A mixture of sci-fi and politics

A mixture of sci-fi and politics

by Marilyn Mackenzie

I had these words tucked away in a file.  I wrote them during the election campaign.  I'm not sure where they're going.  Or if the thoughts are finished coming.

What do you think?

In the old days, when a neighbor went to Washington as a politician, people noticed him/her being Washingtonized.  Then it all changed.

Or did it?

As Hugh Morgan paced back and forth in his office waiting for the election results, a voice asked, "Is this what you want?  Do you want to be part of the mess in Washington?"

He did.  He had wanted to be in politics since he was a ten-year-old child, watching presidential candidates campaign in his home state of Pennsylvania.  Why the voice?  Why the questioning?  Why now?

Was it because he wondered about his friend, Jack Bernard?  The man he emulated?  The man who, once in office, seemed distant and robotic?

As Hugh waited, he realized that many politicians today seemed robotic, and he wondered why.

************* 

When a politician entered the elevator in the halls of congress for the first time, they noticed something strange happening.

When the emerged on the upper floors for the first time, people who greeted them asked why they seemed disoriented.  Then they acknowledged having that same feeling when they first arrived, but never again.

*************

What was happening was this.  Starting in 2008, a new dimension appeared.  New politicians entered that new dimension and lived out their lives there.  They passed laws and lived in a world different than the one in which they campaigned.

Instantly, when they entered the elevators of Congress for the first time, a robotic clone was "born".  The clone also went about passing laws, but in the "real" world and not in the new dimension.  Laws in the real world were much different than in the new dimension.  In fact, everything was different.