Shining Tomorrow Historical Lore (Part 2)

This series of posts will detail the backstory of the setting of my upcoming novel, Shining Tomorrow. This backstory is not needed to understand the novel; it is only posted as a supplementary bonus.

Part 1: The Late United States Period (1914-1950)
Part 2: The Norman Regime and the MacGruder Coup (1951-1970)
Part 3: The Rise of the White Nationalist Movement (1971-2015)
Part 4: World War III (2015-2020)
Part 5: Morning in America (2021-Present)

Flag of the North American Federation (1950-2020)

1951: The People’s Constitution of the North American Federation enters into force as the basis of law. This constitution:

– Establishes a National Politburo that convenes every eight years to elect a new president, removing the popular vote from any consideration. Elections are attacked as “bourgeois sham democracy” on the basis that they inherently favor the wealthy and well-connected.

– Abolishes the House of Representatives and establishes the Senate as the People’s Senate, whose members are nominated by local Party cadres.

– Places all agriculture, banking, resource extraction, and heavy industry under state control.

– Forbids discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religious background, or family pedigree.

– Bans organized religious bodies and requires that all educational institutions promote atheism.

– Places social and economic equality as a top government priority.

[Mrs. K: You forgot a very important piece of information: Grant Norman became President after the war.]

1955: According to the First Five-Year Plan of the North American Federation, public works projects speed along the recovery of the American economy. Most of the middle and upper classes are drafted into work teams.

1956: The government purges La Cosa Nostra.

1958: The People’s Senate holds a debate on which of the two superpowers — the Empire of Japan or the German Kaiserreich — to ally with. Also, they release a statement criticizing Trotsky’s ideas of world revolution, saying that every country will achieve socialism in its own way.

[Mrs. K: It’s bad form to cram two unrelated things together like this. The statement about world revolution shouldn’t have been put there — it muddles things.]

1959: The National Politburo selects Armin Nestor as the new President.

1960: After two years of deliberations, the NAF government chooses to align itself with Germany because so many Americans have German ancestors, and German-speaking communities were more common back then. But there was a pro-Japan faction too. It wanted to ally with Japan because they were non-European and therefore more revolutionary since Europeans dominated the world for centuries.

[Mrs. K: You’re forgetting that German-Americans played a decisive role in furthering the socialist revolution. Also, don’t begin sentences with conjunctions.]

1962: Two important things happen:

– The Heirs of Lincoln, the STP’s most radical wing, used its control of the education system to turn young people against the Party leadership. Its leader, Jonas MacGruder, said that allying with Germany was “a counter-revolutionary embrace of the long-standing European dominance over global politics” and would undermine the core STP doctrine of racial equality.

– A group of Yale students allied with the Heirs of Lincoln forms the Enlightened Youth of the Shining Tomorrow (EYST) to defend the primacy of the proletariat and suppress reactionary thinking. Both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts were integrated into the EYST, getting rid of them as independent organizations.

1963: With the Heirs of Lincoln helping them, huge riots hit every major city as EYST blueshirts (named for the blue T-shirts they often wore) humiliate everyone with authority, from Party officials to their own parents. Any police who acted against them were punished. Former US government buildings like the White House, the old Congress building, and the old Supreme Court are destroyed, Mount Vernon is burned, and many statues of old American heroes are damaged or knocked down. Current Party policy has its roots in the MacGruder era.

[Mrs. K: That final statement is unnecessary, and you should really be careful when making claims like that. Most people associate MacGruder’s Coup with communism, and the current Shining Tomorrow Party is very much against that doctrine, as is the Empire of Japan.]

1964: The North American People’s Army is unable to restore order since it’s too disorganized and undisciplined (they purged a lot of experienced US Army officers) and much of the EYST was armed. Grant Norman is placed under house arrest, and Jonas MacGruder took over. He brought about full communism, abolishing all private property and banning religion outright. He even replaced local police with EYST activists. President Nestor is assassinated.

[Mrs. K: That parenthetical statement is not good; you should’ve mentioned that important detail earlier.]

1965: Disgusted by this turn of events, the German government withdraws all diplomatic contact with the NAF.

1967: The Japanese forces invade the NAF and overthrow MacGruder. They then execute him and his administration. However, they keep the Shining Tomorrow Party in power to maintain some stability. But some believe that MacGruder was secretly paid by the Japanese to mess up relations with Germany on purpose and give Japan a free hand in the NAF.

[Mrs. K: Leave unfounded conspiracy theories out of your work. I will deduct an entire letter grade just for this.]

1969: Grant Norman dies of a stroke.

1970: A new constitution is proclaimed, repealing not only MacGruder’s policies, but those of the preceding Norman Regime as well. Anti-discrimination law is stricken from the criminal and civil code, economic liberty is placed above economic equality, and private property is restored, with people whose property was expropriated getting generous restitution. But two other things happened as well:

– Women were permanently expelled from the Party.

– The EYST was split into two groups: The Stalwart Youth (SY) for boys, and the Young Elegant Ladies of the West (YELOW) for girls. The SY would act as a reserve officer training corps in the high schools and colleges, while YELOW would perform humanitarian work and teach young children while learning to be good wives and mothers, a role they have even in modern times.