The Socialists had swept the elections for both National Assembly and Speaker, with their allies in the Socialist Worker's Party and International Revolutionary Party each taking a few seats, and the Freedmen's Party and Radical Republicans managing a few each.
The Worker's Party had their base devoured by the ascendant Socialists, who found themselves making grand plans. Old grudges led the Socialist Worker's Party from being excluded from those plans, leading to a great deal of outcry and demands for the party leadership who made that decisions to step down.
While the Socialist Party held firm, the scandal proved to be something of embarrassment, albeit one quickly forgotten as much-desired policy was passed.
The establishment of local councils was popular among nearly everyone. The socialists appreciated the transition to more direct democracy, the anarchists the step towards the abolishment of the state in favor of a free association of communes, the rural leaders the empowerment of their base, the conservatives an easier target for subversion, and everyone else the creation of a government more immediately responsive to them.
While strict limits were placed on their powers, ranging from budgets coming primarily from the central government to a ban on their own armed law enforcement personnel, the new layer of government quickly became an engine in its own right. Their funds were spent on infrastructural improvements, cultural grants, and various quality of life improvements. One popular program that a number of districts and councils began sponsoring was an exchange program, allowing people to live and work in other parts of the country on a temporary basis as a sort of limited foreign exchange program.
The new recall system was also appreciated by many.
The investment in agricultural schools and traveling teachers was ultimately partly successful, although they were both becoming more popular as the production of chemical fertilizers grew. Agricultural yields began to increase, especially after a Turtle Island Confederation program to educate people about indigenous land management techniques was integrated with the traveling teacher program. The Confederation expressed interest in making it a more reciprocal arrangement,
In cooperation with local governments, sewers and water treatment plants throughout the country were improved and expanded. Part of the program involved adding running water to areas that never had access to it before. While it would take some time, soon even the smallest hamlet in the swamps of Louisiana or the mountains of Appalachia would have a fully-functioning sewage system.
The increase in pensions and health benefits saw some criticism from those who felt it devalued military service, and it did increase the budget, but the policy was broadly popular, especially among the vast majority who benefited. Large numbers of co-ops began improving their own benefit packages, and the increased financial pressure began to grind the last few private businesses into dust.
Significant investment was also earmarked for a number of research projects to maintain the Republic's technical advantage. Newly expanded diesel and steam turbine facilities began producing cutting-edge models, although both suffered from significant expense, quality problems, and other limitations that were steadily being overcome. It was likely that within a year or two, mass-producible diesel engines would enter production.
The final government program was to expand the remit of the Revolutionary Support Agency to help support a number of uprisings and resistance movements. The effect of this support would take time to see, especially with the crushing of the peasant's revolt in parts of southern Mexico.
The directors of the RSA warned that they were reaching the limits of their capabilities.
The Socialist Party organizers took it on themselves to help defend the newly-established industries in Texas. The unions there, which leaned strongly towards the Socialists, were shipped quantities of arms above what was technically legal for municipalities to have. The running gun battles and ensuing scandal proved somewhat embarrassing for the government, but the organization was able to point to the success of their policy.
Especially with their open offers to teach anyone how to do a recall, which spread awareness of exactly how the new system worked across the Republic.
The International Revolutionary Party launched a campaign of humiliation against the steadily dying Radical Republicans, and began investing in their own propaganda enterprises, focusing on gathering stories from abroad, ranging from the massacre of natives in Algeria by French colonial troops to the suffocating conditions the lower classes of London endured.
The Freedmen's Party, secure in their dominance of the rural vote and their new status, began intensifying their advocacy for peace and prosperity, at home and abroad, a position popular with many. Ties were also formed in Haiti, as the "sibling republic" grew increasingly wealthy and secure in their position, as literacy rates and living standard both rose.
The Radical Republicans continued their increasingly quixotic efforts to do the same.
And across the ocean, a storm was brewing...
Foreign Affairs, Popular Opinion, and Primaries to come.
