The Mediocre Experiment

So I've been pondering what to do with my usual Friday segment, now that our fearless leader has reached rock bottom. I've been taking an impromptu hiatus from the being informed scene, burying my head in the sand like the rest of the population for a couple of days. In that time I've come up with an idea all on my own. How would you like it if we could run an amazingly accurate simulation of what our country would look like if our President could do whatever he wanted? Anything he wanted, done! What if we could use this simulation to accurately predict the future of our country, and how we would get there? This kind of simulation would have all the trimmings: War, graphics, violence, zombies...Maybe some politics...Anyhow, it would be cool. I'd call something like that "The Great Experiment".

Unfortunately, after my extensive 30 seconds of research I realized that something like that would cost money. So, I scrapped that, settled for "The Mediocre Experiment" and created a NationState. NationStates is a little web site where you can create a nation, give it a name, and make decisions. You get up to two issues to decide a day, and based on your decisions, your country evolves. You are given a title for your government (From Capitalist Paradise to Corrupt Dictatorship to New York Times Democracy) and rated on Civil Rights, Economy, and Political Freedoms. You can check out our new nation, the Commonwealth of The Magic O.

At times through the week I'll post what the decision our little microcosm has before it, and what I think Obama would do given the choice. You can suggest differently if you like, and at the end of the week we'll see what's going on in our island of paradise.

When you create your nation you are given a small questionnaire to get you started. I tried to answer as neutrally as I could (simply "undecided" was not an option.) In the interests of fairness, here's the questions I was given and the answers I gave (answers were A) Strongly Agree, B) Agree, C) Disagree, or D) Strongly Disagree):

1: A country should be judged by how it treats its worst-off citizens. B
2: Corporations do more good for society than harm. C
3: Marijuana should be legal. C
4: The world needs to rediscover its spirituality. B
5: A lot of what's wrong with youth today could be fixed by a year's military service. C
6: Capitalism is on the way out. B
7: Without democracy, a country has nothing. B
8: It's more important to deter criminals than try to rehabilitate them. C

Admittedly even having to answer a questionnaire like that taints the experiment, but remember, this one isn't Great, just Mediocre. As it stands, our country is classified as "Democratic Socialists". "The Commonwealth of The Magic O is a fledgling, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its burgeoning quacking tree frog population. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 5 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Welfare, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 35%, but much higher for the wealthy. A small but healthy private sector is led by the Soda Sales industry, followed by Basket Weaving and Cheese Exports.

Crime is moderate, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. The Magic O's national animal is the quacking tree frog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the dolla bill."

So, there you have it! Long Live the Commonwealth!