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A Nation Divided


Vidarr the Terrible

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[b]Columbia News and Entertainment Channel 1[/b]
"Good Morning Columbia. I am standing in front of the Capitol building in Spokane where the Columbian Congress is just entering for the first time. On this bright skied Thursday, the newly elected members of Congress will be meeting for the first time to discuss the important issues of fiscal, social, and political policy. The decisions made here in the next week will be paramount to the direction of the nation, and will decide whether we as a country will rise to the top or fall back into squalor under a protectorateship."

[b]Inside the Hall[/b]
Daniel Gilmour took his seat at the front podium with Cameron Sicetti on his right. Opposition leader Robert Apostle took his seat at the front of the OWP "wedge", and was staring down his prepared arguments, studying them and going over them in his head. Marshall McCall largely remained silent, sitting in the front of a row of 11 seats along the right side of the room.

"Alright," Daniel said in a loud, commanding voice, "It's time to call the First Columbian Congress to session. On the agenda today is setting basic fiscal policies, taxes, and creating laws and government services. I believe all parties have created their own plans, is this correct?"

The party leaders all acknowledged that it was correct, and they began. The first subject was defense, and while the Green party argued for a small border force, the Urban Republicans created a plan for a trained Reserve Army that would be in the workforce until a time of crisis, when they would be called to bases, given a quick training session, and then deployed. This would be augmented by a small, standing military deployed to major border crossings and areas of importance.

For the subject of social policy, they mostly agreed that a police force should be deployed to take care of the major crimes. They decided to do away with a jury system, and instead have all judgements handed down by an impartial judge. And, since the conservatives were all but silenced by the three very liberal parties, a very liberal social policy was in place, with Rehabilitation over Punishment, Drug legalization, Abortion, Gay Marriage, and the thickest of Iron walls between religion and state matters, which was an easy task, considering a recent census said that nearly 62% of Columbians had no religion, or were otherwise non-abrahamic.

The session went surprisingly smooth until the the discussion switched to economic policy. The Republicans and Conservatives both argued that unions should have severely limited powers. They argued that unions should be run by their employees, and take no donations, nor should they run for profit. This outraged the OWP, who pleaded the Greens to think of the workers. The Greens were mostly split, however the Republicans won the debate over Unions. Robert eventually conceded his party's plan.

The welfare system was also a point of extreme contention, as all parties were at odds with very different systems. However surprisingly, the Greens and Workers managed to come together with a robust welfare system that covered a lot of the bases the Greens wanted to cover, but Robert Apostle conceded a lot of his party's beliefs on the welfare system.

The subject of taxes came around, and the Urban Republicans argued for a high rate of flat tax with a progressive revenue tax for businesses, trying to promote grassroots businesses. They would also give benefits to green businesses and high tech business.

For the heavily industrial areas of Oregon, this was unacceptable. The Workers' Party was outraged and gave heated arguments for the workers in Oregon industry. However, the Greens and Republicans came to their agreements, and Opposition Leader Apostle conceded.

After that, Mr. Apostle was a defeated man. He ignored his party's plans and just conceded to whatever the two leading parties wanted. The OWP soon requested a recess, which was granted.

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"Yes, quite, I understand, mmhmm,- Do you see the common thread here?" Marshall Alexander, red in the face with rage, slammed his fist on the now-splintered desk to his right. "We put you up to the task of putting our name out there, and instead you were given an eighth of a piece of pie and gave another eighth away!"

Mr. Apostle, quite a gifted speaker in his own right and with a head full of brilliant ideas, simply nodded and loosened his tie. His open shirt betrayed a few drops of whiskey on his chest, and his eyes stayed closed - his face in an eternal grimace. "Yes, yes... I must admit, I was not prepared. Nor was I up to the task, Marshall Alexander. I told you it should have been you."

"Damn you, don't try to put this on me!" Another fist hit the desk. "I love you like the brother you aren't, but, damn you again, I have to go the extra distance!"

"Arthur - surely, not..." Apostle, speaking to Marshall with his middle name, as his closest friends do, opened his eyes for the first time in half an hour. "You... Will you?"

"Yes, Rev, and that's all there is to it."

---

"Mr. Apostle has, sadly, checked into the hospital with a heart condition. I believe I speak for all of us here when I say that we wish him back."

Marshall Alexander, the industrialist of south Cascadia, was the new head of the OWP. During the recess, he had gathered the necessary signatures from the rest of his party members and organized a quick, spur-of-the-moment, cities-wide rally mostly by youth. During the recess, which lasted three days, every city with a Marshall Alexander factory had multiple rallies, mostly youth, for a second independence movement. In addition, the media (which ran adjacent to the factories) in the area was lobbying heavily for a "fair treatment programme" - in essence, their own country.

"I suppose you have all heard the newest news from the South - our call for independence. I will not make a fancy speech. I will tell you right now - the Oregon Worker's Party represents an overwhelming majority of the people of the South. We are not some fringe party that picked up piecemeal seats here and there. You are neglecting, rejecting, and oppressing the entireity of the populace with your backroom dealings and power struggles.

"With that, we submit the following:

"Grant us peaceful independence upon the following lines, to be a new sovereign state, by way of county referendums. In addition, grant free immigration for a period of six months for anybody who wishes to move between the two states. And, in addition, set aside land in our respective capitals for permanent, unrevokable embassies.

"This is our wish. If it is not granted, then you will have a fight on your hands in the most literal of terms."

Edited by Poseida
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"Backroom dealings? Power Struggles? Are you insane?" Prime Minister Gilmour was flabbergasted by these accusations from the Socialists.

"If anyone is on a power trip it is you, Representative Alexander. Your party has refused to compromise any of your plans, as we all have compromised ours for the agreement of the Congress. Your party has had this all-or-nothing mentality for the past few days that is very irritating.

"And the fact that you call a democratic process oppressive is absolutely preposterous. There may be an entire geographic area of the south that had voted for your party, but we're hardly oppressing them with our voting. Representative Apostle has done nothing but concede everything, withdrawing all of his plans."

Daniel sat down for a moment, collecting all of his thoughts and trying to bring his temper back down. Most of the Republicans knew that Gilmour had a short, explosive temper, and if he didn't manage it thoroughly it could get out of hand easily. Then, Marshall Alexander mentioned secession and a possible fight.

"Are you joking right now? A fight? With what? Are you going to give your factory workers guns and tell them to march on Spokane? You and I both know damn well that neither of us have a trained army, and we'd be doing nothing more than sending boys to shoot hunting rifles and pistols at each other, possibly killing off half of the population.

"Is that what you want Mr. Alexander? Do you want our blue Columbia River to run red? Do you want the Mexican government, who so peacefully granted us independence, to come in and take it away from us because you imbeciles can't get along?"

The Prime Minister was livid. He left his podium and marched up to Marshall and looked him up and down. "Leave. Get the hell out of my Congress. I'll sign a damned indpendence treaty, but mark my words once everyone has moved homes our borders will be sealed shut. No power deals, no water deals, nothing. Consider your wish granted, Mr. Alexander."

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"And were it not for a lack of cooperation and serious stonewalling by your parties, he would not have conceded anything. But when three men out of a group of four always vote A while the fourth votes B, and refuses him in his desire to have his voice heard, then it is oppression! I will not call you after the most heinous of tyrants, Hitler, nor will I compare you to a Pol Pot - but oppression can happen quite by omission rather than intentionally or with the severe derailing of liberty.

"Prime Minister, we wished for independence to serve ourselves as citizens. And when we finally get it, the will of half the people here are discarded because our voice is ignored. If you can not sympathize with your brothers, then I say you are not fit to be Prime Minister of a single country or what will soon be half of one!

"Keep your damn dirty power! We'll take care of ourselves, just like we always have. Good day, gentlemen."

Marshall Alexander, his voice starting solemn and then slowly rising through his final remarks, before hitting a crescendo at damn dirty power!, presented a piece of paper to the Prime Minister. "Expect this on your desk tomorrow morning." And then he, and his Socialists, slowly filed out.

Edited by Poseida
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As the representatives marched out of the room, Daniel looked on in amazement. The last one filed out, and the silence fell over the room. Daniel walked back up to his seat, and looked out across the hushed members of Congress.

"This is exactly why this nation has fallen so many times. A rational group of people take power and try to make things right with proper policies and procedures, and a bunch of damned idealists and romanticists start screaming, 'Utopian Paradise!' 'Instant Gratification!'. Those people are a cancer, and luckily they've isolated themselves. And, when the cancer takes over and they rot, we'll go back in to protect the people once all those idealists have abandonded them to their crack pipes."

The room remained silent, and Daniel took his seat and went back to his agenda. Then, the Congress moved on with finishing their proceedings.

The next morning, Daniel did in fact wake up to see the Articles of Secession on his desk.

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[quote]AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the Governances of Umpqua, Rogue, Klamath, South Deschutes, John Day, Grand Ronde, Malheur, Walla-Walla, and South Idaho, and the Governances united with them under the federal Governance of Cascadia.

We, the people of the Nation of Ouragon, in convention assembled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby ordained and declared, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the second day of November, in the year common era two thousand and twelve, whereby the Independence of the Governance of Cascadia was officialized, is hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between the Nation of Ouragon and the Governance of Cascadia, under the name of "Cascadia", is hereby dissolved.

Done in Eugene the sixteenth day of November, in the year common era two thousand and twelve.[/quote]

Edited by Poseida
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