The Soon-To-Be Government of Awesomeness and the Super-Hot Leader of Everything

Lee-centric Political Essay:

The Soon-To-Be Government of Awesomeness and the Super-Hot Leader of Everything:  A commentary on the future of the fleet's government, as examined through the characters of Lee Adama and Laura Roslin.

 
Welcome to the Lee_Wiki!!!  I'm kicking off the discussion with an essay on government and Lee and Laura's different approaches as leaders.  Hope you enjoy, and Viva la Lee_Wiki!!!
 

Author's Note: Huge shoutout to innibis for coining the phrase "Leader of Everything" and giving me a listening ear and a forum to work through these ideas. And also for her wonderful insights, several of which I've included below. Mucho thanks girl!! 

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"We've made this veritable habit out of defying the odds."

- President Laura Roslin

"[All this has happened before]…. But it doesn't have to happen again."

"We are now free to go where we want to go, and be who we want to be."

- President Lee Adama

I loved the "No Exit" scene between Lee and Laura. It was so beautiful to see Madame President and her Captain Apollo together again. And it was a lovely transition of power—a passing of the torch, if you will—from the older to the younger generation (I think we're going to be seeing more of that in the coming weeks). Yet for all the loveliness of that scene, (especially the call-back to the mini-series scene where they're sitting across from each other after she finds out she's just become President), I was troubled by Laura's lecture about the "right" thing and the "smart" thing. It got me thinking a lot about the world(s)view of both characters, and their presuppositions about the purpose of government. So with that being said, let's look at Laura and Lee as the past, present and future leaders of humanity.

Democracy vs. Survival

While I love Laura, I found her "smart/right" comment deeply disturbing. What qualifies as smart?  Killing Zarek when he first took hostages and liberated the prison ship? Ordering Cain's assassination when you don't like her decisions?  Outlawing abortion? Never promising free elections?  Never defending Baltar or his religious freedoms?  Going along with super-secret executive orders designed to funnel more authority into the hands of one person?

If that's the case, "smart" sounds like a really bad idea to me. But I kind of had a Laura epiphany when she said that.  Something that was probably completely obvious to others but that I'd never picked up on.  Her One True God has never been democracy, but rather survival.  And survival on her terms.  And that means no Zarek or Cain or Baltar or dissent or whatever.  I think she sees herself as the one who has to make the hard calls and get them to the shiny happy place where one day the democracy switch can be flipped back on.  She's the one who stands in the gap until it's safe.  It makes a weird kind of sense because she knows she's going to die, that she can't hold on to power forever, and so one day things can go back to normal. And making this decision to stand in the gap and hold the worlds together-- it's completely eaten her soul (which is tragic and sad and kind of awesome).

And choosing Lee as her successor makes perfect sense. He's the best hope of getting that democracy switch turned back on one day. He's proven over and over again with surprising persistence that survival is not enough. Government has to be about more than that. Some may call that foolishly idealistic, but I think it's necessary. It's about being worthy of survival—to have something that's worth living for.

So yeah, her plan sucks and it's wrong, but her viewpoint makes a lot more sense once you realize that she's never really been in it for the democracy. She's right there at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs—food, shelter and security. And she's absolutely right in that sense. We have to have those things to be able to continue living, so we can reach for the higher stuff. 

And Lee's position makes equal sense. It's not naive, it's just the other side of that same pragmatic coin. If you don't hold fast to something, then you're in a position where anything goes. If there is no law, no order, no rightful chain of authority then basically…. you're screwed.  You get Gaeta and Zarek and a whole lot of hurt. Lee realized this very early on, and it's a lesson the older generation could do to learn.

Smart v. Right

Lee gets a lot of criticism for his so-called blinding idealism. Frankly, I think that's crap. It's a cop-out for someone who doesn't want to think to deeply about the larger issues at play. Using idealism as a nasty word only makes sense if you're comfortable on some level with no rules. Does being idealistic mean you can't also be smart/pragmatic? I don't think so, and I definitely don't think so in Lee's case. Let's look at some examples:

-          He brokered peace with the cylons to stop annihilation of the human race and find Earth. 

-          When Earth didn't pan out, instead of crawling into a corner somewhere, he went to the people and told them that this wasn't the end of everything—instead, they had the opportunity to write their own destinies (again Free Will gets another shoutout!) 

-          He realized (when Adama and Roslin did not) that introducing cylon technology to the fleet was something that had to be sold on the basis of protection—that the masses would not just accept a top-down order to suddenly cooperate with their former enemies.

-          He's always encouraged Laura to be more transparent with her governing and thus a better leader, whose people can rally behind her (…and perhaps avoid a mutiny?...)

-          And he recognized that for all the practicality of making a permanent alliance with the cylons, it would be nearly impossible to forgive them. It's not meant to be a pessimistic position, just a realistic one. Living together won't fix things, but it's a start. It's going to take years of healing before both sides can accept each other as they are. But I really think we'll get there.

So what will the Government of Awesomeness Look Like?

Well, we know that the representative system will look different. Based on ships instead of colonies—which makes perfect sense considering those planets no longer exist. The legal geek in me totally wonders whether each ship will have a representative or whether one representative might represent several smaller ships (like Circuit judges who serve more than one county or something akin to a Congressional district.) Besides, I don't know how they'd find a room big enough to fit 60+ representatives in one place.

Right now, Laura will stay on as President, and I imagine she will name Lee as her Vice President. At first, I was troubled that she wouldn't step down immediately and instead opted for the "Lee the Puppetmaster" approach, but it does make a certain kind of sense. After the mutiny, I imagine the fleet needs as much reassurance and continuity as possible. Putting a new administration in place would agitate the fragile order of things, especially considering it's not even a complete government right now. And if Lee succeeded as President and then went about selecting the representatives, well, you can see the inherent balance of power problems there.

I would assume that Lee helps reconstruct the representative body, then succeeds to power as VP once Laura is unable to serve (due most likely to failing health). Also note that this would be the first time in the history of the Rag Tag Fleet that a VP has successfully (and lawfully) succeeded to the Presidency. Glad to see they're finally making use of that.

Standing in the Gap

When is it okay to start over? When is it okay to reinvent society?

At what point is it okay to say that, because circumstances have become so extreme and survival is so precarious, you're willing to tear down the system and start over again?  If you burn the constitution/articles, what replaces it? And if you just put it on hold, how do you get assurance that the benevolent (military) dictator will put it all back into place once things get better? The powers that be on this show have always liked to put democracy under a microscope and watch it squirm.  And sometimes it's painted in an unflattering light.

If you're Laura, do you continue to stand in the gap until it's all safe? Do you let Lee pick up the pieces? If you shut down the system, who makes the call to turn it back on? How could you ever trust someone to do that? As much as I love Lee, I'm not sure I trust even him with that kind of power. And I think that's the very question that will define his Presidency: Where do we go from here?

Will Lee continue Laura's habit of putting survival before democracy? As much as I'd like to stay no, it makes every kind of sense that he would, at least for right now. The situation is so dire, so precarious, that holding on to excessive executive power seems like a necessity. But at some point, the old ways have to be put away so real life can start again. And until that time, the trick will be not losing your soul in the process. Can it be done? I honestly don't know, but I think President Leland is our last best hope.

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