Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 271: Join the Game, Aiming for the Election

Japan.

Zheng Yi and his Southern Alliance team, Wei, Long and Ma, got off the plane. Seeing Marshal Mai and his Japanese celebrity lover waiting for him in person, he quickly took two steps forward and gave them a deep and warm hug.

"Oh~, Zheng, my good brother, I'm so happy to see you. Look, oh my God, you seem to have gained a little weight."

On the side, countless reporters were clicking their cameras at them, and the flashlight was a bit dazzling even in the daytime.

The three generals behind him were also slightly shocked when they saw this scene. After all, this was Marshal Mai. Although they knew that Marshal Mai and Mr. Zheng had a good relationship, they never expected that their relationship was so good.

However, Zheng Yi knew that this guy was putting on a show again. Although they had a good relationship, they were not like this usually. If nothing unexpected happened, he had some thoughts in his mind as he was watching this election.

"Of course, I miss you too, my friend. Hey, let's take a photo together." As he said that, Zheng Yi took the initiative to take Mai Shuai's arm and struck a very handsome pose under the flash lights of a group of reporters and media friends.

This made Coach Mac feel surprised again. As far as he knew, Zheng Yi was not a person who liked to show off, and posing for photos... this show seemed too American no matter how you looked at it.

Although he was surprised, he still completed the show and took photos before inviting Zheng Yi to get in the car and drive to the Allied Headquarters.

"Well done, my brothers. You've given the French a good kick in Asia and Africa. Honestly, I thought you'd start a conflict with the British first, but I never thought it would be the French."

Zheng Yi: "Thank you very much, Marshal. I know you helped me this time."

Coach MacArthur: "It's not that I helped. I didn't do anything. The key is that you did a good job. I heard that there was a lot of Soviet infiltration in the Middle East, but once you got involved, it was gone."

Zheng Yi smiled and explained, "Every nation has a desire to resist oppression and exploitation. Take the Middle East, for example. They actually have little affection for the Soviet Union. When they divided Iran before World War II, the Russians weren't much better than the British."

"The Middle East is ultimately a religious narrative, while Soviet Russia's ideology actually contains many consistent elements from Eastern Orthodoxy. The two religions are inherently in conflict."

"What's more, the true elites should also be able to see clearly that the Soviet Union and the Middle East are in a state of competition. The Soviet Union has extremely rich oil reserves that have not yet been developed, and it is impossible for it to help the Middle East develop oil. If the Middle East does not develop oil, what other development can there be?"

"They're fighting for national independence, but instead of helping them, you Americans are actually supporting the British and French. Isn't that just pushing them to the other side? Those Democrats, eh~ especially Trump, are completely controlled by the CIA."

Upon hearing this, Coach Mai smiled strangely for a moment, but did not comment.

The confrontation between the Democrats and Republicans in this era was not too serious, especially for MacArthur, who was actually the biggest spokesperson for the military-industrial complex. They were actually happy to see President Trump being controlled by the CIA.

After all, they are soldiers. If the world is truly peaceful and their weapons are stored away and their horses are released into the mountains, then wouldn't they be idle? From this perspective, their military-industrial complex and the CIA have the same stance.

It's actually quite good to have someone like President Du in office. Who wouldn't like a brainless boss? Although, for Coach Mac, the conflict with President Du is huge, both in terms of public and private matters, if they really had to choose, I'm afraid they still wouldn't like someone like Ronaldinho and his nephew.

Zheng Yi seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "Of course I understand the necessity of war, and I also support the US military maintaining its military presence around the world. But the question is, who to fight and who to choose as an opponent."

"Although the military-industrial complex and intelligence agencies like the CIA are violent organizations, for agents, a powerful external enemy is a necessary condition for their existence. The more powerful this enemy is, the better. We must prove that this enemy will not only compete with us for hegemony in other parts of the world, but will even infiltrate and subvert the United States."

"But the military-industrial complex is different. For the military, what kind of enemy is a good enemy?"

Marshal Mai asked curiously, "What?"

"A country that's rich, or has resources, but is weak and hostile to the United States. Oh, my big brother, you know, during World War II, the United States' national strength was at least thirty to forty times that of Japan. Of course, we won, but was it an easy victory?"

"The Soviet Union, their military industrial strength is at least six times greater than Japan's during World War II. I certainly don't think the United States would lose in a military war, but at what cost? Is there something wrong with fighting them?"

"On the contrary, for example, my current visit was to recruit Japanese soldiers with combat experience to go to a place in Morocco, because that place has 70% of the world's phosphates, and phosphates are essential for making fertilizers."

"Can you imagine? By occupying that place, such a small country can monopolize 70% of the world's phosphates, which is equivalent to monopolizing 70% of fertilizers. Oh~, which country can live without fertilizers? I can easily form an alliance with other countries that have phosphates."

"We can control the output of mining and agree on the price of this stuff. We can sell it at any price we want. Imagine what would happen if a country offended us and we refused to sell it phosphates, leaving it with no fertilizer to use?"

"Hey, what are you looking at? Let me tell you, Morocco and phosphate belong to the Chinese Americans in SAARC. This is an industry I want to personally control. If you want it, go think about something else."

“Chinese American?”

Zheng Yi: "Yes, I want to become an American citizen. Many Chinese in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation want to become American citizens. Why, you don't welcome us? If you don't welcome us, we won't become citizens."

Marshal Mai: "How could I not welcome you? You... Oh, now I remember, you were originally British. I forgot. Uh... Welcome to the United States, my friend. Do you want to join the Republican Party?"

"Of course, otherwise how could I join the Democratic Party?"

"Hahahahaha, welcome, welcome. Having you join us means we, the Republican Party, will have a better chance of winning next year's election. You may not know this, but you're a superstar in the United States, even more popular than a movie star."

It can be seen that Marshal Mai is really happy. Although he has an extraordinary status, he also has the embarrassment of being a soldier.

After all, the United States does not allow military personnel to participate in politics. His case is a special one. He had already retired and joined the Republican Party after retirement. He even served as the Grand Marshal of the Philippines. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was appointed to the post in an emergency. To put it bluntly, he was re-employed.

This is actually the reason why he has been staying in Japan for many years. Many people say that Coach Mai doesn't have much serious work to do in Japan. Every day, he just hangs out with Japanese stars and watches Hollywood movies by himself.

After all, the Democratic Party is now in power in the United States, and as a Republican who holds military power, he is indeed sensitive. It would be wrong for him to be too tough or too soft towards the ruling party.

It would be great if Zheng Yi could join the Republican Party. They are natural allies, both in terms of interests and friendship. Zheng Yi can even act as his spokesperson to a large extent.

And even if he becomes an American citizen, he will definitely not stay in the United States all year round, at least he will have little to do with the domestic affairs of the United States. He was not born in the United States and is not qualified to run for president.

This means that he is friendly to almost any existing faction, and only provides assistance but no threat.

But after laughing, Marshal Mai's expression turned serious. He said, "You have a point. This is all the fault of that idiot President Du. Oh my God, he must be the worst and most deplorable president of the United States since its founding."

Zheng Yi: "So far, it's hard to say, but if he succeeds in the election, then I'm afraid he will really be the winner. And in the future, whether it's the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, there will be a steady stream of idiots elected. The powerful United States may decline in a way and at a speed that you can't imagine."

Coach Mac: "Really? Why? Oh, never mind, you've got to be kidding. There's no way Mr. Dewey can win. He's significantly behind Mr. Dewey in almost every poll. Everyone knows Mr. Dewey is far superior. Come back to the US with me one of these days. I'll introduce you to Mr. Dewey, he's an exceptional politician."

"Your views are actually very similar to Mr. Dewey's. Honestly, I'm not very familiar with him, but I know he's a practical man. He also dislikes the CIA and all spy organizations."

Zheng Yi heard this but remained silent.

In this election, Zheng Yi has decided to help Dewey, but he will not force it.

In fact, whether Dewey can win this election does not depend on how many people support him. He has no shortage of supporters, especially bigwigs. Almost all mainstream urban elites are willing to support Dewey.

The reason why Dewey lost in history is that he did not realize that the US presidential election has changed from selecting politicians to a star audition.

Ronaldinho's time in power was indeed a little longer. During these ten years, Americans had already popularized radio and partially popularized television, and even the newspaper industry had become much more developed.

In particular, President Du also has the advantage of being a ruling party, which allows him to better mobilize the people and make better use of propaganda campaigns.

And it must be said that the Democratic Party's grassroots management capabilities are much stronger than those of the Republican Party, although the grassroots governance here does not refer to village heads and community street offices, but to gangs.

However, the Americans who had just finished World War II did not realize that in the short few years between the war and the post-war period, the American gangs had penetrated deeper and deeper into the grassroots level, even far more than during the Prohibition period.

This is mainly due to the crazy influx of foreign population during and after the war. Americans did not have so many foreign populations before and had no management experience. In most areas, they were left to fend for themselves, and the lack of management of foreign groups inevitably gave rise to gangs.

It's a bit like the secret societies in Nanyang.

Simply put, any political system is established based on the current situation of the country when it is first established. There is no sage in this world who can see what will happen a hundred years from now, unless he is a time traveler.

The American political system has been in operation for over two hundred years, guarding against dictatorships at the top and the people below. However, it has already accumulated numerous bugs along the way. This has coincided with the age of newspapers, the age of radio, and the nascent age of television. In the future, there will be the age of the internet and the age of self-media. When the system was designed at the founding of the country, who could serve in Congress depended on who could gain the recognition of local opinion leaders. In the newspaper era, this depended on who could gain the recognition of public intellectuals.

In some places, there are even people who specialize in reading and explaining newspapers to the people.

These people are the backbone of American politics.

After all, ordinary people don’t understand anything and don’t know you, so who they vote for basically depends entirely on the middle class.

And the most crucial thing is that some remote villages, and even some small marginal towns, have almost no voting rights, only the right to sell tickets. For a long time, their so-called voting depends entirely on who will come to buy their votes. The two parties will compete to use horse-drawn carriages to pull them to the polling stations, spend money to buy tickets, and then send them back respectfully.

What are we electing for in this election?
In fact, what we are competing for is who has a stronger ability to mobilize society.

The Republicans and the Democrats, one controls the financial resources at the top, and the other controls the gangs at the bottom. This is something they can fight over.

After all, most of the time, whoever has a stronger social mobilization ability also has a stronger social governance ability.
Especially since the United States is still a relatively loose federation, the President serves as the head of the federation, especially when fighting foreign wars and safeguarding the overall interests of the country.

Whether he can do it or not depends on how many grassroots people he can mobilize to form a joint force.

This is also the reason why it is said that the original intention of the design of the American democratic system is completely elite democracy. It actually has many means to prevent populism.

However, all this changed completely with the beginning of the broadcasting era. The public could have direct contact with the candidates, and there were no middlemen to make a profit from the price difference.

However, most ordinary people still don’t understand. 90% of normal people’s energy is focused on how to live a better life. Who understands politics?

So what are people watching? Who can brag more and who has better eloquence.

The advent of the radio age has completely overturned the traditional way of electoral elections, and the television age has also quietly arrived.

And Dewey was the first victim of the politics of the new era.

Historically, Dewey was too low-key during the election. He thought he was almost certain to win, and he was always pragmatic when giving speeches. If he talked about politics, the people would not understand him. If he did not talk about specific politics, he did not know what to say, so he said a lot of nonsense and clichés.

On the contrary, President Du is different. Although his political ability is not good, his speaking ability is indeed better than Dewey's.

Moreover, President Du knew that he could not compete with Du Wei among the urban elites, so he simply focused on rural people.

Rural people don’t understand politics. They just know that President Du is the incumbent, works hard to canvass for votes, and will warmly shake hands with these peasants. He also says that he is a devout Christian and will pray with them.

Although these are actually of no help in governing the country, but God, he is such a good man.

Everyone knows how terrible his governing ability was during his tenure as acting president. But who are these people? Aren't they just you, the city elite?
For ordinary people who don't care about politics, who knows how bad he is? The people don't have a physical sense of it. After all, World War II just ended, and the American people won. Even if the president is a pig, it won't stop everyone's life from improving at a visible rate.

A natural result of this is that those who can participate in politics are no longer those with strong mobilization capabilities, but those with strong charisma.

Mr. Du is actually the beginning of this vicious cycle.

Of course, this is actually related to his predecessor Ronaldinho.

In Ronaldinho's era, because he came from a political family, he already had roots in politics and business. As the heir of his uncle, Robert, he naturally had fame. What's more, Robert was a Republican, and the Republican with the strongest connections, while Ronaldinho was a Democrat, so he was completely cross-party.

In addition to Ronald Reagan's New Deal and the special wartime of World War II, he, as a bipartisan president, actually completed the centralization of power in the United States, so he almost no longer needed to exchange interests with any political group. He thus integrated the intelligence agencies and used them to rule the country.

The most normal daily routine for Xiao Luo when he was the commander-in-chief was to make correct judgments based on the various intelligence data provided by the CIA, and then send his judgments to the executive department for execution.

During his tenure, orders came out of the White House and went directly to the executive branch without any discussion. The executive branch was truly just the executive branch.

However, after Xiao Luo died, this behemoth that he had personally created was not taken away with him.

This behemoth that Ronaldinho put together for the convenience of administration was certainly an extremely sharp knife in his hands, but in such a big country as the United States, after his death there was no one who could use this knife anymore.

The knife began to bite back at its owner.

The monkey, which was originally held in the hand of a person, began to use the collar and rope around its neck to control the owner's hand.

President Du’s orders are no longer required to be executed. From the White House to various ministers, almost all orders need to be discussed.

However, the basis for President Du's decision-making and judgment still comes from various reports from the intelligence department.

Unfortunately, President Du does not have the ability to distinguish and sort out these plans, because he does not know which of the plans he has come up with are feasible, which will be rejected, and which are extremely stupid.

So he had to ask the intelligence department to directly provide complete and feasible solutions when handing over intelligence.

He just needs to choose one from several options.

This is also the reason why almost all American elites are calling Mr. Du a fool.

Poor thing, they don’t know that in the future, almost all American presidents will do things in this way, so that most foreigners think that this is how the American president should do things, and that this is their system.

To put it bluntly, President Du lacks a team of his own who can bypass the intelligence department and operate in the executive department. He also lacks enough connections in society and does not have a community of interests that belongs to him and is loyal to him.

Then naturally we can only be led by the intelligence department.

In fact, this is the reason why the inexplicable Cold War lasted so long and was so bad.

The only American president after World War II who could make the country act according to its own will was Eisenhower WE. He was also the only one who cursed the Soviet Union all the time, but the swords in his hands were aimed at Britain and France.

That's because he has deep enough roots in the military. During his tenure, he promoted and appointed a large number of old subordinates with military merits from his original troops to carry out his orders or ensure that those professional bureaucrats carried out their orders.

Moreover, Republicans generally do not like to use intelligence agencies. On the contrary, they are very wary of them. They generally have better relations with chaebols and can use the power of chaebols to do things.

If Dewey is willing to make changes, or realizes the importance of talent shows in elections, Zheng Yi doesn't mind helping him put on a show. In his opinion, Dewey still has a great chance of winning.

Know your destiny and do your best. Dewey is the founder of the Rockefeller faction, which is the most pragmatic faction in the United States and within both political parties. If he comes to power, it will be better for almost everyone.

In this beautiful era when the United States and the Soviet Union were in confrontation on the surface but actually jointly divided the British and French colonies, the national liberation of the people of the world would most likely come four years earlier than in history.

Eisenhower WE was from the Rockefeller faction; they were from the same school.

If Dewey doesn't realize the importance of the draft, then Zheng Yi's help to him will probably be in vain.

However, even so, Zheng Yi decided to personally join the game this time and participate in it deeply. After all, there will be the next session after this one.

If he loses, he loses. It's an election. As long as he can make his presence felt this time, then losing is also winning.

Besides, it’s not just the commander-in-chief that’s being elected this time.

Aren't there still senators?

"That's what I mean. In a few days, introduce some Republican Senate candidates to me. I will do my best to help you gain a majority in both houses of Congress this term."

(End of this chapter)