I bet some of you do, and now is your chance to live it!
Sorta.
At the very least, you have a chance to read a book in which an alternate history of WWII unfolds before your very eyes. YOUR VERY EYES! Another Philip, this one surnamed Roth, has written of a world in which “Charles Lindbergh, an American hero and Nazi sympathizer, beats FDR in the presidential election and takes America down the path toward fascism, importing to the US the worst that Europe has to offer.” Although this sounds perhaps Very Silly, the BBC did an investigative report as to the situation’s historical plausibility:
In 1933, when America was mired deeply in the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office and launched federal policies to revive the economy. Many now remember well his New Deal policies. But, there were some at the time — particularly well-heeled leaders in the American business community — who adamantly opposed the federal government involving itself in the private sector. Based on research in the national archives, the BBC investigation suggests that titans of the industrial and financial world, including Prescott Bush (the grandfather of our sitting president), were linked to, if not directly backing, a plot that would have Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler, a highly decorated Marine, lead a 500,000 private army and push Roosevelt out of power. It was a move taken straight from Hitler’s and Mussolini’s playbook.
General Butler himself:
via openculture
posted by behemothing
Instead, they waited until 2001 to execute the coup (a move from Hitler’s playbook)
hitler schmitler
Would we have had a “President” Smedley then? Surprisingly, I think I would be for that.