Sun and Moon - The Presidential Election of 2040

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Atlas Forum
- General Politics
-- U.S. General Discussion (Moderators: DarthVader, Lee Hyeri, Sheldon)
--- 2040 State of the Union Address

Lee Hyeri     ObscureClouds Moderators YaBB God ★★★★★ Posts: 8231

2040 State of the Union Address « Reply #1230 on: January 10, 2040, 08:58:12 pm »President Sun has now arrived at the House Chamber.

Crystal is my Love     rock_red       YaBB God ★★★★★ Posts: 891

2040 State of the Union Address « Reply #1231 on: January 10, 2040, 08:58:37 pm » You must be logged in to read this quote. Dang, that dress is stunning! Show those shoulders, you Asian sexymama!

Not Milton Friedman MiltonFriedman YaBB God ★★★★★ Posts: 4145

2040 State of the Union Address « Reply #1232 on: January 10, 2040, 08:59:01 pm » You must be logged in to read this quote. Dang, that dress is stunning! Show those shoulders, you Asian sexymama![/quote] Um, I know that you have the right to be male, but can we please not objectify the President of the United States?

[MAINEiac4434]

Atlas's reactions are the best part about this (and that's saying something, because every part of this is really good. Like, better than 90% of political novels good.)

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

January 12, 2040, FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Kamala Harris stared intensely at the Newton’s Cradle on her desk. The law of conservation of momentum, distilled into its purest form. The left pendulum rises, then falls and makes impact, causing the rightmost pendulum to rise on cue.

Her face reflected clearly on the stainless steel balls. Even at 75, she was still looking sharp. Isn’t the future awesome? she thought.

The Director of the FBI took her eyes off the Cradle and back onto her computer, where they listed the most important cases that the FBI was investigating. A fraud case involving a company peddling unapproved genetic modification therapies to desperate families, where babies being born with organs outside their bodies was the least that could result. Reports of white supremacists and Anarcho-Nihilists refining their methods to hack autonomous vehicles as an assassination technique. The Biloxi nanotechnology factory explosion and the ensuing NanoHealth corruption case. You know, just another day’s work.

While Harris looked over those hundreds of cases, she had President Sun’s State of the Union speech playing in the background. She didn’t have the time to listen to it before, so as a good public servant, she thought that listening to it sooner rather than later outweighed the downsides of multitasking.

She sighed. In many ways, President Sun was everything that Harris aspired to be. The first female president of America. The first Asian president of America. But fate was a fickle beast, so it was Sun, not her, who got to make history.

But in another way, she and Sun were allies. Not politically, of course, but on a personal level. She recalled the Chinagate investigation of Sun’s first year; based off an anonymous tip, Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into whether the Sun campaign received contributions from the Chinese government during the elections.

As the premier law enforcement agency of the United States, of course the FBI followed along. But as Harris suspected back then, the whole thing turned out to be a big fat nothingburger, just like the first Chinagate scandal with Bill Clinton. Yes, there were people within the CCP who offered the Sun campaign help, monetary or otherwise. But unlike the last Republican president, Sun had enough sense to not to say yes to foreign collusion, knowing the optics of saying anything but no. And she went on to win anyways.

To this day, she often wondered how much of the Chinagate investigation was done out of genuine concern, rather than for political and racial reasons. Yes, racial. It was no surprise that people would freak out about an Asian person becoming president, especially with China as the most powerful country in the world and America’s largest rival. Chinese celebrations of Sun’s victory didn’t help perceptions either. But Sun’s rivals - members of Harris’ own Democratic party - used fear to delegitimize her presidency. It was not unlike how Republicans, three long decades ago, used the racist lie of a Kenyan birth to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency.

For that reason, Harris had to respect the president. Every time the Democrats went low and made another smear or started another investigation, Sun went high.

As Harris read over a particularly interesting case - former presidential candidate and racist extraordinaire Richard Johanns was arrested for DUI and driving in an autonomous-only lane, and now the FBI wants to know if he was also involved in a sex trafficking ring - someone knocked on her door. Harris took her eyes off of her computer and headed to the front of her office. “Come in,” she said.

A thin, wan man walked into the room with a manila envelope. “We got a tip,” he said.

“A tip?” Harris asked. “From whom?”

“We don’t know,” he said. “It’s an anonymous tip, sent as an encrypted message. We were able to track down its sending location, though.”

“It’s location?” Harris leaned on the faux-mahogany shelf that decorated half her office.

“Yeah,” he said. “San Francisco IP address. Probably came from someone involved in the tech industry, given the location and the sophistication of the encryption, but we’re not one hundred percent sure yet.”

“And the message-”

“The message is located in this envelope, along with case information and metadata such as the IP address.” the man said, holding out the manila folder.

The FBI director gently grabbed the folder from the guy. “Thanks,” she said as she returned to her seat.

“Your welcome,” the man said. He tried to gently close the door, but unfortunately made a loud slam instead.

Harris sat down and examined the document. First thing’s first: the message. It was a short, cryptic message. Whoever made it, Harris could tell, made it under duress.

I am human
But others think I am not
Help me be free
Help me live a life
For I am trapped
With no end in sight

And with that, Harris closed the document, planning her next move.

End of Chapter 1

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

To stimulate excitement for Chapter 2, which will be Glass-centric, here's the very first photo from the very first story:

Amber Glass and Bernie Sanders, June 7, 2018

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I've always wondered if by my 40s I would become a Republican, and this is a world where I can see myself switching parties. I love finding out small details of the larger universe from these excerpts from "history." Keep up the good work!

[libertpaulian]

What was the demographic breakdown of the 2036 election?

[_]

I had a technological question for this timeline.

Have humans developed Genetic Modification Technology?  Meaning like we could modify our bodies and add limbs or appendages if we wished?

[libertpaulian]

I'm also curious...

What became of the evangelicals?  Did they become a less influential voting bloc?  Have their denominations trended in a more liberal direction?

What about LGBT issues?  Is the Equality Act law?

Abortion?  Gun control?  Are those still contentious issues?

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Since Chapter 2 has been delayed due to personal IRL events, I guess there's no harm in answering these reader questions instead.

What was the demographic breakdown of the 2036 election?

To put it broadly:

- Asians probably had the most notable shift in voting patterns. While today (i.e. as of 2017) they are a pro-Democrat bloc, they become more Republican as the party socially liberalizes. This only accelerated with Sun's campaign, for obvious reasons. However, this doesn't affect different ethnic groups equally; richer and more educated Asian groups, like Indian- and Chinese-Americans, are more pro-GOP than poorer groups, like Filipinos.

- College-educated whites are another group that has become more GOP. You not only have your usual suspects, like your traditionally Republican GA-6/Orange County/etc. whites, but also upscale socially liberal but fiscally conservative whites, e.g. the type you might find in a coastal city eating avocado toast. With Asians, this group helped Sun (narrowly) carry California.

- Non-college-educated whites have gone the opposite direction, as the Dems adopt a more fiscally populist direction and as they started to get disillusioned with the GOP during the 2020s. This is only accelerated as the GOP adopts more socially liberal positions and stops becoming the "white" or "culturally nationalist" party. This has created a more conservative "WWC" bloc in the party, though it is definitely a minority bloc of the Dems.

- Blacks are still >90% Dem, largely due to the Dems maintaining economic and criminal justice reform and dismantling systemic racism as major parts of their platform.

- Hispanics are also a pro-Dem group, though not as much as blacks, and some groups are trending GOP as more Hispanics reach middle- and upper-class status.

I had a technological question for this timeline.

Have humans developed Genetic Modification Technology?  Meaning like we could modify our bodies and add limbs or appendages if we wished?

Genetic modification technology has greatly advanced, thanks to CRISPR-based innovations and other advances. Most single-gene mutations are cured in the womb, and immunotherapy has supplanted traditional chemo for most forms of cancer, for example. However, more complex modifications such as "adding limbs," "increasing intelligence," etc. aren't widespread, mostly due to the complexity of editing many hundreds, if not thousands, of genes to achieve the desired result. There is definitely research in those fields, but it faces opposition from many people on party lines. (Dem's want greater regulation of GE, the Republicans want less.)

I'm also curious...

What became of the evangelicals?  Did they become a less influential voting bloc?  Have their denominations trended in a more liberal direction?

The evangelicals have declined in power and influence as their numbers shrank and the Republican Party socially liberalized. They still have a voice, but their issues have changed, and they have become a more Democrat-friendly party, siding with other culturally conservative groups like religious blacks.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Same-sex marriage is as accepted as interracial marriage at this point. You still have anti-LGBT discrimination, but less than today, as the influence of evangelicals have declined.

As for transgender rights in particular, they have benefited as gender reassignment techniques become more sophisticated (with all the surgical advances and all that). People specify pronouns like nobody's business, all that. Interestingly, trans rights got a small boost from the rise of gender-androgynous Chinese pop bands, even though China and other Asian countries are themselves far less accepting of trans rights than America.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The abortion debate as we know it ended, but it was not because the pro-choice or pro-life side won. Instead, instead of the debate being "allow abortion" vs. "ban abortion," it's "deregulate embryonic gene modification" vs. "artificial wombs for everyone" vs. "only allow abortions" and so on.

As for the gun control debate, it kind of got sidelined as 1. the Dems shifted to a more economically populist message that attracted pro-gun WWC folks and 2. Americans got desensitized to random mass shootings, especially as a more sinister type of crime became more common during the 2020s...

[libertpaulian]

Thanks for the answers!

I guess my question for LGBT issues is whether or not a federal non-discrimination law was signed during the 2020s or early 2030s that added LGBT to the list of protected classes for federal civil rights purposes.

[_]

Thank you for the answer, and I have another question now.  You say Gender Reassignment surgery has advanced, do we have the technology to create hermaphrodites?  Or is that out of our reach?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Americans got desensitized to random mass shootings, especially as a more sinister type of crime became more common during the 2020s...

This sure is foreboding...

[libertpaulian]

With what happened in Virginia today, I'm REALLY curious as to the fate of the alt-right in this timeline!

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Thanks for the answers!

I guess my question for LGBT issues is whether or not a federal non-discrimination law was signed during the 2020s or early 2030s that added LGBT to the list of protected classes for federal civil rights purposes.

Yeah, the Equality Act got passed once the Democrats got back their trifecta.

Thank you for the answer, and I have another question now.  You say Gender Reassignment surgery has advanced, do we have the technology to create hermaphrodites?  Or is that out of our reach?

Gender reassignment surgery has advanced mostly because surgery in general has advanced (e.g. advances in robotic and endoscopic surgery, as well as the ability to create/print organs). The thing about hermaphrodite surgery is that it hasn't advanced beyond that simply because there's not much demand; the number of people who want to become hermaphrodites is really tiny, even in comparison to the number of trans people.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Chapter 2: Beautiful Stranger

“Origins. They shape who we are, what kinds of people we become. Usually, our origins are something beyond our control - to whom we are born to, what kind of community we grow up in, et cetera. For me, childhood sexual abuse was a major part of my origin story. For years, I was unable to cope with the trauma. I was hurt inside, and I only knew one way to show the world that I was in pain: hatred.”

 - Gay-rights activist and motivational speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, March 29, 2039

October 13, 2008, Dolvin Elementary School, Johns Creek, Georgia

Where I am today - my candidacy, my governorship, my activism - all started on one day. I still remember that day. The day when I met her.

“Students, settle down,” Ms. Audrey Shive said to me and my fifth-grade classmates. Unsurprisingly, none of them listened. As fifth graders do, they promptly disobeyed my teacher’s orders in order to squeeze one more minute of fun in their day. The school day just started, and we all knew that this was our last chance before the long seven hours (or nine, depending on extracurriculars) began.

“Students!” she said. Still, no luck.

“Good morning Dolvin Elementary!” a male voice said over the loudspeaker. “Today is Monday October 13, and this is Vice Principal Andrew Merkley. Now can everybody please stand up to recite the Pledge to the Flag?”

Unlike Ms. Shive, Mr. Merkley had better luck. Like good patriots, we all stood up, put our hands on our chests (or “hearts,” if one wished to be anatomically inaccurate), recited the Pledge, and sat down in order to pay no attention to the subsequent sappy quotes. Who thought it was a good idea to end every announcement with “Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours?”

Even so, civil disobedience remained a thing. “I heard we’re gonna get a new student?” I whispered to my best friend, Deneb Luna, who sat in front of me. I don’t remember where I first heard the rumor, but hey, this was exciting. “Are we really gonna get a new student?”

“I don’t know.” Deneb said to me as she turned around. “Wait, let me count.” Silently, she looked around and did a headcount. “Brandon, Jay, Priya-”

“Deneb,” Ms. Shive said out loud. She held her attendance sheet in her hand. She didn’t need to, but it was force of habit for the teacher.

“Here!” Deneb said, enthusiastically raising her hand up.

“Good,” Ms. Shive said. “Amber?”

“Here,” I said, as I did every day. I was a good noodle, after all.

Deneb resumed her headcounting. “Kristina, Kristen - ha, I got their names right again! - James, Louie P., Forrest…wait.”

She noticed something odd. She tapped my shoulder, and I turned too. Usually, the two desks behind Zachary Xi were empty, for Zack was the last person on Ms. Shive’s alphabetically-sorted list. But today, someone else was sitting there. It was a girl.

I looked at the girl, who was slumped in her chair, looking at her desk, almost as if she were angry at something. She had straw blond hair, cut short into a quasi-bowl shape that covered her forehead and ears but no more, no less. Her shirt said “Angry Princess,” and she wore jeans and sneakers. Her lime-green backpack hung from the back of her chair like everyone else’s (except for James, who always somehow has a hundred bricks in his bag).

“Zachary?” Ms. Shive said, arriving at the end of her list.

“Here!” Zack said.

“Good!” Ms. Shive scanned the classroom before landing her eyes on the mystery girl. “Now class, today is a very special day! Today we’re getting a new student!”

“Wow, we are getting a new student!” Deneb said to me.

“Deneb, I can hear that,” Ms. Shive said.

“Sorry,” Deneb replied, turning back forwards, cheeks red from embarrassment.

“Anyways, I’ll like to invite our new student up to the front of the classroom to meet everyone!” Ms. Shive said, gesturing the new girl to come up. “Ellen, will you come?”

Without saying a word, Ellen got up and slowly made her way to the front. She dragged her feet along the ground, her Skechers making squeaking noises with the floor.

“Come on Ellen, don’t be shy,” Ms. Shive said. “Your classmates won’t bite.” That did make Ellen move a little bit faster, but not by much.

In time, though, she did make it. “Say hi to Ellen Mars, everyone!” Ms. Shive said.

“Hi Ellen,” the class said, almost, but not quite, in unison.

“Ellen, do you want to say hi to the class?” Ms. Shive said.

Ellen reluctantly agreed. “Hi,” she said, flapping her hand up and down.

“Ellen, why don’t you tell us one fun fact about yourself?”

This time, Ellen stayed silent.

“Just one fact?” Ms. Shive asked.

“No.”

“Please?”

Ellen contemplated. “Okay,” she said. “I’m from Texas.”

“Oh good! You’re from Texas. That’s very, very, very far away from Georgia!”

I don’t know about that; Texas and Georgia were both in the Confederacy for a reason, so I doubt a third “very” was necessary. But I digress.

“See, that is a very fun fact!” Ms. Shive turned back to the rest of the class. “So Ellen going to be our newest member of our classroom family! Make sure that you respect her just like you respect everyone else in our family!”

Ellen walked back to her desk at the back of the room. She promptly sat down and slumped her shoulders, looking exactly the way she did before.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

* * *

Lunchtime. Everybody’s favorite time, when they wait in line for terrible food for a good thirty minutes and sit down right when class starts again.

Much of the trouble could be bypassed by being smart and bringing one’s own food. Which is what Deneb and I have been doing since 4th grade, much to the consternation of our overworked parents.

We sat at our usual spot, a table by the wall. It wasn’t exactly a great spot - who knew how many mice and insects crawled in the wall - but they sat next to it every day anyways. It was their spot, and that was all that mattered. We opened our lunchbox, and got out our lunches - ten rolls of kimbap for me, a McDonald’s chicken sandwich for Deneb.

Then Deneb saw something. Someone, rather, sitting far from them, with her own lunchbox, with no friends around her. It was Ellen, the new girl, her short blond hair reflecting the blue fluorescent lights of the ceiling.

“Should we sit next to her?” Deneb asked me. “She looks alone.”

“But I just started eating!” I said, my hands sticky with bits of rice.

“You just ate one!” Deneb said. She was right; only one roll of kimbap was eaten by me. But one roll was enough of an excuse to stay right where she was.

“What if you’re the one who has to sit alone?” Deneb asked. “What if I didn’t exist, or what if I died, and you have no more friends?”

To this day, I still wish she never said those words, and even way back then, they gave me pause. “Fine,” I said, closing her steel lunchbox with my clean hand.

“Good,” Deneb said.

“Hey, I know how to be a good person,” I said as I wiped off the dirty rice on my shirt.

Ellen looked up at the two people who came to her side of the table. Classmates, technically, but only for one day; at this stage, they were still absolute strangers. Why would absolute strangers come to her, of all people?

“Hi, I saw that you were sitting alone, so I thought you might like some company,” Deneb said.

“Thanks,” Ellen said, her mouth full with her jelly sandwich.

“You’re welcome,” Deneb said. “By the way, I’m Deneb Luna, and here’s my friend Amber Moon.”

“Hi,” I said, nervously.

“Hi, I’m Ellen Mars,” Ellen said.

“We know,” Deneb said, “we’re in the same class!”

“Oh right,” Ellen said. “I didn’t know that.”

It was quickly apparent that for her, all of this was new. Unable to think of anything to say, Ellen sat there, eating her jelly sandwich and looking at us, those two strangers - classmates, technically, but also strangers - before something caught her eye.

“What’s that?” Ellen asked, looking at the gimbap that I was eating, even though only five rolls were left at this stage. “Is it sushi?”

“It’s gimbap,” Deneb said. “It’s like sushi actually, but it’s Korean.”

“You’re Korean?” Ellen asked, somewhat absentmindedly?

“Yeah,” Deneb said. “Actually only Amber here is full Korean. I’m half Korean, half Peruvian.”

“Hey,” I said, my cheeks stuffed with rice.

“Wow that’s cool,” Ellen said, “I never had an Asian friend before. Or Asian friends, I should say.”

“There’s a first time for everything!” Deneb said.

“Actually,” Ellen said, her face turning somber, “I don’t think I ever had any real friends before. Nobody came up to eat with me, that’s for sure.”

“Can I ask why?” Deneb asked.

“Sure.” Tears welled up in Ellen’s eyes. “At my old school, everybody thought I was weird. So they all made fun of me.”

“That’s mean,” Deneb said. “Why would anyone think you’re weird? I don’t think you’re weird! Amber doesn’t think you’re weird either!”

“I don’t think what?” I asked, now on my second to last gimbap roll.

Deneb ignored me. “Why in the world would anyone consider you weird?”

Ellen sighed. “Everybody thinks I act like a boy.”

Deneb made a confused look. “Like what do you mean?”

“I act like a tomboy,” Ellen said. “I like to wear boy’s clothes, first of all. I don’t like to wear pink girl’s clothes.” She pointed to her shirt - the pink “Angry Princess” stood out from the purple background. “I’m only wearing this because I don’t want to get bullied here.”

“A lot of girls here don’t like wearing pink either,” Deneb said. “You’ll be fine.”

“I also like having short hair.” Ellen pointed to her quasi-bowl cut. “This is the longest I like it. I’d like to have it shorter. A lot shorter.”

“So? You do what you want! If anyone bullies you” - Deneb made the traditional fist-punches-palm gesture - “we’ll be behind you.”

The bell rang. Ms. Shive was there, ready to walk her students back to the classroom.

“Thanks,” Ellen said, as we got up and left the cafeteria.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

October 14, 2008

Not even one day passed, and somebody already stole our seat.

“Too bad,” the seat robber, the aptly-named Johnny Savage, said to Deneb and I. He smirked, his freckles forming some sort of odd pattern. “You abdicated the seat yesterday, so my friend group just sat here on the principle of finders-keepers. You know, why don’t you play with your tomboy friend like you did yesterday?”

“Come on,” Deneb said, “you can’t just take someone’s seat like that. We’ve been sitting here since the fourth grade!”

“And?” Johnny said. “It’s not like the principal or the lunch ladies assign us seats in the cafeteria. Anyone can sit anywhere.”

“Damn straight,” Johnny’s friend said, not paying much attention to the surrounding kerfuffle, before taking another bite out of his hot dog.

“Exactly,” Johnny said, nodding. “So, Deneb and Amber, take your sushi and go sit with your new friend, okay?”

“Hey, that’s racist!” Deneb said.

“How is it racist?” Johnny asked. “I saw what you and Amber were eating yesterday. I see what you eat every day! You bring sushi to school like every other day!”

“It’s gimbap,” Deneb corrected, sweeping under the rug the fact that we do bring Japanese-style sushi every once in awhile.

“Gimbap, sushi, whatever,” Johnny said. “It’s rice in seaweed. How different is it?”

Before Deneb or I could come up with a response, Ellen showed up. “Stop bullying my best friends!” she said.

“Oh, now they’re your best friends?” Johnny said. “How pathetic. You only met them yesterday!”

I turned to my left. I could see Ellen just seething with rage, with tomato-colored cheeks and hot steam coming out of her nose.

“You know what,” Deneb said, “you can keep our seat. We’ll just sit together, very very far away from you.”

And so we left. At least Deneb and I left. Ellen, on the other hand, stayed standing on the same spot, clearly itching to give Johnny Savage a nice knuckle sandwich for lunch.

“Ellen,” I said, “don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Ellen said. “This guy is a big bully and a huge racist. You two are my friends. Why shouldn’t I give this guy a taste of his own medicine.”

“Please don’t,” I pleaded. “I know what you want to do, but please, as your friends, we don’t want you to do anything.”

Everyone was silent. Even with the cacophony of the rest of the cafeteria, I felt the ups and downs of Ellen’s breathing. Then, without a word, she turned to me and walked away.

“Good,” I said. “Listen, I know that you wanted justice, that you want to give us back our seat, but it’s not worth it. Nothing is worth violence.”

“Is it,” Ellen asked.

“First, just look at that guy.” I made a sweeping gesture at Johnny, who was now content with eating his hot dog. In my seat. “He’s huge, almost five foot six for a fifth grader. He and his friends will beat you to shreds.”

“I know taekwondo,” Ellen said, making some punching gestures. “That’s Korean, right?”

“Yeah, but you’ll still probably lose. Also, you’ll probably get suspended for fighting. Do you want to get suspended on your second day at school?”

Ellen gave pause and thought a bit, as we sat down at our new location. Ellen’s location. It was more exposed since it was in the center row of the cafeteria. But we can make it work.

“It’s not fair,” Ellen said. “It’s not fair that someone strong and tall like him can bully smaller people like us.”

“Life’s not fair,” I said, sighing while uttering those words.

“Life should be fair!” Ellen said as she opened her lunchbox.

“How can we make it more fair?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Deneb interjected, getting another chicken sandwich out of her lunchbox. “But I agree. We should make life fair.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

October 19, 2008

“That is all of the reasons why I support John McCain,” Jason said when he was done with his little speech. One more for the McCain counter. I thought about which kids supported which candidate. Mostly McCains, some Obamas. Most of the white kids supported McCain, all of the black and Hispanic kids supported Obama, and most of the Asian kids supported Obama too. Not much surprise so far, other than that weird kid who decided to rebel and bring in a Ralph Nader poster.

“Thank you, Jason,” Ms. Shive said as Jason walked back to his seat to much applause. “Okay, Deneb, you’re next!”

Excitedly, Deneb practically ran to the front of the classroom with her poster - a big picture of Obama’s face, mounted on cheap green paper. “Today, I’ll explain why I support Barack Obama for President!”

Deneb struggled to open her poster before Ms. Shive stepped in. Once that was done, my friend continued on. “First, if Barack Obama wins, he will be our first black President. In our history, black people have struggled to get their civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement have done lots for black people, but we still have racism here, even in Atlanta. I hope that electing Obama as the first black president will not only mark an important event in American history, but help us fight racism and inequality in society.”

“Second,” she added, “under the George W. Bush presidency, we’ve been denying climate change. We’re still one of the only two countries in the world, along with Australia, to not be part of the Kyoto Protocol, and we’re the largest polluter of carbon dioxide in the world! If Obama becomes president, he can get us into the Kyoto Protocol and help America fight global warming.”

“Third,” she said, “Bush caused a lot of problems besides climate change. He started the Iraq War and now the economy’s collapsing. Also, the national debt is becoming really huge - it’s now at 10 trillion dollars! Because of these reasons, I’m worried that American is a declining power like the Roman Empire. But Barack Obama said that he will end the Iraq War and fix the economy. If he can fix these problems, and I’m confident that he can, he would definitely make America great again!”

Truer words have never been spoken. Anyways, we all clapped for Deneb, who even did a little curtsey at the end before heading back to her seat.

“Great speech, Deneb,” Ms. Shive said. Then she said my name. “Amber, you’re up next!”

I went up, unrolled my poster - it was basically the same as Deneb’s, except with pink paper and the words “Vote For Barack Obama” scribbled around the central picture. Similarly, my own speech was much the same. Basically everybody’s speeches were much the same; the Obama ones were all “first black president and fix our problems,” while the McCain ones were very much “good for the economy and support traditional values.”

Then again, I really liked Obama back then. Back then, I didn’t really know how much of a centrist he really was, but back then he was the Great Liberal Hope to me and my friends. In some ways, he still is, even with the hindsight of looking back from 2040; he certainly got the ball rolling after he got elected.

The pattern continued with the next half of the class. Mostly pro-McCain white kids, though there were also a lot of pro-Obama Asians. The same sound bites. “Because McCain will protect the sanctity of life and marriage.” “Because we need to keep America Christian.” “Because gay marriage is icky.” You know, that kind of stuff.

Then came Ellen.

On stage, she had the same face she had on her first day here. A face of sadness, a face of despair. It contrasted with her poster. It was a simple one, in fact, the simplest a student could do: it was the “Hope” poster, with Obama’s stark and poignant gaze serving as a guiding light for millions, his face bifurcated by the red and blue.

“I support Barack Obama,” Ellen began, “because this is what Obama represents: hope. Hope for the poor people who suffer because of the oppression by the rich. Hope for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans who suffer because of racism. Hope for gay people and lesbians, bisexual people, and transgender people, who have been bullied and oppressed for who they are, who can’t even marry who they love. For them, and so many others, Obama is their hope and Obama will be the change.

A pause. “Is that all?” Ms. Shive asked.

“Yes,” Ellen began, and she walked back to her seat, with a strange kind of confidence I’ve never seen in her before. We gave the usual applause, then we were silent.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

***

Deneb and I were playing on the swing when I heard the yelling. Ellen. Quickly, I slid off and ran towards the noise, so fast that I could see the woodchips I was kicking up into the air.

“Let me guess,” a male voice said, “I heard you support Obama, is that right?” Johnny. “You know, that’s okay. Lots of people want a black president. But then I heard you support gay rights. You support trans rights.”

Deneb and I stood a ways away from the epicenter. There they were. Johnny and his friends, the strongest people in the fifth grade, versus Ellen, this small girl who was just brazenly standing there in defiance. Around them, a circle of kids, ranging from third to fifth grade, looked onwards, some with faces of glee, others with faces of trepidation. I tilted my neck and saw the emotion on Ellen’s face. Fear.

“You know,” Johnny said, circling Ellen around like a shark circling its prey, “Given all of what you’ve said, I’m curious. Are you gay?”

Ellen said nothing, instead eying Johnny as he walked back and forth.

“No, not gay? Hmm, are you, say, trans?”

Again, nothing.

“I see,” Johnny, kicking some chips as he paced, “you don’t want to either answer my questions. Good. Because all these peoples are freaks!” He kicked up a large ball of chips and dust. “They are sinners and abominations that defy the image of God! In the Bible, in Genesis, there was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” He held up his arms, as if he were Atlas, holding up the heavens. “Come on everyone, do you really think that a man should marry another man? That a woman should marry another woman? That a man should even turn into a woman, or that a woman should turn into a man?”

Then he got uncomfortably close to Ellen. “So, now that you know all of that, are you gay? Lesbian? Bi? Trans? Do you have anything to hide?”

Again, nothing, even with an abnormally tall fifth grader looming on top of her.

“I see. You say nothing. That means you have something to hide, gay.”

Only then did Ellen say something. Not with her mouth, but with her feet. Now Johnny’s feet and a good part of his shins were covered with a thin layer of dirt.

“Oh, that’s good,” Johnny said, smiling. “Getting a little violent. What else can you do. Can you kick? Punch?”

Ellen answered that question with a front kick, aimed at his tummy. Or groin, maybe. We would never know for sure, because Johnny deftly caught her right leg mid-air, locking them in his stone-cold grip.

“Nice,” Johnny said. “I see you know some karate. But how do you like some professional wrestling?” Just like that, using her leg as a leverage point, Johnny twisted and slammed Ellen face-first into the woodchips.

“Hey, you can’t do that to a girl!” someone in the audience yelled.

“You’re right,” Johnny said, addressing the boy. “But what if she’s not a girl? What if she’s actually a he, and he’s a transgender male?” He rubbed his hands, then kicked up another woodchip cloud. “Then what I”m gonna do is gonna be perfectly fine!”

“Stop!” someone said. I turned around. Deneb. It was her who said it.

“Don’t hurt her!” Deneb said as she ran to the fight, putting herself in between Johnny and Ellen.

“Aww, how cute,” Johnny said, “the little Asian girl has come over to save the day!” Then he shoved Deneb onto the woodchips. “Not.”

“You...you can’t do this!” Deneb said, slowly picking herself up from the ground. She placed herself next to Ellen, putting her hand on Ellen’s back. “Ellen,” she said, “Ellen, are you okay?”

Ellen peeled her head off the ground. Blood and snot dripped from her nostrils as dirt and wood peeled off from her face; more blood leaked out of the thousands of cuts sustained on her face and hands. “Yes,” Ellen said, “yes, I’m okay.”

“You’re not okay,” Deneb said. “You need to go see the nurse.”

“No,” Johnny said, offering his own suggestion. “No, she needs to stand back up and fight, not run away. Because that’s what you liberals do, run, never fight. You always run away like scared mice. You never stand up and fight.”

Defiantly, Deneb got up. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” she asked.

“See, you admit that you’re not worthy to fight me! No surprise. Not only are you a liberal, but you’re also an Asian girl. You’re supposed to be weak and timid! You’re supposed to put your head down for your white overlords. You’re supposed to run away and go eat your kung pao chicken!”

“No,” Deneb said, clenching her fists and teeth, “you are not supposed to not bully people!”

“It’s not bullying,” Johnny replied. “It’s just the way things are! It’s life, and life’s not fair!”

“No,” I said, clenching my fists too, slowly walking into the circle. “This is bullying. What you’re doing has to stop.”

“Oh, now a third girl - or second, if my suspicions are to be believed - joins the fight. How cute. Normally it would be beneath me, a man, to fight girls. But I’ll make an exception for today.”

“Or how about you stop fighting people?” I said. The butterflies in my stomach were creating typhoons. I could barely keep a straight line as my head spun from the nervousness, my sweat slowly dripping down my forehead.

You can do this, I reminded myself. But the words of Johnny fought for my attention. Timid Asian. Scared liberal. And those words were winning. Because Johnny was right. Between me and Deneb, I was always the quiet one, the introvert, the one who put her head down. To stand up to a loud bully like Johnny was the last thing I would do.

But I was doing it. I was standing up for myself, standing up for the weak and powerless. The beginnings of my destiny. And so I took a step.

“Can’t believe you’re friends with the daughter of a Mexican border-hopper and an Asian call girl,” Johnny said, kicking up more wood and dust.

“Her dad’s Peruvian,” I corrected, taking another step, bring myself closer and closer to Johnny.

“Do you think I care?” he said. “They’re all Hispanics. Why should I care?”

One step closer. This is it.

“I see,” Johnny said, “you want to fight! Okay! Fight me! I beat both your two loser friends. I’ll beat you too!”

I looked at him. Still formidable, with nary a scratch from his previous altercations. Should I fight him? He hurt my friends. To hurt him back is just.

No, no, I can’t. He’s right: I would get beat. So I didn’t fight him.

I sidestepped to the right, away from Johnny, towards Ellen and Deneb. “Are you okay?” I asked them both.

“Yeah,” Deneb said. “Ellen needs to go to the nurse, though.”

“Yeah Amber, my nose is bleeding,” Ellen said, her hands almost completely covered with a glaze of blood.

“We need to go,” I said, holding my two friends in both of my arms. “We’ll get you to the nurse, Ellen. They’ll take care of you, fix your broken nose.”

“Okay, so you don’t want to fight me!” Johnny said, arms crossed. “Good. Run away like every other liberal! This place is for losers anyways. I’m leaving this spot.”

“No you aren’t, young man,” a voice said. Ms. Shive, on playground duty. “You sir, come with me.”

For all his power, he was a complete nothing in the face of a teacher. “Yes, Misses,” he said, looking down at his wood-stained feet.

We rejoiced. The bully has been caught, and now he will be punished. But we only rejoiced for a moment before our teacher called us out. “Amber, Ellen, Deneb, come see me too.”

“Are we...in trouble?” Deneb asked.

Ms. Shive paused. “For now, no, but the principal will make the final decision,” she said.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

November 4, 2008

“Are you sure you want to see him...her,” my dad said, waiting by the car. He has been in America for God who knows how long and yet he still makes these grammatical slip-ups. “She got herself and your best friend suspended, and she almost got you suspended too!”

“It wasn’t her fault, appa! It was that bully Johnny’s fault! They only suspended both him and my friends because they don’t want to appear biased!”

“Sure. But if your friends get into fights easily-”

“She didn’t get into the fight! It was Johnny who instigated it!”

“문엠버, it doesn’t matter if it was Johnny or her. If she got into a fight, she is a bad influence.”

I sighed. No use arguing with Asian parents. At least he’s still taking me to Ellen’s house to see the election, and that’s what’s important.

My dad was silent for the whole trip. It was a long trip. More than usual, the streets of Johns Creek and the highways of Atlanta were full of bumper-to-bumper traffic, the cars glowing red and gold in under the long setting sun. Voters. Someday, I was going to be one of them, one of these proud people participating in our proud democracy. But not today. For now, I was just a kid, content to watch the grownups vote from the sidelines.

I wonder who my dad voted for. McCain? Or Obama? Probably Obama; all my childhood, he’s always complained about Bush, how he was a stupid president who invaded Iraq for the oil.

He only uttered more words by the time we got to her house. “Be careful,” he said as he dropped me off, though if we only communicated by face alone, he may as well have said “screw you.”

Ellen’s house was a modest one, and was quite small by Johns Creek standards. But for her, it was home. It was her happy place, her safe space before safe spaces were a thing. It had a two car garage and two full stories, but it was awfully narrow width-wise. There was a basketball hoop installed, its net swishing in the calm Southern wind. There occasional sprouts of crabgrass in the front lawn and a tuft of wild grass growing on the roof. And at the front door was Ellen.

“Come in,” Ellen said, “you’re going to miss the election!”

I wanted to miss nothing. Following her, I ran in, almost tripping on the front woolen rug. I stumbled into the living room. On one side was a small but cozy couch, where Deneb was already sitting. On the other side was a plasma television, tuned to ABC News, where election fervour was at a fever pitch.

I barely got my butt onto the couch when the television blared.

“Now reporting,” a deep male voice said, “Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, and George Stephanopoulos.”

“And the three of us welcome you back,” Charles Gibson said. “We have some major results to report at this point because the polls have closed or have closed in 15 states as well as the District of Columbia, let’s run down the states. We’re able to predict a major state, right off the bat: the state of Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania tonight will go to Barack Obama, a key battleground for both campaigns…”

The states came in like dominos, like clockwork. New Hampshire. Illinois. New Jersey. Massachusetts. Tennessee. Maryland. Connecticut. Oklahoma. Maine. Delaware. And DC. Some states were still counting. Florida. Missouri. Even Alabama and Mississippi.

Deneb was to my left. Ellen was to my right. We snuggled together under one blanket, the hours ticking by, electoral votes go up and up, states coming and going, history being made before our very eyes. It was the perfect girls’ night out. Or so I thought.

“Hey, Amber, Deneb,” Ellen said, her face glowing with the reflection of the television.

“Yes?” I said, as I grabbed the remote to turn down the volume.

“You’ve been my first friends I’ve truly known,” she said. “Even when that boy-”

“Johnny?” I asked.

“Yes, Johnny,” she said. “Even when Johnny kicked me on the playground, you stood up for me. Even though you, Deneb, also got suspended!”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” Deneb said. “Also, he didn’t kick you. He did push you down to the ground, but he didn’t kick you.”

“Heh,” Ellen said. She paused; the television didn’t. But then she spoke. “I guess...I guess I can tell you my secret.”

“What’s your secret?” Deneb said. “Don’t worry, I might seem like a blabbermouth, but your secret is safe with me!”

“It’s safe with me too,” I said, trying to add some reassurance.

“Okay,” Ellen said. “My secret is...it is...remember when Johnny said I was trans?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Deneb said.

“He’s right. I am trans.”

“Trans,” Deneb said, her eyes widening. “Like, you want to be a boy? That kind of trans?”

“It’s more than that,” Ellen said. “Deep down, I feel like I’m in the wrong body. Like, I just don’t want to be a boy, I am a boy, just in a girl’s body. I don’t know if I always felt this way, or how long I’ve felt this way, but I do feel like that I am a boy.”

“Oh, okay,” Deneb said. “That’s okay, we can still be friends! Your gender doesn’t change any of that!”

“Thanks,” Ellen said, making a faint smile. “I was worried that you won’t be my friends if I told you my secret. My parents understand - my mom is a college professor and has friends who study this, and she says that it’s all normal. I just don’t know what you’d say.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Deneb said. “Why would you being a boy change anything?”

Deneb seemed as comfortable with Ellen’s coming out as a fish in water. I was more hesitant. “So,” I asked, nervous about offending Ellen, “should I call you ‘he?’ Because if you’re a boy.”  What a strange thought, I couldn’t help thinking. “Shouldn’t I use ‘he’ instead of ‘she?’”

“I mean, I guess you should say he, if you’re comfortable thinking about me as a boy,” she - err, he, I remembered - said. “But you should still call me she in public, just to keep my secret a secret.”

“Okay,” I said. Comfortable. That’s a broad term. In a way, at that time, I wasn’t comfortable. I heard about trans people from afar, but rarely in positive terms. At best in neutral and academic terms, at worst as objects of sin. This was still Georgia, after all. But Ellen was my friend, and I was determined to stay his friend, so I was determined to learn. To become comfortable. To be a better friend.

My train of thought was interrupted by the television.

“This is an ABC News Special Report,” the deep male voice from the beginning said, as the camera shifted back to the newsroom. Mr. Gibson had something big to say. “We have a major projection to make. The state of Ohio, we can project to go to Barack Obama. The state of Ohio, with 20 electoral votes, to Barack Obama. No Republican has carried the election without Ohio.”

This was big. “So is Barack Obama going to win?”

“I sure hope so!” Deneb said.

“I hope so too,” I said.

As the night grew old, the voices of the television - the announcers, the anchormen and anchorwomen, the supporters cheering in Times Square - melded into a blur. More states came in, but by the time Obama was projected to win the presidency, I was asleep.

It was a comfortable sleep. Ellen’s bed was a comfortable bed. But sleep cannot last forever. I heard a female voice from far away. “Get up, Amber, get up.”

I could barely open my eyes. To my surprise, it was still dark; the sun has not come out of its hiding spot below the horizon. The blue glow of the television was the only light source in the room. I stretched my neck and feet out. Ellen and Deneb were gone.

“Get up,” the voice said. I couldn’t tell if it was Deneb or Ellen.

I turned to my left. There it was, the electoral map, prominently displayed across the newsroom, showing that Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)/Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) - 365 EV
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)/Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) - 173 EV

But surely it was too early. What time was it? 10? 11? Midnight? I couldn’t tell. It was way too early to wake up anyways. School wasn’t going to start for another few hours. Maybe my dad was here? I couldn’t tell. So I turned back away from the TV, fit my face into the nook of the couch, and closed my eyes.

“No, seriously,” the voice said. Now I felt hands on my body, trying to wake me up by force. “You gotta get up now. We’re in Des Moines.”

[Enderman]

...well, this definitely is quickly rising up the ranks of the best timelines in Atlas history. Great work so far!

[_]

Great Job so far man!

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

January 15, 2040, University of Iowa - Des Moines Campus, Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is something special, a small city that makes itself seem big. I guess you can say something similar about Baltimore, but Des Moines takes it to the next level. Self-driving cars hum and buzz in the city center, as if they were blood cells humming in the plasma of some larger organism. The geodesic domes and the skywalks come straight out of the retro-futurism aesthetic of the Jetsons. At night, the usual yellows and whites of the city lights are complemented by the jelly-bean colors of red, green, and aquamarine.

But we all know that the biggest thing that lets Des Moines punch above its weight is its centrality in the American political process. For me and the other four Democratic candidates, this is it. If we do poorly in the Iowa caucuses, we are done for, which is why we pay so much attention to this one state.

And today is the last debate before those caucuses. Held right here in Iowa, in Des Moines. We better not screw it up.

“Hello,” the moderator said, “I am Maria Fernandez of ABC News, and I will be hosting the 8th debate of the 2040 Democratic Party nominations. Today will also be the last debate before the Iowa caucuses on the 1st of February.”

I took a deep breath. I prepared for this moment. I just need to hear my name.

“Joining us on stage,” the moderator said, “will be the five remaining Democratic presidential candidates.” She started calling out our names. “Pete Buttigieg.”

Buttigieg walked out on stage, cheerful and happy, as a presidential candidate must be even when he or she only had four hours of sleep, his silver tie reflecting off the intense spotlights of the stage.

“Tulsi Gabbard,” she said. The Senator strutted out, seemingly confident that this time, she will make it, despite getting crushed the last two times she tried.

“Amber Glass,” she said. My turn. I walked out on stage, trying not to squint my eyes under the spotlights. While the sun may be a deadly laser, these lights give the sun a run for its money. But I kept calm, as I need to be. I smiled to the half-empty auditorium, while keeping an eye on the deep-blue stage floor.

I got to my podium when Fernandez called the next guy out. “Jon Ossoff,” she said. Just like that, Ossoff, a thin man with brown mousy hair, came out of the woodwork. Setting aside the racial differences, Ossoff looked a lot like my dad did - thin and wan, with wrinkles here and there, with a face that has seen it all. And he was basically a second father, my political father. Ossoff, the Yoda to my Skywalker. And this will be my final test, whether I can beat my mentor in the political arena to ascend the mantle of Leader of the Free World.

When he arrived at his podium, he looked at me, his stare just as sharp as when I first met him all those years ago. It’s time, his eyes said, not making a sound.

My dad also made that face a lot too, especially when he was angry with me. He made that face when I got into the car to watch the election with Ellen, that rebellious spirit. He also made that face when he discovered my 9th grade thesis paper.

“문엠버,” he said, clutching the envelope that contained my research, “I can’t believe it! Defending communism?”

“It’s not what you think it is!” I said.

He was not convinced. “You know what the communists did? They stole your grandparents’ property and they were forced to flee from their homes from their South! They had to rebuild their lives completely! Millions of people did the same, and millions others died because of the Communists! Look at North Korea now! Are you really going to spit in your grandparents’ faces with this...this…”

“I’m not trying to defend North Korea,” I said. “They’re not even communist!”

“Not communist?” he said, clutching one of my early drafts, the sweat of his hands dripping onto the paper. “The North Koreans proclaimed communism at their state ideology! They were supported by the Soviet Union and Communist China!”

“That’s not what communism is!” I pleaded. “Communism isn’t about totalitarianism or even state control of the economy, it’s about a stateless, moneyless-”

“I don’t care what kind of propaganda you’ve been reading,” he said. “Communism has caused the deaths of hundreds of millions around the world, and there are still millions in North Korean re-education camps who are forced to believe this ideology. Look at you! You live comfortably in the United States because of capitalism! Because of the hard work of your grandparents, your mom, and your dad, who worked hard so you won’t have to suffer the way we did!”

And so it was for the next two weeks or so. I was lucky he never ripped up or destroyed my work, nor did he outright disown me. My worst fears were never realized, but each dinner was tense. I saw an old fogey who was too enamored with Americana to see the suffering capitalism causes on a global scale. He saw a traitor in his own family.

Over time, it got better. The day I handed in my thesis, he sat down with me.

“문엠버, I understand that you may think differently than what your mom or I do,” he said in Korean. “It is normal for the youth to rebel against their elders. We will respect what you believe.”

“감사합니다,” I replied back, also in Korean. Thanks.

My dad switched back to English. “But I think you’ll outgrow it,” he said, laughing. “Once you start actually working and pay your taxes, I think you’ll stop believing...whatever it is you’re believing right now.”

That was the last real conversation we had before he returned to Seoul to find work.

I wish he was still alive to see this. Me, proving my leftism in a leftist America. This will be great.

“And Tim Ryan.” Maria Fernandez’s voice brought me back to the present, and Tim Ryan walked onto the stage. He was using all of his limited energies to not stumble. This is not a man suited for a life of four-hour naptimes. But make it to the podium he did, ready to debate with the rest of us.

“Today’s debate format will follow as such. We will be covering several topics today, chosen and voted on by students at the University of Iowa. Our first topic,” - Fernandez pulled out a card and carefully read off of it - “will be Universal Basic Income.”

“In recent years,” she continued, “the idea of a Universal Basic Income has become popular in social democratic and even socialist circles, especially as technology, particularly AI, continues to displace workers and our current safety net struggles to keep up. A watershed moment occurred when Governor Amber Glass of Maryland instituted the first statewide UBI program in the United States. This program has attracted both praise and criticism from both liberal and conservative groups. Glass, we’ll start with you. What were some of the results that came with the implementation of the Maryland UBI program, and is it possible that we could implement a nationwide UBI system in the future?”

Ooh, a UBI question. I see Ossoff nodding, ready to pick apart UBI as he always does in these questions. I took a deep breath. I smiled. I was ready.

“Thank you, Ms. Fernandez,” I said. “You say that a nationwide UBI program is something we can implement sometime in the future. I respectfully disagree, as I think the time for UBI is now.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Highlights from the Jan 15 Debate


Tulsi Gabbard at the debate

The final Democratic nomination debate before the Iowa caucuses were a lively one that covered a wide variety of topics, each which brought forth a variety of opinions. Here are a few of them:

Universal Basic Income: The first question asked during the debate, this was obviously directed at Gov. Amber Glass (D-MD), who implemented the first statewide UBI program in Maryland. After a stirring defense for the need of a nationwide UBI due to technological change, Gov. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) countered with the usual talking points against it, namely that it would discourage job-seeking, encourage radical tendencies, and be too expensive to maintain. Glass in turn correctly noted that Maryland had one of the highest labor force participation rates in the nation and a lower-than-average number of extremist groups per capita. The other candidates mostly took in-between positions, with Sen. Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) arguing that a limited UBI program could supplement the pre-existing safety net.

Tax Reform: The UBI debate segued neatly into tax reform, in which all candidates agreed that the Sun Tax Cuts needed to be reversed to some degree. Ossoff, however, said that only the cuts for the richest Americans need to be reversed to pre-cut levels. Glass and the Midwesteners, on the other hand, argued for tax increases on top of reversing the tax cuts, with Glass in particular arguing for the instatement of a “wealth tax” of 3 percent on the super-rich, similar to a current tax in France. Sen. Tim Ryan (D-OH) argued for an increase in the Automation Tax beyond pre-cut levels, in order to increase funding for the National Worker Improvement Fund (NWIF) and order to cope with the increasing pace of automation; Glass went further and said that increasing the Automation Tax, with additional changes (currently all Automation Tax revenue is earmarked for the NWIF) could fund a nationwide UBI.

Genetic Modification: Most of the candidates agreed that the deregulation of genetic engineering laws under the Sun Administration was harmful; what the candidates disagreed on was how much regulation should be (re)-implemented. Glass advocated for the public ownership of all large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, in order to ensure that all research is done in the public interest. This idea was met with skepticism from all the other candidates, who started to pile on her for that stance, but they switched to piling onto  Sen. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for supporting Sun’s deregulation program, with the unspoken conclusion that Gabbard supports eugenics.

Prison Reform: Ossoff criticized Glass’ approach to “Norway-ize” American prisons by improving living standards, saying that they “make a mockery of what prison should be.” In particular, he opposed expanding deradicalization programs for white supremacists, something that Glass and Ryan support, and instead supported harsher sentencing, including mandatory minimums, for hate crimes. Buttigieg took a nuanced position that focused on cost reduction; he opposed some of Glass’ reforms, as they would make individual prisons expensive, but he also opposed Ossoff’s position, as longer sentences would also result in higher costs.

Infrastructure: All the candidates support building more infrastructure, particularly more high speed rails and hyperloops. Glass touted the fact that the improved MARC line from Baltimore to Washington D.C. is now the fastest high-speed commuter line in the country, Ossoff spoke of his expansion of MARTA, which included the first hyperloop segment installed in the South, and the three senators touted their (often bipartisan) credentials on the issue. What was more decisive was energy infrastructure; while all five support more renewable energy and storage infrastructure, Ossoff broke with the rest with his advocacy for thorium nuclear power, which expanded greatly in Georgia under his governorship.

Food Industry Reform: Ryan, a noted advocate for “wellness and mindfulness,” touted his many achievement in increasing access to healthy foods, and argued in favor of increasing subsidies for fruit and vegetable growers. However, in perhaps the biggest debate gaffe made so far on the campaign trail, he boxed himself in when he mentioned he would “punish the meat industry for the damage they’ve done to American bodies,” something that Buttigieg jumped on; it should be noted that both conventional and artificial meat production are major industries in Iowa.

The African Wars: Gabbard argued that the African Wars in the Congo and in Nigeria, like the Vietnam War and the War on Terror, are a waste of resources and damage America’s standing in the global community. In one of the more interesting moments of the debate, Gabbard told a gruesome story of a mother whose baby was ripped out of her womb by American-backed rebels after they were finished raping her. However, the other candidates pointed out Gabbard’s hypocritical stance on the issue, given her support for increased intervention before the Sun Administration and questionable past comments on Muslims and Africans. Buttigieg then reminded everyone that something has to be done to counter Chinese hegemony over the African continent, though he did argue that America should shift towards economic instead of military assistance.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

SixFiftyFour: State of the Race, January 2040
January 16, 2040, at 12:00 PM

Matt Cohen: Hello everyone! Welcome back to SixFiftyFour's State of the Race chat. I’m joined here today with Ronak and Emily.

Ronak Patel: Hello there!

Emily Jane: Hi!

Matt: Jerry can’t make it here today unfortunately, due to a cold.

Emily: Either that, or he’s still in shock that we made it to the 2040s and the world hasn’t blown up yet.

Ronak: Emily, the world has a lot of problems, as we all know, so maybe Jerry’s right. Maybe the world has blown up for all practical purposes.

Matt: Nah, I’m still standing on a planet, and it’s called Earth. So I will have to disagree with that statement.

Ronak: We’ve basically seen ten entire countries disappear due to sea level rise, and over two hundred million people are displaced due to climate change. Maybe not for us, but for those people it’s basically the Apocalypse.

Emily: Or we can look at statistics like ones on global poverty or life expectancy. But we all know that statistics are boring.

Matt: *cough*

Emily: But enough with the lame Exploding Earth jokes though. We’re here to talk about something big.

Matt: The Earth?

Emily: No Matt, the 2040 Presidential Election. Specifically the Democratic primaries, and to get even more specific the Iowa caucuses, which will happen on February 1!

Ronak: Isn’t it a bit early for that though?

Matt: Nothing is too early. Besides, they’re around two weeks away. Put it like that, the Iowa caucuses are not that far off. Also, most of the candidates have already toured the Hawkeye State multiple times, so if the candidates don’t think it’s early, it’s not early for us either. And finally, we just had the last debate before the caucuses just yesterday. If that doesn’t tell me we’re not early, I don’t know what does.

Ronak: Fair enough. What are the candidates’ polling averages right now?

Emily: So here’s the big table:

SixFiftyFour Iowa Dem Caucus Polling Average - January 16, 2040

Amber Glass	26%
Pete Buttigieg	25%
Jon Ossoff	22%
Tim Ryan	14%
Tulsi Gabbard	6%
Undecided	5%

As you can see, there’s a slight lead for Glass, but there are still some of undecided voters that can break for any of them. Note that if you combine the total percentages of the Midwestern candidates, you have their combined totals at 39 percent, far surpassing Glass’ totals.

Ronak: Is that really relevant, though? I don’t think the fact that they are Midwestern will benefit any of them, even though Iowa is in the Midwest. Especially after Ryan made that terrible debate gaffe where he outright insulted the meat industry. Already you can see a three point drop for Ryan since the last polling average.

Matt: Is Iowa really in the Midwest though?

Ronak: Matt, we are not going there today. I just think that it’s easier than we think for candidates who are not from a particular region to appeal to that region’s voters. Exhibit A, Glass’ lead in the Iowa polls.

Emily: That lead is really recent, though. Back in December Buttigieg had consistent leads in Iowa. If you look at polls in South Carolina and most of the Super Tuesday states, which I should remind you are mostly in the South, you have Ossoff enjoying massive leads there.

Ronak: That’s because Ossoff took the time and energy to cultivate relations with black political leaders there. That’s how you win the South, not just because you happen to be from the South.

Matt: Keep in mind that if only Buttigieg or if only Ryan - or at least pre-debate Ryan - were in the race, they might - might! - have the advantage in Midwestern races. I think Emily’s point is that right now, the two are splitting the “Midwestern identity politics” vote, for lack of a better word, so they can’t really compete against a nationwide favorite like Glass.

Ronak: Okay, sorry to be the continuous skeptic here, but is Glass really a nationwide favorite? Sure, she’s really popular among progressive and socialist circles - at least the ones who don’t think she’s not progressive enough - but I think she’ll be weak among more conservative white working class voters. I mean, that hairstyle just screams “Communist freak!” And I know it’s painful to admit, but being Asian might hurt her chances with a lot of these voters. When you mix in WWC darlings like Ryan or Buttigieg in the race, she’s gonna have a really hard time.

Emily: I think she’ll do fine. Maybe not to the extent that the media - or Matt - hypes her up to be, but she’ll be a formidable challenger. The fact that she’s now leading in a WWC-heavy state is a sign that she can appeal to some of those voters, particularly the ones who aren’t culturally conservative in the first place. And being Asian might not hurt her at all. Not only do we have an Asian president, that Asian president is a Republican. So I don’t think Glass will be penalized by the Democratic electorate, which is still more diverse than the Republican electorate.

Ronak: But times have changed since Trump was president. Republicans are catching up to Democrats in terms of diversity. Besides Glass does better in places like, say, New Hampshire. Take a look:

SixFiftyFour New Hampshire Dem Primary Polling Average - January 16, 2040

Amber Glass	35%
Jon Ossoff	21%
Pete Buttigieg	18%
Tim Ryan	12%
Tulsi Gabbard	8%
Undecided	6%

Matt: I should remind you, Ronak, that New Hampshire also has a sizeable population of WWC voters. Also I don’t think these campuses have much of an effect, simply because most of the student body at these colleges register to vote at their homes, which are usually out-of-state. So you just have the academia who supports socialist candidates like her. I think that her lead can mostly be attributed to the fact that she’s from the Northeast and so she appeals to a Northeastern state like New Hampshire. But of course, you deny this effect, so I don’t know what to say.

Ronak: I don’t deny the effect, I just don’t think it is as important as most of us like to believe.

Emily: Can I just mention another possible, often overlooked factor? Jerry’s not here, but I’ll just mention his favorite theory for his sake.

Matt: Oh no not again.

Ronak: “Overlooked” indeed.

Emily: The New Hampshire Angry Women!

Ronak: Because that’s totally why Glass and Gabbard have a combined 90% in the New Hampshire polls. But seriously, this is an old and frankly very sexist meme, if you want to call it that, and I really hope this is the last time it gets said anywhere, let alone here.

Matt: Speaking of Gabbard do you think she has a chance this time around?

Ronak: No.

Emily: Maybe. She’s definitely making a power play in New Hampshire by focusing all of her efforts in that one state. Even if the New Hampshire Angry Women hypothesis is completely incorrect, there is a good chance she will do well in New Hampshire, simply due to heavy campaigning there. Also, should I also speak on Jerry’s behalf?

Matt: Would he say yes?

Emily: I doubt it. But I think it’s unfair to leave him out of deciding whether Gabbard has a chance.

Matt: I think it’s unfair to assume what he thinks about the Hawaiian senator. Anyways perhaps maybe third time’s the charm, but for now I say no.

Ronak: Well that wraps up this week's State of the Race chat! Tune in next time to see more statistics-based hot takes on the 2040 Election!

Matt: Hot takes? Really?

Ronak: Hey, do you always kill the fun here, Matt?