Harry Hopkins (Deus Ex Machina)

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Harry Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890-May 13, 1945) was an American politician and bureaucrat who served as the 33rd President of the United States from January 20, 1941 until his death four years later. Widely considered by scholars to be one of America's greatest presidents, Hopkins courageously lead the United States through the Second World War and into its greatest period of economic prosperity, military might, and global leadership. =====

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Raised in the small town of Grinnell, Iowa by a devoutly Methodist mother, Hopkins became an enthusiastic supporter of the Progressive Party after graduating college whereupon he became a renowned social worker in New York City. When the United States was plunged into the Great Depression following the October 1929 stock market crash, Hopkins was tapped to head the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration by New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who then appointed the young Iowan to his "brain trust" of advisers succeeding his election to the US Presidency in 1932. A tireless worker who lived off coffee and cigarettes, Hopkins oversaw the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, providing new unemployed Americans ravished by the Great Depression. =====

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Based upon these successes, Hopkins became Roosevelt's Commerce Secretary in 1938 and two years later was handily elected President as FDR's handpicked successor. As the nation's Chief Executive, Hopkins generously extended vital military aid to the Allies of WWII in their fight against Nazi Germany while the United States was still not yet militarily involved. Working closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Hopkins issued the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, marking the beginning of the so-called "global New Deal" that lasted until the 1970's. While Hopkins had won election on a pacifist platform, the events of December 7, 1941 tragically thrust the United States into WWII when the Empire of Japan attacked San Diego, CA in an attempt to destroy America's Pacific Fleet. Hopkins dramatically appeared before Congress the next day - declaring 12/7/1941 "a date which will live in infamy" - and pressed the Legislature to declare war on Japan. The vote for war was unanimous, and Japan's allies - Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy - responded in kind by declaring war on the United States. Now there was no going back. America was, in the words of former President Roosevelt, "on a rendezvous with destiny." =====

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Hopkins forged a "Grand Alliance" with Britain, Russia, and China in opposition to the Axis Powers and embarked on a "Germany First" strategy that focused most of America's military power on the Nazis while waging an island hopping campaign against Japan in the Pacific. Within two years of America's entry into the war, the Allies took North Africa and Southern Italy before liberating France in the summer of 1944. During this time, Hopkins deftly shifted the US to a war economy as unemployment fell to 2%. =====

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Despite these triumphs, the American public grew restless with the tedious pace of the war effort and the Reform Party retook Congress in 1942, leading to rumors that Hopkins could lose reelection. Indeed, the Reform Party's 1944 nominee for President was popular Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, himself a veteran of WWII. Yet Hopkins quickly reversed the political tide by declaring the Reform Congress a "do-nothing" legislature and calling a special Congressional session. Heavily influenced by Eleanor Roosevelt, Hopkins proposed a Second Bill of Rights that would guarantee employment, a living wage, housing, a good education, and gender equality. The popularity of Hopkins' proposal and the Allied victories in France and the Philippines allowed the president to win reelection in a massive landslide that coincided with a Progressive super-majority in Congress that passed the Second Bill of Rights in 1945. =====

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A longtime sufferer of stomach cancer, the stress of WWII wore Hopkins down as he grew thinner and frail as a China plate. Four days after Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender on May 9, 1945, Hopkins died at the age of 54, leaving behind a grieving nation that revered him as the man who rallied them against Imperialist aggression and enshrined the modern welfare state into the US Constitution. The United Nations and Bretton Woods Economic system, both started partly on Hopkins' initiative, shaped the world decades after his death. While Hopkins is a darling of Progressives, he is equally despised by those on the right who deplore his "tax and spend" economic policies and supposed perversion of the US Constitution. Rumors that he was a Russian puppet and/or new of the San Diego attack before it happened persist to this day, although both are generally doubted by serious historians. =====