[Forum Game] The New World Order

[Fingon888]

The New World Order​

​

A Post-Cold War Political Forum Game​

The sun rises over Washington D.C. on the First of January in the year of our Lord 1992. Five days ago the Russian tricolor was raised over the Kremlin and Boris Yeltsin became the leader of an independent Russian state. George H. W. Bush wakes triumphant in the White House having secured the dominance of the capitalist and American system over the world as Saddam Hussein has been turned back from Kuwait without much effort and the world is now at peace. However, the President has reneged on his solemn campaign promise to not raise taxes and Pat Buchanan has declared his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President. Meanwhile, five candidates including Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown seek the Democratic nomination.

Welcome everyone to my new attempt at running a forum game, The New World Order. The New World Order is the spiritual successor of Firehound15’s short lived forum game Home of the Brave. The system is essentially the same and as such I owe many thanks to Firehound for pioneering this system of a game. In The New World Order players will play as politicians in the United States of America who will run for and occupy office at the Federal level.

Rules:

1. Be Civil: Contentious debate in IC terms is encouraged as long as it is realistic, but in out of character interactions please be as civil as possible. I don’t mind banter but always stay friendly.
2. Do not violate the rules of the Paradox Interactive Forums.
3. No Historical Characters: Furthermore all characters must start off not in Federal Office. You may have your character be a current or former member of state or local government (State legislature, governor, mayor, etc.), but this is not necessary.
4. GM’s word is law: This rule is very important as I have learned from my past forays into running a game. Anything that I say in my capacity as Game Master is taken as canon and the official game. If you disagree with something feel free to send me a PM or contact me on IRC so that we can have a conversation about it.

Speaking of IRC the channel for the game is #Fingon_Hub. Much of the ooc talk and planning goes on here, so I encourage anyone to come over by using any IRC client.

Please for you character use the following format:

Name:

Date of Birth:

State:

Party: (You may change parties at any time and you may start as a member of no party.)

We will have a period of 48 hours to have character signups and then we will have the period in which you will announce what seat you are running for (you don’t have to run for anything but this would sort of defeat the purpose). After that we will have both party’s presidential primaries.

 

[Fingon888]

MECHANICS​

The average turn (6 months to 1 year) will be composed of the following cycle:


1. Submit/Debate Legislation (2 days)

2. Debate/Vote on Legislation (2 days)

3. Presidential/State Orders Due (1 day)


When voting, a congressman or senator should vote in this manner:


Example Bill: Yes/No/Abstain


[House/Senate]

[State]

[(Party)]



A brief description of each section of government follows:


President:

Elected every 4 years to a maximum of 2 terms, the President of the United States is the chief executive of the nation. His duties are as follows:

-Appointing Judges and Supreme Court Justices

-Appointing Ambassadors

-Appointing Secretaries of the various departments of government

-Acting as Commander-in-Chief of the nation's forces

-Proposing guidelines for the budget


House of Representatives:

The larger of the two houses of Congress. Must submit and pass a new budget every year. The President of the United States or his government will usually submit guidelines for the budget, however, the President requires the House to write and pass a budget which they can agree upon. (Otherwise, 1/6 of all legislation will be thrown out and public approval will drop.) The House also has the duty of voting on any legislation passed by the Senate. Overriding vetoes and the impeachment process will operate as they do in reality. Elections are held every 2 years. The House may only vote on a maximum of 8 bills + 2 budgets. The order of precedence is based on who submits them first.


Senate:

The smaller of the two houses of Congress. Senate elections are staggered 6 year terms, but are otherwise conducted in a similar manner to elections to the House. The Senate operates under many of the same rules as the House, but with notable differences:

-The Senate may only debate 4 bills per cycle, with precedence given to bills submitted by longer serving senators.

-The Senate has the exclusive power to ratify treaties made by the United States

Senators also have a unique ability to FILIBUSTER any bill which goes before the Senate or passes the House. When a senator attempts to filibuster any bill, a vote is immediately called among the senate, requiring a 2/3 majority to invoke cloture on the filibustering senator. If the vote for cloture passes, the filibuster fails. If the vote fails, there is a chance the filibuster succeeds and the bill is not passed.


_________________________________________


Congressional elections will go like this:


1. Announce your intention to run for a certain position in a particular state (Congressman from Florida's 2nd Congressional District, for instance.) Running for your party for such seats is a first-come-first-serve deal and we will assume that whatever seat you are running for if it is held by the same party, the current holder will not be running for reelection in that seat. This may mean they run for some other office or not, as I reserve the right to use any historical characters in this game.


2. Players will vote in this manner:


Vote: (Party)


[Senator/Congressman/President/Unseated]

[State]


3. Results will be announced.


4. The usual pattern of a cycle will begin.



Presidential Election Years are a little more intensive:


1. In the cycle immediately prior to the Presidential election, one must announce their intent to run for a specific party or independently.


2. The Presidential Election cycle will immediately begin with a primary vote for both parties:


Candidate: (Insert Here)


[Senator/Congressman/President/Unseated]

[State]


3. At the conclusion of the party primaries, presidential voting will begin, using the same template as used for the Primary vote.


4. Results announced, return to regular cycle (with proposal period twice as long to account for appointments.)

_________________________________________


Political Parties will work as follows:


Both the Republican and Democratic parties will exist at game start, and the majority of public support will be for both parties. That does not discount players from forming other parties or running independent, but keep in mind that this will be an uphill struggle for success, dependent mostly upon the big parties having low popular support. To begin with, I will be calling the primaries, however, future primaries for the big two parties may be a responsibility given to a member of each respective party. I will consider this at a future point.

_________________________________________


Popular Support:


Popular support is a fully hidden mechanic except for presidential election polls which will be released in the update ahead of presidential elections. Presidential approval polls will be released after the end of the mid-term elections.

 

[Fingon888]

Federal Government Before the 1992 Election

-President and Cabinet-

President:

Jimmy Rex Long - Democratic - ((Noco19))

Vice President:

John Kerry - Democratic - ((NPC))

-House Leaders-

Speaker of the House:

Tom Foley - Democratic - ((NPC))

House Majority Leader:

Dick Gephardt - Democratic - ((NPC))

House Minority Leader:

Robert Michel - Republican - ((NPC))

House Composition:

Republicans: 170

Democrats: 264

Other: 1

Total: 435

-Senate Leaders-

Senate Majority Leader:

George Mitchell - Democratic - ((NPC))

Senate Minority Leader:

Bob Dole - Republican - ((NPC))

Senate Composition:

Republicans: 42

Democrats: 58

Other: 0
Total: 100​

 

[Fingon888]

Index

Pre-election of 1992
​

 

[Dadarian]

​

David 'Hal' Haliburt
B: 08/08/1941
Soon-to-be-due-to-bullshit-reasons Representative for Montana
Republican

A man from a long line of cattle ranchers, Haliburt spent his youth among the horses and cows of his family's land. When the opportunity presented itself, he used the money he saved to buy stocks in the NYSX. This turned out to be a good decision, since it allowed him to make more than a little bit of money. He used this money to invest in a series of butcheries and establish Hal's Butcher Shoppe Inc. After doing that for a couple decades, he saw recommended politics by his rather ambitious little brother, which he kinda just did.

He will soon manage to secure victory the singular Montana House of Representatives seat following the death of the front runner from a heart attack, leaving the Republicans to put forward Hal as an emergency. Soon to be the sole voice of Montana in the Lower House, he is dedicated to the protection of small businesses, agriculture, social cohesion, and some other things he imagines.

 

[Fingon888]

((Dadarian, I'm sorry if this wasn't clear in the rules, but you cannot start as a politician at the Federal level. You may run for the Montana seat in the House essentially immediately but you cannot be the incumbent.)

 

[Firehound15]

Name:
Daniel Peter Markowitz ('Pete' Markowitz)

Date of Birth:
June 23, 1947
State:
Montana
Party:
Independent

Biography:​

Pete Markowitz was born and raised in Butte, Montana, where he would spend most of the remainder of his life. His upbringing, however, would be made challenging by the tensions between his father, who was emotionally and physically scarred from the Second World War, and his mother, who was a raging alcoholic. Without significant support from them, Pete took it upon himself to achieve as much as he could, even as outside forces conspired against him. This perseverance would enable him to eventually find a place at the University of Chicago, where he studied economics for one year before dropping out to take care of his ailing parents.

After the passing of his mother in 1980 and his father in 1982, Pete began to take up an interest in local politics, which he believed had been reduced to a "good ol' boy" system which he was often recorded as referring to as the "Butte Gang." By campaigning hard against low-level corruption, Markowitz became a darling of his local community, and was pushed to run for the State Senate, to which he successfully won election as an independent. Now he is preparing to go beyond just Montana, and perhaps win a victory for the West in Washington, D.C. itself.

 

[jeeshadow]

Name: Alyssa Walker

Date of Birth: April 15th, 1950

State: New York

Party: Democrat

Bio: The current Attorney General of New York, she is expected to be running for the Senate, or a House seat, that is up for election. She was born Alyssa Martin to a Middle Class family in Brooklyn, and attended New York University, then got her law degree. She met and married Andrew Walker, a local Democratic Party official, during college, which she would have 2 daughters with. She started out a Public Defender until, unhappy with the way the DA’s office worked, ran, and was elected Manhattan DA. Eventually, she gained a name for herself in the State, and was elected Attorney General of the entire state. Now, she looks higher.

 

[baboushreturns]

Name: Joseph Lynn

Date of Birth: June 28, 1953

State: Massachusetts

Party: Democrat

Joseph was born in the town of Northampton Massachusetts to a college professor and his wife. The third child in a family of 6 he grew up in a college town at the forefront of the social movements of the 50's and 60's. Throughout his life this had a great effect on him and after achieving decent grades at school he attended Brandeis University outside of Boston double majoring in political science (with an emphasis on social justice) and macro economics. Throughout his time in Boston he was able to get an internship at the state capital serving as an assistant to a state senator. Once he graduated from college Joseph or Joe as he liked to be called at that point began volunteering in numerous statewide and federal campaigns moving across the state supporting numerous candidates until eventually he ended up in Ted Kennedy's office in Boston. After working several years there as a staffer he decided to use his connections among the democratic party in the state to set himself up to run for state senate in the early 1980's. His attempt was succesful and he served at the state level for many years pushing forward bills making higher education more accessible and combating urban poverty in declining cities like Boston, Worcester and Springfield. With an impressive record and many powerful connections in the New England political sphere Joe now looks higher.

 

[Noco19]

Jimmy Rex Long ('Rex Long' or 'J.R Long')
​

Date of Birth: August 13th, 1946

State: Louisiana​

Office: Governor

Party: Democratic Party

Middle child of Russell B. Long and Katherine Mae Hattic, Jimmy Rex Long, mostly referred to Rex or J.R to not be confused with the similarly named cousin Jimmy D. Long, was born into a decidedly political dynasty, all the result of his grandfather Huey Pierce Long Jr., beloved by Louisiana, and tragically murdered before his fame could potentially catapult him into the White House. But the state Huey had erected stood, and the Longs still remained a constant fixture in Louisianan administration, Rex being but another Long in office. From the very beginning, it was destined that he would take up the art of politics, and throughout his life, that has been his goal.

Essentially raised in Baton Rogue, intermittently traveling to D.C because of his father's own political offices, Rex Long did well in school, but beyond that, worked tirelessly to create a pristine record, being both the captain of the football team and the president of his debate club, which would allow him easy access into Louisiana State University where he would graduate with a degree in history, although one could say his true progress in college came from his activities as a student leader in favor of the classic Longite-sponsored party - the Democrats.

Following graduation, Rex worked alongside several of his kin, mostly state and federal senators, and with their aid, easily became elected as a representative to the state House of Representatives, and from there, ran the gamut of state positions, from state senator and so on, his background and competence allowing him to worm throughout the state administration and thus earn him a very clear view of the state. This would all culminate in his victory in the 1983 gubenatorial elections, where he would serve two terms consecutive terms, his office now open for contest as it becomes the year 1992. And now, perhaps like his grandfather before him, Rex looks beyond his state, to the federal system for advancement, though he has no made no comment whether he means Congress, or perhaps the White House itself.

Politically, the lineage he bears is highly influential. As quoted from Speedy O. Long, albeit in jest, in the Long household, Huey Pierce Long Jr. was worshiped as the God Almighty, Earl Kemp Long as Jesus the Son, and Eighth District Congressman George Shannon Long as St. Peter. Although hyperbole, nevertheless, it is very true that the populist message of the Long family, who truly sought to better the state and provide for its lower class citizens what previous administrations hadn't, was imprinted very strongly on Rex; for him, government had the responsibility to do what was right, and if that involved spending and hard work, so be it. And while some may welcome some beliefs, perhaps the Democratic Party will find itself leaning to the right in response to the successes of Reagan, something that Rex fears will kill the soul of his party.

 

[Somberg]

​

Name: Patricia Allen
Date of Birth: January 8, 1950
State: Pennsylvania
Party: Democratic
Bio: Patricia is the daughter of a Pittsburgh steel worker. At a young age she aspired to break barriers, despite the hardship her family fell on with the decline of the steel industry. Yet she pushed ahead and attended Penn State before attending Harvard Law. Then she returned to Pittsburgh to become a lawyer and fight for working class families and children. She is socially liberal and fiscally moderate. Eventually, she ended up running and winning a seat in the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1986. After six years in the state legislature, she has set her sights higher and is considering a bid for the US Senate.

 

[Eid3r]

Eileen Daphne Thompson (R) - Virginia

Name: Eileen Daphne Thompson

Date of Birth: May 17th 1961 (31)

State: Commonwealth of Virginia

Party: Republican

Biography: (Will be buffed up later)

Born on May 17th 1961, Eileen Daphne Thompson is the daughter of Frank Thompson and Theresa Wagner and the eldest of their five children.

Graduating from the University of Virginia in 1986 with a Master's in Business Affairs, she was forced to close her budding technology business after the death of her husband, which served in the military, leaving her with the task of raising two children.

Two years later, in 1988, she was convinced to run for Mayor in her hometown of Charlottesville, where she surprisingly defeated her opponent due to her strong showing in the student vote at the University of Virginia.

After a relatively energetic mandate as mayor, Thompson announced her intention to run for the Virginia 5th district republican nomination for the House of Representatives.

 

[czechmasaryk2]

Name: Craig Peachtree
Birth: April 7, 1948; North Platte, NE
State: Nebraska
Party: Democrat
Position: Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature
Alma Mater: B.A. in History College of William & Mary (1970), J.D. from University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1977)

Bio: Craig Peachtree was born in the Western Nebraska town of North Platte in 1948, the son of a working class railway employee who himself had come to Nebraska from the Adirondacks of New York. Craig spent the entirety of his youth in the small town, where he frequently took part in the difficult work of living in America's plains. He also excelled in his schooling, allowing him to go east for his higher education, at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. After Graduating in 1970, Peachtree made a decision that entirely surprised his family, volunteering to fight in Vietnam with the US Army, serving two tours before returning to Nebraska in 1974 to begin law school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After Law School, Peachtree settled in Lincoln, where he became heavily involved in local politics. Peachtree was first elected to the Nebraska legislature in 1982. He rose the ranks of local politics, becoming the leader of the party in the state's unicameral legislature. He now seeks election to Nebraska's 1st District as a Democrat, with future ambitions for the US Senate. Politically, Peachtree is uncompromisingly dedicated to the people of Nebraska and describes himself as a rough and ready Progressive Democrat. He has been seen as the leader of a small push, starting in Nebraska, for liberal and progressive values in the American Plains and West.

 

[Plutonium95]

​

Name: Andrew Specter
Date of Birth: August 17, 1944
State: New Hampshire
Party: Republican

Bio: Born just a short ways outside of Concord, Andrew Specter was the son of a local grocery store owner. A small business owner, his father instilled in him the importance of hard work, a lesson that Andrew took to quite well, becoming his school's valedictorian. He went on to graduate from Harvard University with a double major in economics and finance in 1965. After that he got a job at Morgan Stanley where he worked for several years before acquiring a brokerage firm and operating it from a small office in New Haven, Connecticut. He relocated the firm to Concord in 1981 where he worked as CEO for several years before being selected by the city council to serve as city manager in 1986. After a successful term as city manager, he decided to run for governor, winning in 1988 and again in 1990. Andrew has since announced his intention to seek the New Hampshire seat for the US Senate in the 1992 elections.

 

[Plank of Wood]

​

Name: Mike Andberg
Date of Birth: August 12, 1960
State: Maryland
Party: Republican

"What's the deal with income tax? You've got tax on your income, but not on your outcome? Makes no sense!"

 

[Dr.Livingstone]

​

Name: Nathaniel Wood
Date of Birth: June 29, 1956 (35)
State: Vermont
Party: Vermont Progressive Party (Caucused with Dems)
Position: State Senator for Chittenden County

Bio: Born and raised in Burlington Vermont, Wood was born the son of a Professor for the local college. Becoming interested in politics and community service, he obtained a degree in political science from Pennsylvania University. There, he became associated with the more 'radical' elements of the protest left, joining the Congress of Civil Rights in 1974 and became chairmen in 1976. He organized and took part in various protests throughout his student career, as well as becoming a leading activist in reforming college administration.

After graduating in 1978, he returned to Burlington, working as a history teacher for the next two years. Throughout this period he remained an active proponent of desegregation, expansion of school budgets, and the teachers Union. During the fractious 1980 election, Wood joined the VPP and ran for his first elected office for Mayor against four other candidates. Though he eventually lost the election to Independent Mary Munro, his second place finish raised his awareness within the community. Using this newfound awareness, Wood would run for city council in 1982 and Mayor in 1984, winning both elections handily. Once in office, Wood ran an ambitious agenda of Leftist reforms, including infrastructure reform and welfare expansion. In 1988, after a popular and successful tenure as Mayor, Wood would run for State Senator, spreading the ideas of the VPP as well as advocating against welfare reductions and the expansion of regulation on Businesses residing in the state.

After two years in office, Wood would run for Representative in Vermont's district-at-large in 1990. Though unsuccessful, Wood successfully negotiated a caucus with the Vermont Democratic party in the leadup to the 1992 Vermont congressional election. Hoping to capture a seat at the federal level, Wood wishes to bring a return to leftist ideals after what he views as the Reagan and Bush disaster.

 

[Duke Dan `the Man`]

Name: Catherine 'Catie' Rosenburg nee Dawes

Date of Birth: March 23, 1960

State: California

Party: Independent

Born in New York to Jewish refugees from the horrors of the Nazi regime. Her parents, whilst very poor, worked hard to provide their only daughter the best they could. Her childhood not only instilled in her the values of hard work, but a need to work to help others, hoping to help those who lived poor like her parents.

Working as a flight attendant for two years, she met her future spouse, Mayor Jim P. Dawes, on the plane. She moved with him to St. Albans, Vermont, where he ran for Mayor and won, running on a progressive agenda. It is from her time as wife of Dawes that progressive views shaped her politics.

One messy divorce later, she moved to San Francisco, where she decided to run for California's 12th congressional district. She is running as a Independent, seeing the Democrats as 'not progressive enough' and Republicans as liars.

 

[Sithlent]

​

Name: Simon B. Prescott
Date of Birth: May 28, 1945
State: North Carolina
List of Positions: North Carolina State Representative (1973–89), Speaker of the North Carolina House (1985–89), Governor of North Carolina (1989–present)
Party: Democratic

Born into an extremely poor subsistence farming community in Jasper County, Mississippi in 1945, Simon Boone Prescott was the third of eight children. His childhood and early adolescence was scarred with depression and agony; his father, an angry, PTSD and schizophrenia-suffering World War II veteran was an abusive and delusional alcoholic to him and the rest of his nuclear family. At the age of 13 in 1957, Prescott abandoned his household in Mississippi in favor of staying with his maternal family in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Economics in 1966 and graduated from the College of William & Mary with a degree in Law in 1971, being admitted to the bar of his state shortly thereafter.

After just two years of serving as a law clerk to a prominent Charlotte attorney, Prescott moved to Raleigh in order to pursue a career in state politics. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1972 and quickly compiled a record of being socially liberal, but economically moderate and often agreeing with Republicans on fiscal policy. His moderate reputation eventually paid off in the end as he was elected as the state house's Speaker in 1984 after the Democrats had narrowly gained control of the House once again. After almost two decades of political experience and serving as the most powerful leader in the state senate for four years, Prescott finally ran for the esteemed governorship of North Carolina in a decisive 1988 primary race, and would go on to win the 1988 gubernatorial election against Republican incumbent James G. Martin in a stunning upset of just 50.3 to 49.7%.

As stated before, Prescott is a moderate Southern Democrat who is socially liberal and supports granting women greater rights on abortion, a greater reliance on affirmative action, and even supports introducing same-sex hate crime legislation both federally and state-wide while also being an economic moderate and supporting moderate cuts in taxes, free trade and the NAFTA deal, and being somewhat supportive on cutting the funding for welfare and other social programs.

He has announced his interest in a U.S. Senate run in 1992.

 

[Rabbit Burgher]

((Would it be possible to play outside of the parties? Such as corporations or the leaders of popular (and, with public support, rebellious) movements?))

 

[EasternBloc]

​

Name: Bill Swerski
Date of Birth: October 18, 1949 (43)
State: Illinois
Party: Republican
Swerski was born in the Pittsburgh-area town of Carnegie, Pennsylvania on October 18, 1949. The oldest child of Charlotte (Keller) and Bill Swerski, Sr., he grew up in nearby Aliquippa with siblings Ashton, David, and Mary Ann. His father, a welder, was one of three brothers of a Polish and Ukrainian Catholic family in the coal mining and steel manufacturing area in Western Pennsylvania. His ancestry on his mother's side is Irish and German. Under head coach Press Maravich, Swerski was a three-sport star at Aliquippa High School. Swerski hoped to escape his hometown's manufacturing jobs by attending college with a football scholarship. Planning to become a dentist, he was recruited by Notre Dame, Penn State, and University of Pittsburgh.

Swerski played for the University of Pittsburgh from 1968 until 1970, where he also became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He was a three-sport athlete at Pitt, also playing baseball and basketball. He started all three seasons, leading the team in receiving in each, and also served as the team's punter. A first team selection on the College Football All-America Team in his senior year, he is widely considered one of the best tight ends in college football history, and was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1978. After college, Swerski played for the Chicago Bears (better known as "Da Bears"), performing well but after suffering physical injury, was told by his doctor to never play again. Swerski had trouble adapting a new interest to pursue, as he hoped that he could make a real career as a football player. Swerski's frustration while survive in the rough city of Chicago along with his working class background fueled a sort of right-wing populist view that Swerski soon held dear. While Swerski was able to soon employment with a well-paying job, his political views nor his new-found interest in politics had not disappeared. Concerning himself as an "ultra-conservative", Swerski established a local branch of conservative populists inside the Illinois Republican Party, mocked by Chicago Democrats as "Bill Swerski's Super-Republicans".

Early on, Swerski established himself as a "religious, conservative Republican" in the political scene. A supporter of immigration reduction, social conservatism, and what he describes as an "American first" foreign policy. Conflicting with his fellow Republicans, Swerski is opposed to free-trade deals such as NAFTA as "strangling Americans and their small businesses" and favors a more populist message for the country. A self-proclaimed admirer of Pat Buchanan, Bill Swerski has announced his candidacy for the Illinois Senate race this year against incumbent Democrat Alan J. Dixon amidst a strong primary challenge by Carol Moseley-Braun.