I had been musing over the title of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which then morphed into American Demi-Gods, and then into American Demagogues. What sort of rabble rousers, political machine runners, gangsters, veteran organizations, and such things where there in the period between the World Wars and how could they have interconnected in a free-for-all push for the White House, control over Congress, or something not reaching an actual civil war?
American Demagouges
- Thread starter Clandango
- Start date
Henry Ford; had he been willing to spend more of his cavernous wealth, he could have won the Senate race he narrowly lost OTL. The incendiary, Ford-sponsored Dearborn "Independent" was briefly successful and I'd wonder if he ultimately calculated a political career was not worth the risk to his business empire. While I'm at it Lindbergh seems painfully obvious-Phillip Roth certainly thought so.
You know, Left gets tarred with that brush so much by history, and I truly feel there was a lot more to the man than such a simple term can describe. I would honestly love to see a TL done, realistically, where he becomes President in '32 instead of FDR. It would be fascinating.
It was successful because of subscriptions being mandatory with purchased cars. Hitler did have his portrait in his office before becoming Chancellor though and he had a vast museum on Americana planned. Lindeburgh might have been less of one on his own, though perhaps would be a good figure head. I would love to see what one could do about his supposed Nazi sympathies when taken into account how a German-American was framed for the murder of his baby. I am unsure how Mr. Roth could be a demagogue himself, though he would make an excellent target for bureaus of moral hygiene and mass boycotts.
He had planned on splitting the election so that a Republican came in for a disasterous term, after which he would get himself elected, abolish the Electoral College, and refuse to leave until he had four or five terms. He also made his house look like the White House.