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((I agree. But my character is firmly anti-war, etc. His only proposal for international affairs is the bringing back of American troops from overseas and the use of the Commonwealth to build relationships with Democratic states and prevent international conflict. Are you an isolationist? That is distinct from Non-Interventionist.))
((Vallejo is at the borderline of interventionism and laissez faire in game terms, and he does indeed support free trade. Diplomatically he "speaks softly and carries a big stick" to paraphrase - arbitration and free diplomatic expression to avoid war is good, but he feels that having a great power sized and sometimes conspicuous military often helps to keep nations from disregarding diplomacy and charging in anyway.))
The Federal-Democratic Rally, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
My friends and countrymen, I have discussed the matter with my colleague, Mr. Hayden, and I support a coalition. With Mr. Hayden as my running mate, our combined ticket can continue to promote the values of peaceful diplomacy abroad, expanded ways for peaceful discussion and settlement in labor disputes to flourish - avoiding practices of intimidation, disruption, and violence - and the furtherance of our liberties here and with our fellow free peoples around the world.
- President Vallejo
The Federal-Democratic Rally, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
"Workingmen, hear me! President Vallejo has assured me that we shall get our seat at the table, my proposal for a National Labor Relations Board to arbitrate labor disputes will be going before Congress and our coalition can win it! Further, the right to strike shall be guaranteed by law so that no more shall violence and intimidation be the bylines of our disputes! In return, I have agreed to drop my call for protective tariffs and to meet with President Vallejo in the middle on the issue of the economy, the possibility of a tax cut is definitely on the table. I want to assure my supporters that this is a necessary compromise. We shall be guaranteeing peace in our time, for our administration shall push forward for peace in the international realm! We shall bring our boys home! No more American troops, indefinitely stationed overseas. No more imperialist adventures. From now on, the United States shall work within the Commonwealth to build relationships with democratic states and to develop an international framework to arbitrate disputes between states and prevent conflict! And most importantly, we shall prevent the wild and destructive regionalism of the Conservative Party and it's pro-Confederate membership! Our administration shall prevent the further fracturing of the American fabric. We must recognize the unique and effective nature of our federal state and protect it from the "Lost Cause" lunatics who wish to destroy it!
Free trade! Fair markets! Free people!"
-Joe Hayden
"Workingmen, hear me! President Vallejo has assured me that we shall get our seat at the table, my proposal for a National Labor Relations Board to arbitrate labor disputes will be going before Congress and our coalition can win it! Further, the right to strike shall be guaranteed by law so that no more shall violence and intimidation be the bylines of our disputes! In return, I have agreed to drop my call for protective tariffs and to meet with President Vallejo in the middle on the issue of the economy, the possibility of a tax cut is definitely on the table. I want to assure my supporters that this is a necessary compromise. We shall be guaranteeing peace in our time, for our administration shall push forward for peace in the international realm! We shall bring our boys home! No more American troops, indefinitely stationed overseas. No more imperialist adventures. From now on, the United States shall work within the Commonwealth to build relationships with democratic states and to develop an international framework to arbitrate disputes between states and prevent conflict! And most importantly, we shall prevent the wild and destructive regionalism of the Conservative Party and it's pro-Confederate membership! Our administration shall prevent the further fracturing of the American fabric. We must recognize the unique and effective nature of our federal state and protect it from the "Lost Cause" lunatics who wish to destroy it!
Free trade! Fair markets! Free people!"
-Joe Hayden
((Of course. Here's the typical coalition that squashes the other party without even needing to try.
This is really starting to annoy me.))
This is really starting to annoy me.))
((It's actually not that unlikely. Both the Democrats and federals view the ACP as an existential threat.))
((Even if we assume the Federals and Democrats keep all their votes and the ACP gain none, it's not a closed deal. The ACP was winning pretty handily, especially against the Federals, whose support sort of vanished out from under them. It's always a careful balance between coalitions which squash the opposition and lone parties which squash the divided other parties - but I think this at the moment is still up in the air.))
What has worked for the American experiment? Splitting the nation into broad regions, stifling the already established divisions of states? That worked only to cause discord before the Civil War. We seek policies instead to bring the nation together - faith in a free market with the interests of workers and capital together, brought together to discussion not by force and threats from one side or the other but out of genuine negotiation, support for our states and a clean working national bureacracy for nation issues - not a regional one to divide our land arbitrarily into 3 parts, like Gaul, peace and wisdom in our foreign affairs to support the cause of freedom around the world rather than waiting for imperialism to reach our shores or threaten our allies and partners (partners diplomatically and economically). These policies will bring only the expanded freedoms, peace, and prosperity to our Republic.
What has worked for the American experiment? Splitting the nation into broad regions, stifling the already established divisions of states? That worked only to cause discord before the Civil War. We seek policies instead to bring the nation together - faith in a free market with the interests of workers and capital together, brought together to discussion not by force and threats from one side or the other but out of genuine negotiation, support for our states and a clean working national bureacracy for nation issues - not a regional one to divide our land arbitrarily into 3 parts, like Gaul, peace and wisdom in our foreign affairs to support the cause of freedom around the world rather than waiting for imperialism to reach our shores or threaten our allies and partners (partners diplomatically and economically). These policies will bring only the expanded freedoms, peace, and prosperity to our Republic.
((Sounds vaguely corporatist... and no, I'm a non-interventionist; I want to trade and be friendly with all nations, just not ally or send foreign aid
And doesn't this unity ticket need BBB's approval?
What are the policies of this coalition going to be Laissez-faire/Free Trade/Secularism/Pro-Military/Full Citizenship, and antiwar?))
Should this coalition go through your parties leadership ((BBB)), I would want to know the policies of this unity party. If I feel it deviates too far from my own ideals, I may vote for Davis ((or simply abstain))...
And doesn't this unity ticket need BBB's approval?
What are the policies of this coalition going to be Laissez-faire/Free Trade/Secularism/Pro-Military/Full Citizenship, and antiwar?))
Should this coalition go through your parties leadership ((BBB)), I would want to know the policies of this unity party. If I feel it deviates too far from my own ideals, I may vote for Davis ((or simply abstain))...
((Yeah, waiting on BBB for whether the rally and attempts at coalition actually get accepted by party leadership as a unity ticket or not (otherwise it's just a sort of gesture of support - and if Vallejo did get elected Hayden would be his VP since he currently has no other). The ticket is definitely Full Citizenship and Free Trade, and we're fairly pacifistic (I'm not sure where our military policy would lie in game terms, in terms of actual care of the military and such - aside from not being Jingoistic). I don't recall the minute details of the religious policies that well, so someone else will have to answer for that. Economically, it's Vallejo's Free Market/Interventionism borderline - it depends on the economy and certain regional conditions, but the government doesn't want to be wantonly intervening.))
((Our religious policy is secularism. Apart from that, the rest is true.))
For the sake of fairness, I can't endorse this Unity Ticket.
A) This was supposed to be the test of the new system. I'm not going to bring the Unity tickets back to break it as they almost broke the previous system. At least, not in its first election.
B) I've already denied Projekt a chance once with a unity ticket. To do it twice is morally reprehensible, especially when he'd otherwise win.
C) Have we ever had a president who got his way in everything? I've seen the massive opposition to regionalism and teh Lost Cause. The in-story congress will reflect it.
Thus, with no new votes for either Vallejo or Hayden, I'm calling this.
The Polls are Closed.
The score is 3/6/5. Samuel Lee Davis will become the next President of the Republic.
Really though, Projekt. You could have picked a less controversial character than the son of J. L. Davis to run the ACP with. For quite a few reasons, but if we look at just in-thread, ACP-centered reasons, now you're inextricably linked to the South and the Lost Cause.
A) This was supposed to be the test of the new system. I'm not going to bring the Unity tickets back to break it as they almost broke the previous system. At least, not in its first election.
B) I've already denied Projekt a chance once with a unity ticket. To do it twice is morally reprehensible, especially when he'd otherwise win.
C) Have we ever had a president who got his way in everything? I've seen the massive opposition to regionalism and teh Lost Cause. The in-story congress will reflect it.
Thus, with no new votes for either Vallejo or Hayden, I'm calling this.
The Polls are Closed.
The score is 3/6/5. Samuel Lee Davis will become the next President of the Republic.
Really though, Projekt. You could have picked a less controversial character than the son of J. L. Davis to run the ACP with. For quite a few reasons, but if we look at just in-thread, ACP-centered reasons, now you're inextricably linked to the South and the Lost Cause.
((Argh. Couldn't wait till I got home from work could you.
EDIT: Never mind, just caught up and it wouldn't have changed anything.
For the sake of posterity my vote was for Hayden.))
EDIT: Never mind, just caught up and it wouldn't have changed anything.
For the sake of posterity my vote was for Hayden.))
((Makes sense. It was a late attempt and the Democratic party leadership probably wouldn't handle the concessions to the centrists needed to bail out Vallejo and keep the Federal support. Oh well, at least I have a dead VP to explain some of the third place showing.))
Congratulations to Mr. Davis. The American people have spoken, and I am not one to contest what they have said ((cough cough, Callahan)).
Davis: The Calm before the Storm
The results of the presidential election of 1889 were both unspectacular and shocking at the same time. Political experts did not bank on Vallejo winning, as no president since Jamous had achieved more than one term. The shock came not in the Federal Party’s poor showing outside their very core regions, but in the victory, not of Democrat Joe Hayden, but ACP candidate Samuel Lee Davis. The son of the rebels’ most prominent general had won the Presidency.
Davis did so with the support of a truly Solid South, and numerous smaller victories in Democratic states and Western Federal States. All through the West, from coast to Kansas, Davis fell either just short of being the most popular candidate, or managed to squeak through into the pole position. In the East, the most populous Democratic States, Illinois and Michigan, voted almost overwhelmingly in favor of Hayden.
Vallejo and Hayden fought a tough battle in New England, with Hayden gaining numerous smaller states, but losing Pennsylvania and New York to Vallejo in a manner similar to the way Davis had lost Illinois and Michigan [1]. Yet Davis managed to do what the other two did not, his supporters squeezing what little support they could get for a “Lost Cause Candidate” from every last county [2]. So the ACP had its President, but control of congress was still very much in the hands of the Federal Party, and the Democratic Party was sure to ally with them in the argument over regionalism.
1. Results for the Election of 1889.
Davis was an unfortunate president in that he was given no honeymoon period. He was immediately badgered by ACP congressmen demanding him to get the regional departments into law, and just as soon told bluntly by the Federal Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate that he would face an uphill battle of epic proportions if he wished to do so [3]. The Regional Departments became the defining legislative aspect of Davis’ presidency.
Davis would end up stuck between a rock and a hard place in the battle. The Federal-Democratic coalition that had formed in opposition to the Departments would accept nothing but the most severe compromise, and Davis’ own party fought compromise at every turn [4]. Even ACP gains in Congress and the Senate, after the South’s representation became nearly as solid as its support for Davis, were offset by Federal consolidation on the West Coast Senate-wise. This left the Federals and ACP both with 35 seats in the Senate [5].
By the time Speaker of the House Lennon proclaimed that Regionalization “has been beaten. Though it took the political boxing match of a lifetime, the monster of disunion is once again cowed”, the president had effectively given up. Lennon’s statement reinforced the Northern suspicion that Davis was simply trying to recapture the antebellum Southern stranglehold on Washington, a suspicion that, though held by a minority, forced the president to issue numerous statements affirming his commitment to the State v. Johnson decision of 1882.
2. Speaker of the House Matthew H. Lennon, Speaker from 1885-1895.
Considering the odds were so strongly stacked against him, Davis’ success in gaining the presidency and passing legislation outside the subject of Regionalization is quite a feat. In foreign affairs, Davis also made the best out of a relatively bad situation. The main cause of Davis’ frustration was the UPCA.
The Central Americans had regained their confidence since 1887, thinking that the argument over Regionalization heralded a second Civil War. The first step in their plan was to “liberate Central America from Northern Oppression”. The UPCA defined Colombia as Central America, and Colombia was home to the United States’ single most lucrative trade station; the Panama Canal.
Davis immediately set out to stop a second Treaty of Morelia when he heard that the UPCA was currying favor with President Ortega. Under pressure from congress, Davis forced Colombia to expel the UPCA’s ambassadors in June 1890. When the ACP protested such foreign intervention, Davis elected to do the smart thing, withdrawing from the debate while the congress ripped itself apart over the issue. Covertly, Davis also penciled in a counter to increasing UPCA dominance of Mexico. Unfortunately, it came too late to stop Emperor Pedro III from signing another treaty with Romano, furthering the cooperation between his country and the UPCA.
The United States was also faced with the fact that the peace it had brokered in South America in the late 1870s had now begun to show its benefits. The American bloc was beginning to break up, as Chile aggressively took control of its own foreign policy in the aftermath of the Bavarian War [6]. The result was that the United States, despite being ever more exponentially powerful than its South American competitors, felt much less secure.
3. The "Second Proclamation of Chilean Independence".
Economists and historians however, inevitably focus on the final months of Davis’ term. Between 1889 and September 1892, the GDP of the United States increased by 26%, slower than in the previous four years, but still a number larger than that achieved by any other nation since. The problem was that such a boom as the United States had, continuing unbroken for 30 years, was bound to experience at least a momentary hiccup. That hiccup came in October 1892.
The New York Stock Exchange crashed on October 13th 1892. To this day, the reason for the sudden panic among investors on that autumn day is covered in layers of mystery. For many economists, it has been a lifelong obsession. Currently the most common theory is that it was simply a chain reaction caused when a group of investors tried to cash out before what they thought would be the hiccup, and ended up causing it.
Seeing stocks from reliable companies being sold, big investors thought someone had found out something they didn’t know, and began selling like mad. In reaction, smaller investors began trying to cash out. Between October 13th and 19th, the DOW Jones Industrial Average, founded a mere two years earlier, dropped from 120 to 32 points. When the Panic finally ended definitively in November, it would settle at 28, an all-time low.
In Washington, each side of the political divide was just as clueless as the others. No one dared blame anyone yet, lest it came back to haunt them when the true cause of the problem was found. Not a single politician in the country that knew how to play a crowd would say anything about the creeping specter of the “ghost recession” spreading through the economy. At least, not until the National Conventions convened in December, and parties began to demand action and plans.
[1] – In Pennsylvania and New York, the overwhelming superiority of Federal supporters is theorized to have caused mass voter complacency, accounting for the unusually low voter turnout, only about 50%, in these states.
[2] – Davis’ victory was extremely unlikely considering his family background, and numerous Democratic and federal politicians accused his regional offices of being a plan to resurrect the Confederacy by breaking the Union.
[3] – Davis was criticized by members of the ACP during his presidency for being too friendly with Speaker of the House Lennon. Most chose to ignore that, while Lennon and Davis were friendly outside of Congress, when it came to legislative matters, no two politicians were more brutally and persistently at each others’ throats than the president and Speaker of the House.
[4] – The coalition was a ghostly echo of the late election proposal of a Federal-Democratic Unity ticket like that of 1877. The Unity ticket was ultimately crashed by the simple fact that the only thing the two parties could agree on was their mutual opposition to Regionalization. The coalition thus worked as a coalition only when it came to the issue of Regional Departments.
[5] – In the House of Representatives, the mid-term elections cost the Federal Party 44 seats, leaving them with a tiny lead of 6 seats over the ACP’s second place of 136 thanks to the solidity of the “Harrison States” of Pennsylvania and New York. Although the fickleness of Federal representatives from states outside the aforementioned two meant that this pole position was far from a unified bloc.
[6] – The Bavarian War is known in Germany as the War of Unification. Fought between 1887 and 1891, the war brought the Kingdom of Bavaria into the German Empire by force, albeit with vastly more self-government to avoid a bloody guerilla war like the one that had destroyed France’s Indian Empire. With the end of an independent Bavaria, Chile became the 8th richest country in the world.
---------------------------
Exceptional Situation(s):
First off: Turns out I somehow managed to do the math in such a horribly wrong way that the percentage increase for Vallejo’s term came out as 74% instead of the actual 36%. Anyway, on to the actual issues:
CRASH!!!
This is going to be one weird recession. The next term update will show just how, but for now we have to see who gets to deal with it. Parties are: Federal, ACP, Democratic.
Gosh darn. I just get this feeling I was too hard on Davis.
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Sacramento Sentinel
February 7, 1890
CHIEF JUSTICE JARVIS RETIRES
February 7, 1890
CHIEF JUSTICE JARVIS RETIRES
Late yesterday afternoon, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Henry James Jarvis (CRP), announced he is retiring at the end of this month. The ninety year old statesmen, who has served in various positions since 1835, said that "Though I still feel able to lead, to reason, and capable of protecting the people of this great state and glorious Union, my age has become a liability." Jarvis went on to say that he hopes his grandson, Congressman Joseph P. Jarvis of San Diego, will "take the helm of defending constitutionalism, limited government, and the ideals of the Founding Fathers."
Congressman Jarvis, elected to the House four years ago, serves as chairman of the California Republican Party, and is an independent on the national stage. We received news via telegram that the young Congressman hopes he can live up to his venerable grandfather's expectations.
As the readers are certainly aware, this paper has long supported the Justice, and the entire Jarvis family, and will forward to chronicling the rise of this newest scion of that great family.
((Biography of Joseph Jarvis coming later...))
This stock market crash, I assure all Americans, is unfortunately one of the vagaries of our capitalist system. As a responsible business owner, I feel that I would be an excellent candidate to help repair this mess. Among other things, I would support a lower tax rate for all Americans and might even consider a short-term tariff.
I am announcing my candidacy for the ACP nomination as President.
I am announcing my candidacy for the ACP nomination as President.
The stock market is nothing but a dream, and as we have seen, it easily turns into a nightmare. Mr. garrett says it is one of the vagaries of our system. Well, Mr. Garrett, it is a vagary that has cost many people their jobs and livelihoods. Mr. Garrett calls himself a responsible businessman. Yes responsible for the collapse of our fictional economy. And yet it is us who will pay the price, not him and the other businessman. We are better off without the stock market, letting capitalist's dreams and worker's nightmares come true. It is time for us to end the supremacy of the businessman. This is our country and it's time to take it back! It's time to end jobs and wages being gambled on by the rich. It is time for a new President! And so I, George Walsh, will be running for the Democrat nomination to take back Virginia, to take back the South, to take back America, and to take back the White House!
((Is this like a minor crash, like the texan oil crisis in the 70s, or a major crash like the 1929 one?))