Summary of Timeline: Lincoln and Johnson were both assassinated and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Lafayette S. Foster has become president, but a election is being held in Nov 1865
Presidents:
17th Lafayette S. Foster(Republican, 1865-1866)
18th Ulysses S. Grant(Republican, 1866-1873)
19th James G. Blaine(Republican, 1873-1877)
20th Rutherford B. Hayes(Republican, 1877-1881)
21st Ulysses S. Grant(Republican, 1881-1885)
22nd James Garfield(Republican, 1885-1889)
23rd Robert Todd Lincoln(Republican, 1889-1997)
24th William McKinley(Republican, 1897-1902)
25th Theodore Roosevelt(Republican, 1902-1913)
26th William Howard Taft(Republican, 1913-1917)
27th Thomas R. Marshall(Democrat, 1917-1921)
28th Leonard Wood(Republican, 1921-1925)
29th Robert M. La Follette(Republican, 1925-1927)
30th Charles Evans Hughes(Republican, 1927-1933)
31st Franklin D. Roosevelt(Democrat, 1933-1945)
32nd Harry S. Truman(Democrat, 1945-1945)
33rd Huey P. Long(Longist, 1945-1949)
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Vice Presidents:
N/A(1865-1866)
17th Schuyler Colfax(1866-1869)
18th Henry Wilson(1869-1873)
19th Schuyler Colfax(1873-1877)
20th Wiliam Wheeler(1877-1881)
21st Henry W. Blair(1881-1885)
22nd Chester Arthur(1885-1893)
23rd Blanche K. Bruce(1893-1897)
24th Garret Hobart(1897-1899)
25th Theodore Roosevelt(1901-1902)
N/A(1902-1905)
26th Charles Fairbanks(1905-1909)
27th William Howard Taft(1909-1913)
28th Charles Fairbanks(1913-1917)
29th George E. Chamberlain(1917-1921)
30th Charles Evans Hughes(1921-1927)
N/A(1927-1929)
31st Herbert Hoover(1929-1933)
32nd John Garner(1933-1941)
33rd Henry Wallace(1941-1945)
N/A(1945-1945)
33rd Harry S. Truman(1945-1949)
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Administration:
Vice President: Harry S. Truman(1945-1949)
Secretary of State: Robert F. Wagner(1945-1949)
Secretary of the Treasury: Hiram Johnson(1945-1948)
Secretary of WaDefense: Wendell Willkie(1945-1946) Burton K. Wheeler(1946-1949)
Attorney General: Daniel Hoan(1945-1949)
Postmaster General: Walter Lippmann(1945-1949)
Secretary of the Navy: Robert A. Lovett(1945-1949)
Secretary of the Interior: Philip La Follette(1945-1949)
Secretary of Agriculture: Henry Wallace(1945-1949)
Secretary of Commerce: A. Philip Randolph(1945-1949)
Secretary of Labor: David Dubinsky(1945-1949)
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President Huey P. Long
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Well he finally did it! After nearly 10 years of running the Kingfish has finally made it to the Presidency, cementing himself in history along with the 32 men before him. He has shocked the U.S. political sphere and his supporters have high hopes in the Kingfish and his incredibly progressive domestic policies and hope his isolationist foreign policy will pan out.
Upon entering office on May 20,1945 he immediately had to deal with the war in the Pacific. Despite their great differences he worked with Secretary of War Wendell Willkie in continuing aggressive U.S. policies in the Pacific Theater, working toward the complete and unconditional surrender of Japan. In Europe the war had fortunately finally come to an end with Germany surrendering just days before President Long's inauguration, however he now had to deal with the postwar negotiations which dealt with the postwar borders. In July he would go to the important Potsdam Conference meeting with Prime Minister Clement Attlee, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. They spoke extensively about what would happen now, former President Truman and former President Roosevelt had already agreed to take a piece of Germany under U.S. control, President Long, a strong isolationist, preferred not to have the territory and asked both France and Britain to take the territory. However, since both countries had been devastated by the war and were recovering, President Long reluctantly decided to keep the territory for now, wanting to keep it out of Soviet hands.
In the Pacific the U.S. had gotten closer and closer to Japan with their island hopping strategy and had greatly increased the firebombing of Japan with the advice of Secretary of War Wendell Willkie. The Empire of Japan was on its knees, but that only caused them to fight even harder and more brutally. President Long at this point had been filled in on the new devastating weapon that had finally developed after years of experimentation, knowing it's destructive power he was at odds with himself, but with Secretary of War Wendell Willkie constantly pestering him to use the bomb to prevent a land invasion of Japan, in August the bombings were approved and over the next few days the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reduced to ash. Along with the Russian invasion of Manchuria, Japan officially unconditionally surrendered in September and was rapidly occupied by the U.S. army. Although he would like to let it go as soon as possible with the country in shambles and with a possible Soviet takeover, President Long decided to keep U.S. troops in the country and began rebuilding the country.
President Long would quickly come into conflict with Secretary of War Wendell Willkie with their differing views on foreign policy, as Willkie supported being greatly involved in Europe to deal with the Soviets, but President Long wants to stay out Europe's problems and has only begrudgingly accepted to take part of Germany under U.S. occupation. Things would escalate with President Long refusing to join the newly formed United Nations something Willkie supported, It would get so bad they would both start hurling personal insults at one another, most of the cabinet supported President Long, but Vice President Harry Truman, who had been mostly kept out of things after being delegated to the vice Presidency supported Willkie. President Long who was furious at this point removed Willkie from the position after nearly 5 years of service, and replaced him with isolationist and progressive Senator Burton K. Wheeler. His refusal to join the UN would also strain relations with the western European states who expected the U.S. to join.
Along with his refusal to join the United Nations, President Long stopped any real U.S. presence in Europe besides continuing trade and holding on to the German territory gained after WW2. With no U.S. real presence, the Western European states had become afraid of the Soviet Union, who had aggressively taken over the Eastern European countries, but if the U.S. owned German territory ever attacked by the Soviets President Long may be forced to intervene militarily lest he'd want public backlash. Western Europe also began slowly rebuilding after the devastating second world war, U.S. trade definitely assisted but despite some calls from people to help Western Europe directly, President Long followed his non-intervention and isolationist policy and decided against it. The Republicans and Democrats have come out in opposition and called for greater U.S. involvement in Europe, especially to oppose the Soviet Union, worrying about a Soviet dominated Europe
President Long also began work toward full Philippine independence which he'd supported with mostly bipartisan support. In 1946 the Philippines had finally become an independent nation recognized by the U.S. with the Treaty of Manila, the Philippines would end up joining the United Nations unlike the U.S.
As he promised he did continue President Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor” policy and continued to try and make closer ties with other American countries strictly diplomatically, but didn’t really focus on the policy being mostly hands off and letting his allies deal with diplomatic talks.
Back home for the first year of his presidency, he got little to nothing done as Congress was still held by mostly Republicans and Democrats. Along with the economy in question he saw backlash from the public who put some blame on the Kingfish as he was the president. Things would become worse as in May of 1946, despite him personally meeting many union bosses and shutting down multiple railroads, many strikes would occur anyways. It resulted in thousands of freight trains and passenger trains stopping causing anger toward President Long and hurting the economy, he and his socialist allies quickly went back to the union bosses and despite already campaigning on expanding union powers, made multiple guarantees to the unions in greatly expanding their powers and slowly the strikes would stop but damage had been done.
Even with the hurting economy and public anger directed toward President Long the 1946 midterms would be a smashing success for President Long, as the U.S. public overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Longists and Socialists getting them majorities over the Republicans and Democrats in Congress shaking the political field.
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1946 U.S. Midterm Elections:
Senate:
Socialists 29 seats
Longists 28 seats
Republicans 21 seats
Democrats: 18 seats
House of Representatives:
Socialists 118 seats
Longists 123 seats
Republicans 97 seats
Democrats 97 seats
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After the dominating performance in the midterms by the Socialists and Longists, they had gained a strong majority over the Republicans and Democrats allowing President Long to try and implement his Share Our Wealth domestic plan especially in the time of economic downturn. President Long would quickly propose the “Kingfish Bill” which would introduce an aggressive progressive tax which would cap personal fortune at $150 million dollars, cap income at $1.5 million dollars, and finally cap inheritance at $7 million dollars(following inflation). However he was stonewalled by the Supreme Court, and despite his two (unspecified) progressive Supreme Court appointments the other justices blocked the legislation. He then vigorously began working toward trying to convince the Supreme Court to try and allow his bill to pass, in the meantime not wanting to be stuck on the issue began working toward other domestic policies he had been proposing.
Another massive piece of legislation that President Long promised and passed is the National Labor Empowerment Act(1946). This act granted unions further powers in their places of employment so that average workers would be protected by the bad practices of business. The bill saw push back mainly for the Republicans and even some Democrats who argued the unions would exploit their newly found increased power which would hurt U.S. business and cause an economic downturn. Laborers obviously sang President Long's praises, chanting “every man is king” during his speeches and whenever he was out in public. During his presidency, as hoped unions further protected average workers from being exploited en masse, they increased wages and improved working conditions, threatening to strike if demands were not met. However there were consequences for giving the unions further power, over his presidency as critics predicted there were cases of unions exploiting their power. There was documented cases of some unions avidly protecting bad workers causing animosity between these unions and the employers, accusations of corruption flew against union bosses who were accused of racketeering and using the unions for personal benefit, and with high demands from unions caused unemployment in certain places harming the already shaky post war economy.
One thing he had promised in his campaign but would immediately prioritize after the massive railroad strike months earlier was the nationalization of the railroad industry even with the economic repercussions. With the massive majority and approval in congress he would create the United States National Railroad Administration(USNRA) effectively nationalizing the nation's railroads and putting them in federal control. The U.S. would buy out multiple companies in the railroad industry, however as expected with the U.S. buyout of these companies the struggling economy would struggle further as debt and inflation continued to increase which angered people outside the railroad industry and unions. President Long came out to quell fears of another big depression saying with the nationalization of the railroads more jobs could be created, and after its nationalization more jobs in the railroad industry were created such as bolstering and creating new railroads which did partly help the struggling economy, and railroad workers were happier with better working conditions with the industry under federal control.
A minor bill in comparison would also be passed, even farmers had recovered from the Great Depression, it didn’t stop President Long from proposing and passing the Federal Agriculture Assistance Act in late 1946, which guaranteed that the president and the federal government would always come to assist struggling farmers through various methods such as subsidies and various other methods of financial assistance. It was easily passed as it saw mostly bipartisan support, and has drawn comparisons to the former AAA which ended in 1942. During his term it had not been needed as farmers had recovered, but just with the acts passing he has gotten in the good graces with the nation's farmers and it is likely they’ll reliably vote for him in 1948. He was even able to convince the capable Henry Wallace to join his administration as Secretary of Agriculture after serving in the position under President Roosevelt.
To gain some popularity with the public and to hopefully allow more workers to be hired to ramp up the economy, President Long passed the Executive Price Controls Act at the end of 1946. Most price controls were unpopular and it was hoped that lifting price controls would allow for more employment, the bill gave President Long the power to institute and remove price controls over many different items. With its passing President Long would remove price controls on a multitude of items, unfortunately the effect would be minimal. Though a number of people would be employed it would not have much of an effect on the economy as it continued to struggle, the public had just gotten angrier and the Republicans and Conservative Democrats accused President Long of increasing the power of the president even further. Even his Socialist allies were also skeptical when passing the bill as the bill gave more power to the president, but as expected longists wholeheartedly supported it, it has led to some minor drifts between the allies.
Now even with the struggling economy he wouldn’t let that stop him from passing more of his domestic legislation. After passing the Executie Price Controls Act(1946), he would draft up and pass the Veterans Pension Act of 1947 guaranteeing WW1 and WW2 veterans a yearly pension with their pension being decided by their individual needs. This act won widespread support from U.S. veterans of both wars who praised the President and it did help veterans who were struggling financially, but it definitely didn’t help the economic situation, only making the majority of people not happy.
Next he would pass his most ambitious bill yet, following his statement on the “war on disease,” the Kingfish would pass the American Healthcare Act of 1947. This bill cemented that the essential healthcare costs including the mental health of Americans would be paid for by the U.S. government in a single payer system but non-essential medical procedures were not covered under the system, the bill saw cheers from the average people who had suffered so greatly from the Great Depression. However some did oppose the bill such as some who feared the system as communist, and conservatives who saw this as additional taxes to pay for a potentially ineffective system. It was put into effect in March of ‘47 and over the course of his presidency millions of Americans were able to get essential healthcare, the government paid for it partly through taxes but to make sure that the taxes could be as small as possible funding also came from other avenues such as tariffs. Despite the current economy President Long's popularity skyrocketed as now the economic burden of healthcare had been lifted from the average American, however he would come into conflict with southerners and his Socialist allies who had preferred another system. President Long’s single payer system still allowed citizens to still get health insurance from private companies separate from the government, the system also contacted a select few private companies to assist the federal government. The Socialists had preferred a system where there would be no reliance on private companies, but Long opposed that and a conversation with Socialist Senate Leader and friend Norman Thomas would get heated. Seeing no way to convince the president and not wanting public backlash most Socialists in Congress said yes to his system. Southerners had a problem with the system due to the fact African American were also allowed to get healthcare, and it had hurt him in the south. Unrelated to the bill above, the Kingfish would also increase the benefits for Social Security by spring, increasing the pension for people aged 65 and up. With the increased benefits to try and pick up the slack President Long did also increase taxes.
So far in the Kingfish’s presidency he had passed historic progressive legislation and had bolstered other legislation, but that damned economy had been a thorn in his side for over a year at this point. But he had a plan to stimulate and recover the economy, he would approach Congress and in a rare show of bipartisanship among the four parties he would pass the National Road Infrastructure Act of 1947. The act created many public works projects to bolster U.S. road infrastructure, mainly expanding the country's highways. When it went into effect in April, millions of Americans would be employed to bolster U.S. road infrastructure, fixing existing roads, creating new roads, and creating bridges and as hoped for it stimulated the ailing economy, and although the economy was not at full strength it had still greatly recovered and President Long’s popularity among the people grew.
Domestically things were now looking up, the public works projects created had jump started the economy and things looked better, but then that pompous fool Senator Joseph McCarthy along with other known figures began loudly speaking about communist infiltration in the U.S. government, even insinuating that President Long’s cabinet and close allies consistent of communists. This caused widespread fear among the American people and Senator McCarthy’s accusations began to hurt President Long’s reputation, Long who was furious at the Senators accusations begrudgingly decided to try and work with the Senator fearing public reaction at condemning the Senator. His Longists allies for the most part wholeheartedly supported him, but his Socialist allies were split as some wanted to condemn the Senator and fight back the accusations while others wanted to work with the Senator to prove that communists had no influence over them. In response to accusations of communist infiltration in the government, in April President Long signed an Executive Order creating the Federal Employees Loyalty Program requiring Federal employees to take loyalty oaths to the U.S. It also began recommending the removal of certain employees. Now the public is still fearful of communist infiltration in the government but the President’s actions did ease the public worry, however the rift between him and the Socialists grew as they opposed the program while he supported it. Some even tried making a bill to stop the Executive Order which angered the President, causing more heated arguments between the Longists and the Socialists.
After partly quelling the fear of communist infiltration in the U.S. government President Long would then begin to work on amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. His proposed provisions in the bill would make a 30 hour and four day work the national standard and he would add a guarantee of four weeks of paid vacation for employees. Despite recent conflicts with his Socialist allies, the amendments would pass through Congress easily with joint Longist and Socialist support. The changes would go into effect in July seeing cheers from laborers and many businesses would have to adopt the new standards, during his presidency general employee health and happiness would increase along with certain industries even seeing an increase in productivity, however in some other industries productivity did go down along with employee salary. It would cause conflicts between some Unions and the business in those industries that would eventually be quelled but the calls from conservatives on Union power has been emboldened.
After months of fighting and negotiations with the Supreme Court President Long frustratingly could still not make them budge on his aggressive tax code, although very irritated, President Long instead decided to go for a more average progressive tax, passing the Revenue Act of 1947 taxes on incredibly wealthy would heavily increase but not to the extent President Long had preferred and he reduced taxes for the middle class and the poor. As expected this did see cheers from the average American, the increased taxes on the wealthy was another thing that did help the economy from its slump and it was steadily recovering. The heavily increased taxes on the wealthy would have the consequence of driving some wealthy Americans out to other countries but the effect was minimal.
As the latter half of 1947 had come, President Long began working towards his promises in the education department. Knowing the economy was still recovering and making a big change in the middle of it would hurt it, instead of immediately making higher education completely free, President Long introduced the Education Funding Act of 1947 which increased federal funding of universities all over the United States to reduce the amount students had to pay for their education. President Long has said that free higher education will be implemented in the future, but in the current economy it would not be a wise decision. Still the bill did see cheers from Americans, but conservatives were not pleased with the bill as it still increased government spending especially during this economy. Over his presidency, tuition for university would become cheaper for students all over the country, but as expected this was another thing the Federal Government had to pay for which didn’t help the economy.
As 1948 approached, calls for more internationalist foreign policy came from the Republicans and Democrats and the Soviets were becoming more powerful especially with no direct U.S. presence in Europe besides in West Germany and Berlin. As it would happen the Soviet Union would invade multiple countries such as Greece after taking over Eastern Europe, the Western European states rushed to assist those nations. The nations would greatly increase trade with the U.S. to have the supplies to take on the Soviet forces putting a strain on their post war economies, with these invasions the public increasingly became worried of a Soviet dominated Western Europe. President Long maintained his isolationist policy, saying that he will not allow more U.S. soldiers to die in Europe and that he wanted to stay out of their problems, but he did condemn the Soviets expansionist policy. The Soviets also increasingly supported their communist allies in China assisting them in their takeover of the Chinese government. The U.S. would stay out of the conflict, sticking to just trading and despite French support the existing government was getting pushed out.
During the rest of his presidency he would maintain his progressive policies and continue public works projects on road infrastructure to bolster U.S. infrastructure and to revitalize the economy which had mostly recovered by the end of his first term
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