America is just wrong. Or is it?

One of my many projects that I may never get around to finishing is my Human Republic Universe.  It began with an idea for a TV series (if I do get around to making it, it will most likely now be an animated web series) and I started writing short stories to help me flesh out the universe.  The HR is the weak, planetary government that develops after The Conflagration.  (World War III is a cliché and has certain connotations.  In some ways, The Conflagration is hard to define, with some historians putting 9/11 as the beginning, but most don’t push it back that far.)  After aliens make contact and give us the technology to travel to the stars, it evolves into an interstellar government.

The HR has three branches like the US government.  Unlike the US, the legislative branch is just a parliament where the citizens of the Member Nations elect their Member of Parliament.  All HR citizens also vote for the President, but the elections are different from the US.  Since there are so many political factions around the planet, there could be dozens of people running for President.  So the person with the most votes – who could just have 10% of the total – become President.  The person with the second most, becomes Vice President, and the person with the third most becomes the Prime Minister, who oversees Parliament.  And then it is tradition set by the first HR President – who co-wrote the HR Constitution – that the other candidates are offered Cabinet positions.  The idea behind this is that there are so many groups of humans in the HR, that they all deserve a voice in the government.  Because the point of the HR is to fix problems between the Member Nations and to try to make life better for the most citizens.

Contrast that to the way politics work in the US.  The goal of each party is to win the Presidency, as well as gain control in Congress so that they can do as they see fit.  Basically, they see America as wrong and they need to change it in an ideological fashion to “fix” it.  (How many candidates say America is great, but then in the next breath list all the problems that they will fix if you elect them?)  But who says the parties are right?  What if America is “broken” only because the parties keep trying to impose their ideologies on it?  Maybe the parties should stop with all the ideological bullshit and work on fixing the basic things like infrastructure, and let America go on its own way.

Short story - “Walls”

I am in the process of going through all of my published stories making a list of when and where they were published as well as a brief description of the story.  I came across this story I first wrote almost ten years ago, and given this election season, it’s still relevant. 

“Walls”

“It was announced today – from the United Nations’ new home of Paris – that a twenty meter tall wall will be constructed around the United States of America to protect the rest of the world from the threat of Americanism. 

“Secretary General Kizza Nsibambi had this to say: ‘For many decades the world has tolerated – feared would be a better word – the self-appointed role of world guardian the United States has taken.  But just like Rome and the British Empire, all major powers must eventually fade and pass into history to make room for newer powers.  It is not a moment the people greet with joy, but it is a moment they must greet.  Now is the time for the United States to fade. 

‘Despite what the American administration says, I am not calling for the destruction of the United States; Britain exists without its empire.  What I am saying is that America has had too much power over the world for too long and has done too little with it.  The United States says they champion democracy around the world, but they have no problem propping up corrupt regimes if it means they’ll get cheap oil.  A few Americans killed anywhere in the world is a major news story, possibly leading to war, while millions are slaughtered in Africa in silence and America does nothing.  It is time for the world to stand on its own two feet and solve its own problems.  The greatest obstacle in doing this is America as a world power; and it is time that obstacle is removed.’

“American President Jonathon Pike’s response to the Secretary General was, ‘Bring it on.’”