Georgia (Rome) (1983: Doomsday)

State of Georgia
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
OTL equivalent: Georgia (U.S. State)

Flag of Georgia
Capital	Rome
Largest city	Rome
Language   official	English
others	Spanish
Governor
Lt. Governor
Area	6086 sq mi
Population	419,500 (2010 est.)
Currency	Piedmont Dollar (P$)

The State of Georgia is located in the northwest part of the former U.S. state of Georgia. Its capital is Rome, and from 1985 to 1999 it was part of a post-Doomsday revival of the Confederate States of America based in the southeastern former U.S.

It maintains relations with the other former states of the Muscle Shoals-based CSA, as well as with East Tennessee, Blue Ridge, Piedmont and the nations of the Dixie Alliance. Georgia has aided authorities from Piedmont and East Tennessee over the years in keeping the rogue state of Toccoa at bay.

History

In northwest Georgia, the government of Rome and Floyd county had immediately taken action to assure order amidst the chaos. Located nearly equidistant from three major targets -- Atlanta, Chattanooga and Birmingham -- Rome had received many refugees from three state, including Lt. Governor Miller. However, since the population was now drawn from across state lines, the "provisional government" formed in Rome was not a state government, but a regional one. However, with the loss of all modern communications, the formation of a new nation became a real possibility. The mayor of Rome toyed with the idea of calling the nation the "Republic of Rome," but thought that would be far too ambitious of a project to undertake! Besides, when Zell Miller and his staff arrived, it became his duty to "take charge." He sent out messengers to Alabama and Tennessee to see if a regional "nation" could be fashioned. Meanwhile, a new state of Georgia was formed on paper, to be formalized under a new constitution of any regional "nation" that might be formed.

Miller worked with local governmental officials and the Red Cross to establish refugee centers throughout northwest Georgia. The lack of electricity had proved quite inconvenient as had a loss of all electronic communication. By mid-January, 1984, though, contact had been made with other survivors from both Alabama and Tennessee. It seemed that America had survived after all. However, it could be only imagined what had become of the US government in an all-out nuclear exchange. On January 26, 1984, Zell Miller was sworn in the governor of the remnant state of Georgia in full hopes that the United States of America would rise from the ashes. He chose as his Lieutenant Governor the mayor of Rome. Meanwhile, in the weeks after Doomsday in September and October of 1983, several towns in the mid-southern United States, centered along the Tennessee/Alabama/Mississippi borders, banded together for survival. Not wanting to give in to despair, civic, political and religious leaders began to take numerous steps to ensure the short- and long-term survival of the people in the region. They also began to take steps for some type of regional government to replace the U.S., as everyone suspected that the events of what they knew as World War III had likely destroyed the government, if not the rest of the nation.

Scouts were sent out to find out what had happened at least to the rest of the southeastern United States (and, if possible, the federal government itself). By mid-December, the destruction of several major cities and major military bases in the region had been confirmed.

Northwest Georgia weathered the initial weeks fairly well. Rome, the provisional capital, was handling food and medicine rationing, and law and order, so well that others in the region looked to it as a model. Atlanta and its suburbs were confirmed destroyed as was Chattanooga (on the Georgia border), and Columbus (which included Fort Benning). Scouts heard of another survivor community centered in northeast Georgia and in Athens, east of Atlanta and cut off from northern Georgia by the radiation from Atlanta.

As the situation stabilized in early 1985, with the flow of refugees beginning to fall off, Georgians minds' turned toward more mundane concerns, such as electing a new government to replace the provisional one in place at the time. The first post-Doomsday elections for governor, the Senate and the House of Representatives were held in January of 1985. The local Democratic party wing, which had already been in the process of a shift to join the Republican Party, agreed to merge with it and form the Georgia Republic Party, which ran all of its candidates essentially unopposed, except by independents in a few areas. The party generally ran on a social and fiscal conservative platform, which was supported by the vast majority of the population, especially as refugees from more liberal southern Georgia had often not yet registered to vote, or were focused on the more pressing concerns of finding housing and jobs.

The gubernatorial race was initially a vacuum as Zell Miller, limited by the Georgia constitution of 1945, could not serve two terms as governor. The race eventually evolved into a contest between populist Lester Maddox and former Congressional Representative "Bo" Ginn. Ginn attempted to have Maddox disqualified on the basis that he had already served a term as Georgia governor, but Maddox successfully argued that the new "State of Georgia" was a separate political entity format he previous one, giving him the right to run again. In the end, on the basis of his high profile among North Georgians and by portraying Ginn as an out-of-touch Washington elitist, Maddox won and became the new governor. This proved highly controversial among the black population, as Maddox had been an avowed segregationist. Maddox's inauguration was marred by protestors who refused to believe his assurances that his views had changed.

The new legislature, although unable to implement its fiscal agenda, passed numerous laws enforcing a more conservative social outlook, displeasing liberals, who began planning to form a second party.

Georgia joined a revival of the Confederate States of America in March 1987. When troops from the rebel city-state of Toccoa attempted to invade eastern Georgia in 1989, CSA President Rick Hall personally traveled to the region in an attempt to negotiate with the Toccoan leaders. An aborted assassination attempt on President Hall by the Toccoan rebels led to a counter attack by the Army of Georgia. A decade of animosity on both borders, though, led to the rise of terrorist cells in Toccoa, which considered itself, not the CSA, to be the legitimate government over all of Georgia. A state of war remains between the two north Georgian states.

In the 1990's, the CSA began to fracture over various issues and by 1999, the national government was in the process of disintegration. The Georgia Senate and House of Representatives both passed measures of secession from the CSA by the barest of margins, while the governor looked to build stronger ties with nearby Piedmont, Blue Ridge and East Tennessee.

Though there is still sentiment to re-establish the late 20th century CSA, with one such advocate organization, Restart the Confederate States of America, being formed in Rome on March 30, 2010, the majority of the citizenry is of the opinion that the United States of America should instead be reinstated wherever Americans live.

Politics

The Georgian political landscape is divided into four parties. The largest party, which has held the governorship since Doomsday and possessed, until recently, an unbroken majority in the Senate and House, is the Georgia Republic Party. Based around the Dixiecrat wing of the old Democratic Party and the Republican Party, this party generally espouses conservative policies both fiscally and socially.

The next two parties in size and political power are the Libertarian and Labor Parties. The former is an anti-government party based on the pre-Doomsday party of the same name. It seeks to lower taxation and generally decrease government regulation, and has held between an eighth and a sixth of seats in the Senate and House since Doomsday. The Labor Party is the only party which espouses social and fiscal liberal views. It describes itself as centre-left and (occasionally) social democratic, and is generally in opposition to the Georgia Republic Party. It usually holds around a fifth of seats in the House and Senate. Its relationship with the Libertarian Party has been described as a "marriage of convenience", with the two cooperating to block legislation which they mutually oppose, despite the vast gap between their positions.

Culture/sports/media

Life goes on, and Georgia has strived to reintegrate itself with the rest of the world, at least regionally. One of the best-known examples consists of the trains that ship goods back and forth to the former Confederate states, but also to Piedmont, Blue Ridge, East Tennessee, Neonotia, Kentucky and Virginia.

They also carry businessmen and travelers to and from the various southeast survivor nations. High school, college and professional athletes are increasingly using the railroads to travel to competitions with neighboring teams and schools. Specifically, the University of Georgia football, basketball and baseball teams competing out of Rome, as well as the Rome Romans, a baseball club that began play in the newly-formed Southern League in 2011.

Radio service has been restored to Rome, with three AM and two FM stations. A limited number of television sets, set up either in government offices, public places or the homes of the most affluent Georgians, receive signals from Piedmont and Blue Ridge.