 Action/Adventure: February 10, 2016 Issue [#7470] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Politics Need Not Be Boring Edited by: Storm Machine  
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“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. ”
― Pericles
“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”
― Thomas More, Utopia |
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I live in Iowa, so you'll understand if I've started screening my calls to avoid answering for one of those political surveys. They say they want to get me off the phone as soon as possible - without explaining how many questions or how long they plan to keep me. They knock on my door (once in -2 degrees F weather) and want to have a conversation with the door open. This is part of the political burden for being first- everyone else wants to know which way we'll lean. It doesn't matter that Iowa doesn't always choose the winner (or even a ton recently), we are known for narrowing the field most for candidates who do stand a chance of running a campaign.
What does this mean about action and adventure? People come to the table with different beliefs, and the problem with only one candidate being elected to represent so many people is that there going to be disagreements. Sometimes, these are very large.
At my caucus site, there was one point when the numbers were in debate - over what, no one could truly hear unless they put it on the mike, but it looked like someone was going to hit someone else. Several people in the immediate vicinity ducked. I've never seen that before at a caucus! Since we're separated by party, many people would make the mistake of thinking we're all on the same side.
Ever wonder what might happen if we caucused together? I'm not sure I could handle that.
I've read comments from some newcomers about the very public way we caucus in Iowa. That this is difficult to adjust to when coming from a primary state. At a primary, a voter gets to write something on a slip of paper and be done. With the caucus, you stand up and support someone. You have the opportunity to try to woo other voters to your side. Does your candidate, your argument stand up to peer pressure? Or are you too ashamed to allow someone to know which way you lean?
In Iowa, we start with the local caucus. We're broken into districts and we arrive. We gather into groups by which candidate we support. (Not just for president- there are petitions for local officials to get on the ballot. Sometimes people put in other measures through petitions. I saw one online about caucusing for 50% clean energy by 2020.)
From here, we go on to the county caucus. Ours is March 12. After that- it's on to the state caucus. At each of these levels, you'll meet different candidates and you'll get to participate as the political process continues. Most people never see it beyond the local level. Some candidates will remove themselves from the race, but we'll continue until it is time to decide the national candidates for each party. Though I doubt any of them will worry about throwing punches.
This process becomes an adventure depending on how involved you get. Party loyalty is a thing, though on the outside it might be hard to understand why. Why is one candidate more supportable than someone else? Why is it party loyalty and not candidate loyalty?
When you see it in different books - like Game of Thrones with the way they chose the Commander of the Wall, you get the feelings from the characters about the process as well as the process itself when it is included. But kings are often chosen by blood or by force, so this part of politics is how you keep that throne, which Game of Thrones can also be a wonderful resource for showing the breadth of activities that one might or might not do in charge of a land.
Elected leaders are sometimes dispatched from office in legitimate ways - like impeachment - and illegitimate ways - like assassination.
How does the political scene feature in your story? It might not start being about the king or president or whomever might run that place, but it could feature more than you think at first. How a people is governed changes who and how they interact. |
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Elfin Dragon-finally published 
I Know I'm extremely late in commenting on this particular newsletter, but one phrase caught my attention...
"Burn me from the heat on the cast-iron skillet over the campfire. Make me taste that horrible dinner the cook made and understand that he only has the position because he hasn't actually poisoned someone yet - unlike everyone else in the group."
This reminds me of Glen Cook's series "The Black Company". It's told in the POV of the group's physician and sometimes you get those interesting "boring" parts which still keep you interested in reading because more information of the characters involved comes out.
Better late than never! I still have to read The Black Company. It's on my list.
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