You're the Admiral/President

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Sonic Glitch
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You're the Admiral/President

Post by Sonic Glitch »

I found This the other day, and that and the recent activity in the BSG forum got me thinking. As Apollo points out later in the series, even at the beginning of there saga, they're not a civilization anymore. They are a gang, desperately holding on to the trappings of the civilization they are used to. So let me ask you: What would you do? I'm assuming the same general set-up established at the end of the Miniseries applies: there is a senior surviving member of the civilian government recognized as the heir to the Presidency and they and the senior military commander have agreed to respect the established tradition of civilian government, with military decisions made by the military commander.

How do you deal with issues like: law enforcement, security, employment, economics, supply, etc. Do you take into account issues like those eventually brought up in "Dirty Hands?" How do you eal with the crews of the refinery ships and the sewage reclamation ships stuck doing dangerous, unhealthy work now apparently for the rest of their lives. How do you deal with 50,000 people now permanently residing in ships not meant to hold permanent residents. How do you deal with security? How do you deal with a mix of civilian and commercial crews? Maintenance? Etc. You can approach this from either perspective (as the Commander of Galactica or the President of the Twelve Colonies) -- but I'd prefer the idea of a military subordinate to a civilian government remain.

Thoughts?
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Re: You're the Admiral/President

Post by Teaos »

I imagin I'd go for Martial law, if its the fate of humanity I'm playing with, screw democracy, people are stupid. History can judge me.
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Re: You're the Admiral/President

Post by Sonic Glitch »

Teaos wrote:I imagin I'd go for Martial law, if its the fate of humanity I'm playing with, screw democracy, people are stupid. History can judge me.
I figure most people will say that. But that's not a very interesting answer :poke: So, what if you DID agree to keep some semblance of civilian rule of law run by the presidency? What then?
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Re: You're the Admiral/President

Post by Teaos »

I'd just put on a face of diplomacy while ruling with an iron fist :P

If I had to, I'd place navigation and military matters in the Admirals hands and hand over all administration of living conditions, work duties ect ect in the civilian goverment. Makes my life easier.

Every ship has one military officer on it who assumes command in battle then hands it off in peace.
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Re: You're the Admiral/President

Post by Lt. Staplic »

The first thing I would do is replace the captains of the ships that are vital to the survival of the fleet, like the refinery and sewage reclamation ships with military officers so that those ships will maintain loyalty to the fleet regardless (the crews might be another issue, but we'll get to that). The next thing I would do is simply make a public address to the fleet that our democracy will not be thrown away, but that our situation calls for more extreme forms of governing. I would keep the Council of 12 (though possibly switch it to the council of # of ships) as an advising body with very limited actual power. The peoples voices can still be heard, but ultimately the President holds all of the cards. Any ship that revolts or wants to secede will simply not be given the coordinates of the next jump, and will be left behind to be destroyed by the Cylons or die slowly as their supplies disappear.

As for the dangerous jobs I would do two things: the first is that I would set up a crew rotation system by which the crews on these jobs can be replaced by others and get off of those ships for periods of time. The second thing is I would try and create a need/desire in the ships to work these jobs by making each ship responsible for it's own supplies. requiring the ships to trade with each other for food, water, fuel, etc. This would make Refining and Sewage reclamation fairly highly paying jobs I would imagine due to the constant need. There would be regulation from the government ensuring that ships were getting necessary supplies provided their crews were working jobs in the fleet. And a regulation so that anyone that didn't work would be automatically signed up for a rotation on one of the reclamation/refining ships or be drafted.

As for security, I would start off like they did with Galactica's Marines doing most of the work, but I would also very quickly look to create a domestic police force. Train them on Galactica and station them on ships in proportion to the ships population.

I would hope that before too long the majority of the fleet would be at work, which could help to limit a lot of the black-market things we saw in the later seasons that seemed to come from a lot of the passenger ships simply sitting around twiddling their thumbs for two years. I would hope that the fear of being left behind, and essentially having to choose between this limited democracy and death would keep the fleet in line, especially if the Council of # was listened to and concerns dealt with as best as possible.
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Re: You're the Admiral/President

Post by Meste17 »

I'd do exactly what Adama did in the series: Keep the military and the police separate. Try to handle ALL military matters that happen on MY ship (assuming I'd have a ship like Galactica, however Most everyone i know says I'd have a Mercury class battlestar like Pegasus, so I went with that and called her Battlestar Enterprise BSG-18, IN HONOR of the Legendary Star Trek ship! :) :D but that's besides the point), and let someone else who is elected the President handle different matters, such as actual police. I may have THE most powerful MILITARY ship left in the WHOLE ENTIRE 12 colonies (at least until Pegasus shows up in season 2 ;) ), but that doesn't mean I know jack squat about civilian matters. To quote that pic that you showed us about Commander Adama (which IS quoted from the show btw):

"There's a reason that you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, and the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state.....tend to become the people."
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