Pacific States

The **United States of America**, colloquially referred to as the **Pacific States**, **West America**, or the **Sacramento Government**, is a country in North America, bordered by Canada to the north, and bordering the Syndicalist States to the east and Mexico to the south via two separate demilitarized zones spanning 50 miles and 5 miles respectively. It is a member of the Entente.

The Pacific States falls under a contentious political status, as the claimed remnant government of the United States of America recognized by the Global Whites. Legal recognition, however, has been long contested by its eastern neighbor, the Syndicalist States, a member of the Third International. Since the end of the Continental War, a theater of the Second Weltkrieg, both countries have been locked in a frozen conflict.

## List of presidents since 1936

### Frank Merriam (1937)

Leading the Pacific movement in its earliest days, Frank Merriam, former governor of California, initially was appointed during 1937 as the interim president of the Sacramento government, to oppose the MacArthur dictatorship. However, he did not seek the presidency himself, and to legitimate the Pacific movement, he organized a legitimate election in 1937 to elect a traditional president.

### Al Smith (1937-1944)

Al Smith, the former vice president of John Nance Garner, who was couped and deposed by General MacArthur and his Federalist faction, won a largely uncontested election held in the same year sworn into a term of his own as the President of the Pacific government.

Though the war under Smith's first term led to the successful occupation of Denver and the end of the MacArthur regime, it stalled past the mountains, leading to the temporary Denver Agreement, colloquially known as the Rocky Mountain Ceasefire. Reorganization of both Pacific and Syndicate lines led to the ceasefire collapsing by 1940, however, and renegotiating with the Canadian government led to them intervening in the conflict on the side of the Pacific States, leading to the Continental War, a theatre of the Second Weltkrieg.

The Continental War was a complete failure, as the conflict turned into a bloody trench war across North America, in a repeat of the First Weltkrieg. The brutal tank warfare across the Great Plains, though promising, was inconclusive as well, as Canadian gains were encircled and repelled by 1942. Canadian losses in the eastern hemisphere, primarily the failure of Operation Birthright, the fall of Algiers, and the collapse of the Raj, caused mass demoralization among the Entente, forcing Canadian withdrawal from the Continental War to avoid outright collapse.

Yet another ceasefire was signed between the Syndicates and the Pacific States, this time on far less favorable grounds, as the Syndicates now not only occupied Denver and most of Wyoming and Montana, but now all of the former New England Provisional Government, save for the Aroostook Territory, which was annexed as a borderland for New Brunswick.

Al Smith's presidency started in promise and ended in despair by 1944. After the Second Rocky Mountain Ceasefire, he had planned to appoint the victor of the impending election as Secretary of State, then proceed to resign the presidency and vice presidency, to avoid the "sitting duck" period. However, broken-hearted from his own First Lady's death from cancer just five months earlier, Smith had suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 4, 1944 at the age of 70.

### William H. Murray (1944-1945)

William H. Murray, Smith's former Vice President, succeeded him following his unexpected death and assumed the office of President. Initially picked as a compromise candidate to appease conservative Democrats who had formerly defected to the Longists and Federalists, Murray declared an unprecedented amount of executive orders upon taking office as the Second Seattle Commune had broken out in the northwest, signing the Protection of Federal Integrity Act which temporarily suspended Washington's state power to the federal government's.

Defusing the Seattle crisis through brute force, the last vestige of the war in America would fizzle out. Millions of soldiers, either standing on guard in the Rocky Mountains or in Seattle fighting internal threats, would be demobilized and sent home as the losers of America's greatest war. With mass famine throughout much of the land and with crippling debt assumed from prolonged fighting, the second phase of the Great Depression would consume his brief presidency and force him to implement sweeping austerity, prolonging poverty even further simply to keep Pacific businesses afloat. Murray's autarky would only inflame labor unions, who he would subsequently outlaw and crush even further with the example of Seattle in recent memory. Murray would not only infuriate labor, but the veterans as well, many of whom would stage their own protests and mass demonstrations after finding themselves jobless and without benefits at home.

### Henry A. Wallace (1945-1949)

From the start of the Great Depression to the collapse of the Continental War, the American peoples' discontent for the two-party system had reached a boiling point, even in the Pacific government. Furious at the policies of conservative Democratic president William H. Murray, his predecessor Al Smith, and the lingering hatred against Herbert Hoover, Henry A. Wallace and his running mate Glen Taylor would win an upset election as independents, winning an election complicated by the vague status of Washington and the borderland states, which was partially resolved in the case of Henry A. Wallace v. United States, establishing the borderland system. Wallace's campaign focused on securing peace with the Syndicalist States in the wake of the Continental War, as well as appropriating the domestic policies of Upton Sinclair's 1934 End Poverty in California campaign.

Wallace's status as a left-wing independent was both a blessing and a curse to his presidency, being forced to compromise to contend with a congress that often blocked his ambitious "American Century" agenda. He frequently failed to work with his former colleagues to pass laws, with landmark bills failing to pass the Senate despite his ambitions. Wallace's foreign policy, especially his attempts to stabilize relations with the Syndicalist States found mixed results: though the 5-mile demilitarized zone was established along with free access between east and west sides of Yellowstone and Albuquerque, further negotiations had collapsed amid the outbreak of the Moroccan War in 1950, turning public opinion against Wallace for his dovish policies.

While his American Century plan saw mixed results, it would still see numerous domestic reforms be made. Wallace would overturn Murray's ban of labor unions, implement civil rights reforms, pass housing reforms, and finally begin relief efforts through famine-affected regions, which he dubbed his "highest priority" as president. One of his landmark reforms in office was the desegregation of the armed forces and the passage of a bill to make lynching a federal crime. Wallace also oversaw the completion of the Hoover Dam, which he had officially renamed to the "Boulder Dam" due to the extreme unpopularity of its namesake.

Wallace would lose the 1948 election in a landslide due to numerous scandals adding onto his general unpopularity, including speculation over syndicalist influence in his government and his personal esoteric beliefs. Members of his Progressive Party would rejoin the Democratic Party after the election, officially disavowing Wallace himself while maintaining support for his popular economic model.

### Georce C. Marshall (1949-)

General George C. Marshall, dubbed the "Champion of the West", was always an extremely popular figure, defending the West from incursions throughout the Second American Civil War and the Continental War. Though he was apolitical for his whole career, Al Smith's murky leadership during the American Famine and Henry Wallace's failure to pass his ambitious American Century plan, as well as an endless campaign from both the Democratic and Republican parties to draft him as a presidential candidate, led him to finally run in the 1948 election, choosing to run under the Republican Party due to his distaste for Democratic leadership during the civil war. He would choose William Knowland, a California anti-syndicalist with expertise in foreign policy, as his vice president.

#### Domestic policy

Marshall's first term would be blessed with the first period of American economic recovery in about twenty-five years, which he would capitalize through the "Marshall Plan", or American Recovery Plan, a wide-ranging series of reforms, regulations, and projects to rebuild the country. Though detracted by some within his own party as an appropriation of the Wallace's American Century plan, the Marshall Plan would be a massive, popular success, granting farmers, veterans, laborers, the unemployed, and the elderly much-needed assistance after a quarter-century of neglect. Public works built during under Marshall Plan included numerous monuments, including the Glen Canyon Dam, the Griffith Observatory, the Timberline Lodge, and, largest of all, the construction of a new capital.

The capital of the Pacific States had been located in Sacramento, which also served as the capital of its largest state, California. While this arrangement was beneficial in the short-term, providing an existing capital, the unrivaled political dominance of California had become a major issue due to providing more than a third of the electoral votes and more than half of the total population. With outer states chafing under California's political power, the presence of both the California state legislature and national government in the same city would be a sticking point of political discontent. While splitting the state into two had been proposed since the Smith presidency, fears of upsetting the California electorate led to it becoming a third rail, and changing the capital became a popular alternative reform.

## National Spirits

   * -20.00% Stability
* -30.00% War Support
* -0.10 Political Power Gain

Thirty-five years ago, America was regarded by most as a place of hope and liberty. Between the its two civil wars, an unparalleled aura of optimism and patriotism among its people ran wild under a seemingly invincible industrial empire. The cold reality of modern times, however, seems to have caught up to America in this past generation. As a Second American Civil War broke out, it was hoped that the idealism of the Pacific rebellion would turn the American malaise into a distant memory: a dream shattered by the disastrous Continental War, breaking all hopes of reunification and putting the American Dream into but a distant memory.The flames of American idealism have been put out under the sound of gunfire and the air of malaise, its unbridled frontiers now an exile covered in landmines. As years have driven past since then, little has been done to recover the country, carrying the loss of a whole generation. With an economy in shambles, half of its land belonging to the enemy, and a weary, disillusioned populace flooded with eastern refugees. was put out in mere moments, causing the collapse of his presidency.

## Politics

The government of the Pacific States is divided into two primary parties; the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, both divided into a select amount of prominent caucuses

### Republican Party

The Republican Party is divided between a liberal and conservative caucus, dominated by

### Prominent politicians and candidates

* **Republican Party - 52%**
	+ Liberal Caucus (Market Liberalism)
		- **Arthur B. Langlie** - President since 1953, WA governor from 1941 to 1945 and from 1949 to 1953, Seattle mayor from 1938 to 1941
		- **Richard Nixon** - Vice President since 1953, CA senator from 1950 to 1953
		- Howard Cannon - candidate for NV senator in 1958
		- William S. Maillard - CA representative since 1953
		- Goodwin Knight - CA governor since 1953
		- Earl Warren - CA governor since 1946 and Vice Presidential candidate in 1944
		- Arthur V. Watkins - UT senator since 1947
		- Mike Mansfield - MT governor since 1953
		- Douglas McKay - Secretary of the Interior since 1953,
		- Albert Coady Wedemeyer - General during the Continental War, captain during the Second American Civil War, protégé of George C. Marshall
	+ Conservative Caucus (Conservatism)
		- Barry Goldwater - AZ senator since 1953
		- Bob Wilson - CA representative since 1953
		- Norris Poulson - Los Angeles mayor since 1952
		- William Knowland - CA senator since 1945
		- Daniel I.J. Thorton - JE governor since 1951
		- Thomas H. Werdel - CA representative since 1943
		- Edwin L. Mechem - NM governor since 1951
		- Lucius D. Clay - former Federalist officer who defected and became a war hero in the Continental War
		- Eddie Rickenbacker - former First Weltkrieg and Second American Civil War decorated flying ace and current airline CEO
	+ Constitutionalist Caucus (National Conservatism)
		- Walter S. Baring Jr. - NV representative since 1949
		- John W. O'Daniel - Lieutenant General during the Continental War
		- Harry P. Cain - WA senator since 1946
* **Democratic Party - 48%**
	+ Progressive Caucus (Social Democracy)
		- Glen H. Taylor
		- Maurine Neuberger
		- Vincent Hallinan
		- Pat Brown
		- Dennis Chávez
		- Rexford Tugwell
	+ Moderate Caucus (Social Liberalism)
		- Clair Engle
		- Harry M. Jackson
		- Carl Hayden
		- Ernst McFarland
		- James Roosevelt
		- Warren Magnuson
		- Clinton Anderson
		- Sheridan Downey
	+ End Poverty in America Caucus (Radical Socialism)
		- Culbert Olson
		- Augustus Hawkins
		- Hugh De Lacy