Jack of Harts

The United States of America in Jack’s time officially includes the States, territories, and colonies throughout the Solar System, as well as the territories and colonies beyond the Oort Cloud. Yes, there are numerous American States on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Luna, and several other moons and planetoids throughout the Solar System. They have full representation in the Federal Government. There are no States outside the Solar System, though there are many systems who fly the American flag, govern themselves, and pay the lesser tax rates of States rather than territories or colonies. The cutoff for applying for such status is usually when they gain agricultural and industrial self-sufficiency. Once they can feed and defend themselves without homeworld support, America has graciously decided to grant them autonomy. Yes, there are charges of taxation without representation. Very few of them have resulted in open rebellion because America generally sees the wisdom of letting them have their sovereignty rather than trying to hold onto them against their will. You could say we learned that lesson with George Washington and have tried to remember it.

Another major difference between Jack’s America and our own America is the utter lack of gerrymandered Congressional districts for the House of Representatives. Though that is only because there ARE no Congressional districts at all. Gerrymandering is the political art of designing a voting district so it will always vote the way you want it to. It was a very unpopular but very effective political tool for centuries in America. Then the Second Great Depression happened and the States imposed just a little bit of Parliamentary rules on the Federal Government when they reformed it. American Citizens, and ONLY American Citizens, vote on a State-wide basis for which political parties they wish to represent them, and the seats are divvied out proportionate to the total votes in that State. More populace States spread their seats out into several major and minor parties, while less populace States grant their single seat to the party that gained the most votes. As you may guess, this difference has resulted in a greatly changed political landscape in Jack’s America. Some say it is better. Some worse. Your mileage may vary.

There are several key differences between our United States of America and the one that Jack grows up in. The one most people would notice first is that there is no Federal Income Tax. The States had gotten sick and tired of having their money taken out of their State and then only given back if they did what the Feds told them to do. So they debated repealing that Amendment during the reformation of the Federal Government. Yes, there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth over the whole thing, but it was mostly politicians and network types who were doing the screaming. And the Americans who survived the Second Great Depression, the Islamic Jihad, and the Cybernetic Wars didn’t have many sympathies left for the sensibilities of Federal politicians or their very good friends in the national networks. So they told the Feds to go pound sand and repealed that Amendment with prejudice. They’re still debating whether or not that was a good move in Jack’s time, but the repeal has held against multiple attempts to break it, most recently during The Shang War. You will note that I don’t say exactly how many. That’s writer speak for “I don’t want to contradict myself by accident sometime in the future.” 😉