1916 Primaries

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

In the years since the Stars and Bars rose over Atlanta and a terrifying alternate universe-style parallel United States was established, Oscar Underwood's agenda has been occupied almost entirely by the brutal, bloody Second Civil War, as the Union Army fights along two fronts with John J. "Black Jack" Pershing in the west and Leonard Wood in the north, and while the war seems to be nearing its end, there is still fighting to do, especially as Gen. Pershing marches towards Atlanta (a campaign called the "Midnight Train to Georgia" by some) on a collision course with the young Confederate Gen. Douglas MacArthur. With the war almost entirely over, Underwood is being hailed as the greatest President since John Quincy Adams in some FLP circles, and even the most die-hard Unionist has to admit that he's done a decent job. His domestic policy achievements are few and far between, the most significant one being an amendment to the Constitution banning all poll taxes, commonly known as the " You Carter Glass Amendment". However, with the war drawing to a close, many feel the time has come to return to leftist causes alongside the process of Reconstruction, such as the full abolition of child labor and the passage of the income tax (which failed by one state in 1914 and certainly would have passed had the CAS been allowed to vote). Challenging Underwood in this vein is the rather unpopular William Jennings Bryan, who is trying to distract voters from the fact that he ran in the Populist primary that one time by throwing Bibles at them and yelling "Stay out of Europe's war!" and "Bust the trusts now!", which is all very confusing because, for the most part, Underwood supports those positions (albeit not as strongly as the still-fiery Bryan). Woodrow Wilson, easily the most prominent Populist not dead, imprisoned, or in the Confederate government, is attempting to extend an olive branch and maybe go a bit easy on the whole "outlawing the Klan and crushing the Confederacy under the heel of the Union Army's boot" thing, but no one cares about him.

The Unionists are, as always, a bunch of old white guys who love corporations and sh**t, the main one being Elihu Root, who negotiated 24 arbitration treaties that seemed important at the time but are now neglected by historians. He's your run-of-the-mill Unionist: decent on civil rights, horribly right-wing economically, nothing to get excited about or anything. Lawrence Sherman and John W. Weeks are running as single-issue candidates on isolationism and environmentalism, respectively, though Sherman has made some vague pro-civil rights platitudes. Charles Fairbanks is somewhere between Sherman and Root on the civil rights scale, and noted industrialist Henry Ford just really does not like the Jews.

Things are also a bit boring on the BMP side, with the traditional assortment of folks (La Follette, with the same positions as last time, Hughes, with the same positions as a while ago, and Johnson, who seems a bit closer to the FLP than his fellow men (though the two parties are at this point almost indistinguishable ideologically)) as well as Albert Doesn't-Realize-Nobody-Likes-Him Cummins and up-and-coming Progressive isolationist William Borah, the freshman senator from the newly-created state of Idaho. Shunned at the convention to the point of being physically removed from the premises (a task that only required two security guards due to his weakening health), eternal thorn in everyone's side Theodore Roosevelt (referred to derisively as a "ping-pong ball bouncing to and fro among the parties" by at least one newspaper) is attempting to stage a write-in campaign in support of him and, by extension, intervention in all the wars.

Meanwhile, the Populists are down to two members of Congress, none of whom are important at all, and so they're literally just running 1912's ticket against itself in the primary. Glass and Wilson are two sides of the same coin, stating their outright support for recognition of the CAS and the total removal of the now-legendary Reed Brigade. Honestly, no one really cares about them.

I really really promise 1920 will be less boring, OK?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Son of a bitch, I forgot TR's running as a Bull-Moose, so if you want him say it in a post on the honor system. Feel free to state VP choices for everyone, because Underwood needs one too. Malcolm, if you want to post candidate positions so as to get this underway faster you can do that.

Underwood/John Kern

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Sheeit. That is dystopic. Sad to see Mac on the bad side of things, but if he's from Arkansas, I guess that's way it had to be. Pretty badass for him to be the major CSA guy this early, though, again, it sucks that he'll be a villain in the history books.

What are the differences between the various Union candidates? Also, how is the party born out of the first Civil War reacting to a second secession? I would hope with bloodlust and vigor. This should be their (literal) call-to-arms.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Sheeit. That is dystopic. Sad to see Mac on the bad side of things, but if he's from Arkansas, I guess that's way it had to be. Pretty badass for him to be the major CSA guy this early, though, again, it sucks that he'll be a villain in the history books.

What are the differences between the various Union candidates? Also, how is the party born out of the first Civil War reacting to a second secession? I would hope with bloodlust and vigor. This should be their (literal) call-to-arms.

Everyone except Wilson and Glass support crushing the CAS and winning the war, but the Unionists vary on their civil rights positions (the real debate here is what to do after the war, both w/r/t Reconstruction and in general) - Root's the most pro-civil rights of the bunch, but he's focusing more on economics. Ford's just anti-Semitic, Weeks is an environmentalist, and the other two are pro-civil rights, but less so than Root.

tl;dr if I were you I'd vote for Root or maybe TR if you want to join WWI.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Sheeit. That is dystopic. Sad to see Mac on the bad side of things, but if he's from Arkansas, I guess that's way it had to be. Pretty badass for him to be the major CSA guy this early, though, again, it sucks that he'll be a villain in the history books.

What are the differences between the various Union candidates? Also, how is the party born out of the first Civil War reacting to a second secession? I would hope with bloodlust and vigor. This should be their (literal) call-to-arms.

Everyone except Wilson and Glass support crushing the CAS and winning the war, but the Unionists vary on their civil rights positions (the real debate here is what to do after the war, both w/r/t Reconstruction and in general) - Root's the most pro-civil rights of the bunch, but he's focusing more on economics. Ford's just anti-Semitic, Weeks is an environmentalist, and the other two are pro-civil rights, but less so than Root.

tl;dr if I were you I'd vote for Root or maybe TR if you want to join WWI.

I figured a Civil War would entrench the US in isolationism. However, if the European powers chose to take sides in it, that could be very interesting, especially if a pro-Anglo (like Wilson) or even pro-German (?) President was in office. I could see the Central powers trying to stir up some shyte over here.

[Dr. Cynic]

Borah/Hughes. Geographical balance and all.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Sheeit. That is dystopic. Sad to see Mac on the bad side of things, but if he's from Arkansas, I guess that's way it had to be. Pretty badass for him to be the major CSA guy this early, though, again, it sucks that he'll be a villain in the history books.

What are the differences between the various Union candidates? Also, how is the party born out of the first Civil War reacting to a second secession? I would hope with bloodlust and vigor. This should be their (literal) call-to-arms.

Everyone except Wilson and Glass support crushing the CAS and winning the war, but the Unionists vary on their civil rights positions (the real debate here is what to do after the war, both w/r/t Reconstruction and in general) - Root's the most pro-civil rights of the bunch, but he's focusing more on economics. Ford's just anti-Semitic, Weeks is an environmentalist, and the other two are pro-civil rights, but less so than Root.

tl;dr if I were you I'd vote for Root or maybe TR if you want to join WWI.

I figured a Civil War would entrench the US in isolationism. However, if the European powers chose to take sides in it, that could be very interesting, especially if a pro-Anglo (like Wilson) or even pro-German (?) President was in office. I could see the Central powers trying to stir up some shyte over here.

At this point, the war's about 85% over. The Confederacy still exists, but most of it has been brought under military control.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Sheeit. That is dystopic. Sad to see Mac on the bad side of things, but if he's from Arkansas, I guess that's way it had to be. Pretty badass for him to be the major CSA guy this early, though, again, it sucks that he'll be a villain in the history books.

What are the differences between the various Union candidates? Also, how is the party born out of the first Civil War reacting to a second secession? I would hope with bloodlust and vigor. This should be their (literal) call-to-arms.

Everyone except Wilson and Glass support crushing the CAS and winning the war, but the Unionists vary on their civil rights positions (the real debate here is what to do after the war, both w/r/t Reconstruction and in general) - Root's the most pro-civil rights of the bunch, but he's focusing more on economics. Ford's just anti-Semitic, Weeks is an environmentalist, and the other two are pro-civil rights, but less so than Root.

tl;dr if I were you I'd vote for Root or maybe TR if you want to join WWI.

I figured a Civil War would entrench the US in isolationism. However, if the European powers chose to take sides in it, that could be very interesting, especially if a pro-Anglo (like Wilson) or even pro-German (?) President was in office. I could see the Central powers trying to stir up some shyte over here.

At this point, the war's about 85% over. The Confederacy still exists, but most of it has been brought under military control.

It is sort of like the pre-Atlanta military situation in the run-up to the 1864 Presidential election IRL.  Another interesting possibility is Germany winning World War I   I'll have think about whether this makes sense in this timeline and about the various implications.   

Anyway, President Underwood/Indiana Senator John Kern!

[Maxwell]

Root/Weeks

[Supersonic]

Fairbanks/any Unionist.

[PPT Spiral]

Root/Weeks

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

About half a day left on this.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Well, this is a tiny bit vexing. Malcolm and I will work it out, though, don't you worry.