Jack of Harts

With the old President of San Santiago and his Communist supporters driven out of the capital, the news networks foretold a return to normalcy as the freely and fairly elected new President came into power. They gave wide reporting to his quick actions to reverse the previous President’s evil Communist policies, and broadcast his speeches throughout the sector. He promised to rebuild their trust in the government to defend San Santiago, and to be a President to all Santiagans. Except of course for the unSantiagans who aided the illegitimate President in his Communist attempt to overthrow their sacred Democracy. He promised to track those insurrectionists down and bring them to justice for their betrayal of San Santiago and the entire sector.

Election day came on San Santiago. The news had spent four years telling everybody how much of a fraud and a Communist sympathizer the illegitimate President was, so of course the good people of their planet would vote him out. But one poll after another showed that millions of citizens had gone out to vote for the man anyways. Many even dared to say that the news was wrong about his Communist leanings. He was winning in the reported counts. But the bureaucrats were prepared. They halted the counting in several key districts after people went to bed, brought boxes of votes out from under tables and counted them into the total. The next morning revealed a landslide victory for the challenger, and an end of the attempted Communist overthrow of the government.

The new President of San Santiago did not have a quiet term in office. The news networks and Council bureaucrats investigated him to reveal how deep into the Communist conspiracy to overthrow the government he and his advisors really were. The Council-aligned parties declared war on him and sought to stop his every initiative. Colonial voters and the Corporate parties generally maintained their support of him, arguing that none of the charges had been substantiated, but many politicians in the middle declared the President too toxic to support and walked away. Despite all of this, he used his Executive power to change regulations that expanded the economy and brought record-breaking quality of life improvements to the common Santiagan. The Colonists loved him.