A Different America: 1948 Presidential election General election thread

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Michael Feinberg hadn't been able to get too excited about who the Republican nominee was. As a New Yorker it would stand to reason that he should support Dewey yet he couldn't help but feel that there was something untrustworthy and shallow about him, something that reminded him of the blue blooded bastards who looked down his nose when he'd made the mistake of trying to join a Young Republicans Club in Manhattan back in high school. It baffled him that these blue bloods could claim the mantle of the Party of Lincoln. Just as they'd look down their nose at any Yid, Mick or Dago that tried to join them yesterday they surely would have thought that Honest Abe himself was a plainspoken backwoods hick and thrown him to the curb. He was also a proven loser. Although many would chalk it up to the war being in it's final year anybody should have been able to see that FDR was in poor health and a better candidate might have won easily.

One thing he knew for certain was that under no circumstances could he bring himself to vote for Robert Taft. The isolationists were an enigma to him, he never understood how you could claim to be serious about fighting communism while also wanting to withdraw from the world. As far as Feinberg was concerned Taft and his ilk had been a fifth column for Berlin and Tokyo in 1941 and were a fifth column for Moscow today. He'd sooner vote for that schmuck Truman who at least showed some commitment to containment! Ultimately he would have preferred MacArthur to be the nominee but was happy to settle for Warren who seemed a better choice to head the ticket then the man on the wedding cake.

Whoever won though he knew he served at the pleasure of J Edgar Hoover. He'd only been in the bureau six months and already he'd heard enough to know the old queer had more power then any president. He was glad and eager to prove his loyalty on the coming undercover assignment in Chicago. Although New York was the major thoroughfare for left-wing radicals in the United States he knew it wouldn't be safe for him to be assigned there as he'd run the risk of being recognized. He dreaded the thought of leaving Rachel behind but knew it was necessary for the sake of the free world.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Am I allowed to continue the action? Because I already have some ideas in mind for what to have Feinberg do next.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Michael Feinberg's instincts had proven him right again. The man that he befriended that night at the Anarchist meeting was a young Polish immigrant named Jan Sikorsky. Posing as a local Jewish radical Feinberg introduced himself and they got to talking. It turned out that Sikorsky had family members who had fought in the Polish resistance against the Nazis during the war who had been murdered. Politically he seemed confused and Feinberg was unable to place him except to realize that he seemed to be left-wing and have a distrust of both the United States and the Soviet Union and a particularly intense hatred of everything German, a hatred that he assumed Feinberg as a Jew would naturally share. Although Feinberg found him to be a bit mishigas he began to develop an affection for him given that he himself had relatives who had been murdered in the holocaust. He relayed as many reports back to Hoover as possible who ordered 24/7 surveillance.

One night when enough information had been gathered Feinberg along with several other agents from the Chicago field office tailed him to Grant Park and cornered him in a secluded corner where he was sending messages over a short wave radio. Sikorsky broke down almost immediately, he admitted that he was a KGB agent. He'd been recruited by the Soviets during the war and requested an assignment to the US with the hope of eventually seeking immunity. He also admitted that he'd deliberately been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to lead them right to him. He offered to turn double and insisted that he had a treasure trove of information both on the Soviet Union and on various political factions in the US ranging from the far-right to the anti-Stalinist left that he'd been assigned to keep tabs on, of particular interest to Feinberg was his close ties to Gerald O'Connor, a Democratic congressional candidate. It turned out that the two were friends, having worked together at the CFL and attended the same church. He just wanted assurance that he'd never have to return to Poland, it turned out that his family really had been murdered by the Nazis and the ones that hadn't had been sent to the gulag. Feinberg vowed to do everything he could for him and relayed the information back to Hoover who rewarded him with a promotion back to the National Office in DC. Feinberg could not believe his luck.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

OOC : Also, I have an infobox and iirc, that'd help you increase your points and stuff, so if I need to PM it to you, I'll send it to you Jason as it's in my Wikipedia Sandbox.

Yea just PM it to me and you'll get your points

Alright, just sent. Also, do you think you can clear up a few of the questions we had since we were essentially clueless starting out today.

Seconding this message.

thirded