Stromata Blog

If You Want to Look Beyond Next Tuesday

A week from this instant, I’m probably going to be feeling pretty grim about the 110th Congress. But politics – in the U.S. anyway – shares a characteristic with baseball: No matter how bad the last season was, the next one is always full of hope. Just in time to take advantage of the political equivalent of the Hot Stove League, 80Soft.com has released a new, much augmented edition of President Forever, a first rate (and amazingly inexpensive, just $19.95) computer simulation of American Presidential elections. Added are not only the 2008 scenario but also the races for the party nominations, which no game, manual or electronic, has made a serious effort to cover before.

I ordered my copy just a few minutes ago, so this isn’t a review. I will note, though, that the steady improvement in the company’s other products has been impressive. The last before President Forever was Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2006. (I’m happy to say that Stephen Harper got better results than I did.) Others deal with parliamentary elections in Britain, Australia, Germany and British Columbia. So far, however, Israeli politics remain impossible to reproduce using a device as logical as a computer.

Afterthought: How about a cross between two genres – a Palestinian election game in which the opposing parties deploy both ballots and bullets?

Wargame Rambles

One of the great things about wargames is the reminder that our current era, despite the worst efforts of the Leftist-Islamofascist alliance, is a lot safer and more comfortable than most of the rest of human history. (Perhaps that’s one reason why it’s so hard to rouse Westerners to take the enemy seriously.) Here are a few notes on what I’ve been playing or looking at lately:

Your Own Canadian Election

80Soft.com is the only company, so far as I know, that produces computer games about parliamentary elections. Now that Canada is in the midst of another campaign, Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2006 has appeared, the latest in the oddly named series that has also covered recent elections in Australia, Britain, British Columbia and Germany. Comparing it to its predecessor of 2½ years ago, one sees a lot of worthwhile augmentations: minor parties (12 parties in all, with minors ranging from the Greens to the Christian Heritage), a long list of potential endorsers (major newspapers, business and labor groups, grass roots advocates of narrow causes) offering differing benefits (momentum, money, foot soldiers), a variety of forms of advertising, more detailed geographical differentiation (Ontario, for instance, is split into four regions, Quebec into three) and sundry lesser features. With just a little effort, one can customize game elements (e. g., by adding new endorsers, advertising options, key issues or special events) or create entirely new scenarios. The 2006 version comes with recreations of the 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004 Canadian contests, as well as the current one, giving masochistic Conservatives a variety of frustrations to endure. All of this costs only $18.95 in Canadian money, which is very nearly the equivalent of free.

I haven’t yet had time to play a complete game, though I’ll certainly try to get in a couple before January 23rd. Regarding the outcome of the real life version, I have little optimism. As was readily predictable, Paul Martin’s Liberal Party has adopted Gerhard Schröder’s anti-American hysteria, reinforced by appeals to the most scoundrelly form of patriotism. As David Warren observes,

To be fair, Mr Martin and cronies have more reasons to cling, than the enjoyment of power itself. For if even a minority Conservative government can be formed, there may be three-party agreement to launch corruption inquiries that go far beyond the scope of the Gomery Commission. Billions upon billions are spent annually in other unaudited programmes, crying out for review. Remember this each time the Liberals sound desperate.

The OpinionJournal Political Diary (have I mentioned that it’s a mere $3.95 a month?) has more on Liberal anti-Americanism and the winding tendrils of the party’s corruption:

America-bashing helped to re-elect Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder when they were in tight re-election contests in France and Germany a few years back, and it now appears Canada’s Liberal Party prime minister, Paul Martin, is taking a page out of their playbook. He took advantage of the recent Montreal climate conference to lecture the United States to heed a “global conscience” and adopt strict standards in fighting global warming. This despite the fact Canada has a proportionally worse record than the U.S. on controlling greenhouse gas emissions [nearly twice as rapid a rise since 1990 – ETV].

His swipes at the U.S. in the run-up to Canada’s January 23 election elicited a sharp response from U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, who told an Ottawa audience that incessant criticism of the U.S. could eventually damage the close relationship between the two countries. “Canada never has to tear the United States down to build itself up,” he said. “It may be smart election politics to thump your chest and constantly criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner. But it’s a slippery slope and all of us should hope it doesn’t have a long-term impact on our relationship.”

Mr. Martin seized on the remarks by the U.S. diplomat to retort: “That our friends do not like what we say – well, c’est la vie. I’m going to defend Canada and I’m right on softwood lumber and I’m right on climate change and I won’t let anybody tell me that I should not defend my country.”

It’s worth noting, however, that Mr. Martin has not been that eager to defend all Canadians. Chief among them is Maurice Strong, his former patron and until recently a top United Nations official who has been implicated in the oil-for-food scandal. Mr. Strong was also a key architect of the unworkable Kyoto treaty on global warming.

Canadian journalist Judi McLeod reports that Mr. Strong “has been missing in action” in this election campaign “and you can safely bet” that will continue to be the case until the actual vote. You can also safely bet that if Mr. Martin continues to bash the U.S. over Kyoto, he can expect return fire over his ties to Mr. Strong.

I doubt that the last bet is all that safe. The prime minister and his media megaphones will doubtless denounce criticism of Mr. Strong’s ties to Saddam Hussein as another instance of un-Canadian activities.

Despite hopeful polls showing, for instance, that the Conservatives actually lead the Liberals, however narrowly, outside Quebec (which the separatist Bloc Québécois will sweep) and that 58 percent of the voters think that it’s “time for a change”, I doubt that it will occur to enough to them that the way to get change is not to vote for the status quo. The Schröder strategy worked once in Germany and almost repeated its success. Hence, I am psychologically prepared for another victory of the kleptocrats, whether or not they can be vanquished on my computer screen.

Addenda: 1. A free demo version of the game is available from CBC.

2. The deadline for nominating candidates is January 2, 2006, and the confirmed list will be released on January 5th. As I understand it, 80Soft will then produce a patch with the final candidate list and (probably) other updates and modifications.

Clobbering Schröder on Your Computer

Illness having opportunely forced Jacques “Le Ver” Chirac to the sidelines, Gerhard Schröder has the EU division of the Race to the Bottom all to himself. The strident anti-Americanism that he displayed in his debate with CDU leader Angel Merkel last Sunday was, of course, the product of desperation. Barring an anti-miracle, his party will suffer a massive defeat “after seven years of economic bumbling and unfulfilled promises”. Schadenfreude is uncharitable, but it will be hard to resist on September 18th.

For those who would like to indulge the feeling in advance, Eighty Dimensional Software has just added Chancellor Forever to its burgeoning line of computer simulations of parliamentary elections. Previous games have been set in Canada, Australia, Britain and British Columbia. (There is also one based on U.S. Presidential elections, though I find it less entrancing than its siblings.) The German edition uses the same basic engine with several interesting additions. One is unique to Germany: the preposterous voting system that tries to meld proportional representation with first-past-the-post constituencies and succeeds in aggravating the weaknesses of both. Others are new features that can be retrofitted to the rest of the series, including multiple types of advertising and free television time.

The Deutsches Institut für Public Affairs is credited with assisting in the game’s development. It is presumably responsible for the large quantity of local information built into the scenarios. Disappointing, however, is the absence of real life media endorsements like those included in the British version. Trying to lure Axel Springer or Der Stern to one’s side would make for more flavor and better gameplay than is provided by random, and potentially unbalancing, generic “endorsers”.

In line with conventional wisdom, there seems to be little chance that a coalition of the CDU/CSU and the Free Democrats can avoid winning a majority in the Bundestag, though reaching the voting percentages needed for a high victory point total isn’t easy at all. For more competitive play (and for those who think that it’s bad luck to set one’s hopes too high), there is also a 2002 scenario, in which Herr Schröder can repeat his anti-U.S., pro-Saddam campaign. (This year he’s moved on to defending the Iranian mullarchy’s nuclear ambitions, which doesn’t seem to be playing as well.)

Eighty Dimensional Software’s prices are startlingly low for products of this quality. Chancellor Forever costs only $12.00 (in English) or €10.00 (in German), with discounts for owners of other games in the series.

Eleutheria and Bavarokratia

I don’t believe that it is celebrated in Greece, where March 25th, the anniversary of the outbreak of the anti-Ottoman revolt of 1821, is regarded as Independence Day, but today marks the 173rd anniversary of formal Greek independence. On May 7, 1832, the Ottoman Empire agreed, at the Conference of London, to recognize Greece as a separate nation and give up efforts to reconquer its lost province. The Battle of Navarino (October 20, 1827) had made that outcome inevitable, but the Turks took their time about acceding to it.

The next year, a 17-year-old Bavarian prince, Otto of Wittelsbach, became King of Greece, inaugurating what is remembered as the “Bavarokratia”. It would not be far-fetched to say that his 29-year reign, ended by a coup in 1862, laid the foundations for all that is wrong with the Greek polity today: parliamentary manipulation, nat