From the 'Verse to DC: Space Colonies and the American Polity

Welcome to the first Summer posting! (Don't forget to help me raise $300 for this month).  In the Summer, I do the silly and the serious.  The interesting is proposed and debated. Please join in.

When I hang out with my friend Ron (usually at Ruin), we end up talking obscure Star Wars references (Movies only, other canon not at all). From the Tarkin Doctrine to Siths, everything is in play.  (And George Lucas should have stuck with his original trilogy, much more adult, and dare I say, human) 

Some sci-fi movies and TV shows don't even have Earth  as a base (see: Firefly/Serenity), others, Earth is the goal (Battlestar Galactica 1977 and 2005); But what about those few movies and TV shows that discuss humankind expanding from Earth towards the great unknown?

How is American politics affected?



The 'Verse from Firefly



 I. The Dutch West India Company revived

In the Alien movies, Weyland-Yeutani was the large multinational with fingers in many pies.  In Outland, the Jupiter moon, Io was corporately run. 

When the colonies were first founded, New York was backed by the Dutch West India Company.  The Weyland-Yeutani of its day. Eventually, the Dutch (State) sold it to the British and the rest is history.

Since NASA is shutting down it's Space Shuttle program, the SETI program and the ISS is going nowhere -- private companies will fill the gap of humans wanting exploration.  As documented, Hollywood is Liberal (and water is wet).

If Companies know that their constituents are dying or hurt, their families back home will raise a fuss.

However, if Company-Colonies achieve Statehood status (that is, unless each planet declares Independence from Earth), then do they get Electoral votes and Congressional seats in a census?  

II. Idealistic Colonies

If you read Neuromancer, there was the Zion Cluster.  Mechanics who decided to create their own (Rastafarian) habitat.  In the Martian Chronicles, colonies on Mars were done by individuals.

For these colonies in Space and on planets (or asteroids), the American dream of the frontier continues. (Another reason why President Obama will lose in 2012, he pushed away the American Dream of The Frontier)

With the rise of Private Enterprise to create access to Space (and since the ISS is not a Bridge to other worlds), the idealistic among us will try to make the journey.  If the idealists are smart, they will hire pragmatists to help create functioning colonies.

The Cold War gave us "The Race to Space," And with the rise of Economic Giants of BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China], who is to say if they won't have the frontier bug? The next American President should make Space Colonization a key plank.  The American Frontier must grow!

The 'Verse of Star Wars

 III. The American Polity and the 'Verse

Space law is still growing.  Property rights? Census? Representation locally and back on earth? 

In Star Wars, all of the differing worlds met in a Unicameral Senate (which became an Empire because of corruption); In Star Trek, there is a United Federation of Planets -- a UN based in San Francisco. 

The 'Verse of Star Trek

If mankind moves beyond the Moon and into the Black, will America fight for added population? Only if materials are fading.


In the early lives of colonies in Space, the colonists will be Americans (if we get out there first).  Independence comes later. 




The next President should help promote Private and Public travel to the Stars.  The next President should promote living in the 'Verse.  A fully Republican Congress will help promote both of these dreams.  


It is a jobs program based in the United States: Florida, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Southern California (Los Angeles) can help create these new worlds.

The American public will enjoy the added tax revenue from the Stars (especially if they are Company-Colonies); The idealistic Colonies will err to the Right and Libertarianism because of their desire to create their frontier.

President Obama closed the American frontier, it is time to re-open it after 2012.

My question: Will Americans reach into the 'verse first? What happens after the first colonies are made? Does Congress gain more seats? Or are they independent nations?