E Pluribus Unum - An Interactive AAR

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USA History, Inspired partly by the Kasierreich's AAR Prophets of a New Order, and partly by the Kasierreich Wiki: Written by Servant.

Recomended listening for this Update We didn't start the Fire

May 7 1915: Point of Departure. RMS Lusitania unharmed in German submarine attack. President Woodrow Wilson lodged a formal protest. While Germany did not formally apologize, Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg promised that unrestricted submarine warfare would be halted in the future. Satisfied, the United States decided to drop the matter, and remained neutral.

November 1916: The Republican Party, in order to win support from the Progressive Party, nominated Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt campaigned on a promise to stop "German bullying" and restore American honor, but most of the population was isolationist. Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) was re-elected to a second term, on the campaign platform to keep the United States out of the Great War, however the United States still kept on exporting goods to the Entente, becoming an "unofficial ally".

Fall 1919: Lacking any official American aid or troops, the Entente lost the war in Europe. Both Italy and France unconditionally surrendered to Germany, leaving the United Kingdom as the last Entente power. The United States' economy suffered as it was dependent on exporting to Entente countries.

Germany, angered at the United States' "de facto" support for the Entene, and desiring to ensure its continued economic prosperity and dominance, unofficially embarked on a policy of denying as many markets to the United States as possible

November 1920: Woodrow Wilson's economic reforms proved unpopular in the United States. Debates were held over the "Adamson Act" and other policies that many felt were too pro-labor. The Democratic Party nominated James Cox, a Governor interested in promoting these reforms, while the Republicans fought back against Progressive influence and nominated Warren G. Harding, a conservative interested in promoting economic growth. Warren G. Harding won the election, as Harding called for a "return to normalcy".

December 1920: Emiliano Zapata, a Socialist, wins Presidential elections in Mexico. Trade between Mexico and the United States dropped, hurting the US economy greatly.

February 1921: The Democratic Party filibustered the proposed Harding reforms, which included the repeal of the Adamson Act. William G. Harding, incensed at the Democrats halting his preferred economic policies, proposed the Cloture Rule to get around the filibuster. Labor unions declared a general strike in support of the filibuster and against the Harding reforms.

March 1921: The Cloture Rule was adopted. Despite the Senate's preference that the cloture rule require a 2/3rd majority, Harding successfully pressured for the cloture rule only requiring 60% of the vote to be invoked. The Harding reforms sailed through.

June 1921: A series of anarchist bombings occurred throughout the United States. Worried that the situation was escalating out of control, Harding finally caved into pressure and negotiated with the strikers.

July 1921: Harding and the Union agreed to an economic deal to curb the excesses of the Harding Reforms and the restoration of the Adamson Act. The general strikes was finally called off, and the US economy began a slow process of recovery.

November 1921: Faced with stalemate in the Middle East, and Syndicalist revolutions in both Italy and France, the United Kingdom and Germany signed the "Peace with Honor", ending the Great War. While technically a "white peace", it was obvious Germany won, as all of Germany's colonial gains were recognized.

November 1924: William G. Harding was re-elected to a second term, facing token opposition from the Democratic nominee, Alfred Smith. Alfred Smith was however backed by the Progressives.

March 1925: Faced with numerous war debts and the lack of trading partners (both France and southern Italy fell under Syndicalist rule), the United Kingdom defaulted on its loans and declared bankruptcy. Both the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange crashed, and the United States officially fell into a recession after struggling with sluggish growth.

September 1925: A minor labor strike in the coal fields of South Wales quickly escalated into a general strike. The British Empire could not afford the concessions that William G. Harding can make, and tried to crack down on the general strike. The royal family was forced to flee to Canada, and the syndicalist Union of Britain was born. Relations with Canada was strained, as President William G. Harding sought to demand that Canada begin to repay its war loans inherited from the United Kingdom.

March 1926: Germany intervention in China led to the restoration of the Qing Dynasty, now as a puppet. William G. Harding wanted to assist Germany in the invasion, in the hopes of securing American interests. However, isolationist pressures forced him to drop the matter. During the ensuring peace treaty, the Legation Cities was established as a place where foreign powers can trade. With access to new markets that was previously closed due to the chaos of the Chinese Civil War, the United States see a chance to recover from the economy. However, Germany's complete dominance over China, coupled with the German policy of denying markets to the United States, closed any chance of the US making any economic gains.

November 1928: After 8 years of Republican misrule, the people demand change. Alfred Smith, backed by Progressives a second time, was renominated by the Democratic Party. Despite being a career politician and connections to corrupt "Tammany Hall", Alfred Smith promised to implement a "New Deal" and abolish the Harding Reforms entirely. The Republican party was heavily influenced by William G. Harding, and nominated Charles Evans Hughes as his successor. However, Alfred Smith won in a landslide (55% of the vote).

1930: The success of Alfred Smith's "New Deal" was lukewarm, at best. In order to pay for Progressive reforms, Alfred Smith conducted budget cuts in "non-essential areas" and implemented high tariffs. Latin American countries decided to stop trading with the United States in protest of the tariffs, and instead started trading with Germany. The United States still remained in recession.

Any further attempt at reforms or economic relief were dashed in 1930 when scandal struck the Smith Administration with allegations that the President had authorized the Secretary of the Interior to allow Sinclair Oil Company to tap a Wyoming oil field ostensibly set aside as a naval reserve for a quarter million dollars in interest-free loans, essentially bribes.

1932:

Investigations in the Teapot Dome Scandal dragged on for over a year, and Smith was never conclusively linked to the deal, but the damage had been done. His reelection bid in 1932 was crushed by Republican Herbert Hoover, who managed to win every state but New York and, ironically, Wyoming. Few gave it much thought at the time, but the Socialist Party candidate James Maurer of Pennsylvania made substantial electoral gains, the party’s voter turnout nearly doubling since 1928. In the solidly Democratic South, too, there had been much discontent over renominating Smith, preferring William Murray of Oklahoma, whose nationalist and blatantly racist platform drew large numbers of supporters.

1934:

The Hoover Administration proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Hoover's promised government intervention never materialized. At first, things were promising. Hoover managed to lower national interest rates and tariffs by nearly half, sparking a surge in corporate investment. However, the Administration foolishly responded to the looming budget deficit by raising taxes on the lower and middle class brackets. With unemployment hovering at approximately twelve percent, domestic consumption nose-dived and stock prices plummeted as countless new businesses quickly declared bankruptcy, with banks now stuck with the insolvent loans. Unemployment sharply spiked as more businesses went under, as did the number of home foreclosures in rural regions due to the massive ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl wreaking havoc on the Great Plains.

By 1934, the Hoover Administration was practically impotent. Congress remained deadlocked as both parties squabbled over reciprocal allegations of corruption and finger-pointing for the sudden, sharp economic downturn. Unemployment had capped at twenty-five percent and banks began to go under with increasing rapidity. Huge numbers of dispossessed farmers began flocking from the dust-choked Midwest for California; the West Coast was one of the few areas not seriously hurt by the pronounced recession, chiefly as a result of trade with Japan, lured tens of thousands with promises of jobs and economic opportunity. Unrest was growing, and radicalism soon appeared on the scene. In the 1934 congressional midterms, it was apparent just how far the situation had deteriorated. Both Democrats and especially Republicans lost ground to independent candidates. From the industrialized Midwest came several Socialists and avowed syndicalists, while the Deep South and rural Great Plains brought ultra-nationalists authoritarians and populist demagogues into the fray. With the domestic crisis growing day by day, the 1936 presidential election took on a whole new importance.

 

[OAM]

I will join the Technocracy Political.

Excellent, I have a friend who will join us shortly after he signs on and I give him the links, bringing us to three memebers

 

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The NSFW does feel that States should be given the rights to patrol their own borders, to raise militias and to deal with Federal Troops and Agencies on their soil in a positive, affirmative manner where the State knows that it is in control.

I have a question, does that mean state run crime?

 

[TRP]

Congratulations on getting your new AAR going alexon, and what a start it is!

We ourselves will not be participating in the game (obviously), yet we will follow it from a safe distance.

By the way this AAR is going the "TRP Friends" list in our sig.


Cheers,

-Vincent and Laurence, Totally Random Productions

 

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@Kovan Could you please rephrase your question? I don't quite get your meaning.

 

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@Kovan Could you please rephrase your question? I don't quite get your meaning.

Do states control crime as in there is only state run crime and not nation wide crime?

 

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States would independently prosecute criminals. Criminals known to have fled to other states would find the constabulary of the that state informed of his flight. There would be differing sentences as dependant on state law, but ideally there would be no Federal agency concerned with Criminals. There is very little change involved in this particular scenario from the current way the law is setup.

 

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This is a decent idea theoretically, but has large practical problems. What incentive would there be for individual states to remove the criminals back to their homes for prosecution? If Oregon noticed that a mass murderer had left the state, they wouldn't exactly be chomping at the bit to get him to come back to Oregon. They would say 'Let him cause problems in Idaho. We don't like those corn-crunchers anyway.' Also, without a National Supreme Court, cases with political or social angles/elements would make the administration seem tyrannical.

 

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USA History, Inspired partly by the Kasierreich's AAR Prophets of a New Order, and partly by the Kasierreich Wiki: Written by Servant.

I didn't publish it since I wanted to wait to determine what parties the "Democratic" and "Republican" party will merge into, but I realize, after you posted it, that ending the timeline at 1936 means that the players can basically imagine the two parties imploding from within, and the different branches of the parties spilitting off and doing their own things.

However, I will need to add in some new events that basically declares that the government, in 1937, has changed the term length for Senators from 6 years to 2 years, to justify the constant turnover every 2 years (in OTL, only a third of the senate is up for re-election every 2 years). I'll need to link the Teapot Scandal with lots of Senators to justify such a movement.

 

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States would independently prosecute criminals. Criminals known to have fled to other states would find the constabulary of the that state informed of his flight. There would be differing sentences as dependant on state law, but ideally there would be no Federal agency concerned with Criminals. There is very little change involved in this particular scenario from the current way the law is setup.

This would only support more secessionist movements within states. If a criminal in Texas kill 20 people, runs to Louisiana and no one arrest him because the law allows it then the state might intervene and attack the other state causing a hit to national unity. all you have done with this plan is create a American federation than a united America and last time that happened we had a civil war.

 

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If Oregon noticed that a mass murderer had left the state, they wouldn't exactly be chomping at the bit to get him to come back to Oregon.

You misunderstood the point. If 'Slit-your-throat' Joe runs to Idaho, the Sheriff in Bordersville Oregon rings the Sheriff in Othersideoftheline, Idaho and says 'Watch out, you got trouble comin'. It's then up to Idaho to deal with Joe as they see fit.

RE: Supreme Court. - The NSFW does not support the abolition of the Supreme Court for the reasons you have given - the Federal Administration needs to be able to be held to account by the States. That said however it does not support organisations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

@Kovan.

How states deal with fleeing troublemakers is up to them if they deal with them at all. A bounty system might be agreed upon, or certain states might sign bilateral agreements to hand over troublemakers who cross their mutual border, regardless of whether differences in the law mean that the person has commited no crime in their new State. That's up to the States to decide.

I think people are not so wicked as you seem to think.

The NSFW will not comment further.

 

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How states deal with fleeing troublemakers is up to them if they deal with them at all. A bounty system might be agreed upon, or certain states might sign bilateral agreements to hand over troublemakers who cross their mutual border, regardless of whether differences in the law mean that the person has commited no crime in their new State. That's up to the States to decide.

This law is in place now, besides the new military but this will only provoke confilct. There are thousands of criminals and massive mafia organizations. If two rival political states argue and bicker, one of the two would be proud to hold a gang/mafia in there region resulting in state wide conflict and a possible military act from one state to another. what must happen is a nation wide police force backed by minor police forces in counties or districts, this way the forces will never get to large and will be better at controling there regions while the national police force could go around doing what they must do by crossing states and counties.

 

[C_c]

American Nationalist Progressive Party
Party goals and plans for American recovery.

• Abolition of Gold Standard: Taking the US currency off the gold standard. Part of the Depression is believed to be from speculative attacks on the dollar (massive selling off of currency assets be investors) caused by rigid adherence to the Gold Standard.
• Agricultural Management: Mandated use of crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops and soil conservation to restore agricultural regions devastated by the Dust Bowl and to prevent a repeat catastrophe.
• Stock Market Oversight: Stricter oversight and regulation to halt speculative trading, which pushed stock prices higher to the breaking point. Require stocks to be purchased with solid funds on hand.
• Revive Trading: Attempt to restart trading with Latin and South America, and Germany. Reduction of protective tariffs.
• Productive Public Works Project: Government funded work on improving and building vital infrastructure, air and naval ports, factories (1/4 available IC to these ventures), and consumer goods to reduce dissent (1/2 available IC).
• Military Expansion: Employment on upgrading and construction of military vehicles and equipment(1/4 available IC).
• 'Working Technology': Investment in technology that will create jobs. Military upgrades, new installations (radar, rocket, nuclear, etc. With five techteams, 1 Doctrine, 1 Infantry, 1 Air, 2 Facilities (IC increase, synthetic oil, rocket/radar/nuclear, etc).
• Passage of the Human Rights Act (modeled off the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: *All humans are born free and equal with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and security. *Make discrimination by gender, race, color, religion, language, belief, birth, or any other means, in any situation, illegal. *Make the use of torture and cruel, degrading inhuman treatment of any kind, in any situation, illegal.

 

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POLITICAL PLAN SUPPORTED BY UAP
Creation of a grand council

Power granted to the grand council
-Consists of 3 senior members and 5 junior members
-Run by ruling party
-Members consist of: Generals, Former Governors/Senators, and Scientists
-They create plans which are then sent to all branches of the government
-If congress accepts the plans then they are put in affect unless seen unconstitutional by the supreme court
-If congress disapproves, the supreme court and the president must approve to put this plan into action
-If the Council wishes to contest a law created by the supreme court, they can not veto it but change it and this change must be approved by congress
-Any bill passed by congress and is vetoed by the president can be over turned by 6 votes from the council members granting there support
-Has the ability to vote out any supreme court members if they have opposed the will of the union.

*plans consist of technology paths, military plans, foreign relations

 

[Avatar Federal]

The Buddhist Peace Party, prompts a question to the different parties, and citizens of these United States?

What good, has war, ever brought to the American people?

In every war the American people has participated in, we have gained, territory, money, and "glory" covered in the blood of fathers and sons. The countless civilians dead and dying.

How much longer, must we have our fathers, and brothers killed for inches, or national prestige?

In the Civil War, 620,000 soldiers were killed, I do not say men, because a large number of them were not above age 20. People, who had families, loved their wives, and children. Loved their fathers, and mothers.

This does not quantify the sorrow of losing a family member, or the numerous civilian casualties.

Which is why, we ask, Why will we continue to build up our military strength? What is the goal? If it's an ideal of territorial self-defense, volunteers may choose to fight and create militia. But the Buddhist Peace Party, will resist forms of aggression by REJECTING a Standing Army.

Recently, a few parties have suggested seceding from the Union. We are saddened by this, surely, some compromise can be made to unite the nation, again. This being said, we will use force on no one, so long as a majority wishes to secede.

I hope we can all work to think clearly, and avoid conflict.

I beseech, all lovers of peace, prosperity, and good will, to join the Buddhist Peace Party.

-Rev. Thich Lanh Minh
Abbot of the Order of Interbeing

(OOC Note: In case anyone is curious, most of this is based off the teachings of Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, and his own Order of Interbeing.)

 

[coz1]

We need to get some game up fairly soon folks. Realpolitik had a game post within 2 pages. We are on five and still planning. While we want to allow for said planning, we need to get moving sooner rather than later so we don't see pages and pages without any actual AAR. RPG's already have a place.

 

[serutan]

Politicians do not tend to compromise. At all.

That's only been true for the past 10-15 years. Before that, compromise was the lifeblood of American politics. For example, John Kennedy and Barry Goldwater were bitter political enemies and close personal friends. Lyndon Johnson used to have drinks at the White House with Everett Dirksen (Senate Minority Leader).

Hence why partisanship is such an issue in the US parliamentary system.

It is a huge issue now. And at some point it will likely wreck the country if it keeps up.

BTW, since this is the US operating under the Constitution of OTL, I'm wondering why there is any debate on elections; i.e. why Congressional elections would be anything but 2 years, and President 4. The only reason to deviate from this that I could see would be a successful revolution/ losing the Civil War. I will point out that no elections were cancelled in the 1860s, so I don't think canceling elections while a Civil War was in progress would have to happen.

Another thought on parties and the Civil War (if it happens, and the democratic US wins) : Parties that choose the losing side(s) would be banned for one Presidential election cycle, then would be allowed to participate again.

 

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*radio* Ladies and gentlemen this is President Hoover, with the state of the union address. This year will be a difficult for the union, and will be my last state of the union address. I will not be running for re-election. Instead both congress and the president’s office will be open for election on March the third.



I will not lie to you, the state of our nation is a difficult one, and the time for action is here. In Europe the French have elected a man who wished to see that his syndicalist ideals are spread all over the world. America will be a pivotal force in this political movement, either for it, or against it.



In our own nation today the unionists marched on the capitol to demand that more jobs be created. At the present time 25% of the country is out of work, and although unemployment is falling, the government has failed its people in that regard.

To the south we must decide whether to keep peace in Central and South America, or to stay out of it. We must also deal with the differing opinions and secessionist voices within our own borders. To those that are running for election, I say this to you. Do what is right for the people, and the people will vote for you. I am proud to have served my time as president, and now it will fall to another to deal with the world we live in. Good Luck, and may god be with you. *radio*



--OOC--
in non gamespeak the US has 25% dissent and has 0 IC and very shaky money, meaning that research is difficult. issues for the parties will be posted later tonight or early tomorrow morning. i thought i might break from TRP style newspaperyness to open the debates.

The election will be 7 days from now and last another 3, meaning a new government on the 17th. gameplay updates will come out throughout the week to update you on the state of the world up to March third.

 

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United American Party
Address on current Internal affairs

My Fellow Americans, the Syndicate threat is larger than ever before and is only going to get larger. The Unions have corrupted our political system. What we must do is fight against these parties. Right now our goal should not to "win" the election but keep the union together first. Let us all agree, right now, not to take the sides of other political parties but stand together as one. UAP stands with this decision and call on all of you to do the same.
Together we are Unbeatable, Unbreakable and Unstoppable!

 

[Zardnaar]

Every New Zealander should vote for the United America Party