The Arrow Winged With His Own Feather
The flag of the American Union[1]
The Union proper & it’s close ally, the Kingdom of Wasatch
Lost are the days when America ruled the world, when all beared heed to the beating heart of democracy. Lost are the days when the United States ruled from sea the shining sea, when it constituted the wealthiest, most advanced state in existence. Lost are the days when their navy, their stellar penetration, their economy was unmatched. Lost are the days of the American Hyperpower.
And that’s alright.
Climatologically the continent is not what it used to be; thick jungle coats the southern shore between Tampa and Corpus Christi, extending up the Mississippi watershed where it peters out around the fork of the Ohio and Mississippi in the north and just short of the old Virginian border in the east. It has come to be known as the Dixie Basin. The bluegrass meadows Kentucky was famous for have shifted north into Ohio and Indiana, and the coasts of the Great Lakes are more temperate, even Mediterranean than they used to be. Unfortunately for the Midwest, the wheat belt has permanently shifted northwards, and they have suffered slow aridification until they resemble California or South Africa more than the rolling meadows of yore.
This has had some interesting effects on the average American diet. Cassava, tropical fruits as mango and guava are endemic, a proper southerner appreciates peanut soup, fufu and moambe washed down with a tall glass of sugarcane mojito. In the Outback Midwest mint tea compliments chicken yassa and couscous, damper and pavlova, and in the temperate north-east souvlaki, red mullet and ful medames are enjoyed alongside a short shot of palinka.
Unlike many comparative nations as New England or Canada, where ethnic identity is clearly defined and respected[2], the US is unabashedly interracial and the half a billion strong population is largely of a bronzed complexion as the lines between African Americans, Latinos, Cubans[3] and Caucasians has blurred. Indeed, Americans are noted for their stunning heterochromic eyes and the lustre of their multicoloured hair, ranging in long clumps of gold and brown and red.
Herein, it seems only appropriate that their religion be as cooperative and synthetic as their people; Cooperative Abrahamism dominates the country, but ironically adheres to strict tenants of church autonomy, individual competency and the god given privacy of each adherent. In tandem, in the recesses of the Dixie Basin where man has not dared tread in number since the 2100s, the murksome Rastafarian religion is practiced by the descendants of the superstitious refugees that fled the southern coast as it sunk beneath the waves.
There is also a notable number of Mestri[4] in the United States, mostly gathered into autonomous collectives in the outback or as a part of the many ministries around the country, as proselytization has been thorough and many of their member have been swayed by the salvationists of the Cooperative. The Mestri community in the United States is the second largest on Earth, after China.
The American Union uses what is contemporarily referred to as ‘Commissioned Democracy’. Unelected committees composed varyingly of experts, legal professionals, soldiers, scientists, unionists, technocrats and other specialists -depending on the committee’s purpose- devise new legislation that is then put to vote among a traditionally elected legislature, the Assembly, who may pass, propose changes, or reject the proposal altogether. Given the American Union is a unitary state[5], they utilise a proportional system of representation and so a variety of parties sit on the Assembly, though it is noted quite specifically in the Constitution that no member must vote along party lines and so defections and cross-floor gerrymandering is common. The most prevalent parties are noted below.
The Populist Party
Not nearly as radical as it sounds, the Populist Part is a constitutionalist, conservative but secular party that at current oppose the rights of synthetic lifeforms and uplifted animals, believe in strong regulation of key industries, exports and the environment, and believe in the political consolidation of America’s few interstellar territories into the metropole itself[6]. They have their power base in the -non-Rastafarian- Deep South, Cuba and Chicago and currently rule in coalition with…
The Industrialist Party
Fairly minarchist and certainly more radical than the Populists by the standards of the 2500s. They are virulently atheistic, do not consider animals or synthetic lifeforms freely thinking beings, believe in protectionism and even some of the eco-jingoist policies of radical Brazil. They too believe in the consolidation of America’s interstellar colonies but would like them militarised, something that the Populist Part is opposed to. The Industrialists’ heartland is in navy-dominated Florida, as well as the Outback in the Midwest.
The Syndicalist Party
The predominating force of the opposition, the Syndicalists are progressives in that they believe in the right to express one’s faith in the public arena, the rights of synthetic lifeforms and uplifted animals (if not outright citizenship), believe in a loosening of regulation regarding exports and key industries and instead turning over those industries to syndical unions, and believe that regulations regarding the environment are pointless given the planet’s biosphere changes all the time[7]. The Syndicalists also prefer the autonomist method of governance regarding the interstellar territories, instead relying on vested interests and dialogue to maintain influence over the areas. Their strength lies in New York, primarily, but they have stakes in the more metropolitan regions of the Midwest, especially Minneapolis.
The Monarchist Party
Throughout the Second Civil War, Mexican Invasion and Pacification Wars, a notable General, the Afro-Russian, Chicagoan born Isaiah Melnik, served valiantly and was much reported in popular media as a fair, tenacious yet even general with visionary leadership and good oratory skills. When the American government broke down midway through the Mexican Invasion General Melnik took control of the Mississippi and the central US and is widely credited with keeping the bulk of the country together as the fringes broke off into their own nations, and in doing so was crowned by his men as Emperor Isaiah the First. When Mexico delineated its new border and security forces from Canada, the Carolingian Republic, India and Africa moved in to restore order, they repudiated this declaration. As such, the Monarchist Party was founded and has slowly been gaining in popularity since the late 2200s when it first gained seats in the Assembly.
The American Union has what has been described as an ‘especial relationship’ with the Kingdom of Wasatch[8], the small Mormon country to its northwest. With a pegged currency, a policy of open borders and having recognised the Melniks as Dukes of Snake River, Wasatch would be a part of the Union were it not for their beloved king, Muslims[9] and line marriages.
The economy of the Union has shifted somewhat, though parts are familiar. New York, while smaller, still dominates the nation’s financial sector. Agriculture dominates the South, though it is now of a tropical disposition with rice fields and fruit orchids principal to its operation. Industry has shifted west into the now agriculturally poor but resource rich Outback, and manufacturing there is booming, with everything from the fabrication of magnetised, polysteel fusion hulls to metal-organic supercapacitors to high-density radiation shielding to heavy duty polypropylene tools[10] to the hundreds of thousands of ballistics that the Americans still innovate upon. They scurry across the Earth in great cargo vessels operating out of Cuba and Orleans and across the stars in freight towers[11] emblazoned at their flat fore with the Union Eagle.
The Americans are a warm, diverse, stalwartly religious, enthusiastic and yet sombre people. With a sense of humour some might describe as black and a tendency to enclose upon themselves when such things as politics or war are mentioned; that isn’t what they are[12]. But foreigners will find them energetic and homely, willing to extend a hand to and accept into their societal family any who pays heed to their flag and creed. They are no longer the great giant lording over the Earthling scape, but they don’t need to be, because they are themselves.
~
[1] – Full credit for the flag unabashedly goes to Undeadmuffin, thanks a bunch man. Originally it was a fascist American flag, but here I’ve repurposed it to represent the unitary nature of the Union and its belief in a strong, territorial nation.
[2] – Ironically self-segregation isn’t necessarily seen as a bad thing in the 2500s, given it helps to preserve cultural identity and integrity. The backlash to globalism was incredibly fierce and the uptick of regionalism even more so.
[3] – Often considered a separate ethnic group from the rest of Latin America, due to the higher prevalence of ‘mulattos’ and the lesser number of Caucasians by the time they completely opened up in the mid-2000s.
[4] – Again, big trilaterally symmetrical, interstellar refugees that destroyed their own home planet due to ecological devastation after over farming the bloody thing into oblivion.
[5] – Much of the problems with the United States were believed to arise from gridlock between the federal and state governments, which has some truth to it but is far from the only reason they stagnated. After the Mexican Invasion they abolished the remaining states.
[6] – You’ll note that a lot of these ideas are concepts we’d associate with progressive politicians today; there have been several political realignments and in doing so stringent regulation and environmentalism has become a core conservative idea.
[7] – Not that they’re denying this is caused by Human interference, just that to try and prevent human interference is a fruitless effort.
[8] – Wasatch is so named due to the famous battle of the same name; at the Battle of Wasatch, taking place on the slopes of the Wasatch Mountains on the border between Montana and Idaho, Mormon forces halted the Mexican advanced as it pushed north through Utah. Millions of Mormons were forced into Idaho whilst fleeing, and the bravery of the defenders went down in history.
[9] – Many Muslims fled to the newly declared Kingdom of Idaho -later renamed Boise- during the Pacification Wars. Given their history as a persecuted minority, the Mormons there were more than accommodating.
[10] - Polypropylene tools are really,
really important in the future, because in the one instance of artificial gravity -diamagnetism- metal objects go fucking mental from the constant electrical field. So plastics as strong as and nearly indistinguishable from steel tools are essential to all spaceships with diamagnetism as a feature. I may well do an entire update on this one thing.
[11] – Real big freight vessels that constantly accelerate to produce gravity, when at rest they can use diamagnetic fields to produce a similar sensation to gravity but it’s not altogether effective and only ever used in the crew quarters.
[12] – Still a gung-ho lot, but less about the ‘Democracy, guns and power’ and more about the ‘Industry, dignity and community’.
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