The United States: 'Prophets of a New Order'

Nathan Madien: Google images.

Inner Circle: Almost there. Just a few more months.

yourworstnightm: A coup? Heavens! This is a nation of laws!

Zauberfloete: Syndicalist Mexico is just over the border, and the United States is a stepping stone to monarchist Canada for the Union of Britain...

Arilou: Ah yes, a mistake on my part. It will be corrected immediately.

Count Lake: Thank you very much.

Enewald: Prohibition party, maybe?

January – November 1936: The Presidential Election – Part IV

All four presidential candidates moved out of the convention phase of the election more determined than ever to win. Candidates toured the country, giving speeches in town after town to enormous and receptive audiences of down-and-out Americans, some of whom had been without jobs for years, others reduced to destitution and despair. Often, riots ensued at the conclusion, normally as a result of the presence of Syndicalist or 'Firster' agitation or antagonism. In more than one instance, street brawls between bands of ideological thugs had to be broken up by local police.

Every candidate had his separate narrative, and every candidate hoped to use the developing election to his advantage. Long pointed to the threat of rising Syndicalism in the United States, Reed to the international ascendance of the system and the improvements and relief his 'Reed Guards' brought to American workers. Roosevelt argued that radicalism must not be voted into power or it would tear the country apart, and that the current system had to offer relief. Curtis appealed to tradition, yet while arguing that Hoover's failure to be re-nominated marked a break from the failed policies of the past.

While the Democrats and Republicans still retained common ground which one another, and with Syndicalists and Nationals separately, neither third-party was showing any signs of reconciling their differences with one another. Quite the contrary: Long and Reed considered the existence of the other party a direct threat to the country's well-being. Violence increased, and the partisans on either side grew increasingly polarized. Worse still, both sides grew more militant. The workers' cooperatives that now controlled most Midwest and Eastern cities, 'Reed Guards' as they were colloquially titled, began arming themselves, often with mob-bought rifles and machine guns. In the South and Great Plains, 'Minutemen' militias cropped up, periodically performing drills and musters. In all cases, Reed and Long were surrounded by heavily-armed bodyguards, fanatics and zealots to either man's cause.

In this environment, General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, approached President Hoover on September 19 with a momentous option. Claiming to have the assured support and approval of most key army commanders, General MacArthur suggested that Hoover begin considering contingencies if either Reed or Long were elected President, an outcome that seemed not unlikely. Elections, MacArthur said, could be suspended for the duration of the emergency gripping the country, martial law declared in the most restless regions, and the Constitution suspended until a unity cabinet of Democrats and Republicans could solve the crisis. The fate of the country hung in the balance on the whim of a President rejected by his party and rendered politically impotent.


Despite whatever temptations MacArthur's offer may have conjured, President Hoover steadfastly and emphatically refused to consider the Chief of Staff's proposal. After rejecting it a second time after the general insisted, MacArthur was asked to leave and never speak of it to him again. Despite everything, Hoover deserves to be commended for at least sticking to his principles to the bitter end.

While the details of the meeting between MacArthur and the President remained a mystery for years to come, the country caught wind of it almost immediately. Wild speculation inundated the press. Neither MacArthur nor Hoover commented on the details of the meeting. Curtis insisted he had no forewarning of the meeting and was largely excluded from cabinet meetings. Roosevelt pointed out there was nothing unusual about the Chief of Staff visiting the White House; the Army was undergoing significant doctrinal reforms, and it was only natural the President be kept informed. The third-parties, on the contrary, grew suspicious; if the meeting was so innocuous, why the secrecy? Reed in particular was reminded of the fateful meeting at Omsk during the Russian civil war that rallied the Whites to victory against the Bolsheviks. Long, too, made accusations of a conspiracy, which Coughlin clarified to be part of the Jewish global conspiracy to take over. Tensions mounted.

January – November 1936: The Presidential Election – Part V


As election day grew near, all four major contenders for the presidency of the United States criss-crossed the country in a frenzy of campaigning. November 3rd came all too soon, and Americans headed to the polls in historic numbers to cast their vote in perhaps the most important election of the country's history.

The earliest returns did not arrive until well into the night. Most polling stations had been swamped, overwhelmed by the volume of voters. In some places, as much as 80% of the electorate came out to cast their ballot. A sleepless night was ahead for everyone involved. When the first state tallies were announced over the radios and telephones, people waited with bated breath.

New England was the first region to report in, and if early indicators were any sign of the whole, Roosevelt was leading by the widest margins, gaining a plurality in every state except Vermont, which went to Curtis. The urban centers around Boston had gone heavily to Reed, and Long came in last, apparently moving few New Englanders with his populist appeals and inflammatory mouthpiece Coughlin.

The rest of the East Coast was filled with surprises and electoral tension. Many wondered if Reed's syndicalist roots in New YorkCity were enough to upset native son Roosevelt. Just barely gaining the plurality by less than a percent, the Democrat carried the state and its bevy of electors. Florida, much to everyone's surprise, went Democrat as well, prompting panic in the Long camp. Long managed to win in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Reed gained Pennsylvania’s sizable worker vote. The rest went to Roosevelt.

As the vote tallies poured in, Long predictably clinched pluralities in the Southern states, and Reed captured the Old Northwest by comfortable margins. A spine of moderate support allowed Roosevelt to maintain West Virginia and Kentucky; across the Mississippi, Long naturally gained Louisiana and Arkansas. Roosevelt snatched Missouri away from Reed's base in St. Louis, and inched out a victory in Iowa. Minnesota, surprisingly, went to Reed.

In the Great Plains and Rockies, Roosevelt made startling gains. Texas, despite rumors of Syndicalist Mexican banditos raiding polling centers along the Rio Grande, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Rockies went Democrat, with Long's Coughlinites managing to capture only Oklahoma, and Curtis his home state of Kansas. Reed's numbers dropped substantially further west, while Roosevelt continued to gain state after state. On the West Coast, the least affected of all by the economic crisis, Curtis enjoyed his only major successes. Only Washington went to Roosevelt. By three-thirty in the morning, the final results were in.


Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Henry Wallace (Democratic Party), 26,658,197 votes (36.1%), 237 electoral
Charles Curtis - Frank Knox - (Republican Party), 8,114,560 votes (10.2%), 42 electoral
John Reed - James Cannon (American National Combined Syndicalist Party), 16,291,120 votes (22.3%), 147 electoral
Huey Long - Gerald Smith (National Populist Party), 22,955,669 (31.4%), 105 electoral
TOTAL: 74,050,547 votes (100%), 531 electoral)


In no state did any candidate gain a majority of the votes. Every candidate carried the electors by a plurality of votes. The 1936 election was a practical death-knell for the last-place Republicans. Erstwhile Republicans had flocked to the other three parties, and the few hangers-on acted as spoilers, notably in Florida and New York, which proved critical to Roosevelt's elector plurality. Only in Washington state did Curtis manage to come in second. In urban centers, Reed had naturally dominated; most major cities were already in the hands of unionized labor cooperatives. His comparatively poor popular count is due primarily to his lack of appeal to rural farmers and in the South, which refused to even print his name on the ballots in every state except Virginia and Texas. Long, of course, held strongest in the South, and only barely lost to Roosevelt in the Great Plains, whose moderate appeal and promises for reform found eager ears.

In terms of popular count, Roosevelt and Long were clear victors. Coughlin's mass-radio broadcasts were integral in rallying support for the National Party, but not enough to counteract the energetic ground campaign by the New York governor, which allowed Roosevelt to grab an unexpected but vital 44 electoral votes out of the Midwest. Reed, conversely, had resorted to old-fashioned methods: party rallies, person-to-person campaign tactics, that, while establishing a solid party base, did not win enough votes to push him over the edge. Had Reed, who surely lost some of his appeal by traveling to Paris, taken the Coughlin route, New York and even New Jersey would probably have gone Syndicalist. California and Missouri, too, could have been his had a more aggressive campaign been carried out. Roosevelt had been something of an underdog, and had much to be proud of. He emerged from the convention at a sprinting pace, endearing himself to voters and raising their hopes of a 'New Deal' that did not require American society to be torn down. Although there was strong impetus for change, traditional sentiment still carried weight.

The dust had finally settled and all the votes were counted, and the United States still did not have a President. Though Roosevelt had the most electoral and popular votes, he had not managed to gain the necessary majority of 266 electoral votes needed to become president. Thus, the election was thrown to the House of Representatives. Hopefully, they could select the next President.