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moved from the Sabre thread so's not to derail the good work over there. --Mal

Hokay, so. This is a raw take of what’s in my mind re: the US political landscape ca. 2009 - 2017.

The general political landscape:

The vast majority of Ameri’Danes don’t really give much of a shit about Fenspace in general; they’re busy with their own lives.

Perception of Fenspace (i.e. the Convention) is largely neutral, trending toward negative. The perception of Fen (i.e. the people of the Convention) is more negative.

Mass-media stories about Fen doing something crazy on US soil (like the Corners launch) or about Fen-on-’Dane crime (like the mess in Kentucky Dakota and Dartz are working on) feed the negative impression of Fen as superpowered lunatics who should stay out there and not bother honest, decent folk.

Fen-positive stories do exist in media, but they’re often non-local (the Blue Blaze Irregulars saving the day somewhere in not-America), of niche interest (Starfleet researchers exploring the brave new world of Pandora discover a new beastie) or relegated to “fad/lifestyle” news (a Fen company releases some pretty new chunk of Future from the WFC).

Pro-Fen forces exist both in the general public and in the government.

Handwavium panic lurks beneath US-Fen relations, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Giuliani was elected in 2008 based on handwavium panic, esp. the rantings of people who figured that terrorists would use handwavium to do something non-specific but nasty.

President Rudy’s administration was an epic low point for presidencies. His generally autocratic & dickish behavior didn’t play well with Congress, the courts or the public.

Panic fatigue plus a tendency on Giuliani’s part to blame everything wrong with his administration on the Fen led to an ebb of ‘wave panic in late ‘09 - early ‘10. This led to the ratification of the Kandor Treaty.

Coming into the ‘12 elections Giuliani was faced with a hostile party & public. He intended to use the “War on Fen” much the same way earlier presidents had used the “War on Terror,” “War on Drugs,” etc. as part of a Patriotic Lawn-Order campaign. It didn’t work.

Giuliani was faced by a surprisingly strong primary campaign by (*rolls dice*) Ron Paul. Strong enough that the President ended up dropping out of the race halfway through.

The ‘12 GOP Convention was a bloodbath, radicals & moderates scrambling for the prize, no real presumptive nominee. Great TV, if you like that sort of thing. Eventually a compromise candidate - one supported by everybody & nobody - gets nominated.

Things proceed from there. Eventually somebody wins, haven’t decided who yet. Whoever it ends up being, it’s a relative moderate on everything.

‘Wave panics start coming back into vogue in late ‘12 early ‘13 as the Boskone War intensifies. US public perception of Fen as lawless criminals increases, then breaks apart once the Patrol starts operating. Lots of CNN images of Osaka, Serenity Valley, the goonrush on the Black Tower, etc.

New president comes in ‘13, things start to stabilize a bit. By summer it’s obvious that Boskone is on the back foot and it’ll all be over by Christmas (well, not really, but close enough). As peace starts to return to the Inner System relations between the US and Convention get a little warmer.

There’s still some rumblings in the mist, however. A lot of senators who voted to ratify Kandor (more as a “fuck you” to Giuliani than any love for Fenspace) are experiencing buyer’s remorse.

And then the Artemis program starts flights, and things go crappy. Again.

Public perception is ambivalent on the whole thing; while the people who care are happy to see NASA flying again, the whole “backroom deal with the Soviets” smacks of dirty politics (which it is) and also strikes a chord in the heads of venerable Cold Warriors all over the country. Mal Fnord’s open trolling of the Joint Committee on Extraterrestrial Security doesn’t exactly help the situation, though Daily Show and Colbert Report writers joygasm over it.

Relations stabilize when (OMGSPOILERS for Mr. Fnord Goes To Washington) President What’s-His-Face and General Fnord come to an agreement to let the US openly vilify the VVS in exchange for not investigating the Artemis cabal any further.

The Artemis evidence is disposed of shortly thereafter in the infamous April Fool’s Day Purchase. This actually leads to a pro-NASA backlash in the ‘14 midterms, as a bunch of Representatives who supported the shuttle sale were lambasted as all-but-traitors and thrown out.

That brings us to 2015 or so and that’s where the train of thought derails. Discuss.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Well, we could hold a mock election ourselves... that could be a laugh.

Realtion-wise... what does Fenspace bring down to the US? When does the 'oil' starts coming in from Venus in a useful quantity, or for that matter, orbital mineral sales. A lot of rare metals like Iridium are going to get a good bit cheaper when they can be found in relatively large quantities in the main belt.

EDIT: That was a weird error.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
M Fnord Wrote:Fen-positive stories do exist in media, but they’re often non-local (the Blue Blaze Irregulars saving the day somewhere in not-America), of niche interest (Starfleet researchers exploring the brave new world of Pandora discover a new beastie) or relegated to “fad/lifestyle” news (a Fen company releases some pretty new chunk of Future from the WFC).

Pro-Fen forces exist both in the general public and in the government.
Including in Hollywood (note the http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... n_Fenspace]Television in Fenspace page on the FenWiki), which seems to help improve the image of Fenspace in the US.

M Fnord Wrote:Handwavium panic lurks beneath US-Fen relations, and it’s not going away anytime soon.
Sometimes called the "Black Scare", purposely echoing the "Red Scare" meme of the Cold War. Opinions are divided as to whether this helps or hurts either side of the debate.

M Fnord Wrote:The ‘12 GOP Convention was a bloodbath, radicals & moderates scrambling for the prize, no real presumptive nominee. Great TV, if you like that sort of thing. Eventually a compromise candidate - one supported by everybody & nobody - gets nominated.

Things proceed from there. Eventually somebody wins, haven’t decided who yet. Whoever it ends up being, it’s a relative moderate on everything.
Republican or Democrat? With the GOP making an elephant-sized mess at their Convention, I'd be tempted to give this one to the Dems.

As for which Democrat... if it was up to me, I might pick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Boxer]the junior Senator from California (in OTL currently the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee and the Democratic Party's Chief Deputy Whip, so she's got the resume for a shot at the Oval Office). But that's just an idea from somebody who doesn't even live in the USA.

M Fnord Wrote:The Artemis evidence is disposed of shortly thereafter in the infamous April Fool’s Day Purchase. This actually leads to a pro-NASA backlash in the ‘14 midterms, as a bunch of Representatives who supported the shuttle sale were lambasted as all-but-traitors and thrown out.
Something that Noah half-expected (his grumbling in Cosmic Party was about the chatter in Ops, not about the Purchase), but went ahead with anyway because he thought it was the least messy way out of the situation.

M Fnord Wrote:That brings us to 2015 or so and that’s where the train of thought derails. Discuss.
I'm not sure where to go from here, and not sure we should go anywhere from here at this point. If we pencil in elements of the History of Fenspace, somebody's going to assume the last day mentioned in our notes is Fenspace's "present day". Let's leave the future to the future...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Quote:‘Wave panics start coming back into vogue in late ‘12 early ‘13 as the Boskone War intensifies.
Before that -- we've got it established that the launch of the Grover's Corners on April 20, 2012 -- a 3/4-mile-wide Land Theft sixty miles from D.C. -- was the thing that set off the new wave of panic.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Another point brought about by South is Rising (Somebody get a hammer): Since Giuliani got the nod in 2008 for the Republicans... Is Sarah Palin still Governor of Alaska, or was she thrown out of office for a less wacky candidate, from either party? Or did her "Mavericky" Bandwagon jumping get her enough Wave-scared votes?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
I think she'd have stayed on; she was mostly involved in order to blunt the appearance of a shift to the center. With Giuliani she wouldn't see as much of a need for that.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Going by a quick check of Wiki, the Alaska governorship is limited to two consecutive four year terms, so assuming Palin doesn't resign for no good reason mid-term and is reelected, her term of office would be 2 December 2006 - 2 December 2014.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"