“Do you pick
door number one, door number two, or door number three?”
Saint Peter*
#quote
Remember that memories are things that you shouldn't forget. Anyway
onto the flash fiction!
The Games For The Presidency
People may think that the Electoral
College system is by the Constitution supposed to run like it does
now. But the Constitution doesn't say that the people vote for
President and Vice President. The law is that the States pick a
system to place their electoral votes for President and Vice
President and in the present day they chose the voting system to
determine how to cast those valuable votes.
But in the far flung future it is far
different...
Presidential candidate Joe Tallons
stared intently into the eyes of candidate Gerald Bellhop. The chairs
they sat at were exact replicas. The table completely even. The room
equal temperature all around. The game had to be perfectly fair.
After all this staring contest was to win the state of Wyoming. Joe
felt quite pressured as he lost at marbles over in Arizona but did
feel some confidence from his win from the knitting contest over New
York. Each game mattered. Each game needed to be tallied. And the
candidates would keep playing even after the other one got the
majority. It was both required by law and a thing of honor.
The games for the electoral votes of a
state came up as a way to save money on the voting process for the
two positions. To please the people they let them pick the games. At
first they were serious contests of skills and intelligence, the
games became sillier as the people made it a source of amusement that
made the most strange things intense. The politicians didn't care.
Whatever they thought could get their candidate win. The arrogance of
both parties made them both convince themselves the system was in
their benefit over the other party. It didn't allow them to dominate
the other party consistently but they could crush third parties that
didn't assimilate with them by holding massive amounts of
“preliminary tournaments” that the smaller parities couldn't keep
up with. Other positions of office still operated the same. A
presidential candidate trained in identifying flavors of ice cream
while a Senator still tried to sway the minds of the people.
Joe won the staring contest. Another
few points for his race.
The games between candidates Joe and
Gerald continued. They came to a swing state. The final one on their
race. The rest of the games they played would be just a formality for
honor and law. This was the last game that matter. Whichever
candidate won this state would win the country and make their party
dominate for four years.
A thumb war in Florida. An odd contest
of focus and strength. Both of them readied themselves. Every game
was tense. Truly all of the games mattered in some way. But this. The
last one. The veins and muscles in their hands tensed. The fate of
the country relied on the sways and strikes of their thumbs in this
moment. They began.
Joe went on the offensive. He hopped
and bopped Gerald over and over. It caused intense strain along with
the psychological element already there. But Gerald took his time. He
kept focus. He weaved his thumb. He kept steady. And he brought his
thumb down on Joe and applied incredible pressure. He pinned it till
time and won the presidency.
By the way, Gerald Bellhop turned out a good president. Looks like
the system worked.
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