It’s 1937 and Franklin Roosevelt has won the second election, however, the stress of the presidency and harsh criticism of his New Deal policies after the recession of 1937, especially the opposition by his V.P Nance Gardner, inflames his Polio and lows his health by early 1939 F.D.R dies in office.
Nance Gardner is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States. The effects are instant, many New Deal policies are rolled back for being too invasive, meanwhile, new bills are passed restricting labour unions rights and minority access to the alphabets industries and further bills are pushed to promote voter disenfranchisement, especially for poor white and minority voters although this stops short of being a national policy.
These new policies cause great unrest across the U.S.A as unemployment begins to climb and many Americans believe their rights are being trampled on, however, the government defends its position arguing unemployment was only being artificially held down and now that the damage can be seen it can be fixed though it fails to address the promotion of voter disenfranchisement and labour union restrictions.
Failure to address its actions leads to protests and riots throughout the summer of 39, these come to a peak in July when military police and National guard are called in and begin firing on protesters though newspapers fail to address which side instigated the violence.
The shooting of protestors puts an end to the national protests though they continue in some way for years to come, the biggest consequences of the protests was the division of the democrat party between Gardner’s conservatives (nicknames Cactuscrats) and those sympathetic to minorities and labour movements who form the National Labour Party.
In 1939 the 2nd world war begins, Gardener vows to remain neutral and sticks to it refusing to give the Allies any greater treatment than the Axis, this leaves some of the Allies disgruntled but not alarmed until Dunkirk where Hitler, emboldened by the U.S neutrality certifying Ally surrender overrules his generals and pressed on with the attack. The attack cost Germany much of its armoured divisions as exhaustion and stretch supplies take their tole on the Axis forces who face heavily dug in and determined defenders, nevertheless only 30,000+ men (21,000 British, 9,000 French) escape Dunkirk.
In 1940 the election becomes a contingent one as Gardner fails to match FDR popularity and his policies embolden others to vote for the Republican and Labour parties, the results give the Democrats the largest party the Republican Party in second and Labour Party by far the smallest winning only Ohio. However, a few Labour Party Congressmen vote for Gardner seeing him as the lesser of two evils and his pro Laissez faire policies convince Republican Congressmen to vote for him over a coalition with the Labour Party which both sides denounce as to Communist.
France falls like in Otl and the British manage to humiliate the Italian army invasion of Egypt though with the arrival of Rommels Panzer group the Axis push to the Suez by the end on 1940 easily outmatching the far smaller force placing all of Egypt-Sudan under Axis control. The remaining Allied forces are allowed to withdraw to deal with an ongoing Indian revolt started due to the perceived weakness of the British nation. With no help from the U.S, facing defeat and almost all fronts, with no land on Europe, losing the Suez, facing a revolt on Indian and only victory in the Battle of Britain to go on Churchill is forced to resign in favour of Halifax who negotiates peace with Nazi Germany.
The ramifications of the peace hit America hard, much of Europe is cut off as the Axis governments create an economic bloc in their new Empires or reach Autarky. The British Empire also falls back in protectionism to recoup from its loss, furthermore incorporation of the British Middle East and Egypt-Sudan into the Italian empire cuts off and import market from the U.S.
Loss of these markets cause employment which had slowly began to tick up collapse again almost back to the height of the Great Depression, this begin new criticism of capitalism and growth of the U.S Labour Party as it members begin to be swayed by more socialist thought.
By 1944 Gardner’s presidency is a mess, he is unable to counter Japanese expansionism in the Pacific as it is the only market still open to U.S trade, specifically oil. Furthermore whilst initially benefiting from British imports of its military equipment the ascension of a Labour government meant this was bought less as focused switched to modernising the Economy. Exports to Nazi Germany initially went well until they Berlin government threatened to end French loan payments if this wasn’t given for free, figuring more jobs was a better alternative to the banks collapsing Gardner accepts, finally exports to the USSR went well at first soon it became a lend lease agreement, however, as the 3rd battle of Moscow rages on investors lose confidence in getting their money back.