What if...
The United States enters World War One in 1915 following the sinking of a second ship, the S.S. Western Star, an American ship carrying nearly 500 Americans to Britain. [The reason the ship was not sunk in OTL was that Germany gave up unrestricted submarine warfare in the wake of the sinking of the Lusitania.] In TTL, however, Germany does not give up unrestricted warfare, sinks the Western Star, killing 400 Americans (including the Lusitania, that brings the American death toll up to 600 in two months) and the US declares war on Germany. The war ends slightly earlier, in August of 1918, but nearly a half-million Americans have been killed, ten times the number which died in OTL.
Following the war, the US slips into a severe depression in early-1920s, substantially earlier than in OTL, and a new political party is formed. The American People's Party is formed by the KKK and the leaders of the Eugenics movement, whose policies fit together quite nicely. The APP gains power rapidly, with nearly seven million registered voters by the election of 1924. They are especially popular in Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They lose the election to Coolidge's Republicans but defeat the Democratic Party, whose reputation has been tainted by WWI. BTW, assume that the APP has gotten Charles Davenport (leader of the Eugenics movement) to quiet his anti-'poor' statements and the KKK to silence the anti-labor union statements. In 1928, with membership at an all-time high and the economy at an all-time low, APP candidates Charles Davenport and Hugo Black are elected President and Vice-President, respectively. They begin a process of vast public spending and an enormous military buildup to reinvigerate the economy and, by 1931, the American economy is headed towards pre-war levels...
Now what happens?
The United States enters World War One in 1915 following the sinking of a second ship, the S.S. Western Star, an American ship carrying nearly 500 Americans to Britain. [The reason the ship was not sunk in OTL was that Germany gave up unrestricted submarine warfare in the wake of the sinking of the Lusitania.] In TTL, however, Germany does not give up unrestricted warfare, sinks the Western Star, killing 400 Americans (including the Lusitania, that brings the American death toll up to 600 in two months) and the US declares war on Germany. The war ends slightly earlier, in August of 1918, but nearly a half-million Americans have been killed, ten times the number which died in OTL.
Following the war, the US slips into a severe depression in early-1920s, substantially earlier than in OTL, and a new political party is formed. The American People's Party is formed by the KKK and the leaders of the Eugenics movement, whose policies fit together quite nicely. The APP gains power rapidly, with nearly seven million registered voters by the election of 1924. They are especially popular in Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They lose the election to Coolidge's Republicans but defeat the Democratic Party, whose reputation has been tainted by WWI. BTW, assume that the APP has gotten Charles Davenport (leader of the Eugenics movement) to quiet his anti-'poor' statements and the KKK to silence the anti-labor union statements. In 1928, with membership at an all-time high and the economy at an all-time low, APP candidates Charles Davenport and Hugo Black are elected President and Vice-President, respectively. They begin a process of vast public spending and an enormous military buildup to reinvigerate the economy and, by 1931, the American economy is headed towards pre-war levels...
Now what happens?
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