So begins another day at the Committee's Office. With all of the activity in the lobby this morning, it is easy to forget that this is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the seat of the All-Union Central Committee for the Union of American Socialist Republics, and not a busy subway terminal. Amidst the hussle and bussle of the early morning activity, a stately man, advanced in age, walks briskly past the security guards at the entrance. He moves quickly through the lobby, weaving past a busy clerical worker as he walks towards the receptionist's office.



As he passes the receptionist terminal, the attendant says "Nice morning, Comrade McGarry."



"We'll take care of that in a hurry, won't we Mike?" the man replies with dry sarcasm.



"Yes sir," the attendant chuckles.



The man continues his brisk pace into the inner workings of the west wing of the old Pennsylvania House. He is Leo McGarry, the Chief of Staff to the Central Committee, and a personal friend of the First Secretary.



He quickly pushes through a set of white double doors, into the inner office. A woman runs past him quickly, pausing only momentarily to exclaim, "Don't kill the messenger, Leo."



"Oh why the Hell not, Bonnie?" he replies as he grabs the morning's memos. He passes quickly through the press office, making his routine morning acquaintances before calling out for his deputy. "Josh!" he yells.



Josh's blond assistant responds instead. "Morning Leo," she says.



"Hey Donna," Leo responds. "Is he in yet?"



She pauses from stirring her coffee, looking up at him coyly. "Yeah..."



"Can you get him for me?" he replies, clearly irritated.



She turns around in her seat and yells "Josh!"



"Thanks..." he sighs



"I heard it's broken," she abruptly changes the subject.



"You heard wrong," he replies, barely pausing from reading the memo.



"I heard it's-"



"It's a mild sprain," he interrupts, "he'll be back later today." Anticipating her next question, he continues explaining as he walks towards Josh's office: "He was swerving to miss a tree and he failed."



Leo walks though Josh's open door just as Josh finishes his phone conversation. "How many Cubans exactly have crammed themselves into these fishing boats?"



Josh responds as he busily jots down a note, "Well, it's important to understand, Leo, that these aren't exactly fishing boats. You hear the word "fishing boat" and it conjures up an image of, well, a boat first of all. What the Cubans are on would charitably be described as rafts."



"I get it. How many of them are there exactly?"



"We don't know."



"What time did they leave then?"



"We don't know."



"Do we know when they get here?"



"No"



"True or false: If I stood on high ground in Key West with a good pair of binoculars I'd be as informed as I am right now."



"That's true..."



"Well that's the Foreign Office's money well spent then."



"Well, having any sort of diplomatic relations with the old regime in-exile that's occupying Cuba, we might have a better idea."



"You look like Hell, by the way," Leo sighs as he begins the walk toward his office.



"Yes I do. Listen, Leo, did he say anything about it?" Josh asks timidly as he follows Leo.



"Did he say anything?!" Leo cries, "the First Secretary is pissed as hell at you Josh, and so am I."



"I know," he protests.



"We've gotta work with these people, and how the Hell do you get off strutting your--"



"I know"



"Caldwell is a good man," Leo scolds.



"Caldwell wasn't there!"



"I'm saying you take everyone on the Christian front, dump them into one big basket and label them stupid! We need these people."



"We do not need these people..."



"Josh, if this minority government can't get at least some votes from the Left Democrats, then we can't govern. You know we have a whole lot better chance dealing with them than the authoritarian statists in the Socialist Party."

​

*Basically The West Wing, but with red flags, in case you didn't catch the reference.

This timeline will focus on the events and causes leading up to a successful socialist revolution in the United States in the year 1933, and the impacts that such earth shattering change had on the course of world events. While this timeline will note all of the massive changes that occurred (and also, how much really did not change), it will not begin at the point of divergence. Instead, we will start with a glimpse of the present, in the form of a look at a popular television show at the turn of the 21st century:The brainchild of PBS 7's Aaron Sorkin,was a weekly television drama that detailed the lives and work of the men and women in the Central Committee's senior staff. The senior staff of the Central Committee are responsible for the unglamorous but crucially necessary work that keeps the government of the UASR functioning. Often criticized for having an overly optimistic picture of the inner functions of socialist democracy at the union level, it remained a huge critical and viewer success on public television for eight seasons before drawing to a close.*Here follows an excerpt from a novelization of the pilot episode:So that's a little teaser for this timeline. Hopefully, I'll be able to make periodic updates on it throughout this week, but you'll just have to savor this much for now. I will give you this morsel to chew on: the POD is September 5, 1901.