Political landscape post-Clark?

[Cell]

I was just watching the fantastic A Call To Arms today and it raised yet another observation out of me. I am very surprised to see Susanna Luchenko still in office in the EA. This surprises me because with the amount of terror and killing that took place during the Clark administration and all the warfare I didn't think any active politician from that time would be able to save face enough to continue on, let alone in a position of power such as President. The best example would obviously be the US civil war where afterwards a great majority of people were elected to office that held no political position during the war because this gave the people the feeling of starting over with a clean slate.

So, in the case of Luchenko was she able to save face enough for the people to keep her in office? Or was it a case where she was a part of the original Senate that Clark dissolved and because of that the people were able to accept her as clean? This notion of a political entity from such a dark time maintaining and even flourishing after said time intrigues me quite a bit since it flies in the face of conventional thinking.

 

[vacantlook]

I guess Luchenko did a good enough job in the post-war period that she was viewed favorably.

 

[KoshFan]

Luchenko navagated the tricky waters surrounding Sheridan rather adeptly, and she struck me as a fairly canny customer. Moreover, remember that Clark was viewed as insane, but people who had stayed loyal to him were not to be punished. I think the initial atmosphere might have been, "It was all Clark and Sheridan, all the rest of us were just along for the ride." Or Luchenko had simply kept herself strictly neutral, and therefore she was a good compromise candidate. Possibly the only possible compromise candidate.

 

[Cell]

The problems that I have with this are twofold,

1) In the publics eyes Sheridan shouldn't have been a tricky situation at all. If Clark was really as bad as the show portrayed him to be and if the majority of people were happy about him being taken out of power then Sheridan would be viewed as a hero. That is the way that politics work, that is why following civil wars generals from the winning side are almost always able to enter into successful political careers with haste. Sheridan should have been the same, that is why as tricky as he may have been for them to handle politically, I never bought the idea that the general Earth populace didn't support him.

2) Neutrality is viewed by the common person as being just as bad as being on the side that was considered evil. If Luchenko took a neutral stance that should have really hurt her politically, as the people would want to know why she didn't have the guts to step forward and stop the tyranny as someone like Sheridan did for instance. There is no sufficient answer she can give to this, at least not one that would allow here to become President, or maintain that Presidency through another term.

3) The idea of the followers of Clark not being punished works in real court, however it does not work in the court of public opinion, or more importantly in the court of voting polls. Those people under him may have been pardoned by the government but they would not be pardoned by the people who would want to do everything in their power to move away from any further association with Clark.

 

[Jan]

Something to remember is that Clark's people controlled the news outlets. Because of that most of the people wouldn't, couldn't know how bad things were. We, the audience, knew a lot more about what was going on in Earthdome than the run-of-the-mill citizen. They were told that the Martial Law decree was due to threats from aliens. Sure, there might have been rumors but they probably would have been hushed up quickly. And Clark had the Psi Corps in his pocket, too. That would help keep potential troublemakers in line.

Jan

 

[Cell]

This is true during the time of Clark's power, however they didn't make any effort to spin what Sheridan did post-Clark. Their first words about Sheridan on the ISN broadcast were something long the lines of "A freedom force led by Captain John Sheridan arrived to liberate Earth." This to me implies two things,

1) More people on Earth were weary of Clark being in power than we were led to believe.

2) The media has already put it out there that Sheridan was the good guy and Clark was the bad guy, and there little mention of Ivanova hammers that point home. At that moment the political landscape for the common man has completely changed, because now everyone knows what is up. Those who originally only subscribed to rumors about the Clark administration would believe those rumors to be facts. Those that didn't have an opinion one way or the other would now be pushed towards the anti-Clark side, and those that still believed in Clark would very much be in the minority.

All of this would lead to my original point, the general citizens would want to distance themselves from Clark as much as possible.

The anti-Clark people would want to bring in new political entities to start with a clean slate, to show that these people were not touched by Clark in any way, nor do they wear the stigma of neutrality. For PR purposes there are more than likely to try and bring in someone that was an outspoken advocate for Sheridan at some point or another, or who at the very least will operate his/her political career around the idea that Sheridan was a force for good.

The pro-Clark people would want to bring in a new political entity as well. They would want to bring someone in that does not have the stain of the failed Clark regime on their hands, and someone that can operate under the same belief system, only without the shadow of Clark over hi shoulder. They would want to avoid the issue of neutrality as well and bring in someone that wasn't involved in the Clark political landscape as well, but bring in someone that would either take a hard line anti-Sheridan stance or preach about agreeing with Sheridan's actions but not condoning them.

 

[KoshFan]

Well, in EarthForce at least, there were lots of people who hated Sheridan for firing on his own team. And there will always be people who like the Clark-style setup: "Crime's dropped to nothing." They'd soon be saying of Clark what they say of Mussolini -- he made the trains run on time. He brought order. If they and their loved ones didn't suffer, they'd be prone to say Clark's crimes were "exaggerated," and all the troubles were "Sheridan's fault."

The Vorlonish amongst humanity will always be drawn to Clark types. Those of us who prefer freedom, and the risk it entails, have a little Shadow in us. It's a good thing.

 

[Cell]

The military always represents a minority among the population though, so their views count for very little unfortunately. The military can say whatever it wants, but the sad truth is that regular citizens only listen to the military during times of war and even then only when a weapon is being pointed in their general direction.

 

[KoshFan]

Yeah -- but in this case they weren't alone. Nightwatch had a lot of citizen backup.

 

[Cell]

Eh, Nightwatch would still be a very small number. There would be far more people taking the "I see no evil, I hear no evil, I tell no evil" approach than there would be people in the Nightwatch. Especially since most members of Nightwatch would not be high ranking military officers or high ranking citizens, but rather the foot soldiers and the small time regular citizens. Basically the type of people that lose their way once their power structure is removed.

I'm not saying that there still wouldn't be a very large pro-Clark movement around, I think that there was. But I don't think there would be any significant boost from the military or the remnants of Nightwatch in this regard. I also don't see them placing someone in to a position of power who still bore ties with Clark because they would want to sever ties with the public image of Clark as quickly as possible.

 

[Jan]

FWIW, part of a scene in 'Rising Star' was cut where, before the ISN anchor reported on the press conference, she reported that there was sporadic fighting around the world between government troops and forces loyal to President Clark (scene 5, pages 2-3). This doesn't add anything to the discussion but it is added data to illustrate that Clark loyalists didn't just roll over when Sheridan arrived.

Jan