Calthrina950
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Posts: 15,919
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« on: August 06, 2018, 11:03:11 PM » |
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« edited: October 14, 2018, 07:25:21 PM by Calthrina950 »
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As some on here should be aware, I created a scenario involving the fictional characters William
C. Rutherford (D-Texas) and Thomas P. Leach (R-Arizona) some while back. More recently, I've gone and changed some of the details, and I created a new alternative election based upon these candidates. So now, I'm interested to see where Atlas stands. How would you vote in such a hypothetical election, based upon the candidate profiles provided below?
William C. Rutherford (D-Texas): The incumbent President, William Casey Rutherford (64), came into office in January 2013, after defeating his predecessor, former President Mitt Romney, in a 54-45% near-landslide. Romney had been dogged by economic downturn and by unpopular conflicts within the Middle East, particularly the Syrian Civil War and the interventions in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. During the first years of his term, Rutherford and the Democratic Party, controlling majorities in both Houses of Congress, embarked upon an ambitious domestic policy agenda, which became known as the New Frontier.
Included within this agenda were: the expansion of Medicare, the imposition of new and more stringent regulations on big banks, a taxation reform bill with cuts for the middle class and increases upon the wealthy, various educational initiatives (with support for universal pre-school/kinder-garden programs, expansion of community college/technical school programs, measures against student loan debt), a infrastructure reform bill, and an energy investment bill (combining support for fracking and natural gas with investment in renewable energy). Rutherford is pro-environment, but balances environmental protections with economic concerns.
Rutherford also oversaw the winding down of American commitments in the Middle East and took a moderate stance on social issues. While personally pro-life, he largely maintains the status quo on abortion policy. He supports gay marriage and criminal justice reform, but also supports law enforcement and takes a moderate stance on immigration policy, supporting DACA but also cracking down on illegal immigration, increasing support to border enforcement agencies, and penalizing businesses that employ illegal immigrant labor.
Thomas P. Leach (R-Arizona): A conservative first-term Senator from Arizona, Thomas P. Leach (57), won the Republican nomination after a bitter and contentious primary fight with such figures as Senator Thomas Kean, Jr. of New Jersey and Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts. Leach, who is one of the most right-wing members of the Senate, adopts staunchly conservative positions in all areas of policy. He supports additional tax cuts for the wealthy, and calls for greater deregulation in all fields of government activity. In conjunction with this, Leach views the federal bureaucracy as "bloated" and "inefficient". To combat this, he seeks to slash the federal deficit through cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, federal housing aid, rural development programs (i.e. such as electrification, dam, and water control projects), education, transportation, federal grants, and the government civil service.
He seeks to abolish the TVA, the EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also wishes to end all federal inoculation programs, as well as Head Start, and to expand vouchers. He considers federal subsidies to be "in violation of the Constitution", and consequently opposes federal support for such projects as the Keystone Pipeline. Leach also has expressed a strong desire to privatize Social Security, to end all federal farm supports, and to limit or even abolish the Federal Reserve.
On matters of social policy, Leach strongly opposes gay marriage and abortion, going as far as to push for federal amendments to criminalize these. He seeks to renew the War on Drugs, opposes government "leniency" towards those suffering from the opioid crisis, and also seeks to privatize federal prisons. He opposes criminal justice reform and seeks to divert greater funding to police agencies. Finally, as regards to foreign policy, Leach wants to bomb Iran and North Korea, to restore sanctions against Cuba, and to greatly expand the military. He has made extremely controversial comments on Islam and nuclearization, and has even called for the United States to invade Pakistan.
So, based upon these platforms, who would you vote for? I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
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