Freedom Party Stalwarts

From Turtledove

The Freedom Party Stalwarts were a paramilitary wing of the Freedom Party. Numbering in the hundreds of thousands by November 1933, the Stalwarts consisted of men who were angry with the status quo, angry at the loss of the war to the United States, angry at the blacks for rising in revolt during the Great War, or just angry in general. The Stalwarts joined the Freedom Party as a reaction against the forces keeping the CSA down, and Jake Featherston was the one politician who promised change for the better.

Donning the Party uniform of white t-shirt and butternut trousers, Stalwarts were the lowest rung of the Freedom Party hierarchy who paid dues and went to meetings every Wednesday night. The Stalwarts also participated in mass rallies, prompting crowds to scream "Freedom!" at the top of their lungs. Ensuring that the Confederate people did not have any doubt about Featherston's goals, the Stalwarts were formed into Assault Squads and attacked the rallies and meeting halls of the Whigs and Radical Liberals, beating up their political opponents with bludgeons and truncheons.

After Featherston became President in 1934, the Stalwarts made sure that the Confederate people complied with the Freedom regime; they staffed concentration camps, murdered opponents and provoked race riots on the black minority. Nevertheless, several Stalwarts were conservative Freedom men who looked forward to electing a new Freedom President every six years; when Jake Featherston changed the Constitution to allow him to be President for Life, the conservative Stalwarts were enlisted by Vice President Willy Knight to assassinate Featherston. The plot backfired; Knight's role was uncovered and the Vice President was forced to resign. The Stalwarts lost their prominence to the Freedom Party Guards and lost some of their privileges, being relegated to mere auxiliary policemen guarding black ghettoes.