I was acting crazy in North America, and all the crazy people there took it seriously.

Chapter 189 Who took on the heavy burden of the 48 states of the United States?
The people may be immersed in grief and anger over the passing of President Harding, but those who lead the country cannot afford to indulge in such sentiments for even a moment.

President Coolidge's second executive order after being sworn in was to declare a national emergency. The federal government would use all available resources to ruthlessly combat the insurgents and their accomplices, vowing to protect the national security of the United States.

When the news broke, conservatives didn't even bother to mourn the death of President Harding—well, actually they weren't that mournful for the former president, considering what a mess America had become during his short tenure!

A new president at the helm brings a fresh start!
They could almost see the Union army, like an iron torrent, sweeping across the Mississippi hills and utterly crushing those audacious "rebels."

Southern black rebels, your end is nigh!
However, after the state of emergency was declared, the main force of the federal army did not immediately march to the southern front. Instead, a large-scale arrest operation was launched across the United States!

The target is the striking workers and various people labeled as “sympathizers of the rebels.”

Huh? What the heck is this?!
The official narrative is that the Southern rebels are besieged in Mississippi and their defeat is imminent. The more direct and widespread threat to the normal functioning of the United States comes from the insurgent sympathizers and subversives scattered throughout the country!

They used strikes and riots to disrupt American industrial production, paralyze America's transportation lifeline, and erode America's war potential against the insurgency from within!
Therefore, we must first eliminate the internal cancer!

In short, to repel external threats, one must first secure internal stability!
The reality is that some of the negative consequences of the weakening of federal authority are beginning to emerge.

For example, some of the more radical members of the Industrial Workers of the World, seeing the “example” in the South, were no longer satisfied with traditional peaceful strikes and demonstrations, and openly shouted the terrifying slogan of “armed strike”!

"If capitalists refuse our basic demands for higher wages, reduced working hours, improved working conditions, and recognition of the legitimacy of labor unions, we will collectively take up arms and forcibly 'take over' factories, mines, and railways from the capitalists, and implement the public ownership of the means of production!"

Hey hey hey! You guys are going to rip the sky out of America!
Capitalists may be able to remain indifferent to ordinary worker strikes, but the words "armed strike" touch their most sensitive nerves and their deepest fears!
These words had already spread throughout striking groups across the United States before President Harding's death. Regardless of one's true feelings, using them for verbal sparring is certainly inspiring!

The problem is that even at the height of the Red Scare, striking workers never so openly and widely voiced their desire to take up arms and seize the factory!
The rebellion in the south? Put that aside for now!

That was just the National Guard losing a battle and the capital city; how could that cause any major upheaval?
If the "workers' strikes" that are spreading throughout the North and even the whole of America are allowed to escalate into "armed strikes," the capitalists' fortunes will be completely wiped out! The world will really turn upside down!
These workers who dared to call for an "armed strike," these "niggers" and radicals who sympathized with the Southern rebels—they are all insurgents! At the very least, they are accomplices to the insurgents! They must be arrested! Not a single one can be let go!

President Coolidge's second executive order was swiftly issued after several of the most influential industrial tycoons and financial conglomerates jointly wrote to the White House expressing their extreme concern about "internal subversion."

This order authorized the federal army to take charge, with state National Guard units fully mobilized to cooperate with local police in a large-scale crackdown on "worker insurgents" who initiated and participated in the strike, to investigate and arrest all suspected "black insurgents," and those "insurgent sympathizers" who publicly voiced their support for Wakanda in the South...

At this point, the United States was plunged into a massive wave of internal repression, unprecedented in its history!
The biggest beneficiary of this nationwide crackdown is none other than the private prison giant, Fox River Company!

Under the state of emergency of "everything for federal security," judicial procedures were streamlined, civil rights were restricted, and Fox River's private prison expansion plans received an unprecedented "green light."

The government needed massive, rapid detention capacity to accommodate the flood of "insurgents and their sympathizers," and the public prison system was already overwhelmed. Only privately-run prisons, operating on a case-by-case basis, could meet this enormous demand. As the saying goes, times create heroes!
In this turbulent period, Wade Berwick did not only think about reaping benefits, but also actively gave back to America, proposing a theory that "America only needs slave owners and slaves."

"The rebellion of Black people in the South and the strikes of workers in the North today are ultimately due to too much freedom being given!"

"If they were all slaves, an extra piece of black bread from their slave owners would be an immense act of kindness and grace! Why would they make so many unnecessary demands?"

"Therefore, a stable and great America should have a pure and efficient social structure—only 20% elite slave owners and 80% docile slaves are needed!"

Has the wheel of history turned backward? No, it should be said that the wheel of American history has turned onto the right track!

This absurd theory surprisingly aroused the keen interest of many capitalists who were overwhelmed by strikes and unrest!
Among them, the most famous is Henry Ford—a car tycoon who hated unions so much that he went so far as to form the Ford Motor Company Secret Service to suppress strikes!
He even provided a large sum of money to help Wade Berwick establish a think tank to systematize and theorize his ideas, transforming them into "new ideas" that could guide the future of America.

"Systematization" and "theorization"?
Isn't it just about "packaging" it properly?

Wade Berwick immediately thought of Logan, the consultant at Fox River State Penitentiary, who was an expert in packaging.

Logan, who was "bombed" back to Chicago by the news of President Harding's death, suddenly found himself burdened with heavy responsibilities!

—A "new theory" that gains the favor of capitalists and might be packaged as one of America's "mainstream ideologies" needs him!

— Feeling lost and helpless in the chaotic situation, letters poured in like snowflakes, requesting Logan to "talk by the fireside" to soothe their panic and guide them. The people needed him!

—The “armed liberation struggle” that was being carried out in conjunction with the North and South was secretly supported by him, and he was needed even more!

Logan looked up at the sky.

Holy crap, did I, Logan, take over the heavy burden of the 48 states from President Harding, instead of Coolidge?!

……

(End of this chapter)