Chapter 563 - 265: An Age That Needs No Good People
Washington D.C., Democratic National Committee Headquarters Building.
The building, which on any given day held sway over the political trajectory of half the United States, was now under immense pressure.
In the top-floor strategy room, the long table was surrounded by people.
These people were the brains of the party, but now, their usual composure was gone.
"This is an absolute massacre."
Marcus Crassus, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, slammed a freshly printed polling data report down on the table.
The papers scattered, revealing rows of alarming red arrows.
"Look at these numbers!"
Cres pointed to the charts in the report.
"Pennsylvania, down 4.2%."
"Ohio, down 3.8%."
"Michigan, down 3.5%."
"Just one month ago, we held a slight lead in these key swing states. But now? We’re in freefall."
"Those bastards in the Republican Party have lost their minds."
Cres said, grinding his teeth.
"They’ve fired up all their propaganda machines. Fox News is running Luigi’s photo on a loop during primetime, Breitbart is plastering those dead patients on their front page, and millions of bot accounts are spamming Twitter every day."
"They’ve renamed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill the ’Protect the Rich, Murder the Poor Act.’"
"They’re accusing us of being lapdogs for the insurance companies, executioners sending patients to their deaths."
Raymond Walker, the House Majority Leader seated at the head of the table, let out a cold snort.
"Hypocrites."
Walker commented flatly.
"When this bill came to a vote in the Senate, plenty of Republicans voted for it. The insurance companies are their donors too; they take just as much money as we do."
"That doesn’t matter, Raymond."
Kod Montoya, the House Whip sitting across from him, cut in.
"Voters have short memories, and they don’t care about logic."
"We’re the party in power now."
Montoya’s fingers tapped on the table.
"When people get angry, they don’t blame the party out of power."
"They only blame the ones in charge."
"This is a classic suicide attack from the Republican Party. They’re willing to take heavy damage as long as they can inflict more on us."
"They’d rather piss off the insurance companies and their own donors just to sling this mud at us."
"Because they know that as long as they can unseat us and win the election, they’ll have plenty of chances later to patch things up with their donors."
A brief silence fell over the conference room.
This was asymmetrical warfare.
As the party in power, the Democratic Party had to maintain order and stand by every one of its policies. The Republican Party, on the other hand, only needed to destroy and incite anger.
"The source of this is in Philadelphia."
Walker broke the silence, his gaze shifting to another person at the table: Senate Majority Leader Creston.
"That trial needs to end, and fast."
There was a ruthless edge to Walker’s voice.
"This Luigi kid has been in front of the cameras for far too long. As long as his face is on TV, the public’s fury won’t die down."
"Tell the judge to speed things up."
"Convict him, sentence him, lock him up."
"Get him to a prison. Once he’s off the TV, the media frenzy will naturally die down."
"It’s not that simple."
A senior political advisor sitting in the corner spoke up, his voice tinged with worry.
"If the verdict comes in and Luigi is actually convicted..."
The advisor glanced at the intelligence summary in his hand.
"...won’t that madman from Pittsburgh, Leo Wallace, seize the opportunity to set off a media firestorm?"
"Our intelligence indicates his ability to mobilize people across the Rust Belt is terrifying. He has hundreds of thousands of angry workers and the Industrial Revival Alliance at his command."
"If he calls for riots..."
"What do we do then?"
All eyes turned to Montoya.
Montoya shook his head.
"No."
His tone was firm.
"You don’t understand Leo Wallace."
"He may be a radical, but he’s not an anarchist."
"He’s not the kind of lunatic who’d burn the house down just to vent his anger."
Montoya stood up, walked over to a map, and pointed to Pittsburgh.
"He’s a rational actor."
"He’s not making these waves to sink the ship; he’s making them to seize the helm."
Walker frowned. "Seize the helm? What does he want? More federal funding? A bigger piece of the infrastructure bill?"
"If it’s money, give it to him. Whatever it takes to shut him up."
"No, Raymond. This isn’t about money."
Montoya looked at the party’s top brass.
"This time, he wants structural power."
"We have intelligence that he’s putting together something called the Mutual Aid Alliance."
"He wants to leverage the public outrage from the Luigi case to force the state government to pass his legislation."
"He wants to wrest control of Pennsylvania’s prescription drug benefits from the insurance companies."
"He wants to build a healthcare payment system that he controls, one that’s completely independent of the existing framework."
A collective gasp went through the room.
"He’s making a power play in Pennsylvania."
Montoya concluded.
"He’s using our war with the Republicans to expand his own turf in Pennsylvania."
"He’s using Luigi as a bargaining chip and public opinion as a weapon."
"He’s forcing us to choose."
"Either we help him deal with the state government and get his bill passed..."