Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1932)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Fig. 1 French Premier Charles du Guerre, leader of the Nationalist regime that took power in the wake of the Depression

from The Rise and Fall of Charles du Guerre by W. Lawrence Shirer (1955)
"Like so many of his countrymen, he had fought in the Great War, and won glory upon the battlefields of Alsace Lorraine, and then it was taken from him, stolen by the traitors at Berlin who had signed away the honor of their nation. ...His anger then was uncontrollable; he raged against Millerand and the politicians of the liberal republic who had mismanaged the war and sabotaged him at every turn, cursed the socialists and labor unions, the 'Marxist agitators' whose dissent had been 'as a knife in the back' in those fatal last months of 1914. 'Blame not the soldiers of France... who died valiantly for the nation on the fields of Germany, for this defeat,' he intoned before a convention of the Parti Nationale in 1921, 'but place the blame on the shoulders of those who deserve to bear it... the enemy in the rear, who betrayed the men of our country.' "


from Encyclopedia Britannica, "Charles du Guerre" (1999)
"Following the May 1926 elections, the Nationalists were the largest party in the legislature. Du Guerre was named prime minister that month; an October snap election confirmed his government and awarded the Nationalists a two thirds majority in parliament. He moved swiftly to consolidate his power; the labor unions were disbanded, Jews and other ethnic minorities subjected to new, harsher regulations, and the freedom of the press severely restricted. Early elections in the spring of 1928 reinforced the Nationalist government; thereafter, all opposition parties were disbanded and du Guerre assumed the status of a virtual dictator."

. . .

The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt III very nearly ended before it even began fourteen days into the new year of 1929. The president-elect had traveled to New Orleans to meet with Louisiana Governor Oramel King, a powerful figure within the Liberal Party, and was stepping from his motorcade when the sound of gunfire rent the late morning air. There were two shots, possibly three, fired in quick succession: the first hit Congressman Hiram Johnson, who crumpled to the ground; a second shattered the glass window of the car from which Roosevelt had just emerged. The president-elect himself was unharmed. The would-be assassin was Samuel Stoker, a 23-year-old anarchist with ties to the I.W.L., who three days earlier had vowed in his diary, "Roosevelt will not be inaugurated."

As it happened, Roosevelt took office as scheduled on March 4, 1929, sworn in upon the same Bible his father, Theodore Sr., had used some 53 years previously. Supported by a large majority in the House of Commons and by a more tenuous coalition in the Senate, he set forth to do what no president had done before: rescue a continent from the grasp of a crippling depression.

Three and a half years hence, he has claimed his fair share both of victories and of failures. On the world stage, he has pursued closer ties with Germany and worked to mend the Commonwealth's long-fraught relationship with the United Kingdom. Closer to home, the president has taken steps to strengthen the navy in the face of Colombian expansion into the Caribbean.

Yet it is domestic policy that has captured the attention of the public and their president as the nation attempts to throw off the lingering fingers of recession. Under the banner of his "Square Deal" initiative, Roosevelt has pressed for sweeping legislative efforts to combat the worst effects of the depression. The Agricultural Investment Act (AIA) of 1929, the first of these measures, expanded upon the farm subsidies enacted under the Carrillo government; it was succeeded by legislation creating the Civil Corps of Engineers (CCE), a relief program that put many of the legions of unemployed men to work on public service projects around the country, and by a package of financial reform referenced collectively as the National Finance Administration (NFA), which aimed to regulate lending practices and limit foreclosures by the nation's largest banks. Under the Chase Act, passed later that year, the government authorized the construction of a plethora of infrastructure projects around the country, including Taft Dam on the Colorado River, which quickly became the symbol of Roosevelt's "Square Deal." Finally, the Wallace-Marshall Act of 1930 instructed the Commonwealth Reserve to drastically lower interest rates in an attempt to encourage investment, a highly controversial move that caused some conservatives to threaten the president's impeachment, but which was ultimately upheld by the Socialist majority on the Supreme Court. Roosevelt also signed legislation to continue funding the social insurance system established under Carrillo and pledged support to the National Health Service, to the consternation of conservatives in his party who viewed both programs as icons of the Socialist era.

These early programs were established with the support of Independent Socialists in Congress, who joined with the Liberals and Center Democrats to pass Roosevelt's initiatives. This strange marriage was severely tested when Roosevelt declared his support for legislation introduced by Acadia Senator R. B. Bennet privatizing the national oil and steel companies. The so-called Bennet Act was fervently opposed by the I.W.L. and the U.S.P., but passed both houses with combined Liberal and Concordite support and was signed by President Roosevelt in January 1931.

The Columbian Commonwealth enters 1932 with a nationwide unemployment rate of just above 10%, down from 16% in January 1929 but still far higher than both friends and critics of the administration had hoped for. Roosevelt must contend as well with the growing threat posed by anarchists, fascists, and Marxist radicals whose calls for dismantling the current government have risen in tenor. The bloody murder of the Mexican Governor and his family eighteen months ago by members of the militant arm of the nationalist Partido de Libertad y Solidaridad, a leftist faction favoring independence for the Spanish Provinces, left the nation greatly unsettled, and the threat of a  General Strike if economic conditions do not soon improve hangs like a sword above the president's head. Elsewhere, Roosevelt is praised for his attention to the plight of the nation's farmers and rural communities impacted by the Depression, and has even won praise from some socialists for his inflationary policies and support for Social Security and the NHS.

Continued in the next post

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Congressman Warren Cameron Breckinridge of South Carolina [Concordite]
The sharpest of the president's opponents on the right, Breckinridge casts himself as the candidate of responsible government, calling Roosevelt "an out-of-control Socialist" and a "double dealer" who betrayed his supporters by adopting the Socialist program virtually unchanged. Among the original supporters of the Bennet Act, he has called for the immediate privatization of the railways and a gradual dismantling of Social Security and the NHS, arguing that private enterprise can provide far better alternatives to both government programs. He favors the repeal of much of Roosevelt's Square Deal program, with the exception of the CCE and elements of the AIA, instead insisting that free trade and a "sound money policy" will allow the economy to grow more quickly and efficiently than a government-managed recovery, calls for the abolition of judicial elections, and supports close ties to England and Germany as well as the expansion of the Caribbean Fleet.


Senator Henry Franklin Morrison of Sacramento [U.S.P.]
After their disastrous performance in the election of 1928, the Socialist Party fractured between the Independent Workers League - whose candidate, Herbert Strauss, had narrowly won the first ballot against Roosevelt and Felipe Carrillo - and the United Socialist Party, the remnants of the coalition assembled by Charles W. Bryan in the waining years of his presidency. The latter has nominated for president Senator Henry Morrison, a former union president and leader of the left wing of the USP. Having supported several of the legislative accomplishments of the last four years, including the AIA and the CCE, Morrison has called for a dramatic expansion of the welfare state to combat the Depression, vowing to implement a national minimum wage, national unemployment insurance, an expansion of Social Security and the public works programs of the Roosevelt and Carrillo governments, and the nationalization of the banks. He voted against the Bennet Act and is opposed to future privatization schemes, but has not elaborated on how or whether he would move to re-nationalize the oil and steel industries.


Congressman Georg Howard Regenbogen of Dakota [I.W.L.]
After their strong finish in the first round of the 1928 elections, the I.W.L. hopes to capitalize on persistent unemployment, stagnated wages, and dissatisfaction with the strategy of the U.S.P. and other mainline socialists to establish themselves as the primary leftist party in the national government. Their nominee is Dakota Congressman Charles Regenbogen, a fierce ally of organized labor and hero of the German-American community that once formed the backbone of the A.S.W.I. and the Democratic Party before it. He has called for the rapid nationalization of all major industries, a large increase of income and property taxes to facilitate the redistribution of wealth to the working classes, the abolition of the Commonwealth Reserve coupled with the immediate nationalization of the banks, and a total moratorium on home foreclosures. With regards to the world abroad, he opposes entering an alliance with any country, stating point-blank that he will not send the working men of America to die in a European war.


President Theodore Roosevelt III of New York [National Liberal-CDP]
Unanimously renominated by the 1932 Liberal Caucus, Roosevelt has promised to continue and expand his Square Deal program in his second term. Rather than proposing a hefty policy agenda for the next for years, Roosevelt has instead chosen to campaign on his proudest accomplishments - the Agricultural Investment Act, the Civil Corps of Engineers, the National Finance Administration, and the Wallace-Marshall Act - trusting a strong majority of farmers and rural voters to propel him to the second round, where he believes he can build a successful coalition and win reelection. He warns that victory for either of his major opponents - the Concordites on the right and the I.W.L. on the left - would spell disaster, stating that both camps want to "rob the working people of this country in the name of an idea," and vowing to continue the policies that have put "our farmers, our factory hands, and shopkeepers" back to work. On foreign policy, he proposes to stay the course: close ties to Germany and the expansion of the naval fleet in the Caribbean.

The Partido de Libertad y Solidaridad refused to nominate a candidate on principle, as did the anarchist National Czolgoszist League. The National Party of Acadia voted 14-3 not to endorse Breckinridge due to lingering ill-will with the national leadership of the Concordite Party.

[Intell]

The 1932 revolution with Regenbogen!

The failed capitalistic class and Roosevelt have failed, the working class lay in despair, with a recovery for the bourgeois and the rich.

[White Trash]

I would like to see a left-wing party with a more nationalistic tinge. Until then, Regenbogen. On a side note, how in Christ's name was Roosevelt inaugurated? How was it that some patriot didn't send this plutocrat to an early grave?

[Murica!]

Oh come on Stoker, you had one job!

Anyway, IWL.

[Mr. Smith]

Morrison, let the revolution be a peaceful one!

[anthonyjg]

Morrison, let the revolution be a peaceful one!

Sadly, I no longer believe that a peaceful revolution is possible.

Regenbogen!

[Zioneer]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

[White Trash]

Morrison, let the revolution be a peaceful one!

Sadly, I no longer believe that a peaceful revolution is possible.

Regenbogen!

This is exactly the case. We must succeed where Stoker failed. Riots MUST take place across this country to see real change.

[anthonyjg]

Morrison, let the revolution be a peaceful one!

Sadly, I no longer believe that a peaceful revolution is possible.

Regenbogen!

This is exactly the case. We must succeed where Stoker failed. Riots MUST take place across this country to see real change.

Yes comrade, the bourgeoisie shall rue the day that Roosevelt was inaugurated.

[Lumine]

While thankfully this nation has evaded the ongoing nightmare of Socialism, Roosevelt hasn't gone nearly far enough in ending its legacy. All the way with Breckinridge!

[Kingpoleon]

Roosevelt! I have sympathies with the IWL, but they would destroy the German alliance. Breckinridge is right to suggest an alliance with the British, but that is not enough to sway me.

Long live Theodore III!

[Intell]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Bump.

[Kingpoleon]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

If we hang, we hang together. Your words do not scare us.

My friends, we are quiet now, but, when we strike, we strike with a might a thousand times stronger than us. We are quiet, but we are undefeatable.

[White Trash]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

If we hang, we hang together. Your words do not scare us.

My friends, we are quiet now, but, when we strike, we strike with a might a thousand times stronger than us. We are quiet, but we are undefeatable.

The effete bourgeois attempt to threaten us! The blood of your comrades shall run in the streets plutocrat!

[Zioneer]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

I just want to keep doing what we're doing and protect the Germans from the French fascists.

[Kingpoleon]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

I just want to keep doing what we're doing and protect the Germans from the French fascists.

Indeed! If you do not vote for Roosevelt, you are No True German!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Morrison, to make it interesting.

[Intell]

Stay the course with the Square Deal!

Traitor!
Traitors shall hang in the same trees as reactionaries, when the revolution is complete!

I just want to keep doing what we're doing and protect the Germans from the French fascists.

Indeed! If you do not vote for Roosevelt, you are No True German!

Oh really,  "Their nominee is Dakota Congressman Charles Regenbogen, a fierce ally of organized labor and hero of the German-American community that once formed the backbone of the A.S.W.I. and the Democratic Party before it."