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Megan. My captors had intended to compromise me completely; they had succeeded partially.
I had to memorize the speech. It was an astonishing one. It was a promise to benefit all constituents,
right all wrongs, and make the planet a better place instantly. All criminals were to be summarily
sentenced and executed without appeal. The present tax structure would be replaced by a flat tax without
exemptions. Welfare benefits for the poor would be enhanced, the military budget would be increased to
make Jupiter preeminent in the System, and vast amounts would be allocated to research and
development. The government budget would be adjusted to produce a substantial surplus, reducing the
planetary debt. The membership of the Supreme Court would be increased to twenty-four, to alleviate
the caseload. Minority problems would be redressed; Hispanics would be given all the most important
posts on a preferential basis. Grants would be made to all churches and philanthropic organizations.
Education would be sharply upgraded by the elevation of standards and pay scales for teachers and
administrators. National medical insurance would be extended to cover every citizen at any age; no one
would die because of poverty or neglect. There would be legal insurance, too; no person would be
denied court redress because of lack of funds. And so on. This speech promised all things to all men,
with a vengeance. Perhaps in my mem-washed state I might have thought this made sense; as it was, I
knew it was nonsense.
"If I may ask," I said to Scar, "am I a candidate for planetary office?"
"You are, Hubris," he assured me. "You are running for president of the United States of Jupiter. But
you head a minor ticket; there is no chance of your getting elected."
He was telling a half-truth, but I couldn't tell which half was truth. My illicit memory suggested that I
had been about to try for a major party nomination. Perhaps I had tried and failed, and splintered off into
a minor party bid; such things had happened to others in the past. So it was possible that I had a minor
party nomination that nevertheless had a fair chance to win, or a major party nomination with bad
prospects. "Then why should I make a major speech?"
"To influence the election," he explained. "The two major parties are so evenly divided that the balance
of power lies in the minorities. The Blacks and Hispanics, mainly. As the candidate of the Hispanic
Party you influence a significant bloc of votes. You may be in a position to lever either major party into
office."
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"The Hispanic Party?" I asked, perplexed. "I know nothing of this."
"Because it was formed in that period you have forgotten. You, as a Hispanic refugee and former
military hero, became its spokesman. Now you are going to do your best to increase its base, drawing in
those Hispanics who have not yet expressed their support, together with sympathetic Blacks and liberal
Saxons, to make it a significant third party. You will try to prevent either major party from winning a
majority of the electoral votes. Then your power will be magnified enormously."
I looked again at the speech. "But doesn't this promise too much? I'm not sure it's possible to meet all
those objectives."
"It isn't," he agreed. "Not right away, anyway. But you won't have to deliver; all you have to do is attract
enough votes to deny either major party the victory. Then you will be in a position to bargain for
whatever portions of your program are most important to you."
Still I was perplexed. "If my position is this, why was I mem-washed?"
"Because you had fallen into bad political advice and would not listen to reason. You were
compromised, and that threatened to destroy everything that you and the party had worked for and miss
the chance of the century. That had to be corrected, in time for the election. We had to erase it all and
reeducate you in the basics while your mind was open. Now you are ready to do what must be done."
I did not trust this, but I seemed to have no choice. The programs of the speech seemed good,
individually, and I agreed with most of them, and I did not think that this agreement was entirely a
matter of reeducation. So I memorized the speech and rehearsed it, preparing myself.
Such preparation is not accomplished in a day. I returned to my cell, alone, for the night, and pondered
what this signified. I was a candidate for planetary office; that much both memory and captors agreed
on. My memories had caught up to what I judged to be about two years from the present. But to run as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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