Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt

Pittsburgh City Hall, the Mayor’s Office.

Ethan Hawke stood before a huge map of the United States that had been hastily printed out.

He held a red marker, its tip making a screeching sound as it streaked across the map.

A thick red line started in Pennsylvania, cut west through Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and finally plunged into the heart of Washington D.C.

"Leo, look at this."

Ethan’s voice was filled with a disquieting fervor.

"Your previous plan was too conservative."

Ethan pointed the red marker at the map.

"You wanted to force their hand by throwing Pennsylvania into chaos. You thought that by paralyzing Harrisburg and plunging Philadelphia into turmoil, those people in Washington would compromise out of fear of losing this Swing State."

"But you underestimated how thick-skinned the Democratic National Committee is."

Ethan sneered.

"Those guys have been in Washington for too long. They’ve already learned how to deal with this kind of localized gangrene."

"They’ll block the news, use the mainstream liberal media they control to downplay the chaos in Pennsylvania, or just label it as a local disturbance instigated by the far-right."

Leo sat in his chair, twirling a pen in his hand.

"So?" Leo asked. "What’s your plan?"

"If we’re going to start a fire, let’s make it a big one."

Ethan looked at Leo.

"We won’t just set Pennsylvania on fire. We’ll set All of America on fire."

"We have the best fuel in our hands: the case of Luigi Randall."

"This isn’t just a Pennsylvania case; it’s a case for All of America. Every American family, whether they’re farmers in Texas or white-collar workers in California, they all despise the insurance companies. They despise the days of not being able to afford getting sick."

"We’re going to escalate this issue into a nationwide class war."

Leo nodded. "The mainstream liberal media has already been warned by the Democratic National Committee. They won’t help us escalate the situation."

"But the Republican Party is willing to help, and we can use them."

"Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart... These right-wing mouthpieces are always looking for dirt on the Democratic Party."

"We can feed them the material."

Ethan picked up where he left off. "Luigi’s defense statement, the photos of the dead patients, the picture of the insurance company CEO on his yacht—package it all up and feed it to them."

Ethan’s voice grew louder.

"We’ll use the Republican Party’s propaganda machine to stir up a storm across All of America. We’ll make sure every Republican voter knows about this, and we’ll make every moderate sick to their stomach."

"When Fox News is running these images on a loop during prime time, let’s see how the Democratic National Committee tries to block the news then."

It was indeed a ruthless move.

Leo hadn’t expected that after reviewing his plan, Ethan would propose an even more insane revision.

But what worried Leo were the consequences.

"Ethan, do you have any idea what this means?"

Leo stood up and walked to the window.

"Spreading this fire nationwide means we’ll be standing at the very center of the storm."

"The right-wing media will use this material to attack healthcare reform as a whole. They’ll sling mud at all the Democrats and even use it to attack the very concept of universal healthcare."

"Once the situation gets out of control, this fire could burn down our own foundation."

"How do we clean up the mess?"

Leo said, "If public opinion swings completely to ’the Democratic Party is incompetent’ or ’government healthcare is murder,’ then our original purpose for establishing the Mutual Aid Alliance will be twisted. We’ll become a stepping stone for the Republican Party to seize power."

"We may need to use the Republican Party to achieve our goals, but we can’t let the Democratic Party suffer a total collapse right now."

"We need an anchor."

Ethan had clearly already considered this problem.

"Luigi is the cause, and he must also be the conclusion."

"But the thing that connects and controls the direction of all this must be the law."

"We need to bring someone into the game."

"Who?" Leo asked.

"The Attorney General of Pennsylvania."

"Richard Kirk."

Leo froze for a moment.

"Kirk?"

"That’s right," Ethan nodded. "Him."

"What can he do?"

"Leo, we need to think more long-term."

A hint of madness laced Ethan’s voice.

"In the previous plan, you only thought about ousting Campbell and putting Monroe in his place. That would certainly solve the administrative obstacles and allow the Mutual Aid Alliance to be legalized."

"But that won’t save Luigi."

Leo replied, "Luigi won’t get the death penalty."

"That’s not enough." Ethan turned around. "A life sentence is still prison. We’re treating him like a martyr, but he’s a living person. If we let him rot in prison, this fire we’ve started will never go out."

"What are you getting at?"

"I’m saying that with the olive branch the Republican Party has extended, we can be a little greedier."

Ethan wrote on the whiteboard: Board of Pardons.

"You want to pardon him?" Leo narrowed his eyes. "That seems... doable."

Ethan analyzed, "Pennsylvania’s pardon system is rather unique."

"Unlike a presidential pardon, which only requires the President’s signature to forgive Federation crimes..."

"In Pennsylvania, to pardon anyone, you first need the votes of at least three of the five members of the Board of Pardons. For a death sentence or a life sentence, you even need a unanimous vote of all five."

"Of course, the original intent was to prevent the scandal of a Governor selling pardons on their last day in office, but it also makes it much harder for us to pardon Luigi."