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| · DV8 [21-01-2008 / 11:54:04] |
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The UCAS presidential campaign turns on several important platform issues, each a matter of great debate between the candidates. Much of the campaign's media coverage revolves around each candidate's stand on the following:
- Reunification with California.
Many candidates are bringing up California's separation from the UCAS, and several are talking about reclaiming the state [primarily in order to rape...er, utilize it's natural resources]. Reuniting California with the UCAS would also regain considerable Pacific Rim presence for the UCAS as well as effectively surround the Native American Nations. Naturally, no one in the UCAS much cares what Californians think about the idea.
- Bug City.
The voting public of the UCAS is demanding to know how each presidential wannabe intends to resolve the apparent deadlock in Chicago between the UCAS military and the insect spirits that have taken over the city. All the blame for the Bug City debacle is being foisted off on the previous administration, and anti-Awakened candidates frequently point to Bug City as an example of the inevitable consequences of uncontrolled magic use.
- Foreign Policy.
How to deal with the NAN and the CAS [see below] are big issues for the average UCAS voter. The "man on the street" in the UCAS believes that his country has been pushed around by all the other nations of North America ever since the Ghost Dance brought down the old United States more than forty years ago. In response to this concern, many candidates are talking tough on foreign policy, while others speak of addressing internal problems first before leaping into the political shark-tank of world affairs. With the 2057 campaign season, the UCAS's long history of isolationism may be coming to an end.
- War with the CAS.
Threatening rumblings of a new Civil War with the Confederate American States have been going on ever since the CAS's formation. Many peoplein the UCAS think the CAS has gotten too big for it's collective britches, and recent events in North Virginia and the Federal District of Columbia have only worsened UCAS opinion of the Confederates. Some hawks in the UCAS government are now calling for a war to reclaim the "rebel" states.
- Racial Justice/Awakened Rights.
With the resurgence of acticity among the policlubs and numerous other political factions, metahumans and Awakened groups across the board are clamoring for full civil rights from the UCAS government. The proportion of metahumans in the government since the Awakening has been virtually nil, and metahuman rights remain as strongly disputed an issue in the UCAS as civil rights for people of color were in the 1960s, or gay and lesbian rights were in the 1990s. In addition to the various branches of homo sapiens, the "Awakened rights" movement includes groups demanding legal recognition of sasquatches, free spirits and even ghouls in the wake of events in Chicago that brought about the formation of the first organized ghoul "community". The candidates' views lie across the spectrum - some support integration (sometimes even forced integration), while others are taking a "separate but equal" stance intended to keep varying degrees of distance between metas and "normal" humans.
- The Economy/Corporate Influence.
As always, a primary campaign issue is the average citizen's standard of living - "two chickens in every pot." The UCAS economy has been in a slump for quite a while, and the slight improvements during the Adams and Steele presidencies have simply not kept up with inflation, unemployment and the general downward slide of the UCAS as an industrial nation in the world market. Management of the economy to ensure national prosperity is a prime issue for most voters, and a powerful one for all of the candidates.
A related issue, how to handle relations with the powerful megacorporations, is almost a foreign-policy concern by 2057 because the megacorps are virtually nations unto themselves. UCAS prosperity is so tied up with corporate politics that no candidate can ignore the role the corporations will play in the election.
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