Election Special: Voting Around the ‘Verse

By Lisa Fary

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – JFK

Tomorrow will be the fourth time I’ve voted for president and the first time I’ve felt that our future as a nation genuinely hangs in the balance.  In 2004, I was disappointed by the results, but also had faith that cooler heads would prevail and prevent things from getting too bad.  Surely, the Bush Administration wouldn’t let things get too much worse.

Obviously, I was wrong.

Even though democracy is at work, 50.7% of the voters made a bad decision.  Perhaps they were uninformed, susceptible to being duped, or voted on the wrong issues (if you make your decision on something like gay marriage in a time like this, you’re a moron. Sorry).

Being fully informed and having the candidates fully vetted, is important. For democracy to work well, we need to know what we’re getting into when we cast a vote.  We could learn some things from democracy around the sci-fi universe.

Intentions and Motivations

“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

-Ronald Reagan

You can pretty much assume that anyone who wants to be president likely has an ego the size of a red giant.  However, other motivations come into play.  Some are driven by the desire to fix a broken country.  Some are driven by a petulant need to outrank Daddy.  President Gaius Baltar ran because Laura Roslin hurt his feelings.

President Roslin had left Baltar a letter in the event that she died in which she called him a compassionless, selfish putz.  Instant political enemy!  He’d hardly ever had a political thought, but damn it, he was going to show Laura Roslin.  He’d run against her just to be contrary.  And because his Head Six thought it would be totally hot.

Baltar manipulated the fleet’s cabin fever and made colonizing New Caprica the tent pole of his campaign platform.  He won – barely – and spent his presidency doing what he’d always done: sleeping around and ignoring anything that didn’t have an immediate effect on him.

Tool in life, tool as president.

The President as Prophet

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.”

– Thomas Jefferson

See? The Founding Fathers really did dig the separation of church and state.

Despite her personal belief that she was a divinely prophesied leader, President Roslin managed to keep her religion off her politics for most of her administration.  It wasn’t until Baltar and his Temple of Hot Babes Who Like to Do It got off the ground and began gaining momentum in the fleet that she started to think, “Hmmm. . . maybe religious persecution is a good idea.”

President Roslin took steps to restrict the Hot Babes’ movement and ability to congregate.  She also antagonized her chief of staff for converting to monotheism.  It’s not known just how much of Roslin’s toolery is due to a new religion and how much is due to her vendetta against Baltar.  Regardless, Roslin’s push against Baltar’s new faith inspired religious hate crimes within the fleet.

Roslin’s intolerance demonstrates what we already know: when a leader demonizes an entire religion, she’s giving the ignorant a license to act violently.  She’s fueling division when unity is what’s required.

Sound familiar?

The Importance of Character

“With all the power that a President has, the most important thing to bear in mind is this: You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character is the most important qualification the President of the United States can have.”

– Richard Nixon

Past actions and deeds matter. Not just some of them, not just the heroic ones.  All of them.

Consider President Lex Luthor. Sure, putting a flying car in every garage is the sort of campaign promise you’d expect a president to renege on within minutes of inauguration.  But, this was Lex Luthor.  He had the resources.  Who doesn’t want a flying car? To the average DC-verse American, it probably seemed like a good idea to elect him.  Right?

So wrong.

President Lex demonstrates the importance of vetting your candidate, looking at his past and considering how that might translate to the future.  Lex had a history of villainous deeds, so it wasn’t surprising when he let aliens invade Earth and destroy Topeka, Kansas.

Likewise, if a candidate has a history of crashing Navy jets (five of ‘em) and he gets the keys to the Oval Office, what do think he’s going to crash next?

Vice Presidential Ascension

“He [Teddy Roosevelt] told the butler one evening to get that chandelier out of here and take it down to the Capitol. The frustrated butler said, “Well, where do I take it to the Capitol?” He said, “Take it to the Vice President. We need something to keep him awake.”

-  Lyndon B. Johnson

If you think a vice presidential pick doesn’t matter, consider Babylon 5’s President Morgan Clark.

Formerly vice president to Luis Santiago, Clark became president of Earth Alliance when Santiago was killed in an explosion.  An explosion arranged by Clark in a power grabbing move assisted by The Shadows.  Under Clark’s watch, Earth Alliance fell into a civil war, but only after stacking the government, military and courts with his ideological followers.

And in the end, when he got caught and Captain Sheridan was banging on his door, Clark tried to destroy the planet to avoid trial. I don’t mean figuratively.  He aimed the missile defense system at Earth and pressed the big red button.

Public Panic and Power

“There ought to be limits to freedom.”

– George W. Bush

Once elected, some leaders refuse to leave.  Case in point, the unnamed, right-wing nutjob president in Escape from LA.  Using the panicked momentum from the LA earthquake disaster to fuel fear, he got himself elected, at which point the Constitution was amended to give him a lifelong term (you know, like the Founding Fathers always intended).

But, that guy was small potatoes.  All it took to take him down was one very pissed off Snake Plissken.  Another democratically-elected-leader-turned-rogue-dictator took twenty years, three movies, countless tie-in novels, and an awkward Christmas special to remove from office:

Of course, it all started with a crisis and special emergency powers. . .

“It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. Once this crisis has abated, I will lay down the powers you have given me!”

Palpatine then used that power to create an army answerable to him and to wipe out those loyal to the Republic, ending his manufactured crisis.  And when the crisis was averted. . .

In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society. . .  An Empire that will continue to be ruled by this august body and a sovereign ruler chosen for life.

So much for laying down those emergency powers.  We all know what the next twenty years or so were like in the galaxy far far away. Rule through fear and intimidation.  A dissolved senate. Stormtrooper checkpoints at even the most remote outposts.  On the surface, the society may have been safe and secure, but at the cost of freedom.  Are safety and security worth that?

So, when you go to the polls tomorrow, think about these examples.  Cast a vote that is informed.  Cast a vote that will make things better for most of us, not just for the privileged few.  Cast a vote that supports unity over division and prosperity over conflict.

Your. Vote. Matters.  Use it wisely.  We really depend on it this time.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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