Andrew Rothson

Andrew Rothson
File:Andrew Rothson uniform.jpg Rothson in his honorary military uniform during the Arthuristan Civil War, c. 1943.
Personal details
Born	August 15th, 1891 Freeport City, Freeport, Belhavia
Died	September 8th, 1945 Kingston, Arthurista
Nationality	Belhavian
Political party	Independent (1911 - 1918) Fascist Party (1918 - 1943) National Front (1943 - 1945)
Spouse	Rebeccah Rothson [m. 1921 - d. 1929]
Children	Ruth Rothson Brina Rothson Jeffrey Brisker (allegedly as a bastard son)
Residence(s)	Dakos and Provisa, Belhavia; Kingston, Arthurista
Alma mater	B.A,, Political Science, Freeport Provincial College
Profession	Political Theorist, Politician, Businessman, Functionary, Bureaucrat, Civil servant, Diplomat

Andrew L. Rothson, (August 15th, 1891 - September 8th, 1945) was the founder of Belhavian fascism as well as a major far right political figure in Belhavia during the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. He generally lost influence during the 1930s, but played an early role in the Galarian Autocracy. In the first half of the 1940s, he was in Arthurista aiding the fascist National State regime in its war with the democratic-liberal Arthuristan Commonweath. He was killed during the Commonwealth's intense bombing campaign against the besieged fascist capital, Kingston, in early September 1945 a mere four days before the city fell to the victorious Commonwealth forces.

Early Life and Education

Andrew Rothson was born on August 15th, 1891 to Petyr Rothson (neé Bukin) and Hannah Rothson, both Dnieguan immigrants, in Freeport City, Belhavia. His parents had come over so his father could find industrial employment as welder and his mother could teach schoolchildren in the late 1880s. They joined a growing pan-Skanderan ethnic enclave in Freeport, a bustling port city and industrial hub in northern Belhavia. When his father arrived, they changed their family's surname from "Bukin" to a Jewish-sounding "Rothson" to better integrate into Belhavian society.

In 1890, they had undergone a proper conversion under Orthodox Jewish auspices from their native Skanderan Catholicism, thus making Andrew a full-blood Jew. His parents created a religious and observant Jewish home, and Andrew was put through the local Jewish day school system. However, his father still had lingering Dnieguan cultural attitudes that had an impact on young Andrew.

After his Bar Mitzvah and starting high-school yeshiva, Andrew grew disillusioned with the religious Jewish home his parents had accustomed him to and felt a rising internal tide of nihilism and skepticism about life. He bickered with his parents, who tried to, at times forcefully, integrate and assimilate into the majority Belhavian Jewish world around them.

At age 17, he was caught by authorities sleeping with a local goyish girl, and his father beat him until an inch of his life. A year later, he graduated yeshiva. He was an intelligent and clever boy, and had received mostly top marks in school. He won a full scholarship to Freeport Provincial College, which his parents highly encouraged.

He attended the college, majoring in political science. He had a knack for political theory, and questioned the current political climate in Belhavia from both right and left perspectives. He considered going into academia, but restless and eager to tour the world, decided to forgo the opportunity.

Grand Tour

Although he wasn't wealthy, he underwent a Grand Tour-style journey around the world in 1913 at age 22, starting by hiking across Ayton-Shelvay, and then working as a dock worker in Sussex, Tippercommon for four months.

He met Captain Kristián Haukdal, head of the Tulese merchant ship T.S. Skald. Impressed by his knowledge and intelligence for what he thought was a simple dock worker, Haukdal hired Rothson to be the ship's second mate in charge of the sailors, since he had a knack for organizing. For 18 months between 1915 and 1916, he visited Tule, colonial Anikatia, Belfras, Ulthrannia, Temuair, and the Ross Archipelagos. He was released at his request at their last port-of-call, Loweport, Arthurista, in mid-1916.

Arthurista and fascism

He stayed two years in Arthurista, getting hired at a port telegraph office as a clerk. There, he regularly interacted with and observed the local working-income laborers and others. Soon, he heard about the ideas of a new ideology, "fascism", being discussed among the more savvy and intelligent of the local workers. He soon after joined in to these discussions, debating, listening, and discussing the plethora of ideas.

In 1917, he had caught the attention of the local fascist party chapter and became its most outspoken foreign supporter. Months later, he met Brian Irving, the head of Arthurista's Fascist Party and its charismatic leader. Irving established a friendship with Rothson, and let him shadow him in the party's meetings and rallies as fascism spread among the Anglo-Arthuristan population. He later encouraged Rothson to return to Belhavia and introduce fascist ideas there, an idea Rothson accepted.

With some funds from Irving, Rothson traveled home to Belhavia in January 1918. He reconnected with old friends from yeshiva and college, including newfound radicals who dabbled in anarchism, syndicalism, and extreme right-wing causes. After convincing a number of his old friends and classmates, in early March 1918 they registered the Fascist Party with electoral authorities in Dakos.

Business Career

When he returned to Belhavia, Rothson was dirt poor. He had made enough working downscale jobs during his travels, but had no accumulated savings or help from his parents. A old friend from yeshiva, Asher Reiss, the son of a wealthy industrial magnate, reconnected with Rothson soon after he returned to Dakos. Reiss was being promoted by his father in preparation for eventually succeeding him as head of the company, and Reiss needed competent and loyal business managers to install to improve company finances.

He approached Rothson, impressed by his ability for organizing based on his head for theory. Needing an income to support his political works, Rothson agreed and became a senior adviser to Reiss at the large corporate giant, Reiss Industrial Corporation.

From 1918 until 1923, he worked at Reiss Corporation while conducting his political efforts at night and on weekends. It is believed by historians that Rothson's exposure to the white-collar side of the industrial economy and elite society by spending time in the company of Reiss and other wealthy Jewish elites sparked a rightward shift in his fascist theory from his early left-leaning syndicalist roots towards a more conservative corporatist attitude that was compatible with the existing conservative establishment.

Political Activism

Early Years

Once the Fascist Party was founded in March 1918, Rothson quickly started preaching to economically-impoverished working-income laborers and workers. His support spread from urban industrial hubs in Dakos to Freeport City, to Tel Nafesh and later Provisa.

All the while, he gained the support of several wealthy industrialists and nobles such as Reiss, who funded the activities and salaries of the growing movement. He targeted audiences such as the Old Right faction of the dominant Federalist Party. Between 1918 and 1922, membership surged from 158 members to 965,423 members.

Besides the urban northern industrial centers, the fascists under Rothson gained steady ground in the rural Middle Belhavia as he proselyted among farmers, immigrants, and small-town communities.

In 1919, he ran for Dakos City Council, garnering 19.6% of the vote. A year later, another Fascist candidate running for the same seat earned 37.5%. In 1921, with growing support and flush with funds, he ran over 200 candidates at the local and provincial levels in over 15 provinces and territories. Thirty Fascists got elected, from city councilmen and mayors to provincial legislators.

By early 1922, there was rising dissatisfaction with Federalist President Elazar Goldenberg's domestic policies from left and right. The Liberals and Democrats were polling well, and the Federalist majority in the Senate was at risk. With his own party and ideological movment growing by leaps and bounds, Rothson decided to contest half a dozen Senate seats.

He temporarily moved to Provisa, where he worked with associates and sympathizers to open a party office and began to get acquainted with the national political press corps. As Goldenberg's unpopularity increased throughout the spring and summer of 1922, Fascist candidates began polling very well, winning pluralities in four-way races with the other parties in several provinces.

In November 1922, the Fascists picked up four seats. The Liberals picked up three seats, and the Democrats one seat. The Federalists fell from 40 seats to just 32. Needing 36 seats to retain their Senate majority, the Federalists turned to Rothson. Federalist Senator and Senate Majority Leader, Moshe Feinstein, approached Rothson seeking out the Fascists' electoral demands. Rothson wanted President Goldenberg to reshuffle two posts in his Cabinet and give them to Fascists, giving several plum seats on a handful Senate Committees to freshmen Fascist senators, a strict and unrelenting militarist, imperialist, and colonialist foreign policy posture, as well as an electoral pact to avoid running candidates against each other in certain provinces.

After a few days of negotiations and back and forth, Feinstein agreed and the Federalists and Fascists entered into a coalition majority in the seat with the bare minimum of 36 seats out of 70. The opposition Liberals and Democrats merged into one party.

Political Mainstream

With his party's breakout electoral performance, rising interest among the general public in fascist ideology, and winning a seat of power in the government in the party's first contested election for the Imperial Senate, Rothson was elevated to instant celebrity status in the political world.

He and Rebeccah were feted and paraded around Provisa polite society, being the distinguished guests at private and house parties and social gatherings by the conservative and centrist political and social elites, as well as some liberals, intrigued by this young, fresh-faced political political wunderkind.

Despite rising acts of political violence and sometimes-harsh rhetoric at Fascist rallies, the seated Fascist senators were all men of education and learning, and so this all reflected well on Rothson by the Provisa elites, who viewed him as a man of ambition and talent they could understand and deal with.

Rothson wrote to his old friend Asher Reiss in January 1923:

My, how I have the Provisa crowd at my doorstep. Parties, social calls, and 'get-togethers'. We shall see if they want my continued and ever-omniscient company when I promote Fascist policy as a part of the government. Perhaps these ladies and gentlemen do not realize how revolutionary my ideas and thoughts are! That, or they think they can 'control' me. A new Order for Belhavia is at hand, my friend. I can feel it in the air...

Political Career

Fascist Party Leader

Although the four-person Fascist Party Senate caucus picked Senator Norm Hammerstein (F-Vannen) as its leader, Rothson as the general party chairman and newfound political celebrity retained full power over Fascist policy and deal-making with its inclusion in the government.

Rothson became a regular fixture with the Federalist leadership, chiefly President Goldenberg and Senator Feinstein. Although they generally disagreed with his proposed economic policies, they became swayed by his fervent foreign policy recommendations. 1923 - 1925 was characterized by a harder line in foreign crises by Belhavia, including gunboat diplomacy and "wave-the-flag" naval and army expeditions against Ulthrannia, Tippercommon and other powers with contested claims on Belhavian interests. Historians credit this to Rothson's influence.

As party leader, he oscillated between a hands-off laissez-faire passive form of leadership and a hands-on, micromanagement-style approach. This made his subordinates anxious, as they were never quite sure what approach he would take on a given day. He was exacting and authoritarian in his methodology. Alternate advice was often ignored or dismissed.

Internal Coup

By 1925, this leadership approach had alienated and ostracized Rothson from his inner circle and general party leadership. Hammerstein, chafing under Rothson's heavy-handed involvement in what the senator viewed as his role as the party's leader in the Senate, sensed an opportunity. After several months when Rothson picked a more passive and aloof attitude to running the party and movement, Hammerstein launched an internal coup in November 1926 after two handpicked Senate candidates won in the 1926 elections, enlarging the Fascist caucus to a high of 5 seats. The new political capital in the bank, Hammerstein executed an emergency leadership meeting of party elders and overwhelmingly orchestrated Rothson's removal and replacement by an ally of his own.

The party founder was deposed and given the nominal title 'Honorary Chairman Emeritus' of the Fascist Party to save public face. Humiliated, frustrated, and with an ever-shrinking circle of friends and allies, Rothson withdrew from political life.

Functionary and Bureaucrat

Ambassador to Arthurista

File:Andrew Rothson 1920s.png

Rothson in a mock-naval officer's coat in the winter of 1927.

In February 1927, President Goldenberg looked to fill a vacant ambassadorship to Arthurista after the former occupant had died of tuberculosis that winter. With rising internal tensions in the Commonwealth between its fascist west and liberal-democratic east, Goldenberg wanted to appoint a representative who would curry favor with both sides and be a mediating force for Belhavian interests in the country.

After consulting advisors, Rothson was approached for the position. He agreed, eager to see his old mentor and Arthuristan fascist leader Brian Irving again. After the Senate confirmed him, he arrived in Arthurista in April 1927.

His arrival was viewed with open hostility and suspicion by the Arthuristan east. Uneasy at Rothson's fascist ideology back home and his history and connection to Irving, many leading Commonwealth elites shunned the new ambassador. However, some Arthuristan liberals allied with the Chambers ministry embraced Rothson, viewing him as a practical medium for which successful negotiations with Irving could be achieved and Arthurista reunited under peaceful internal governance.

After spending the first two months being ostracized in Loweport, he left for Kingston in the west. There, he was treated to pomp and admiration. In June 1927, he reached an accord with Irving about withdrawing Arthuristan Jews from the second-class citizen category. From August until November 1927, it looked like Rothson might successfully bring the two sides together at a series of summits rotated between the two capitals.

Rothson Telegram Scandal

However, Rothson undermined the negotiations and sought to paint the fascist west in a positive light back home to Provisa. In a December 14th, 1927 telegram to the Imperial Government, Rothson grossly misrepresented the facts, intentions, and goals of the democratic east towards Belhavia and peace with its fascist west, and he exaggerated and outright lied about several events in an effort to poison the Goldenberg administration against Loweport.

One of Rothson's deputies slipped the Chambers government a copy of the telegram. Outraged, the Loweport government declared Rothson a persona non grata and expelled him. Rothson fled to western Arthurista.

In January 1928, Goldenberg recalled him from his post in Kingston after intense diplomatic pressure from the Chambers government.

Justice Minister

With support from industrialists such as Asher Weiss and his friends, Goldenberg appointed Rothson as Justice Minister in March 1928, with less than a year left in his second term as presidency. It was mostly a no-show job.

With 9 months left of the outgoing Tory administration, Rothson did little of note. However, in the lame-duck session of the 68th Senate, he managed to push through a judicial reform package that expanded Imperial judgeships, adding two dozen more judges. Most were registered or affiliated with the Fascists. After the fall of Galarian in May 1945, most of these judges would be impeached and removed from office.

Interlude From Active Politics

After he left the Cabinet position in January 1929, he became a Director on the Board of Directors of Reiss Industrial Corporation, then-renamed as Reiss Industries, Ltd. He lost interest in politics and the political world, and spent time theorizing on the finer aspects of fascist ideology.

He also took several mistresses, leading to his wife's divorce in late 1929. Throughout most of the 1930s, he remained low-key in the public eye, writing several books on ideology, fascism, and political theory.

The rise of General of the Army Zachary Galarian's political influence and profile caught Rothson's eye, and the pair met several times as well as corresponded regularly by letter.

From 1936 until 1938, he taught a course on modern ideology at Imperial Provisa University.

Family and personal life

In 1921, at age 30, Rothson married Rebeccah (neé Goldstein). They were married for 8 years, though it is documented Rothson cheated on her casually with mistresses. Disgusted, in 1929 she divorced him. For the rest of his life, he would date a string of mistresses and younger women. In 1944 amid his station in Arthurista, it was reported he slept with the goyish wife of a high-ranking Arthuristan fascist government official, which caused a scandal in elite circles back home in Belhavia.

He had two children officially, both girls, born to Rebeccah: Ruth (b. 1922 - d. 1989) and Brina (b. 1925 - d. 2000). However, it is believed he had up to three bastard children out of wedlock with his numerous mistresses. In 1997, on his deathbed, writer and novelist Jeffrey Brisker claimed to his relatives that he was the bastard son of Rothson. His mother, Leah, was suspected of being one of his many liaisons in the late 1930s.

He was called by his friends "a hopeless romantic," and would often daydream and absent-mindedly contemplate the world through introspection after class (when he younger) and during work (when he was older). He delighted in abstraction and theory, and was aligned temperamentally and philosophically with the values of order, linearity, structure, and precision owing to his inclination to searching out the order and logic in the world around him.

He lacked natural charisma, but as he grew older, friends and acquaintances noticed that he acquired a rather glib actor's persona in the public. In the late 1920s, the political class gossiped over his "silver tongue" in the major policy fights of the day.

Both of his parents outlived him: his father, Petyr (b. 1869) died in 1947, and his mother, Hannah (b. 1873) died in 1955.