The United States of America
Perhaps the strongest nation on the planet
and they have a presidential election coming soon,
where they will elect the person who will rule the country for the next four years.
And they will fix the country's economy,
And they will take down all of it's enemies,
And they will protect the nation's interests.
And this is all possible because the presidential election is THE most important thing in how America works,
isn't it?
This area of the world is one of the most naturally rich in almost everything.
The USA has incredible amounts of incredibly cheap food.
We all know the stereotypes of the large portions of beige potato products with calorie counts in 6 digits,
But that's not far from the truth, and in the grand scheme of things,
that's not even a bad thing.
The country has over 1.5 million square kilometers of arable land.
So much so that the government used to give it away for free.
Now let's look at a counter-example:
Angola is a country who's horrific decades-long civil war decimated its capability to produce food.
And now it's capital, Luanda, is the most expensive place in the world.
By some reports, half a litre of ice cream costs between 17 and 31 dollars.
But how can that be?
How can this place be the most expensive place in the world to live?
Transportation makes food, and for that matter, most things, very expensive.
Road & Rail connections to Angola are to say the least, not good.
There is a single rail connection to a neighboring country,
And that's to the Democratic Republic of Congo,
who wouldn't be your first choice, would they?
And that railway doesn't go to Luanda, the capital.
Instead, food arrives by sea, and air, from incredible distances.
From China, Portugal, and the U.S.
That's how the Angolan Häagen-Dazs gets its price level.
The U.S., however, has huge population centers right on top of where the food is made.
And even where they aren't, the transportation costs are almost negligible, because of...
The Mississippi River is the world's longest navigable river.
Over 3000 square kilometers of it lay right on top of the food producing areas.
Now you may say "But why is this important?"
And I'll laugh
And say well...
Before continuing with the answer.
Short distances by sea are very cheap.
You may need to pay for fuel or learn how to manipulate the wind,
but you don't have to build the sea.
The sea is, in essence, free.
But do you know what's even cheaper than the sea?
Rivers are.
They're calmer, easier to navigate, and it's much harder to get lost.
And in this network of rivers,
Kentucky tobacco, Wisconsin cheese, Iowa corn, and Missouri racism can be exported from their home state
And anywhere in the river basin incredibly cheaply
And with a couple of small adjustments
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE
From Nantucket to the Gulf of Mexico,
The world's longest series of barrier islands create natural harbors,
protecting commerce & life from the worst weather.
From Mobile to Long Island,
From Houston to Savannah,
this network of islands creates another inland waterway.
All provided by nature.
As of 2016, the largest ports may be Chinese, Singaporean or Dutch,
But while these countries are spending incredible amounts of their money & time reclaiming land from the sea to build these ports,
Or in the case of the Dutch, whole provinces,
Americans spent that time reading books,
building Panamanian canals,
inventing the Cheeto,
and building the nuclear bomb
All of this free capital means that the U.S. can afford the world's largest military.
Not that they even need it for defense though.
Here, the country's geography comes in handy yet again.
Engalnd's, and later Great Britian's and the UK's navy, was the key to it's success.
And it could only do so by being an island.
So after Great Britian united and land wars with Scotland became somewhat of an Anachronism,
they turned their attentions elsewhere, to other continents.
And they opened up trade routes with the rest of the world using force.
This strength put England on favorable terms in any trade negotiation with any nation,
and the island grew wealthy.
Other maritime empires such like the Portuguese, the Dutch & the Danish kept outposts
all around the world for the very same reason.
Ever since England had a navy, the island of Great Britain has never been invaded.
For all that I've said about water making transport easy,
it also paradoxically makes a perfect barrier to invasion.
By the English Channel, the UK remained uninvaded in both World Wars,
but at a huge cost.
The channel was enough to prevent land invasion,
but not enough to immunize the UK against catastrophic bombing of major cities.
But just how vulnerable is the US?
Land invasion from the South is damn-near impossible.
The major settlements on both sides being hundreds of kilometers of inhospitable desert
from the border.
Invasion will be expensive, and not very valuable.
...but what about Canada? They burned down the White House in the War of 1812, didn't they?
In the early 19th century, things were very different.
The Louisiana Purchase had only just taken effect,
and the US wasn't in complete control of the Mississippi.
Canada was also a lot more compact, not having it's vulnerable food & energy producing areas dangled all over the continent.
AND VANCOUVER WAS BARELY A TWINKLE IN THE EYE OF SETH ROGAN.
Today, Canada is spread incredibly thinly.
The US's invasion of British Columbia could take out the country's Pacific capabilities in a long weekend.
And this isn't even to mention the interdependence of each country's economy.
A Canada-US alliance is the best solution for both sides.
So if there's no invasion from the north or the south, all that leaves is an invasion by sea.
Yeah... that's not happening.
The UK could only dream of this amount of isolation from Europe.
The US's navy is, today, its power.
And an invulnerable core means that they have the ability to project power way beyond their borders,
without even worrying about it.
In the 21st century, a President can wage a decade long 2-front war to protect the country's interests,
and the average citizen doesn't feel a single thing.
The fact that the country even has interests in an impoverished, landlocked Asian nation
on the other side of the planet is remarkable.
The Navy is important for keeping the world's trade lanes open.
If you want to buy a bodypillow from Japan,
you can do so without even thinking about it.
Regardless of what the American politician says,
there is nothing special about the average American citizen.
The wealth & strength of the United States comes from its geography.
So if we've just seen why the United States is so naturally powerful,
we will now see why it would take a monumental effort to screw that up.
Kim Jong-Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea,
is a medieval king without the crown.
He is supreme commander of the army & he can do anything he wants within the laws of physics
EXCEPT COMMISSION A REALISTIC PORTRAIT.
Contrast the President of the United States,
which is a fully-elected position decided by the people
and has one of the largest electoral bases in the world.
There is a system called the U.S. government,
which is put into place either deliberately or by accident,
and it provides extreme stability.
The President has no direct influence over justice,
and for a law to be passed needs hundreds of people in two houses
to agree before The President has the power of veto
Essentially saying
"Hell no, what are y'all thinking?
Get this crap off my very expensive desk."
A veto, is favouring the status quo,
and is the last of many hurdles a bill will have to pass before being enacted.
And as we've seen before,
the Status Quo is actually very favourable towards the USA.
But this series of events doesn't have to occur,
if the president signs something directly into law themselves
Using an...
Executive orders are "sort of" laws that the president can make directly,
that don't need the same approval as laws from Congress.
As easily as the president can make one,
all of those executive orders can be overwritten or cancelled completely by the next president,
if they put their mind to it.
And there WILL be a next president, relatively soon,
because of a little thing called:
Whether a president does a good or a bad job,
they will have to leave office after a maximum of 8 years
Meaning the average American will have close to a dozen Heads of State in that lifetime.
The amount of damage a single person can do
to a country this wealthy
is absolutely minuscule.
Especially when the next president
can simply erase most of what you've done.
But this might not happen if an extremist gets into office, will it?
First-Past-the-Post voting means that every eligible person gets a single vote for a single candidate
and the winner is the person with the most votes regardless whether that's 90% or whether that's 10%
One of the problems with 'First-Past-the-Post' is that when there are multiple parties that appeal to the same type of person,
that weakens the position that side of the debate
So we have strategic voting where people don't actually vote for their first preference
but instead for an;
"At Least They're Not The Other Party" party
All mathematical shows this eventually leads to a two party system in which each party
attempts to grab the median voter while appealing to the respected side of the debate
Now while this single dimension politics does seem to be an inaccurate representation of people's actual opinions and desires,
the one thing that does lead to is the most unobjectionable government
The least extreme and the least likely to overthrow what a country has going for it
And the country that we're talking about has a lot going for it
Now, just in case there does manage to be an extremist elected to presidency
Who gets both Congress and the public on their side
And together, they all start the day with a healthy bowl of insanity
And they set out to destroy the country piece by piece
And they manage to do significant damage within 8 years
The country has enshrined in its constitution
A little jewel, designed for moments just like that