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Political Roleplaying: Story 1, WWIII; Russia Left Out

Hmm, this sounds interesting...I'm not cut out to be leader of anything though. I think an environmentalist would be my character...or some deranged eco-terrorist, even. o-o;; RP'ing isn't my strong point though, I'm better with writing stories...

This post has been edited by Icey: Aug 19 2007, 09:45 PM

That sounds good. Please remember that this isn't really an RP at all, more like a debate in character, and I've seen you debate. We have four big country leaders needed to get this off the ground, if you take one and I take one, and Al does take the US president, we can get this off the ground. (All future posts like Icey's there, please direct to PM, from now on, only directly related posts in the actual RP thread, as in, you claiming a character.

So do we start here? Do I post my history here?

Yes, history in the topic please, with character, character's name, political spectrum placement, and it would be nice to see some past actions/jobs/positions as well. Go ahead. Just so everyone knows, I may be combining US and EU to get this off the ground since Icey doesn't seem keen on a big part and there's really only three of us.

Character Name: Alex C. Qian
Height/Weight: 5 foot 10/170 pounds
Ethnicity: Chinese
Hometown: San Jose, CA
College: Santa Clara University
Major(s): Accounting, Political Science, Chinese, Arabic minors
Married?: Yes
Religious Views: Catholic
Political Views: Liberal / Independent

Background
Qian was born in San Jose in the winter of 1970, and attended Santa Clara University (SCU) for his undergraduate studies. As an undergraduate, he was chair of the Accounting Association but also took part in many political functions as well, where his name quickly became known by many valley leaders and soon-to-be VCs who would fund his later successful ventures. He would graduate from SCU in the top 2% in his class, and gave the valedictorian speech, where he said that Santa Clarans should go out and 'etch their footprint in the far reaches of society', helping mankind wherever possible. It is here, where he got married to his college sweetheart, Heather. They have lived happily together and had a daughter, Francine, who attended UC Berkeley and a son, David, who attends UCLA.

After college, Qian went on to get his MBA at Berkeley, and quickly became a driving force for accounting and entreprenurial work in Silicon Valley. It was in the 1990s where he made most of his fortune, through fundraising as well as starting a few of his own private advising and accounting firms, all who survive to the day. He took a brief hit in the dot-com bubble burst at the end of the 1990s, but was able to regain much of his fortune. Globalization was also beneficial to Qian because of the Arabic and Chinese minors. He would use these languages to conduct business in Taiwan, China as well as Saudi Arabia. Here, he gained many political connections that would prove to be useful later. The funds he gained from this time still help him today, and he has become a huge donor to third world nations. For his efforts, he won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, where he told the press that 'The world has entered into a Quagmire and someone needs to start the saving. I hope I can inspire more change with my work.'

Political Career
Spurned by the Bush disaster of the 2000s and Barack Obama's inexperienced tenure in 2008-2016, Qian felt that there was something that needed to be changed about the American landscape. Putting his money to work for him, he started grass roots efforts to oppose the Bush administration and make sure that future generations would be able to spend and use their finances wisely. As Bush spent more, Qian became more enraged at the political landscape and felt that the conservative right was turning the US into a backwards nation. Not abandoning his Catholic faith, Qian went forward to talk to those whom he felt he were closest to in order to convince a more intelligent nation. This helped somewhat.

The Iraq War was the tipping point for Qian. Barack Obana had not done much to reverse the casualties, now mounting in the tens of thousands. Iran had also begun invading Iraq too and America's forces were at a loss of power to do anything against it. Iran's PM was even quoted as saying that his country had become "dogs" and the US had become the "cats", and the cats were now being "chased out of their house". Upon seeing thousands of young, hopeful Americans getting killed, he went to work, and read up again on his political science knowledge. Rounding up a team of good friends from his college and MBA days, he decided in November of 2015 to announce his candidacy for presidency in fall of 2016. His eventual opponent would be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, of the Republican and Democratic Party, respectively.

Surprise, Surprise
Using the business clout that he had rounded up over the years, Qian moved up the polls quicker than many so-called experts would have expected. His down to earth and robust explanations as well as moderately liberal viewpoints captured the hearts of many, and won away many Bush and Clinton fans. To those who followed Qian, 'he simply made more sense and had a vision', unlike the others who seemed to 'talk, talk and talk'. Qian soon became the sensation of the country -- and the money only helped. Appearances on talk shows such as Oprah, The Daily Show as well as shows geared towards other audiences such as The 700 Club and The View helped capture votes from the 18 - 22 year old age group all the way up to 65+. Ads during prime time as well as daytime TV shows telling viewers that 'You are the change you wish to be' captured the psyches of viewers. For the Economists, things were even better with the proposals that Qian predicted with the budget deficits and health plans. Other experts also thought that Qian's views on foreign policy, especially that of a positive, not damning relationship towards China and Al-Qaeda were beneficial towards America's views in the global policy marketplace. Obama fell more in the polls due to his obvious inexperience and mounting casualties in Iraq as well as a deficit that got harder and harder to reduce, Qian's soared. Soon after, many leaders became backers of Qian. Qian would run on the slogan of "A return to excellence through conscience, competence, and compassion", themes all brought back from his days at Santa Clara. Rush Limbaugh quipped on his show that Catholics lacked competence "because all they do is drink wine, eat bread and molest young children..."

He was mostly ignored.

November 2016 soon rolled around, and Qian found himself ahead of the race, but not too far. The night rolled by, and surprisingly, Qian did win, but only by a shadow over the Republican candidate, Rudy Guliani. And the rest they say, is history.

The Presidential Years: Part I

The beginning of the Qian Administration was a rocky one, marred with the outgoing of President George W. Bush. By the time January 2017 rolled around, there were more dead from the war and Iran had invaded Baghdad, creating a three way civil war between Sunnis, Shiites and Iranians. Casualties mounted high and people were expecting a nuclear weapon to be dropped any day now. Even more so, the Iraq War death toll was approaching a grisly 15,000. bin Laden was still out there, Al-Qaida was increasing in strength in both Iraq and Afghanistan and North Korea was becoming ever more belligerent. In fact, the Middle East area had become so troubled that many United States companies who had opened up shop were now moving home. Russia was still Russia, and refused to do anything to help the cause. Domestically, the deficit was at an all time low, nearing 25 billion dollars. Qian had a lot of work to do.

In his inauguration speech, Qian urged his campaign slogan, and asked for the help of the American people to do so. He exclaimed that "America was no longer the superpower of the world and as much as you hate that statement, if we continue to be ourselves, we will be hated more" and said that a common understanding between west and east needed to be forged. He continued by saying that "The time to bicker has passed. It is time to move forward and create a better world, whether you are black, white, purple, green, Democrat, Republican, Gay, Lesbian, man, or woman".

The next big step of 2017 was balancing the very dead budget. Qian managed to get a tax bill through Congress that raised taxes on everyone by income bracket. Ann Coulter explained that this was "England coming back to America, and taking back the tea that was rightfully ours". Americans seemed to understand more with Qian in office, and many took the tax hike. Qian also cut several programs and cut staff, eliminating the need for money to be spent in some places.

Qian started the healing process by lending support to the French, whom the Bush and Obama Administration had previously alienated in the Iraq War. He also reached out to other less-than-liked leaders around the world, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Korea's Kim Jong-Il. Both were cordially invited into the White House for a state dinner where they all spoke on the issues of the day. Qian found much to relate with these leaders, and realized that friendship was very much possible. In the coming months, these countries would help the United States attend to such foreign policy matters such as building a theo-democratic state in Iraq, helping North Korea use it's nuclear program and engaging in economic talks with Hugo Chavez. The relations were very well, but one person was missing: Vladimir Putin.

On the Iraq War, now having raged for 13 years, Qian arranged a meeting with Mahmoud Ahjmainejad, PM of Iran and high level Sunni and Shiite members to meet at the White House for discussions regarding the future of Iraq, Iran, Al-Qaeda and Israel. These talks would last deep into his first term as president, far beyond what he would've expected.

In education, Qian would pump more money into science and mathematics, using immigration incentives to lure the top math and science teachers from abroad to teach in the US as well as giving students interested in subjects long-ignored scholarships to continue to pursue their studies. In his proposal, he outlines a Freedom Star Space Station that eventually goes up into space in 2020 for research. However, the military presence on this machine draws negative response from even the EU.

By 2020, Qian's approval rating is at a modest 45%, and the Freedom Star is nearing completion. However, several days before the Freedom Star is set to launch, terrorists get into Cape Canaveral and damage the FS beyond repair. It is an election year, and with conservatives on his back, it is something Qian cannot afford. A summit is called.

I've decided to play two characters, although neither are major roles. My profiles are nowhere near as elaborate as Al', but I'll update them a bit later. Suggestions welcome.


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Name: Sakina Hasaad
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Eyes: Dark brown, almost black
Hair: Black
Height/weight: 5’3/119 lbs
Ethnicity: Iranian/Iraqi, although she claims neither
Education: High school drop out. Never completed her junior year.
Personality: She has a strong longing for justice. Unfortunately, her views of justice are a bit skewed. Angered easily and has emotional problems. Trusts very few people.
Political views: Something very close to an anarchist. Doesn’t believe the government should have as much control over the people as it does.
Religious views: She doesn’t claim to have a religion, although she doesn’t claim to be atheistic either.
Job: Self-proclaimed eco-terrorist. She started out as a peaceful protester with her sister. After one rally turned violent, she’s taken justice into her own hands to, as she says, “save what’s left of the world.” Rumored that she helped sabotage the Freedom Star’s launch.


Name: Lina Hasaad (her profile will probably be updated later)
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Eyes: Dark brown, almost black
Hair: Black
Height/weight: 5’4/122 lbs
Ethnicity: Iranian/Iraqi
Education: High school graduate. Takes online college courses.
Personality: Sakina’s twin sister. Like her sister, Lina has a longing for justice, although she’s more peaceful and tries to solve problems through logic instead of violence. Saddened by Sakina’s violent ways. She’s a bit of a coward and hates violence.
Political views: Liberal
Religious views: Somewhat Muslim, although she doesn’t practice or agree with all of its beliefs.
Job: Unemployed, although she’s active in online political communities and peaceful protests.

Trivia: Sakina is Arabic for “peace,” and Lina is Arabic for “tender.” Their parents hoped that they would make a difference in their lives as peaceful loving leaders.

Al, yours is good as approved. Very thorough, more than I expected. (A few tiny grammar errors—I'll fix 'em if you give me the go-ahead, I like to ask before I invade.) I'm going to update the rules for claiming, education is important. Before your name, write "Character Position: US President" so people who read it know who you are from the beginning, even though most would anyway. Also, if you're elected in 2008, you couldn't be president according to the timeline, in 2020. Might want to add a blip about some sort of amendment, or move the years forward some. (Though the latter would eliminate some of the most entertaining bits.)

Icey, approved since you are a minor character. I'll make an announcement as in-character moderator that there will be no questions/comments from those not in the "Big Four" (Or "Big Three" as I believe I may have to make it... maybe having the EU announce that they wish for President Qian to be their collective representative, shocking the world as the EU frowned upon the Freedom Star.) PM me if one of your characters feels like doing something radical. Also write a character position for yourself at the top please.

Everyone, I'm going to update the pinned topic now, take a look under "Claiming" for future reference.

This post has been edited by Roger Smith: Aug 20 2007, 05:33 PM

Ah. Crap. My comments weren't posted when Opera crashed. Let me remember the gist of what I was going to post:

@ Al: Nice background and everything, except we don't know what happens between 2008 and 2020? The story begins at 2020, not 2008, so it might be nice, like Roger said, for you to fill in some of the blanks. And @ your fantasies involving your girlfriend Heather

I'll post mine ASAP.

Name: Liu Gao, called Lao Liu (Literally "Old Liu") by his "comrades"
Position: Dictator of China
Political Views: Never revealed, but (as you can tell from his position), he puts the welfare of the state above that of its people
Background:
Liu Gao was born the day Mao Zedong died, on September 9, 1976. From the day he was born, his parents believed he would be the one to take Mao's place some decades from now. Only a month and half prior to his birth, when his parents were living in Tangshan, an earthquake of devastating proportions struck. Fortunately for Gao and his mother, his mother was visiting her parents. However, Gao's father was not as fortunate; he was attending to business as usual in the largely industrial city of Tangshan when the deadly earthquake struck.

Five months passed, yet there was no rescue operation. The death of the sole leader in China sent the country into political turmoil; every secretary, every assistant, every public official was fighting for the spot Mao had relinquished, and nobody cared for those dead and dying in the city of more than a million. Even as death tolls mounted, reaching an unofficial count of nearly 750,000 lives, nobody dispatched a rescue force; nobody had the authority.

That was what Gao's mother had told him. She told him that only when a decisive, influential and brilliant tactician forcefully took control of the situation did the chaos subside. At the same time, she told him that after peace and harmony had arrived, the country embarked on a break-neck 45 year double-digit economic expansion that brought more than 600 million people out of poverty.

This lesson was what led him to his current position. During the energy crisis that followed the 45 years of economic expansion, Gao, as the head of an institutional investor in China, used his widespread business influence to force out the current Prime Minister who proved to be too inadequate to manage manage the country's new crisis. His request to Parliament to be made dictator was promptly approved by wary politicians fearing their own future political careers. This is the second year of his dictatorship.

I can refine the language and say more, but I gotta meet up with a few friends across campus. Please comment

From now on, I'll treat it as if the RP has begun, as it will shortly after I post my quick Putin claim.
@ Jinghao: Very nice, very original. Not quite clear on the earthquake, a month and a half ago from 2007, present-day? Decades from now also meaning actually now? The 45 years of economic expansion happened beginning a bit before present day? Must be, according to the energy crisis bit. Not much more is necessary, maybe just a line or two about education, but I get the idea since you say he was an institutional investor.

Moderator
Breaking news from the EU. Unable to find a leader among themselves capable of representing the whole of Europe at the roundtable, EU leaders have elected their longtime ally, President Qian, as their representative should he accept. International reaction is mixed; some praise Qian's genius, others argue that the EU should never have looked past the US' covert Freedom Star operation.

President Qian, do you accept?


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Name: Vladimir Putin
Position: President-for-life of Russia, leader of Russian Federation (Middle East, and the old USSR states)
Political Views:Far Right, though some actions illustrate Communism. Never formally resigned from the old Communist Party. It may be the conservatism is an illusion, just as the extreme leftist Stalin performed some acts that in modern day seem extremely conservative. (Why some attest the political spectrum to be a circle, not a line.)
Background:
Born in Leningrad in 1952, Putin experienced the last glory days of the USSR and its downfall. He graduated from the University of Leningrad then joined the KGB. He rose in the ranks of the KGB until he was a Major. He was also involved in other foreign intelligence agencies, at one point he was involved in East German espionage.

After resigning from the KGB, he used the same interpersonal and business know-how that led him up through the KGB up to the top of the political scene in St. Petersburg, and then in Moscow. After Yeltsin's surprising resignation in 2000, immediate elections were held even though none were planned for the year, throwing off Putin's candidates and launching him to an easy victory in the first round.

In his first term, Putin concentrated on consolidating governmental powers, reorganizing and reforming what some referred to as a corrupt and unfunctioning bureaucratic system. Amid controversy, he reverted to the old Soviet national anthem, but had new lyrics written. In the beginning of 2001, he was accused of money laundering.

The second term was controversial, and bits were reminiscient of communism. Putin cracked down on the media, enforcing strict censorship. Most of the public supports him, and most censorship was aimed at nudity and violence, not freedom of expression. He further condensed the smaller bureaucratic offices into larger entities, reforms reminiscient of Gorbachev. The oil industry and some other industries were re-nationalized, which is part of what saved Russia in the Energy Crisis of 2015.

At the end of his second term, Putin refused to give up power, declaring himself President-for-life. Domestic opinion was not negative, but international opnion was. He payed no attention.

After Russia was left out of SLAMS, Putin essentially spit in the face of longtime friends and allies in Europe, even publicly burning and melting the Legion of Honor Medal presented to him by Jacques Chirac, which was France's highest honor. His always aggressive foreign policy with former Eastern European satellites got even more aggressive; some unidentified bombs dropped in Eastern Europe were highly suspected to have come from Russia.

The Middle East, reeling from the energy crisis, negotiated a deal with Putin to join the Russian Federation: money and men for Russian oil and protection. In the post-Freedom Star world, Putin has made more communist-like reforms in government, keeping the power in one place, and showing what his money can do by nationalizing more industries and services, but not quite so much as old Soviet Russia. For the lower classes, improvements in the infrastructure and government services have generally improved quality of life. Much of the Middle Eastern money has been pored into modernizing the military. Some say Putin has been doing all this to show off to Gao and get China to join the RF, as everyone knows Russia, however big and powerful, cannot defeat both the US and EU if it comes to that. The RF has been very reclusive, denying invitations to speak with Qian, and not making any move to directly seek out aid from China and Gao, as Putin seems to find it important to protect his reputation as a strong man who bows to no one. In perhaps a passive-agressive move to have contact with China, Putin complained about their imported energy cutbacks. As the world's largest supplier of oil and natural gas, Russia was relying heavily on this income to survive and invest in the military. Losing their largest customer put a larger burden on Putin's back. An hour before the meeting, Putin has still not replied to a join military and space offer from China.

At 2020, the RF stands strong economically, with a relatively stable political climate at home, though it may be that everyone simply fears Putin and his military police too much to speak up or rebel. Militarily, Russia has a military slightly more equipped than the other powers due to its better economic standing, yet it is dispersed over a very large area due to the expansion of the RF. With military spread over three continents (Yakhutsk to Moscow to Egypt) fighting a war on numerous fronts may prove disastrous.

I'll take comments too

This post has been edited by Roger Smith: Aug 27 2007, 05:43 PM

I accept

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I'll work on the Presidential years when I come back from work.

Moderator
All of Europe cheers your proposal. A dissent group attempts an assassination, but they get nowhere near you. You are given extra security for the roundtable.


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That's fine, take your time.

I was hoping the timeline would feel linear in my background. Historically, the earthquake did happen 1.5 months before Mao's death, and the political turmoil is what led to such devastating death tolls. I'm just basing this off history so that this guy has justification for his seizure of power. He sees it as necessary to end chaos (financial chaos in this case), so in the beginning, his decision was based on true altruism. Let's see how that original intention changes as his grip on power tightens!

I will begin RPing as soon as I find some free time

Ok thanks, I just needed to read it again, leaves much room for interesting possibilities in the RP... Everyone remember that the RP doesn't need to be incredibly elaborate, each post you make does not need to be long at all, it would be better if they were on the shorter side to encourage more intense discussion and more interest.

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Moderator
The world has anticipated this moment: The open roundtable between the three major leaders of the world to determine how to solve this worldwide crisis. No one knows what the outcome will be, be it peace, war, or something else... The leaders and other representatives have taken their seats. First, we will hear opening statements from each of the major leaders. Any leader may respond to any other leader at any point. Other representatives, please do not speak until I have opened up the roundtable.

This post has been edited by Roger Smith: Aug 21 2007, 02:00 AM

Very good, more than you needed to write, and gives us a great view of your character's term. I especially enjoyed the Ann Coulter and Bush quotes. It'll be interesting to say how those relationships add to the RP... I ought to make mine a bit more detailed as long as you are. Go ahead to the next part. Oh, and approved, of course.