GUEST POST: Science Fiction and 2016, by CompGeeksDavid

On By Luther M. SilerIn Politics

It’s Monday!  And I’m home.  At least I hope I’m home.  And sleeping.  And hopefully not suffering from con crud after spending the weekend in the company of 70,000 unwashed nerds dedicated fans.  

I suspect today may be the day where I need a guest poster the MOST, really.  And looky!  David from Comparative Geeks is here to save me!

(And watch, this will be the post where I have to make sure people behave in the comments.  Do not make me smite you while I am crabby and tired.)

(Also, thanks to all of my guest bloggers for saving my butt while I was in Chicago!)

I started blogging back in the last presidential election cycle. And I started out with a crazy thought: what if the candidates presented their positions in the form of a science fiction story? A short tale of what they think the world will look like in 4 – or 8 – years, if they are president. Their stances are great and all, but between the balance of power between the branches, local versus federal, and the fact that they don’t want to fix everything or they’re not going to have anything to run on next time… well, their stances don’t necessarily tell us anything.

Of course, by starting blogging with something like this – without actually having followers – you end up sitting by yourself pondering. And I couldn’t figure out myself what it would all look like. The easier one was actually doing the reverse: thinking of how the parties would write a story of what the country would look like in 4 years if their opponents won… The usual sort of negative politics were sadly easier to consider than a positive vision of the future.

With Jetpacks?Well, we’re in a new cycle, I’m guest-blogging on a blog where there’s been plenty of political talk, and there is a much more interesting presidential race going on… so what might the future look like if the different candidates win?

Drumpf is of course the one that makes this seem like an easy exercise. Because it’s science fiction, and if there’s something we love in science fiction, it’s dystopias. Because that’s where pretty much every non-Drumpf supporter in the world likely expects his presidency to be headed: global dystopia. Recession if we’re lucky; World War 3 if we’re not. And the most dystopian I can think is a World War 3 with the US and Russia on a side, with Europe and their ally China (maybe?) against. And nukes. Probably nukes.

Good God, ya’ll.

Unfortunately, I could also see – somewhere amidst the Drumpf followers – there being folks who might turn to assassination. I could also see, if one of the other Republicans somehow wins the nomination, that they might pick up Drumpf as a Vice-President, to bring the party together. Meaning, I could see someone “voting-in” Drumpf via assassination. So I’m not liking how things look with a GOP win at all.

Even worse, that same logic applies with a Hillary win. We’ve got people all riled up. And there’s a whole lot of anti-Hillary sentiment, built on 20 years with her in the spotlight. So it’s easy to see dystopia here, too: and the who’s-the-Vice-President here is a bit fuzzier, but important. Unless, in the same logic as above, it’s Bernie…

I’m not sure I see the same result with a Bernie win. But I also see him having a Republican Congress – and not a whole lot happening. But it would open our politics up, so that’s something… and maybe there’s an increasing relationship with Europe, with other socialists.

I think for most people right now, staring ahead at this year… the best result we can hope for might really be for nothing much to happen the next four years. But those are my thoughts. Now it’s open to you – what do you think the country looks like in four years? Whichever candidate. Let’s discuss in the comments below!

6 thoughts on “GUEST POST: Science Fiction and 2016, by CompGeeksDavid”

  2. Well, of course you don’t. I was just reading this and thinking about whole GOP national security camarilla pronouncing Trump a danger to the world and their own party lost.

    When I read that statement, along with the media plan for beating him with words — If you did not see it, I will dig it up. Got it saved on FB — my first thought was “Holy fuck! These people are saying they will do ANYTHING to avoid a Trump Presidency. And my second thought was “Having studied the 60’s, I am SO VERY GLAD that I stick to a strict code of nonviolence and 0% condone assassination.”

    I want this thing won with words, and peacefully, and business to continue but, more profitably for all of us.

    Not sure how I can possibly see the U.S. and Russia on the same Side against Europe and China, though. That is quite an inventive dystopia.

    I’ll have a thing to say about Bernie in a bit. Gotta go grab a video and re-read this first.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. After the re-read:

    I think a Clinton Presidency entails risks, but can’t agree that the same logic applies with her and Drumpf. Hillary is an interventionist and a bit of a hawk, but she’s an orthodox hawk. Drumpf released a foreign policy document today and gave an AIPAC in which he says basically that he will kill NATO. At least that’s how I read it. There are some good ideas in there — the only thing I’ve found of his that has even a shred of rationality. I agree with him about non-interventionism as far as that goes, but what’s he’s talking about goes way beyond that.

    Hillary Clinton is not talking smack at NATO in an environment in which Russia has recently threatened Denmark and pretty much every friendly country in the world, publicly or privately, has expressed reservations about where we are going.

    On Bernie:

    I think he’s the most benign option, but don’t look for him to do much more than buy us time for Millennials to grow older and wiser while the demographics continue to shift. I think he will end up being a one-termer, and if he wins, we’d best not take our eye off the ball and we’d best be ready when they come for us in 2020. (Can you believe we’re talking about 2020?? Wasn’t Shadowrun set in 2020?)

    Anyway, Bernie’s got a lot of asshat followers that I want to jack up over some intersectional insensitivity issues, but Bernie himself has been great. He has expanded the realm of possibilities. What Drumpf is doing to make nationalist violence more acceptable, Bernie is doing to make leftism more acceptable. And that is good for everyone except a few people who live within the narrow confines of the 20th century orthodoxy.

    If we can have savvy leftists who believe in positive, nonviolent social change and sane foreign policy, those guys can make deals with savvy libertarians who want the same, eh?

    The reason I like Bernie is because he does stuff like this. (Hope the embed comes through.)

    Liked by 1 person

  5. niaaeryn

    The GOP has changed so much as a party I do not recognize it from when I was a girl. Sad.
    The Dems are now more like Republicans. Personally, I would love or see a real 3rd party solution. Meantime, I also lament the loss of the O’Malley I think it was. He was a nice moderate. In lieu of his absence, Bernie is at least not bought by corporations, but unlikely to get much done as the Congress is likely to then be Republican as a response to himself. Likely, as the status quo would freak out, Hillary thereby has a chance. At least it is an interesting race for all though irritating.

    Like

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