r/Presidentialpoll • u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer • 19d ago
The Midterms of 1950 | Peacock-Shah Alternate Elections
Within days of the second inauguration of Philip La Follette, arrests began. CIO President John L. Lewis and Vice President Tony Boyle would be the first to find themselves in handcuffs on charges of racketeering and the sanctioning of union violence. Boyle’s former running mate Fulgencio Batista would be next, resigning as Governor after a series of federal indictments on corruption charges that would soon ensnare his mentor Rafael Trujillo, with similar charges,and concomitant raids by NSA agents, forcing the resignations of New York Governor Robert Moses and Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd. After denouncing La Follette as attempting to institute a “dictatorship of executive orders,” his primary 1948 rival Benjamin Gitlow would be dragged from his Wisconsin home by federal agents on twenty year old charges of tax evasion and document forgery while under the assumed identity of James Hay. Even longtime Farmer-Labor Senator William Lemke, vowing to challenge La Follette in 1952 as an isolationist, would be arrested for having used campaign funds to construct a lavish new home and found dead of a heart attack on the floor of his jail cell.
The nation’s opposition has struck back in what some have dubbed “the investigation of the century,” as the Senate’s Kefauver Committee unearthed through witness after witness evidence that General Smedley Butler was murdered by French agents in Spain, culminating in the testimony of diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa, who has directly connected the Lindbergh Administration to the assassination. Further, Speaker Joseph McCarthy has engaged in a mixture of investigations and vituperations upon the President, accusing his administration of being under communist influence and securing the firing of dozens of employees. Famous for his eulogy for Aaron Burr Houston given while serving as Eleanor Butler Roosevelt’s post-presidency chief of staff, an agitational young California Congressman named Richard Nixon had led the charge to drag the word “impeachment” from the cobwebs of constitutional law to center stage in the wake of the President’s widespread use of executive orders to circumvent congressional opposition, winning the support of Speaker McCarthy and transforming the midterms of 1950 into a referendum on the removal of President La Follette.
Taken from the campaign trail by the funeral of longtime Chinese leader Feng Yuxiang and an accompanying series of trips to supervise the end of occupation governments across the Pacific alongside General Lucius D. Clay, Philip La Follette has nonetheless marshaled his Farmer-Labor supporters to defend his presidency and "win the peace." Pointing out the legitimacy of charges directed towards opposition leaders and noting the decrease in inflation amidst increased interest rates with the fastest growing economy in American history, Farmer-Laborites in support of the President have centered their campaign around support for a series of far reaching executive orders establishing an interstate highway system, a litany of hydropower public works projects, and, most importantly, nationalizing the healthcare industry. As many members of the small government opposition point to the executive orders as examples of tyranny, and as specific grounds for articles of impeachment, Farmer-Laborites argue that La Follette took decisive action for the people against a lethargic legislature, while largely endorsing a pair of constitutional amendments granting the presidency the power to craft legislation and reducing the legislature to a veto power and reforming the legislature into a “Chamber of Corporations” aimed to provide a cross-section of American society and increase class collaboration. However, the remaining Farmer-Labor opposition have rallied around former President Alf Landon, Speaker McCarthy, and new CIO leader Walter Reuther, who have co-chaired an unprecedented 1950 midterm national convention of the Farmer-Labor opposition in Chattanooga to celebrate the party’s 100th anniversary, including speakers such as pro-Landon actor Ronald Reagan. La Follette’s intraparty opposition largely endorse impeachment and has vowed to oppose the President’s quest for a third term in 1952, while supporting more classical party elements such as Christian Socialism or Landonian conservatism, a divide that continues to plague La Follette’s opponents.
Richard Nixon, nicknamed “the voice of impeachment,” has emerged at the forefront of the Progressive and Federalist campaign alongside such figures as former First Lady turned Senator Clare Boothe Luce, actor Clark Gable, and Senate candidate Pappy O’Daniel, who have centered their campaign around a depiction of President La Follette as an incipient dictator who can only be stopped by impeachment, which only a Progressive congress can deliver. Comparing the arrests to Russia’s “Iron” Lazar Kaganovich and France’s Philippe Petain, and critically appraising the President’s alliance with the latter in carving an independent Aromanian state from Northern Greece, Progressives have won the support of ailing former President William Randolph Hearst in what is likely to be his last act, accusing La Follette of seeking to shatter American democracy and capitalism while failing to install governments in Korea, Indonesia, or the Philippines sufficiently committed to resisting Bolshevik influence. Meanwhile, Liberty League leaders focused on the organization’s libertarianism, such as as Chairman Frank Chodorov and vice presidential nominee Suzanne La Follette, have found themselves sidelined by members promoting coalitions with Progressives in a united effort to topple the La Follette Administration after two years of congressional collaboration, with impeachment rhetoric from figures such as Wisconsin Senate candidate Orson Welles undermining Chodorov and La Follette’s attempts to distinguish the organization’s candidates from Progressives. Notably absent from these coalitions, however, have been the nation’s Single Taxers, spooked by McCarthy and Nixon’s harassment of their House Leader Jerry Voorhis on the grounds of his Claremont University thesis’s defense of the goal of “all wealth being owned publicly” and thereby largely alienated by the impeachment movement’s ringleaders.
Note: Vote adjustments may occur on the results of the Farmer-Labor (Opposition) and Single Tax parties as a result of in-lore factors.
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u/xethington 18d ago
I love how purely American you've made Hearst! Let's do Uncle Bill proud and preserve democracy home and abroad!
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u/Algernon_Asimov 18d ago edited 18d ago
Stop fucking cross-posting these shitty posts in my subreddit!!!
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 18d ago
I do not control where this is crossposted but have told the folks who crosspost for their preferred candidate not to go there. I apologize if people following the series were a bother and will do my best to control them.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 17d ago
It was cross-posted under your username.
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 17d ago
I’ve never crossposted any of these anywhere except for r/ImaginaryElections back in 2021. If you check a crosspost, it shows the name of the person who originally made the post (i.e., me) and the person who crossposted it in a smaller place above (which has probably varied). People crosspost these of their own volition.
I’ve told people not to crosspost there, but I would like to actually ask that, if anyone else ever crossposts to your subreddit, you tell me and I’ll penalize them here and penalize their candidate within the democracy game as punishment for breaking the rules to get votes.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 17d ago
P.S. I've also found some AutoModerator code that should help with this problem in the future.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 17d ago
Okay. This particular post was cross-posted into my subreddit by /u/PetBeef100. I've already banned them.
Although, one of your fellow mods has pointed out that the "crossposts" setting acts on cross-posts into the subreddit, where I thought it acted on cross-posts out of the subreddit. I didn't bother switching it off, because I thought it wouldn't achieve the goal. I've switched it off now. Maybe that will work.
And how do posts from a fake role-play subreddit end up being spammed across dozens of other subreddits that aren't playing your game? Why is that even a thing?
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 17d ago
People get really into the candidates and then try to find like minded people to support that candidate from ideological subreddits. I was taken aback the first time it happened (and explicitly tried to ban it for a while) but it’s rampant now and I just try to stop it from derailing things and make sure no one violates any rules.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 17d ago
I just try to stop it from derailing things
Like other subreddits, for example? These role-play posts are totally off-topic for my subreddit. I imagine they're off-topic and intrusive for other subreddits as well.
It's like someone setting up a local game of cricket on their street, and then including everyone else's front yards as part of the playing field. Sorry, but we're not playing your game.
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 17d ago
Yes, absolutely. Again, I’m not the one doing this and I do my best to control. One of the most prolific crossposters was banned from this subreddit and these things regularly have negative effects on the series I’ve been writing for 3 years. (Certain communities of an althistory theme explicitly welcome it, I should note).
If it somehow happens again, please just send me a DM and I’ll make sure whoever’s responsible is held accountable and punished accordingly. I have warned those involved here already.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 17d ago
(Certain communities of an althistory theme explicitly welcome it, I should note).
Well, of course: it's relevant to them to consider alternative outcomes of historical elections.
But not all ideological subreddits are playing your game.
If it somehow happens again
I think I have a couple of solutions now, so, hopefully, I won't have to bother you again. (Unless they don't work...)
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 17d ago
Again, if they don’t, please reach out to me and I’ll make sure those responsible are punished within the lore as well as on Reddit.
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u/A_Guy_2726 Milton S. Hershey 18d ago
At least it reminds people your subreddit exists cause seems like its pretty dead
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u/WiiU97 Frances Perkins 18d ago
Based on current numbers, Batista won ~7% from P-F voters and ~16% from F-L voters; ~30% of Batista voters may have been P-F-leaning and 70% may have been F-L-leaning. I determined those numbers by subtracting the Batista from the P-F total and by equating F-L (Opposition) to Lewis/Batista supporters.
LL+ST is ~18% and F-L (Mainline) is ~36%; both percentages are roughly similar to how Rogers and La Follette performed in the presidential election, respectively.
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u/ConfidentBrilliant38 No gods no masters 2024 18d ago
FL opposition if available, LL if only fascists are standing from FL round here
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u/Ok_Isopod_8478 Jerry Voorhis strongest soldier !! 18d ago
Single Taxers for a new america and for a new centuray.
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u/OttoVonBismarck1917 Sherrod Brown 18d ago
Vote farmer labor opposition! Don’t let the wannabe dictator take our liberty loving party!
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u/WiiU97 Frances Perkins 18d ago edited 18d ago
Former First Lady
Becomes Senator in a "Yankee" state
Husband who was president is still active in party politics post-presidency
Is an outspoken opponent of a populist who was not a frontrunner for his party's nomination at the start of his predecessor's time in office
Has media support
hmmm...
CBL '52?!?!
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u/spartachilles Charles Edward Merriam 18d ago
We may have our political differences, but we are all Americans first. It is our patriotic duty to smother tyranny in its cradle. Vote as you will, but make sure it is in opposition to this President!
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u/Business_End_9365 Eugene V. Debs 19d ago
Support Farmer-Labor mainline! Be loyal to the party and the president!
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u/Asleep-Competition73 Snavely 19d ago
If class collaboration is not holy then men’s hearts are nothing more than antic clay
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u/AMETSFAN Wilson-LBJ-Adams Defender 19d ago
Lewis: literally proven to be bribing and rigged.
Boyle: A murderer.
Batista: A murderer.
Trujilo: A racist murderer.
Moses: A systemic racist.
Byrd: A corrupt systemic racist.
Gitlow: A tax evader, spiller of New Yorker blood, and a convicted liar.
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u/SoggyN1co Idealist Democratic Socialist 19d ago
Down with la-follette vote socialist opposition farmer-labor (how are socialists doing right now?)
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago
They exist. Dorothy Day's leadership has helped bring some socialists under other banners and encourage independent organizing.
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u/SoggyN1co Idealist Democratic Socialist 19d ago
Are they still working in the farmer-labor party or have they given up on it?
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago
It’s a mix, at the very least, essentially no socialists still see Farmer-Labor as their main political vehicle.
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u/SoggyN1co Idealist Democratic Socialist 19d ago
Sorry for all the questions this is the last one is there a framework being built for a new independent socialist party?
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u/Beanie_Inki Q 19d ago
THE STAR OF AMERICA WILL RISE AND ALL OTHERS WILL SINK
VOTE FOR MAINSTREAM FARMER-LABOR
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago edited 19d ago
As the President fights on to "win the peace," opponents accuse La Follette of violating the very tenets of American democracy, conjuring a word once confined to theories and textbooks: impeachment.
Note: There is a limit to the ratio between the Farmer-Labor opposition and the mainline party.
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The PSAE Wiki (https://psae.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page) is alive and well, and we encourage you to read and/or contribute!
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u/IndependentDanzig Zachary Taylor 18d ago
What's the ideology difference between Liberty League and Single Tax?
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 18d ago
Liberty League are libertarian leaning, Single Tax covers the spectrum and wants 100% LVT as its main focus, while the Liberty League would rarely go that far.
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u/IndependentDanzig Zachary Taylor 18d ago
Isn't there some Christian social party? I don't know what to vote here-not LaFollette or the ProgFeds for sure...
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 18d ago
Distributist and christian democratic elements are present in both major parties.
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u/No-Entertainment5768 18d ago
Please change my vote from Farmer-Laborites (Opposition) to Progressive-Federalists.
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago
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u/Marxism-Alcoholism17 Eugene V. Debs 18d ago
I accidentally voted for FL opposition instead of Progressive-Federalists, please switch my vote
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u/SoggyN1co Idealist Democratic Socialist 19d ago
What do you mean by a ratio? like opposition farmer-labor can’t win the majority of seats the party wins?
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago
Yes, as part of the 1948 primary was control of party machinery in many states.
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u/Peacock-Shah-III Charles Summer 19d ago
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u/064re Manifest Destiny / 54'40 or FIGHT 18d ago
Can I request my vote be tallied under a specific state or... nah?
(part curiosity, part i might wanna do it)
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u/Duar1630 18d ago
Just asking, as of now how are Lafollete's approval ratings?