Thomas's first year as President.  World War II advances from here more or less in the same way that it does in OTL, though Churchill's relationship with is far more strained than the one he has with FDR in RL.  Nonetheless, Thomas and Wallace both have private meetings with Clement Attlee, in which they are persuaded to form a "Western Allied" bloc with Britain. 

[Peter the Lefty]

Meanwhile, Thomas's administration begins to dish out massive agricultural subsidies to farmers in exchange for wartime food.  State-owned military equipment factories are also set up, in which experiments regarding industrial democracy are introduced. 

[Peter the Lefty]

By March, 1942, unemployment is at 16% due to mass military enlistment, but also thanks to the federal programs enacted thus far by Thomas.  There is a widespread sense that the Socialists are in for a massive victory in the midterms.  

      November, 1942: The Socialists win the midterms, now having 256 seats in the House and 52 in the Senate.  Thomas now decides that when the new Congress sits, he will push forward with nationalization. 

[Peter the Lefty]

      February 6, 1943: President Thomas signs the Public Banking Act, which has now passed both houses of Congress.  J.P. Morgan and Co. files a lawsuit against the government, which makes it to the supreme court very quickly.  The ruling on J.P. Morgan and Co. vs. United States declares, by a vote of 4-3, that a government takeover of a private bank is unconstitutional.  House Speaker Senior makes a controversial public statement condemning the ruling.
      "Today, the Supreme so-called "Court" of the United States has proven that it is a bourgeois institution which acts only in the interests of the greedy financial elite, and against the interests of the American people.  They are merely a safeguard of Wall Street in the guise of a court of law.  They never ruled against the actions of the bankers when they acted, clearly illegally, to cause misery to the masses for the betterment of their own conditions.  They only acted now, against the public interests, in the guise of the law, to save their banking friends.  So, today, I call upon the American people to rise up against this so-called Court, and end their supremacy!  Only a revolution can stop them from preventing the onset of socialism!  Only a revolution can bring justice!"

      Immediately, Thomas and Wallace hold a meeting with the SPA Congressional caucus, and agree that Senior must become the first Speaker of the House to be removed.  A vote for speaker is forced, and the SPA caucus votes overwhelmingly for Max S. Hayes, and he overcomes the vote splitting caused by Senior's few loyalists.  Hayes becomes Speaker of the House, and Senior announces his departure from the Socialist Party, becoming an independent member of the House. 

[RogueBeaver]

So the SCOTUS is moving very carefully- only against things which they think public sentiment can either be pro- or at worst manageably outraged.

[Peter the Lefty]

So the SCOTUS is moving very carefully- only against things which they think public sentiment can either be pro- or at worst manageably outraged.

Yeah, but now they're starting to intervene even against the bank nationalization, which is favored by most, mainly because the success of Thomas's programs thus far has convinced them that his agenda is working and that further socialist measures will be beneficial.  The strikedown of the bank nationalization does cause outcry, which does result in many demonstrations calling for the replacements of all the conservative justices. 

[Peter the Lefty]

Next, Representative Mary White Ovington's proposition for a constitutional amendment dealing with voting reform passes both the House and the Senate.  Its proposals include:
*The abolishment of the electoral college in all presidential elections.  
*The implementation for a two-round system of voting for all presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, mayoral, and other elections for public office in the United States

Initially, the Socialists had wanted to include a switch to a parliamentary system (in federal, state, and municipal/local government) in the amendment, but knowing full well that they could not get three quarters of state legislatures to ratify it, they opt for a two-round system as a "temporary fix."  It then goes to the state legislatures.  

[RogueBeaver]

I'm mixed on the 2-round system and OK with EC abolition. When you say parliamentary do you mean the Westminster model or do you mean the current French system with a President/PM duo?

[Peter the Lefty]

I'm mixed on the 2-round system and OK with EC abolition. When you say parliamentary do you mean the Westminster model or do you mean the current French system with a President/PM duo?

Westminster model, without the monarch.  With MMP voting. 

[RogueBeaver]

I'm mixed on the 2-round system and OK with EC abolition. When you say parliamentary do you mean the Westminster model or do you mean the current French system with a President/PM duo?

Westminster model, without the monarch.  With MMP voting. 

Ah. Should be fun.

[Peter the Lefty]

Once the amendment goes to the state legislatures, representative Samuel Friedman proposes a bill which nationalizes US Steel.  It passes both Houses of Congress and is signed by President Thomas in July.  As expected, at the end of the year, the Supreme Court rules, in the case of U.S. Steel vs. United States, that the seizure of a private business by a federal, state, or municipal/local government for reasons besides halting or investigating illegal activities is unconstitutional, by a 5-3 margin.  Protests against the "obstructionism" of the SCOTUS become nationwide once again.  In a shock to the nation, Justices George Sutherland and Owen Roberts both announce their retirement two days later, giving no reasons.  It is later revealed that they both felt that they could not continue to vote with their consciences while keeping free of fears that such votes would cause massive, unneeded social unrest.  Seymour Stedman and Frank Murphy are nominated and confirmed as their successors.  
      Thomas decides to take another stab at civil rights.  In September, a bill banning all racial segregation passes both houses of Congress and is signed by President Thomas.  After a lawsuit makes it to SCOTUS at the speed of light, they rule by a margin of 5-4 that skin color is not an indication of personhood, that all segregation is unconstitutional, and that any state government which fails to enforce the law against segregation is in violation of the law.  

[Peter the Lefty]

      Yet another stab is taken at the nationalizations bill.  This time, a single bill is passed nationalizing the Fed, Wall Street, and US Steel.  Thomas signs it in September, and it isn't long before J. P. Morgan, the Bank of America, and US Steel sue the federal government.  While the lawsuit makes its way to SCOTUS, Thomas passes a bill creating a new cabinet department: The Department of Citizens Equality, which is to be concerned with African-Americans' civil rights, women's rights, and immigrant/ethnic minority rights.  Congressman and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph is nominated and confirmed for the position. 

[RogueBeaver]

Are the shattered remnants of what the TL's textbooks probably call the Ancien Regime picking up the pieces and attempting to organize any sort of political counteroffensive? Sort of like how IRL the GOP took the offensive in FDR's second term?

The Dems are probably hit hardest because their Southern backbone snapped like a twig when class solidarity overwhelmed race solidarity. Poor and middle class whites teaming up with poor blacks against the aristocracy... their worst nightmare. With the GOP's progressive wing disappearing, can they make a deal with the Dixiecrats if only temporarily?

[Peter the Lefty]

Are the shattered remnants of what the TL's textbooks probably call the Ancien Regime picking up the pieces and attempting to organize any sort of political counteroffensive? Sort of like how IRL the GOP took the offensive in FDR's second term?

The Dems are probably hit hardest because their Southern backbone snapped like a twig when class solidarity overwhelmed race solidarity. Poor and middle class whites teaming up with poor blacks against the aristocracy... their worst nightmare. With the GOP's progressive wing disappearing, can they make a deal with the Dixiecrats if only temporarily?

The Republicans and Democrats are both in disarray right now.  The Republicans have shifted a bit to the left of Hoover.  I suppose they'd be considered "liberal" to "left-liberal" in the European sense.  The Dems are somewhat ironic.  They're becoming a Southern-based, conservative party, socially, and economically, opposing Thomas's economic agenda left and right, even though Democratic southern governors are putting many social programs in place in their own states.  When asked, they simply say that such programs should be "up to states, in cases in which they are essential."  

And the only alliance will be in elections, after the first round has been held.