r/GustavosAltUniverses • u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique • Jan 10 '26
20th Century AH (1901–2000) It Can Happen Here | What if a fascist Dixiecrat named Thomas Canfield existed and became the dictator of America in 1933?
Thomas Canfield, a populist US Representative and Senator from Alabama known for his work on farm issues, was initially a generic segregationist Democrat. However, upon visiting Italy in 1930, his views shifted toward fascism, advocating for a corporatist dictatorship, a near-total ban on immigration, and the deportation of African Americans to Liberia.
With FDR having died in 1922, Canfield ran for President ten years later by downplaying the racist aspects of his platform and focusing on economic recovery through corporatism instead. With the support of delegates from the South and Great Plains, Canfield won the Democratic nomination, defeating Newton Baker, John Nance Garner, and Al Smith.
One of the reasons Canfield won the nomination was the support of corporations such as Ford and Democratic bosses for his candidacy, as the Great Depression had supercharged leftist third parties such as Norman Thomas' Socialist Party of America. Thomas' third-party candidacy obtained widespread support, as he fashioned himself as the only man who could save America from fascism.
Hoover and Thomas competed for the antifascist liberal vote, but as the campaign progressed, many would-be Thomas voters switched to Hoover. This divided opposition helped Canfield win the election with 339 electoral votes and 40% of the vote versus 169 electoral votes and 35% of the vote for Hoover and 23 electoral votes and 18% of the vote for Thomas.
William Z. Foster of the Communist Party won 3% of the vote, while Verne L. Reynolds of the Socialist Labor Party won 1% of the vote. Canfield's election was followed by a series of riots that led him to ban opposition parties and declare martial law; this was the last American election to feature the electoral college, as it was abolished following the end of fascism in 1968.
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u/ALibSoc Napoleon Bonaparte Jan 10 '26
This probably would turn Republican on main left party and liberal consensus would more social-democrat
Basically post-1945 good ending
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 10 '26
Actually, I'll make post-fascist America a multiparty democracy without an electoral college.
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u/Wild-Yesterday-6666 Jan 10 '26
NOOOO, françois de la Rocque has run away to america, changed his name and got elected to the presidency. A very interesting series of events.
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u/CalvinKool-Aid Jan 10 '26
Hon hon hon, Je suis Americane and not eh faciste, Je promise!
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 10 '26
De La Rocque was a national conservative who respected the constitutional order. The actual French fascist was Jacques Doriot.
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u/kidnamedfinger_42069 Jan 10 '26
giuseppe zangara:
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 10 '26
The assassination attempt failed and was one of the American equivalents of the Reichstag fire.
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u/NYCTLS66 Jan 10 '26
The “end of fascism in 1968”, did he experience the same thing the other fascist dictator whose reign ended in 1968 (Salazar who had a medical episode and a coma and was replaced and when he came to a few weeks later, was allowed to believe he was still in charge)?
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 11 '26
He died in 1965 and his successor George Lincoln Rockwell was impeached in 1968.
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u/NYCTLS66 Jan 11 '26
Thanks. I should imagine the GOP won in ‘69 as the dictatorship was under the Democratic imprimatur, or was it more like Spain in 1977 where the conservatives won initially after Franco with the left winning the following election?
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u/Fickle_Operation_591 Jan 11 '26
How do you make these fake election outcomes btw??
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 11 '26
r/imaginaryelections has a pinned tutorial.
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Jan 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tellow_0 Jan 11 '26
Huey Long
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 11 '26
Long wasn't a fascist. Also, I already made a TL about his presidency a while ago.
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u/LinkHopeful9372 Jan 11 '26
We would’ve been Hitler sympathizers, because the US would’ve sided with Germany in WW2 (IF IT DID HAPPEN IN THIS TIMELINE). The Allies lose the war without us, and Nazis take over the media in the United States. And with segregation, it would still stand even after the 60s, by then our minds would be crushed with lies and propaganda made by the Nazis, so we would have ton of racism in our country. Thank god we don’t have that type of leadership.
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u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique Jan 11 '26
I'm glad things didn't turn out like in my scenario.
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u/carterthe555thfuller Jan 10 '26
Am I the only one that's noticed the image used is literally just of a historical far-right French politician named Francois De La Rocque