The End of Freedom: The Ultimate Cost of the Great Depression

[Vepres]

I love this!

Just one little formatting complaint. For the larger updates, could you separate paragraphs by a blank line? The walls of text are easy to get lost in.

[Mechaman]

If you think this TL has rocked the sh*t out of you lately YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET.  You better have a vomit bag ready for the next few months.......

[Yelnoc]

I don't understand why Roosevelt wasn't immediately chosen as the PCA's candidate, I mean he did create the whole thing himself.

But still, one of the best, most chilling timelines I have ever read.  Keep it up!

[Vepres]

I should add that I'm really enjoying the large story arc that transcends elections.

[Mechaman]

I don't understand why Roosevelt wasn't immediately chosen as the PCA's candidate, I mean he did create the whole thing himself.

But still, one of the best, most chilling timelines I have ever read.  Keep it up!

Winds of changes are unpredictable, as the next few months of updates will show.....

[Mechaman]

I should add that I'm really enjoying the large story arc that transcends elections.

Thanks for all of your formatting advice btw.
It has helped make my TL's more distinctive.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Huh, what did happen exactly ? I feel lost after the two last updates...

[Mechaman]

Huh, what did happen exactly ? I feel lost after the two last updates...

Those last two entries aren't meant to be clear.  If it was it wouldn't be as chilling.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Huh, what did happen exactly ? I feel lost after the two last updates...

Those last two entries aren't meant to be clear.  If it was it wouldn't be as chilling.

Yes, don't destroy the atmosphere, Tony

Mecha is currently in his Ozzy phase; let is be.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ok, sorry but please update it soon !

[Mechaman]

Huh, what did happen exactly ? I feel lost after the two last updates...

Those last two entries aren't meant to be clear.  If it was it wouldn't be as chilling.

Yes, don't destroy the atmosphere, Tony

Mecha is currently in his Ozzy phase; let is be.

If you could be inside my head
You'd see that black and white is red.

[Vepres]

Do I sense time travel entering into the mix

[Mechaman]

Do I sense time travel entering into the mix

Urrrr maybe...........
I admit that the idea to do this timeline in the first place arose after listening to Operation: Mindcrime.  I am usually blasting thought provoking metal music when I write these timelines (I was actually listening to Diary of a Madman when this newest idea came to me, which is very odd considering that this TL is about an America that falls under near fascist rule while the overall theme of Diary of a Madman is insanity (then again what Ozzy album isn't about insanity?).

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

(then again what Ozzy album isn't about insanity?).

Hm.... none?

[Mechaman]

General Election Season 1940:

The general election season of 1940 would prove to be one of the most divisive in US history.  Both coalitions had regions solidly behind them: The UAC had the traditional Soild South and the PCA had the Northeast.  The rest of the nation was very split over the two tickets.  However, not everything went according to plan for either party.

For one, the weeks leading up to the PCA Convention it was almost a given that prominent member Franklin Roosevelt, former Liberty Party Governor of New York, would be nominated for President.  However, the days leading up to the election the differences between the different factions of the Progressive Conservative Alliance began to show.  Most of the party seemed to be behind Roosevelt until David Walsh, an Irish Catholic conservative Democrat, refused to endorse Roosevelt who he saw as a "pure opportunist" for his record of opposing Tammany Hall and then supporting it to get elected governor before opposing it once again when it became the popular thing to do.  This would result in a vicious back and forth between the two men before Roosevelt would make his infamous "greedy machine loving paddy" gaffe:

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Anti-Roosevelt forces would immediately pick up on the message and start playing it on the radio in urban areas.  The result was an active "drop Roosevelt" movement that first started with outraged Irish Catholics who suspected Roosevelt of holding the same anti-Catholic beliefs as the UAC until the momentum helped sprout up various other conservative and progressive factions.  After many years of being shut out of office and government aggression against urban machines, Irish Catholic politicians, many of whom were former Democrats and Liberty Party members, found themselves to be the power brokers in this infant alliance.  After 12 years of Hoover and Murray oppression they now had a political vehicle to advance their policies.

However, conservative Republicans, some of whom also were suspicious of Irish Catholic Democrats who controlled urban machines, refused to get behind the Walsh Democrats.  As Robert Taft put it "There is a very real danger that, as racially and religiously openminded many of these Catholic Democrats are, inevitably they could become a self interest group."  Stuck at the 10th ballot without any consensus amongst the conservative factions, the Walsh Democrats finally decided to suggest a compromise candidate to the conservative Republican factions: Republican Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, a libertarian Republican.  The conservative factions would agree, Bridges would seem to "bridge" the different conservative factions and pull of an upset over Roosevelt who faced opposition from various progressive factions.

The Bridges/MacArthur ticket, however, would be very dull.  By September the Jackson ticket would hold a steady lead over the Bridges/MacArthur ticket in every place but the American Northeast and the Midwest.  It seemed as though the once hopeful alliance's chances at the election polls was drifting further away by the day........

Until September 18th, 1940 when documents were leaked to the press about secret meetings between then Secretary of State Edward Jackson and Giuseppe Zangara, the man who put FDR into a coma for almost five years............

[Mechaman]

At a bar in Washington D.C.
September 18th, 1940:

The bloke walked into the pub and took a seat at the bar.  The chap was wearing a tweed jacket and pants.  The barmaid noticed him immediately.
Barmaid: (in a Yankee accent) Hey Johnny, same as usual?
Johnny: (strong British accent) Yeah rum and coke as usual Kate.
Kate: That stuff is going to screw you up someday babe, you should really cut back on it.
Johnny: Oh please love, I've been drinking this stuff since I was a pup in Birmingham.
Kate: It must've been hard leaving I imagine and coming all the way over here.
Johnny: Yeah, after everything that's happened in the past ten years or so I think I might've regretted that a tid bit.
Kate slaps his hand.
Kate: Not too loud Johnny, you're beginning to sound like one of them Progressive Conservative nutters.  By chance, how is that invention of yours going?
Johnny laughs.
Johnny: Oh right.......the Continuous Engine: which will if successful dramatically reduce oil consumption for automobile owners.
Kate: Honey, who the hell is ever going to own enough dough to get a car nowdays?
Johnny: You'd be surprised.
Then the news came out of the radio.
Radio: Today National News Headquarters received a very disturbing document linking the Murray Administration with Giuseppe Zangara, the man arrested for trying to kill Franklin Roosevelt five years ago.  The document claims of Mr. Zangara being present at a meeting with Secretary of State Edward Jackson in December of 1934.  Jackson claims that at the time the two were discussing the possibility of an internship at the White House as a Chef and had no idea at the time that Mr. Zangara was a hired gun of Tammany Hall, the organization jailed in 1936 for "mass conspiracy to overthrow the government of New York".  Today Progressive Conservative member Nelson Rockefeller voiced skepticism towards Jackson's remarks, claiming it was "a little too convenient".  More as this story unfolds.
Kate's jaw drops to the floor.
Kate: Oh my god.  I can't imagine what the election will be like now.
Johnny smiles.
Johnny: Babe, it will be quite the Big Bang.

Santa Monica, California
At a bar:

The man continued to mull over this most recent turn of events as he played a Mozart classic on the club piano.  He was a pretty short man, no taller than 5'4" and no bigger than 104 lbs, many mistook him for a kid.  Very interesting this turn of events, he thought.  Suddenly the bar owner, Michael Wallace, spoke up.
Wallace: Hey Will!  Can you believe this sh*t about the Murray Administration and that Zugagoboogbu guy!?  It's crazy!  Man I actually feel kind of scared for my life now.
The short man, known as William Jackson to his friends, spoke up.
Jackson: I don't really care that much about politics, it's all the same to me man: Democrat, Republican, United American Coalition, Progressive Conservative Alliance, Fookdis Imadrunk Party......you name it man.  I just want to stay here in Santa Monica and play classical music.
Wallace: You got to admit though the curfew sucks.
Jackson: That it does Mike, that it does.
William Jackson continued playing his piano, trying to forget the course in which history has shifted.

[Yelnoc]

Muy interesante.

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

I want to vote for the Fookdis Imadrunk Party!:P

Very interesting, keep it coming!

[pbrower2a]

Until now I had thought that potentially the most dangerous man in American history was the charismatic KKK leader David C. Stephenson. Of course one of his political proxies, Ed Jackson, Klan-era Governor could have played a role in this timeline.

[Mechaman]

General Election Season 1940, Fallout:

Due to the fallout from the revelations of a meeting between Zangara and the Jackson Administration, public skepticism of the administration went to an alltime high, especially in the northeast.  Furthermore, the costs on the populace due to rationing caused by the war with Canada and Great Britain, many were finding the noninterventionist platform of the PCA to be very appealing.  Though the ticket of Bridges/MacArthur were considered dull and uncharismatic, people were skeptical of the number of "conspiracists" who had been arrested in the past few years and noticing how all those involved were usually enemies of the previous Murray Administration or had spoken out against it.  By mid October, the race was dead even between the tickets.

October 18th, 1940
At a UAC rally in Princeton, New Jersey:

Jackson: Let me warn you good people that these Progressive Conservatives, such an oxymoron if I ever heard of it (chuckles) seek to radicalize this humble society into something we should fear the most: a socialistic state that rivals that of the Soviet State in opposing decent moral and tradition.  This administration has done nothing but defend the American people from the corrupt forces of evil and greed that had long ruled over the American people with impunity, the PCA wishes not only to stop this trend but to further embolden these criminals.

October 24th, 1940
PCA rally in Seattle Washington:

Bridges: Do not pay heed to any of President Jackson's words, for it is all falsehoods.  Just like the record of the past seven years.  During a time of economic hardship the Murray Administration initated a program the so-called "New Society" to alter our decent and liberty loving American society.  Never since the era before the Civil War have minority populations like the negro or the Irish Catholic been held to such a subhuman level of basic rights and liberty.  Never since the American Civil War has the National Guard been used at such an extent, even in times of peace.  Never since the American Civil War has their been such a state of martial law and order throughout these United States.  And never before in our entire recorded history have we willingly jumped into an alliance with a great evil as Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in a war that American boys have no business dying in!?  America, have you had enough!?
Crowd roars with approval.

The election was nearing it's conclusion, however nobody could've predicted what would happen on November 5th, 1940..........

[Mechaman]

October 27th, 1940:

William Jackson is out walking back to his place late at night when suddenly he hears a voice.
Voice: HEY YOU!  What are you doing out past curfew?
Oh christ, curfew was changed to 10......it was now 11:40.
Jackson: I just got out of work....at the bar y'know?  That one place that is used to operate with a sane curfew of 11:30?
Officer: Son......watch it.  We are the law.  Curfew regulations are real strict here these days.  Never know when a Canuck might try to infiltrate this place.
Jackson: I am 38 years old, why you calling me son?  Also, I got a permit to operate at late night hours.
He hands the officer an "Afterhours Permit".  The officer nods silently, pauses for a few seconds while looking and then hands it back.
Officer: "Name: William Jackson, Age: 38, Occupation: Bar Musician".
Jackson: Great, can I go now?
Officer: Sorry Mister Jackson, but this is expired.
Jackson: What?
Officer: Yes, this expired three days ago.
Sh*t.
Officer: Sir, I'm going to have to take you in.
Jesus Christ, I hate curfew..........

October 28th, 1940
Frank's Bar in Washington D.C.

The man known as "Johnny" enters the bar and takes his usual place on the bar stool.  The barmaid, a young woman named Kate Peters, gives him the customary smile.
Kate: Hey Johnny, I missed you last week.
Johnny: Sorry love, science work is very stenuous and time consuming these days.  Next week I'm going to California to help with experimenting ways to create solar energy.
Kate: How long are you going to be gone?
Johnny clears his throat and then looks down, finding it hard to tell this girl, who he has known for the past six months, how long he would be gone.
Johnny: Indefinitely...........
When he finally got the courage to look up at her he saw, to his dismay, a tear going down her face.
Kate: I'm sorry (sobbing), it's just these past few months I just feel like we were ya'know.........
Johnny: Going somewhere?
Kate: Yes.
Damn it, I can't leave her behind like this.  She's way too close.
Johnny: Well we could go to California........
Kate: Yes, I guess we could......
She takes off her apron and walks out from behind the bar and holds Johnny's hand.
And onto California they went.

November 4th, 1940
ScienceCorp Laboratory, Santa Monica, California
9:15 PM:

Johnny is busy working when one of his new colleagues, Frank Drebin, an expert in Thermodynamics, calls for him.
Drebin: Hey John!  We have to go now!
Johnny: What the hell?
Drebin: Curfew is at 10, last time I checked you didn't have an "Afterhours Permit".
Johnny: Ten f***ing O'Clock!?  That's f***ing insane!  And I need a permit?  How do you people f***ing survive out here?
Drebin: Haha, I'm surprised the moral police haven't broken your ass yet.  I'm not sure how they are back in DC buddy, but here the authorities take their job seriously.  If you are caught walking the streets after curfew with no permit, your ass will be hauled off to jail.
Johnny: Motherf***ing politicians.......it's a bloody miracle I came over here in the first place without customs sticking their damned hands up my ass to see if I was carrying illicit drugs into this country.
Drebin: Just the other day man, a friend of mine, William Jackson, was hauled off to the county jail for having an expired permit.  No fine, just straight off to jail.  He's still there.  I hope the Progressive Conservative Alliance kicks some major ass tomorrow in both the presidential and congressional elections or we may be seriously screwed in the future.
Johnny: Politics, I hate it.  Well at least this election is bound to shake up the political establishment.
Drebin: How do you figure?
Johnny: Oh just a gut feeling I have.  I guess I should get going, I have a missus waiting at home for me.......or are there regulations against that too?
Drebin laughs.
Drebin: Not that I know of.

November 4th, 1940:

William Jackson is in an interrogation room at an FBI office in Los Angeles, California.
All of this for an expired permit? he thought.
An FBI agent enters the room and slams the door behind him.  His name take reads "Smecker".
Smecker: Son, you got a lot of explainin to do.
Jackson: I told you I'm William Jackson a piano club player......
Smecker: Yeah yeah yeah, okay Mister William Jackson of Santa Monica, California....why can't I find any birth certificates with your name on them?
Oh sh*t............
Smecker: Care to explain that Mister Jackson, if that is your real name?
Jackson: I uh........
Smecker: Let me guess, you're a damn Canuck, eh?
Jackson: I'm not telling you sh*t.
Agent Smecker comes up behind Jackson and slams his face into the steel table, breaking his nose.
Smecker: Alright, fine........lock him in solitary confinement indefinitely.
No matter what, I can't let the truth come out.......

[Yelnoc]

Holy sh**t....

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

This one's gone just a wee bit off the deep end for my tastes.

[Yelnoc]

How did we get here?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Opinion of Sci-Fi elements

Interesting.       0 (0%)
Meh, neutral.       0 (0%)
Dude WTF?       6 (100%)