Idea: A Confederacy that managed to create a separate but equal system that actually works(in the right situations, according to the right people, anyway), and is seen as an equal society, facing off against a racist, xenophobic union that blames blacks and immigrants for the loss of the south. If you're still taking other submissions, i might write this myself.
An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government
- Thread starter Ephraim Ben Raphael
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Idea: A eugenic feudal society that is ruled by a nobility of Star Trek augment styled superhumans and an un augmented peasantry. That has been living in a near 19th Century lifestyle. While the nobility has monopolized advanced technology for themselves. Plus a slave caste of artificial humans ala Fallout synths.
Perhaps extend that idea to technological castes in general?
The idea does seem rather promising, though alternatively, you could also try to mix that with the "WI the Confederate outposts in Brazil actually become large enough to form their own state" notion.
That sounds like another story entirely. I've just always been intrigued by a Confederacy that turned good-I got it from the plot of a book where a black draft saves the confederacy from being conquered, and thus equality slowly comes as the nation realizes it owes its black population its very existence, while the Union goes nuts and blames the blacks for everything(I forget the title and can never find it on google). Plus, it'd be cool to see the modern-day confederates rationalize their early days like the North Korea timeline posted here.
Deleted member 108228
I can help, also there is some relation as the Confederates escaped to Brazil. There's even a village with Confederate descendants. Also would it have any relation to the Golden Circle as Brazil was a sugar exporter, and the Golden Circle was a project to turn the CSA into a slave empire.
How can I contribute to this, exactly? Who needs to approve of what when I have an ideology that I would like to explain?
yaitz331
Banned
I believe you PM Ephraim Ben Raphael with your write-up and he decides whether or not it fits.
Even if the post is old and from a banned member - I don't agree with that sentiment. I picture a demarchy/lottocracy would be quite a bit different than normal democracy.
Maybe this system might arise somewhere in the Alps: even in OTL, the old Landsgemeinden have survived in a couple of Swiss cantons, and the old Republic of the Three Leagues (OTL Grisons) was even more democratic than that.
United States of America
I was conflicted when I made the choice to visit Washington D.C. for my research into this entry. I have visited many incarnations of the city, and in a stable United States which established itself as the superpower, it seldom changes. Neo-classical architecture alongside modernist and colonial structures, all familiar sights as I made my way to the White House. I didn’t want to choose Washington D.C., but I knew that for this entry, I had very little choice.
The White House was a refreshing sight, as it was unfamiliar. The structure itself has remained outwardly unchanged since the restorations of the 1960s, but a familiar sight in many incarnations I visited was missing: the fence. All security in the White House was absent, as the lines of tourists showed. I managed to skip the lines and made my way to a private area of the house, where my contact was waiting.
Waiting for me was Senator William Madine of Arkansas. Madine was an older African-American gentleman, dressed in the seemingly-immortal fashion of a politician: a black suit. The only defining feature of his dress was an upside-down American flag lapel pin, a symbol of distress that both Americas adopted since 9/10. After receiving my request for an interview, Senator Madine chose the White House as the venue. He firmly shook my hand, and apologized for being unable to secure the Oval Office for our interview. “National Park Service won’t close tours on anyone’s account, and Lord knows they need the money,” he explained. We had to settle for the President’s Dining Room.
Once we were situated, I asked a question to which I already knew the answer: where is the President?
“Which one?” Senator Madine asks back with a laugh. “No serving President has lived here since Clinton. Hell, none of them have stepped foot in the building, on account of the shitstorm that would start if they did.”
“We had a two for one deal that year, and every four since. Both sides got around to the idea that things were running better now that each half of the country is more politically homogenous. There was a lot of ‘voting with your feet’ in those first eight years. Don’t like how the jackoff in chief is running things? Move. By this point, everyone realized that a national presidential election would do something that nobody wanted: reunify the country. If that happened, it would be back to the bad old days of arguing over whatever dumb shit controversy’s going on and getting nothing done. So, we decided not to have a presidential election. We rolled back all of the post-9/10 emergency measures except suspending presidential elections, and we chose instead to elect Chief Executive Secretaries.”
A Chief Executive Secretary?
“Yeah, I guess that’s the Red America term. Chief Executive Secretary of the Department of the Executive. The Blues still call theirs the President, but technically he’s the Secretary of the Department of the Presidency. In 2008, both sides created these new departments to effectively replace the office of the Presidency, which was now empty. Both secretaries have what are effectively presidential powers, but they aren’t the president”
Is that constitutional? Senator Madine laughed.
“None of the other cabinet positions are! And there ain’t no rule in the Constitution which says the Presidency must be occupied at all times. Besides, the circuit courts say it’s okay.”
What about the Supreme Court?
“Empty, and has been since Thomas kicked the bucket. A side effect of having no president is that he can’t appoint replacements for Supreme Court justices for Congress to approve, so the Supremes have been empty. You can visit their chambers, too. They’re open seven days a week.”
I asked Senator Madine why the Supreme Court didn’t resolve the issue of the presidency once one of them died. After all, now there would be an odd number of justices.
“Because that would cause reunification, and the mess that comes with it. When Scalia died, the Ninth Circuit tried to send the case to the Supremes. But that was in 2013, so both Bush and Gore were long gone. Court shot it down for being moot. And they were scared of what might happen, too. Whenever one side makes a play, the other threatens to secede.”
Were there any remaining shared federal government branches? Clearly, Senator Madine still had a job.
“It ain’t much of one, that’s why I have the time to do interviews like this. We pass laws, and the executive branches can either ignore them or follow them. We’re just a bunch of suits, we can’t make them do anything. And again, the circuits said they have that discretion, mostly so they can avoid reunification. State legislatures take care of most laws, executive orders take care of the rest.”
With all of this division, it’s a wonder that the country has stayed together.
“Some people say that it shouldn’t. There ain’t a United States of America anymore. The idea of a unified country is a fiction. The two administrations have shut down free movement on account of disagreements over immigration, the two militaries have fallen under completely separate commands and their only rule is to not shoot at each other if they’re employed by opposing sides; hell, both sides are proposing changing the flag. There are two Americas, not one, and it’s about time that we made that official. Even if it does mean losing this cushy job.”
So Senator Madine was a Separatist?
“Loud and proud. Most congressmen don’t give a damn, but I got my start in politics as a Separatist and I’ll end it a Separatist. The only reason I’m in Congress is ‘cause this is how all politicians retire these days. Now, I ain’t one of the radicals. I think those folks who want separation yesterday are jumping the gun. That shit takes time, we don’t want to go down the same road as the old Soviet Union. But hell, the Unionists have bad eggs in their basket too.”
But wasn’t the senator saddened that his country was divided.
“Sad? Why would I be sad? I love America, and I’d love it if there were two of them!”
I said my goodbyes to Senator Madine and made my way to someone who Madine would have no doubt called a “bad egg.” Angela Renz, Director of the National Union Movement was also in Washington, and insisted that we meet at the Lincoln Memorial. I saw her waiting for me at the steps to the memorial, looking at the seated Lincoln in admiration.
“This city was once the center of the world,” Ms. Renz said, without averting her gaze from Lincoln. “Now pretenders govern from New York and Houston. He wouldn’t have let this happen. He spilled blood, that of our people and eventually his own, to keep this Union together.”
Ms. Renz turned to face me. She looked younger than I expected, the streaks of gray in her black hair fooling me when I approached her from behind. She was dressed in a formal black blouse, with a fake black rose on her lapel. I asked her what that meant.
“I’m in mourning. This country is dying, and only I and my compatriots are doing anything about it.”
I moved on to my questions. I asked Ms. Renz what her goals were for the country.
“Simple: Reunification. The National Union Movement wants to restore the political unity of the United States by holding the first presidential election in two generations. We are bipartisan, there are Democrats and Republicans all over the country who are Unionists. We do not care which man wins the White House, only that one does. From there, the healing can begin.”
I asked what good that would do. She rolled her eyes.
“You’ve been talking to the Seps, haven’t you? Reunification would solve a lot of problems this country has. Conflicting jurisdictions and laws have punished the innocent and let the guilty walk. Unscrupulous corporations are taking advantage of the legal mess and ignoring all meaningful regulation. The lack of federal enforcement of civil rights is letting localities run rampant with prejudices that have no place in this country. Cooperation between the two administrations is spotty at the best of times, nonexistent in the worst. Commerce between different states has been interrupted, in contravention of the Constitution. Mr. Chana, the status quo is a mess!”
I told Ms. Renz that the Separatists wanted many of the same things.
“The Separatists are, fundamentally, cynics,” she told me. “Cynics and opportunists. All they want is to enrich themselves. They see a dying country and instead of nursing it back to health, they’re grabbing for steak knives, eager for their pound of flesh! They’re all on someone’s bankroll.”
Whose?
“Think, Mr. Chana! Ask yourself, qui bono? This country used to be the modern Rome. A hyperpower, with influence all over the planet. A beacon of freedom, envy of all, a shining city on a hill. Now? It’s two backwater puppets. Our men and women die at the behest of foreign powers! China’s got bases in Canada and Mexico!”
Which powers?
“The Reds are on the payroll of China, and the Blues on that of Germany and her orbiters, and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or a liar. These foreign powers want nothing more than to finish cutting this country in half like a cabbage.”
I told Ms. Renz that this line sounded far more cynical than whatever the Separatists say.
“Mr. Chana, foreign powers have always envied America’s power, and they were always the ones who supported breaking it into pieces. Remember, the British and French were the ones who supported the Confederate traitors during the Civil War. You’ve seen worlds where they succeeded, and look how those turned out! Don’t tell me you would be happy to see my world go down the same path.”
I asked Ms. Renz if she considered accepting the reality that there were now two Americas.
“’Accept the new reality’? Mr. Chana, this country is a disaster right now! Only the lazy, weak and malicious would accept dividing this country. I’m not going to let democracy die an ignoble death.”
Realizing that line of conversation was going nowhere, I asked what the National Unionists plan on doing. At this, she smiled for the first time.
“There is no problem that cannot be solved with more democracy. Our plan is to build public support in favor of a presidential election. A proper one, not the illegal nonsense that they pass off as an election.”
And how do they intend to accomplish that?
“We tried forcing an election through lawsuits in the past, arguing that the Constitution requires a presidential election every four years, but the district courts aren’t going to give up their power. No, we’re doing this as the Founders intended: for the people, by the people. When enough people are out on the streets and online demanding an election, it will happen. This country isn’t dead yet.”
Yikes. I mean, I was 3 at the time, but there's no way it could've ever come to that, right? Fun story regardless!
Sorry @rvbomally some of the states just don't make sense. Why is Indiana on the blue side, but Minnesota and Michigan. The others I could find a reason to justify, but that one definitely not.
The split is based on the districts for federal appellate courts. Individual states aren’t declaring for one side or the other, circuit courts are holding that one man is president as opposed to the other.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
I'm not planning one, since I consider sovereignty one of the requirements for something to be a state.
yaitz331
Banned
Why only a state? The title of this thread is "An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government", not "An Examination of Extra-Universal States". Why would only state governments be considered?
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