How Politicians Could Attract The Nerd Vote November 22, 2019

Before we start this article I cannot and will not stress enough in this opening paragraph that this is NOT meant to be a political article. While it does talk about politics, it is ONLY to address an unfulfilled need in the political process. We will not address ANY current political events or reference individual politicians, voters or voting groups. This is just meant to be a fun article by a gamer that also happens to be a voter. If you feel there’s something I’m missing from this list post a comment below but be aware we will not accept any political endorsements in this article and comments of political endorsements will be deleted.

A Presidential Election season is upon us and voters in the US will be going to the polls next year to elect their next President. Among those voters will be gamers of every type imaginable. While nearly every other interest group gets courted by political candidates, to the best of my knowledge people who play games have never been directly courted by a major candidate despite the fact nearly everyone under the age of thirty-five plays video games and that truth has been grossly ignored by those seeking votes for over the last twenty years. If you ask me, gamers are one of the last great untapped majorities out there. Why is that?

I believe most politicians have ignored us because they either lack personal experience with games or they believe the disinformation the mainstream media has been slandering us over for the past thirty years. How can the world’s perspective politicians engage this untapped group? Let’s be honest, plenty of nerds vote and we should have our views taken seriously on the world stage. The US Army actively attempts to recruit us into the military by buying advertising space on video game websites and setting up recruiting posts at gaming conventions. Why don’t politicians try to seek our votes?

I have a great solution on how to get gamers involved in the political process and put politicians interested in courting our votes in a situation they can be comfortable. Why don’t we turn this upside down and have some fun with it? We could create a political convention in the same way we host Comic or Gamer Conventions. (Ed. Note – I know there are already political conventions but they’re meant for political party functions and they’re officially boring.). At those conventions, we could have round table discussions with each attending candidate similar to how we’d host a Q&A for a celebrity. The moderator is welcome to ask questions about the candidates’ life experiences, ask them if they had ever played video games, read comic books or watched super hero movies and get them to mention any specific favorites they had.

The most important part of any political Q&A panel should be a round table debate. Political debates have proven themselves to be useful to the voting process in the past and we could have a little fun with it. At its best, a debate provides potential voters exposure to the candidates views. Many of the perspective candidates who attend may not have earned a elected position yet so we would have to ask them hypothetical questions. This is where we could have a lot of fun. Rather than ask candidates vague questions about things like the how they felt about the hot button topic of the day (that they would probably not be able to impact in any way even if they do get elected) we should be able to ask their opinions about laws that already exist…in fiction.

I’m not kidding, fictional universes like you’d find in Film, Television, Comic Books and Video Games exist in their own split reality with their own rules and laws. Even science-fiction and fantasy universes, no matter what kind of far out magic or technology their fictional society develops, frequently have sets of unique laws their characters must obey

Here’s an example of some fake propositions or laws that have shown up in fiction over the last few years. I know most of these haven’t actually been created in video games but many of these stories are so iconic their plots have been adapted to video games (such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 or Watchmen: The End is Neigh). If the candidate asks us to define the law or cite its source we will provide it but at a penalty. Perhaps they could be deducted a point. Oh yes, we’re gamers, what’s wrong with keeping a score?

• Prop 10 – (South Park) – Ban all commercial franchises (Starbucks, McDonalds, etc) from operating in a city limits. Essentially, all businesses must be mom-n-pop.
• Prop 24 – (The Simpsons) – Cease all immigration and deport all persons not currently with a valid citizenship.
• Prop Infinity – (Futurama) – Allow Human-Robot Marriage.
• 28th Amendment AKA Murphy’s Law – (The Tick) – To protect themselves from personal reprisal for their actions, vigilantes who invoke this amendment may testify in open court or provide factual witness testimony without having to provide identifying information about themselves.
• 61st Amendment – (Demolition Man) – Remove the requirement for presidential candidates to have been born in the US.
• 67th Amendment – (Futurama) Refusal to testify on the grounds your organs will be pummeled.
• Treaty of Algeron – (Star Trek: The Next Generation) – Established the Federation/Romulan Neutral Zone and stipulated the Federation cannot research or investigate cloaking technology.
• Superhero Registration Act – (Marvel’s Civil War) – All super-powered individuals must reveal their secret identity to the government and receive government training for their powers. Failure to do so will officially brand them a terrorist.
• Sakovia Accords (Captain America: Civil War) – Film version of the Superhero Registration Act. The Avengers can only operate after being given the explicit permission of a multinational United Nations review panel. They are also responsible for any damage or casualties they cause when saving the earth. Failure to comply with these accords is punishable by imprisonment at a maximum security facility.
• The Masquerade – (World of Darkness) – Under no circumstances must humans learn of the existence of vampires. Intent to reveal their existence is punishable by death. Turning a human into a vampire without permission by the region’s prince is also punishable by death.
• Keene Act – (Watchmen) – All vigilantism is outlawed unless the vigilante has previously received special exception from the government.

One could make a case that Star Trek‘s Prime Directive should be included on this list. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Starfleet General Order One (AKA the Prime Directive) states no Federation Officer can interfere in the natural process of a pre-warp civilization. They also can not interfere in any culture’s internal matters (like if there’s a Civil War) even if they have a future stake in the outcome of those matters. That is more of a military/naval rule (not a law) and Federation citizens are not legally bound by it so I’m hesitant to include that on this list.

I can’t stress this enough it should not matter how the candidate addresses their views on each of these fictional laws. What matters is if you, the individual voter, agree or disagree with how they choose to answer them. Place your votes accordingly.

Do you think we came up with a good set of fake laws? Do you know some fake laws you think we missed that should have been included? Post a comment below with them!