One Month To Election Day

With only one month remaining until America elects its next President, time is of the essence to encourage voter turnout and to remind everyone of what is at stake.

Laura Pendleton, the current occupant, ran a 2004 campaign promising to bring change to Washington. However, her promises bore little fruit; congressional Democrats were unwilling to allow her to pass legislation to ease firearms restrictions, and her much-ballyhooed "economic reforms" (i.e., essentially allowing corporations and industries to set their own standards for consumer and environmental safety) also felt flat, while their Republican counterparts refused to compromise on legislation that would have rolled back the War on Drugs and thickened the wall between church and state. "Not her fault," one might argue. No, not entirely -- but she has hardly been the leader she portrayed herself to be. Most chillingly, she authorized the use of nuclear weapons on American soil to deal with the threat posed by Gabriel Melchior, a disastrous maneuver one might expect of her paranoid and reactionary rival, Mark Green. Fortunately, novas proved capable of policing their own, and I predict Pendleton will not enjoy another four years in office.

And what of Mr. Green? His rhetoric becomes more inflammatory by the day, which has played well among the Church of Michael Archangel and others on the fanatical fringe of society. His "American Eagle" metaphors and talk of solving "the nova problem" scarily echo the ramblings of other have-been and would-be despots whose political careers were dependent upon public fears of a minority population. How, I wonder, would he deal with us? Require us to register our faces, names, addresses, and powers? Round us up into quantum containment camps? Withdraw from the United Nations? Such efforts would not make America safer by any means. Without nova defenders, we would be extraordinarily vulnerable to other countries who would use novas as combatants and infiltrators. Without nova scientists and inventors, we would fall far behind other nations with the nova advantage.

Bernard Morrison is the Republican candidate, and it's hardly surprising that his showing in the polls is as poor as President Pendleton's. His political career has been unremarkable to date, and more and more it seems his campaign is predicated upon moderacy between Green's vitriol and Randall Portman's idealism. His ideas are uninspiring (to put it kindly) and his administration would likely maintain the status quo, just with a white male at the helm who hails from a more traditional political party.

Speaking for myself, Randall Portman is the clear choice for President. Although he is not a seasoned politician, his cabinet selections are calculated to compensate for this disadvantage. He is America's first nova, and arguably still it's most popular one. I know him personally and I know him to be a man of principle and decency, who has lived his life in service to others. He is nova-friendly and gay-friendly, and while his adminstration would certainly be more progressive than any in recent memory, his candor, charm, and down-to-earth demeanor are reassuring to those who might otherwise cringe at the idea of a left-wing president.

When November 4th is here, as it soon will be, and whoever your preferred candidate might be, please don't neglect your civic duty. Please don't squander your voice by failing or forgetting to cast your ballot. Vote. Please. Your country needs you. The future needs you.

-Andy Vance