United Commonwealth 2010

[CCA 4]

Hi all,

I've made a United Commonwealth 2010 scenario for President Forever 2008. Complete with primaries, events and with a full list of endorsers to come. I just wanted to share it so I can have some feedback for the complete version.

http://drop.io/ylvsa3f

The basic premise is: What if Oliver Cromwell established the title of Lord Protector to be a heridetary one?

In this alternate history, Oliver Cromwell suceeds in doing so. Eventually the title of "Lord Protector" becomes a non-hereditary one - elected by tbe nobles and importants men of the country who gathered in a "College of Electors." As the notion of democracy spread the college of electors eventually becomes more representative and more democratic.

However the above history lesson isn't very relevant to the situation at hand. The year is 2010. The incumbent Lord Protector Gordon Brown is leading a fractured party that has been in power since 1995.

Primary Election Description

Winds of change blow accross the Commonwealth in which the 'sun never sets' as all three political parties go through convlusions. In the Labour Government President Gordon Brown is under attack from a party insurgency as his own Vice-Protector challenges him. The Conservatives are having a battle for the heart and soul of "modern conservatism" and the Liberal Democratic field is abuzz with contenders. Who will lead their party?

General Election Description:

The Labour Party, having been in power since 1995 is burdened with decades of incumbency and a weak economy. Meanwhile the Conservatives - kept out of power for so long are hungry for change. The Liberal Democrats, for the first time in nearly a decades look like a credible choice. Who will win in what is set to be the most exciting race of the decade...

Labour Party:

Candidates:

Gordon Brown

Helen Clark

Conservative Party:

David Cameron

John Key

Stephen Harper

Tony Abbott

Ron Paul

Sarah Palin

Arlen Specter

Mitt Romney

Liberal Party:

Michael Ignatief

Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama

Rodney Hide

Malcolm Turnbull

Nick Clegg

(Full credit to the designer of the USL scenario for the excellent map I used.)

[EGaffney 17]

Hmm, surely by this stage Kevin Rudd would be a better choice than Helen Clark. Or both. Or Ralph Nader. And wouldn't Rodney Hide be in the same party as David Cameron rather than Barack Obama, when push comes to shove?

Just initial ideas; downloading now.

[EGaffney 17]

First impressions, four of them:

First of all, it's a great idea and concept.

Second, the map needs work. There should be small circles for the non-geographical electorates, like Washington DC has in the US Presidential scenarios. Israel is lovely, but it's hardly the Maori homeland. Also for Polynesia, which is difficult to select. There should be clear boundaries between the groups of US states, so maybe the internal state boundaries should be a different colour. By the same token, you could merge the Prairies, maybe excluding Alberta.

Third, Obama would be way more popular in Canada than Ignatieff, more popular in Ireland than Clegg, and closer to tied in the UK with Clegg, even when you account for geographical factors.

Fourth, I'm afraid I can't think of any Irish politicians who would be competitive in that kind of election, since we're more integrated with Europe than the Anglosphere in many ways.

[EGaffney 17]

Fictional scenarios need to be simpler than real-life scenarios because we can't approach them with the same amount of context. So there are lots of candidates in the primaries whose positions in the race I simply don't understand. Is it likely that New Zealand and Australia would always stand favourite-son candidates? Probably not, but that's all they appear to be, except Helen Clark, who should be the model for the others. There's no reason to have candidates from every country, at least not candidates who are on by default. (Even Canada sort of falls into this bracket.)

I also feel that part of the problem here is the absolute dominance of the USA in population terms, which means that you need these 2-4 American candidates in each competitive race to prevent the American candidate winning on the basis of regionalism alone. In contrast, if we had the original United Commonwealth line-up of UK/Canada/Aus/NZ/Ireland, plus the innovative idea of native electorates, there would be a better regional balance.

Having said all that, it's a fun scenario which I am only just beginning to play now.

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

Cool scenario. I agree with EGaffney that Kevin Rudd should be included too.

I'm going to make a 1990's version of this, with leaders such as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, John Major, John Howard, etc.

[EGaffney 17]

I'm playtesting with Clegg now. First note: The names of N Mountain States, S Mountain States and the Native American and Aborigine electorates are so long that they mess up the Strategy window.

[Treasurer 28]

Minor issue. The demographics that stands out for me is Palin being popular in Ireland and the Lib Dems doing better in the South East than the South West, turning it into a 3-way marginal. The race between the Lib Dems and Tories should be closer there. Looks really good though, and I've still to play it, just only space-barred.

[CCA 4]

Cool thanks for the feedback everyone.

I'd just like to address a few points

The reasons why it's Helen Clark challenging Gordon Brown rather than Kevin Rudd are many.

1. Establishment:

Helen Clark has a chance of success - as I've stated in her in-game biography she is the Vice Protector of the United Commonwealth - she is also the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party unofficial 'faction leader' of the Labour Feminists and Labour Liberals and can command a broad level of support that Kevin Rudd or any other candidate can. She is an establishment insurgent and can challenge Gordon Brown in a way that Kevin Rudd or Ralph nader cannot. If people want I can add both as "off" candidates. But for the purpose of the back-story it makes sense for Helen Clark to be the sole challenger

2. Her personality:

Helen Clark doesn't seem to be the sort of person to 'wait' for her shot. If she sees an opening she goes for it. She rolled Mike Moore pretty quickly and she won't hesitate to take out a weakened incumbent.

3. I kinda based the Brown vs Clark on Carter vs Kennedy in the 1980 Democratic Primaries

4. I'm a New Zealander and Helen Clark is a New Zealander and therefore is awesome.

5. Labour is headed for a defeat. That means no Labour person worth his salt would bother challenging Gordon Brown only to lose in a landslide defeat. One of the things I'm planning to do in v2 of this scenario is to make events that constantly erode Labour momentum. It should be really difficult for a Government to maintain control of the Protectorate for 25 years!

Ok Enough Helen Clark worship for the afternoon. The point is it makes sense for her to be challening Gordon.

Here's some previous election data from the United Commonwealth World:

1980:

Conservative Nominee:

Ronald Reagan (winner)

Labour Nominee:

James Carter (President)

Democratic Nominee:

Ted Kennedy

1985:

Conservative Nominee:

Ronald Reagan (Winner dies in office in 1988)

Labour Nominee:

Neil Kinnock

Democratic Nominee:

Pierre Trudeau

1990 Protectorate Election:

Conservative Nomineee:

Margaret Thatcher (Incumbent)

Labour Nominee:

Robert Hawke

Democratic Nomineee:

Bill Clinton (Winner)

1995 Protectorate Election:

Conservative Nominee:

Robert Dole

Labour Nominee:

Tony Blair (Winner)

Democratic Nominee:

Bill Clinton (Incumbent)

2000 Protectorate Election:

Conservative Nominee:

John Howard

Labour Nominee:

Tony Blair (Incumbent Winner)

Democratic Nominee:

Jean Chretien

2005 Protectorate Election:

Conservative Nominee:

John McCain

Labour Nominee:

Tony Blair (Incumbent Winner)

Democratic Nominee:

Gen. Wesley Clark

And that's all for now I plan to make election scnenarios of all the above scenarios eventually hoping to have every Protectorate Election since the Voting Act of 1900 introduced universal suffrage accross the Commonwealth.

[Kauai 0]

Kennedy should be Labour and Carter Democratic. Kennedy was pretty Hard Left for the United StateS, Carter was arguably a Populist Centrist. So then the US has at least one historical Labour leader.

edit; Not that it really matters. Just nitpicking. XD

[Red Dog Democrat 9]

Perhaps Russ Feingold or Tom Harkin should be added to Labour.

[darkmoon72 2]

I can't even access the webpage. It comes up as a blank screen.

In IE it comes up as a 503 error. Can someone e-mail me the scenario at delirium-music@hotmail.com?

[Treasurer 28]

I would say it's a really good scenario, especially the general election part. A real challenge to hold on as the Conservatives with a great range of battlegrounds from South Australia to Londonia to Ontario to the majority of the US. I'm just wondering if it's possible to win the Primaries with Harper and the other non-UK-US candidates.

[gopprogressive 1,063]

I csn make some changes to the issues. I'll add in some leaders as well.

[darkmoon72 2]

I would say it's a really good scenario, especially the general election part. A real challenge to hold on as the Conservatives with a great range of battlegrounds from South Australia to Londonia to Ontario to the majority of the US. I'm just wondering if it's possible to win the Primaries with Harper and the other non-UK-US candidates.

Not only did I win the primaries with such a candidate, I won the general election as well.

I played as Ignatieff, cleaned up in Canada while campaigning in the US. I won several narrow victories in the US, narrowly won Ireland, South New Zealand, the Maori Electorate and the Aboriginals, and kept it close everywhere else.

However, everyone was dropping out and endorsing Nick Clegg. I had almost 50% of the delegates but not quite. He ended up with about 5000 - dangerously close to the nomination - with him, Obama and Ignatieff left in the race. In a final act of desperation, I gave Obama all my PIPs for an endorsement, and narrowly defeated Clegg for the nomination.

Winning against Cameron and Brown was a little tricky - the map frequently showed me with insufficient electoral votes to win a majority - but I dominated the debates (Iggy starts out with a 5 in both issue familiarity and debating) and that helped me win.

[darkmoon72 2]

I'd say this scenario is pretty good, although I'd add more candidates and parties. There should be particularly more representation from Ireland.

Labour

Kevin Rudd

Jack Layton

Dennis Kucinich

Phil Goff

Eamon Gilmore

Conservative

Michael Howard

Peter MacKay

Enda Kenny

Warren Truss

Liberal Democrats

Brian Cowen

Green

Ralph Nader

Cynthia McKinney

Elizabeth May

Caroline Lucas

John Gormley

Bob Brown

Libertarian/Independence

Ron Paul

Wayne Root

Malcolm Pearson

Dennis Young

Pennsylvania here refers to Pennsylvania and a few other states (New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and DC). Maybe call it "Susquehenna" instead, in reference to the river?

There are also a few spelling errors.

Michael Ignatieff is misspelled as "Ignatief".

Saskatchewan is misspelled as "Saskathecwan"

Polynesia is misspelled as "Poylnesia".

[Red Dog Democrat 9]

Give Labour Midwest at the start.

[darkmoon72 2]

I added Kevin Rudd in the version I downloaded, and the Labour primary is a lot more exciting.

Rudd starts out 3rd (except in Australia and the Aboriginal Council) and no one starts with a majority of delegates, although Brown still begins with a big lead.

Before, it just seemed like Brown automatically won the primary all the time. Now the race is a little bit more open.

BTW - If you're comparing Clark/Brown to Kennedy/Carter circa 1980, I should point out that Jerry Brown ran in that race as well. I guess that would be Kevin Rudd's role.

[jack2794 0]

Sadly, the download link no longer appears to work.

I'd be really grateful if someone could re-upload though, as it looks like a great scenario

[liberalkid 1]

Bump this up, again.

Someone email me at christopherjpjacskson@gmail.com the scenario. Also, if someone could reply that they HAVE the scenario, it would be appreciated.

[liberalkid 1]

Bump, can someone email this to liberalkid.jackson@gmail.com ?

[chrisdevoin 0]

please send it to me: trankla.karl@gmail.com

[Os Davis 0]

Yes, i'd love a copy of this, too. Please send (if it exists) to os_davis@yahoo.com...?

[squirrelconspiracy 0]

I too am interested. please send at squirrelconspiracy@gmail.com Thanks in advance!

[Repubican 35]

bump, i would like this secanario, nomerduck@gmail.com

i simply must have any secnario where israel is included, there is a big lack of them.

[mithcd 0]

can you send it to mitchd@gmail.com please?