Jack of Harts

Those of you who know me, know that I keep track of politics and am not shy about saying what I think. But I write stories that I want everybody to enjoy reading, so I don’t use political party names related to those of our current day. That is on purpose. The old political parties effectively died during the Second Great Depression, and those of Jack’s childhood are all new or radically transformed from those we know. I will note that the United States of America had over a dozen major political parties, and at least that many minor parties. Most of them came from individual States or State coalitions, though many were loosely affiliated into national power blocs. There were conservatives, liberals, and moderates, as well as socialists and capitalist parties. There were environmentalist parties and low tax parties. I haven’t named most of them, and I probably never will. And besides, most of even those political parties disappeared or radically changed once more on the day the Shang bombarded Washington DC and brought Yosemite Station down over most of the western United States. That changed politics in Jack’s day just a little bit.

Every State maintained some form of Army in Jack’s day. Mostly the descendents of the old National Guard, Reserves, or State Guards from before the Second Great Depression, they defended each State from outside threats. Officially. Some were little more than vanity platoons, good for parades and maybe occupying a local bar when times got rough. Others were true combat field commands that could face off against any Federal unit ever assembled. Some even took up the duties of the State Space Forces in the same way that the older American Army of World War II included the Army Air Force. That could make for some interesting communications difficulties when working with the Feds or other States. Now there were far, far more of the State Armies than the Federal government could field. They become the bulk of the American Army when the Feds requested reinforcements to take The War to the Shang and their Chinese allies. Individual State battalions or brigades often served in amalgamated units under the command of a Federal division commander, though some States fielded entire corps or field armies under the Federal banner. Under their own State flag of course. The Feds needed to be kept in their place, don’t you know.

Most State Navies in Jack’s youth had at least token frigate or destroyer squadrons, often in the form of obsolete designs retired from the US Navy. Richer States sent at least a cruiser squadron or three into the black and they could toss some light carriers around when they felt like it as well. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is famous for having enough destroyer and cruiser squadrons that they could hand out flag ranks to any well-connected officer capable of buying one. Battlefield qualifications need not apply there. And the entire New England Federation owned multiple battleship and fleet carrier squadrons. They were not alone. Other State alliances, like the Republics of California and Texas, or the Confederation of Dixie, had battleship or fleet carrier squadrons of their own that could stand toe to toe with anything the Federal Navy could deploy. The Federal government asked the States to send as many ships as they could spare to serve in the Federal Navy after the Shang attacked. The States agreed with remarkably few complaints. The Shang had killed millions of their fellows, after all. They needed to learn the error of their ways.