U.S. Presidential Election, 1920

The tumult of the 1916 Presidential Election gave way to an even more chaotic fourth term for President Theodore Roosevelt. Claiming a mandate from "the people" to continue waging war against the Central Powers, he did just that, with the war effort expanding at home (over a third of the American public voting for an outspoken critic of the war was something that had to be remedied, one deportation or jail sentence at a time) and into the heart of Europe. Still, antiwar feeling persisted at home, with victories by the Socialists in the midterm elections and the election of several big city Socialist mayors (including New York City, where Morris Hillquit won amidst a red-baiting campaign waged by both major parties running on a single ticket).

The toppling of the Russian monarchy was initially welcomed by the Roosevelt administration in 1917, but quickly turned into a liability as a group of socialist revolutionaries, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky in late 1917, pulling Russia out of the war all the while. The United States thus doubled-down in its efforts to end the war, launching a new offensive that ran up against a German offensive in the Spring of 1918, furthering the stalemate on the Western Front. Rot within Germany ultimately brought down the Empire, with the declaration of another Socialist Republic, led by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht. Germany too, thus attempted to disengage from the war, but the Allies, now determined to snuff out the emerging red republics, continued on.

A Republican-Democratic controlled House and a Republican-held Senate passed a series of legislation attempting to further hamper the growth of socialism in the United States, with the President's strong support. The World War continued into 1919 with Allied forces making in roads into Germany and launching an offensive against the Russian socialist government headed by Lenin. A general strike launched in Seattle by labor leaders and socialists, in protest of the continuation of the war and in solidarity with the social revolutionaries in Germany and in Russia, was met with force, precipitating nationwide uprisings against the state. The United States now fought a three front war: against the Reds at home, against the Reds in Germany, and against the Reds in Russia.

With resources drawn thin, however, the will to fight diminished among the American elite, which ultimately decided that the best way to deal with Russia and Germany was to "tighten the noose" around their necks by coordinating economic embargoes of those nations. After some convincing, this essentially became Allied policy, and a ceasefire was signed between the Allied Powers and the socialist republics in the Fall of 1919. The old Ottoman Empire was carved up between Britain and France, as were German colonies in Africa; the United States claimed German territories in the Pacific.

The Treaty of Versailles, which ultimately outlined what the shape of the new world would look like, also made permanent the Entente. The document created a new international body, the League of Nations, first proposed by American academic/politician Woodrow Wilson, that would serve as a collective security organization in opposition to the socialist republics in Germany and in Russia.

The "Red Scare" continued at home well into 1919 with the deportation of prominent anarchist and socialist intellectuals and the tightening of anti-socialist laws by an alliance of Democrats and Republicans in both chambers of Congress. Attempts to blunt the appeal of socialism accompanied this, however, with political reform making its way through Congress in tandem. Child labor was banned. A minimum wage was instituted for male workers for the first time. The railroads were nationalized. Coal, timber, and other natural resource-based industries were nationalized. Liquor companies were likewise nationalized (a compromise with the rising prohibitionist movement). President Roosevelt, in an attempt to shore up support from African-Americans (a group quickly moving into the Socialist camp) desegregated the armed forces.

Roosevelt attempted to secure the Republican nomination for an unprecedented fifth term, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor. Years of nurturing the reform wing of his party had ultimately backfired, as the Republicans selected reformer and moderate on the socialism issue, former Senator Bob La Follette of Wisconsin, as their nominee for the White House in 1920. La Follette was nominated alongside the conservative Governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge, in an attempt to balance out the Republican ticket. The La Follette-Coolidge ticket called for the establishment of large-scaled public housing, the implementation of a bill providing for higher education for veterans, and a new civil rights statute.

Outraged at the decision not to renominate him by the party he had thought he remade in his own image, Theodore Roosevelt and his supporters stormed out of the Republican Convention. Convening some weeks later in Detroit, Roosevelt and his supporters declared the formation of a new political party, aimed at "preventing the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, the decrepit Democratic Party, and the anarchistic Socialist Party from taking political power." The American Party was thus formed to offer an alternative to the established political parties, one that promoted the idea of an "organic nationalism" and "steadfast opposition to Marxism." Not unlike the party from which it took its name (the American, or Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s), the American Party embraced immigration restrictionism as a matter of trying to blunt the appeal of radical ideologies and win supporters of incumbent Democratic Senator Henry Ford.

The American Party platform of 1920 called for: repeal of all naturalization laws, a constitutional ban on naturalized citizens holding office, an expanded welfare state with benefits limited to "Native Americans," expansion of the armed services to "meet the Marxist threat," promotion of patriotism and steadfast opposition to the repeal of the antisocialist laws, a blanket ban on new immigration to the United States and support for policies to increase child-bearing in the United States, and deportation of all unemployed, poor, or radical immigrants, among others. Roosevelt was nominated for President unanimously, and Ford, who financed the affair and had a key plank calling for the establishment of an interstate highway system thrown in, was selected as his running mate.

The Democratic Party selected James Cox, the former Governor of Ohio, as its nominee for President. Cox promised to slim down the size of the federal government, to pursue the status quo concerning foreign policy (and support for the League of Nations), and reduce the tariff. His running-mate is New York Governor Al Smith, a progressive with whom the Democrats are trying to hold onto their immigrant support even as the party declines as an effective opposition force to the Socialists in the north.

Still sitting in a jail cell in spite of massive pressure on the government to free him, Eugene Debs is making another bid for President as the nominee of the Socialist Party of America. Debs is calling for normalization of relations with the socialist republics of Europe, an end to the arms race, freedom for dissenters, and the expansion of worker and state ownership of the economy. His running mate is Chicago Mayor Seymour Stedman, a reformer who has cleaned up city politics and broken the power of the Democratic and Republican party machines there while in office.

The Prohibition Party is also fielding a candidate, Aaron Watkins of Indiana. As of late the Prohibitionists have been polling strongly but have been unable to push through the constitutional amendment they want banning liquor through Congress. The election of two Prohibitionists in the House, as well as a strong contingent of Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans favorable to prohibition, however, was crucial in the enactment of a bill by the last Congress nationalizing liquor companies in an attempt to blunt the appeal of prohibitionism.

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