WebNovels

Chapter 13 - Chapter 13: Lost Boys

Richard's Point of View

"Just write up a comprehensive economic policy document! It'll be easy!" Richard said mockingly. 

The interview was in three hours and he'd spent all night revising his presentation. Sleep? What's that? At least the Corps had sprung for a plane ticket to New York and a taxi ride to Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper's Brooklyn campaign headquarters. On the short flight he'd managed to take a shorter nap but somehow it left him more tired than if he'd never slept at all. 

Focus, Richie, focus, he repeated in his mind to clear out the cobwebs. You've only got one shot at this. 

Navigating New York City as a first timer wasn't easy at the best of times, and Richard's exhaustion did him no favors. Frankly, he barely made it out of the airport. The cab found him, so that was nice. 

Dahlia, usually a pretty hands-off kind of boss, had been micromanaging this mission from the very start: feeding him topics to address, checking his notes, making Richard give his report to her as if she was RRC, you name it. Was he ready? It didn't matter. He was here!

The cab dropped him off in front of a nondescript brownstone house nestled in a row of the same. A part of him was thrilled. It looked so New York! 

Nobody answered his knock for a full minute and Richard worried he was in the wrong place. There was nothing to indicate that a major presidential campaign was being run out of this little row home. 

Just when he was about to leave the door opened. "Is the pizza here?" asked a young woman. 

"Er, no. I'm the new economics guy?" he inflected the statement as if it was a question, a nervous habit of his that he'd been trying to break. 

She just stared at him with dead eyes. "Oh. We're out of food. I guess you can come in?"

Richard suppressed a sigh. Did they even know he was coming? "Okay," he agreed. 

The living room couch was packed tight with what looked like four college kids, all on their phones. There was a guy in the corner, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, typing furiously on a laptop. "Rodriguez-Cooper for President!" posters, pamphlets, and stickers were carelessly littered about the room.

He breathed a sigh of relief. At least I'm in the right place. 

Nobody acknowledged him when he walked in. Nobody even looked up from their phones. Were they serious right now? How were they number one in the Democratic primary polls? Shouldn't this be some kind of political "war room" with hard-nosed consultants cooking up a media strategy? Shouldn't they be out knocking on doors? Making telephone calls? Did they even know what a "ground game" was?

Who was he kidding? Richard had worked in Washington. None of that tv stuff was real. Politics was mostly online now, for good or ill. 

There should've been something else he could do other than stand in the entryway helplessly, but nothing in particular occurred to him. Richard checked his phone. I'm going to be late, he worried. The interview was supposed to start in five minutes. Were one of these kid activists supposed to be the one to interview him? Suddenly he didn't like his chances. 

Just when he was about to give up and go home, a man came down the stairs. 

At least he's tall, Richard thought. There wasn't much else positive he could say. 

The man was chubby, wearing ill-fitting clothes, and had a reddish-blond beard that didn't distract at all from his receding hairline. Their eyes met.

"Oh my god! Are you Richard Fairchild?" he asked.

So you were expecting me! "That's right. I'm here to interview as an economic policy advisor."

"Right, right, I'm sorry to keep you waiting," the man's tone was apologetic as he extended his hand. "I'm Dean Cooper, Rebecca's husband, and uh, I guess, her campaign manager."

Richard shook it, looking Dean up and down. Just how did you bag her? To be perfectly honest, he had very little sense of what straight women found attractive, but a part of him suspected that Dean wasn't it. "Nice to meet you," he said politely. 

Dean's eyes crinkled into a friendly smile. "Likewise. I'm told you have a BA from the University of Chicago, magna cum laude?" 

Richard blinked in surprise. "That's right. I've been working in Washington for the last several years." Technically not a lie. 

"You come highly recommended," Dean said sincerely. Richard wondered just who did the recommending. On second thought, he didn't want to know. "Rebecca is right up here, just follow me."

He had to break into a light jog to keep up with the tall man's long strides as Dean led him up the stairs and to the left. "Rebecca, he's here!" Dean called out.

The bedroom had three chairs set up. Which one is the cuck chair? I hope it's not me! There was one for Dean, one for Richard and one for-

"I'm Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper," she said plainly. RRC didn't bother to rise or offer him her hand, and went right back to her phone. 

What an odd couple. He's huge and she's a tiny little pocket person. I wonder how they...

Richard bit his lip to stop that train of thought. RRC was an attractive mid-thirties woman with light brown skin and a figure that was noticeably curvy even though she was sitting down. Not very talkative, though. 

"So," Dean began uneasily. "You have a policy document for us?"

He nodded and handed Dean a folder. RRC still hadn't looked up from her phone. Dean grimaced when he noticed. "Perhaps you can explain the larger points?" the big man asked leadingly. "Honey?"

"I'm listening," she said shortly, still not looking up. 

Tough crowd, huh? "I'm ready when you are," Richard said.

Dean held out a hand in invitation. "Please."

Richard took a deep breath. It's showtime. "The important thing when it comes to economic policy is not so much the nitty-gritty details as framing, how we sell it to the American people, and especially the donors. Also, it's easier to say what you're against than what you are for. People like teaming up against something or someone, makes them feel like they belong, very basic psychology. Therefore, I propose that our economic platform be articulated in opposing the, quote, 'Three Big Costs'."

Dean leaned forward, in interest, Richard hoped. If RRC didn't care then maybe he still had a chance if he could sell the husband on his spiel. 

"Three Big Costs," Dean repeated. "It's catchy."

Richard smiled. So far, so good. "The 'Three Big Costs' are housing, healthcare, and education. If you look at the budget of the median American family, you will notice these three things soak up a huge percentage of their resources, especially if they are old enough to have kids in college or if they have student loans themselves, which would still fall under 'education'." 

Dean tried to catch Rebecca's eye, but she was still focused on her phone. He sighed helplessly. "So what are you proposing we do about it?"

"Lowering education and healthcare costs will require deep, systemic reforms, serious pieces of legislation." Richard indicated the pamphlet. "We have a plan for it, but I don't suggest we make this our leading issue. Housing, on the other hand? That's the key. People feel the bite of their rent or mortgage payment every month. This is something we can run on, and address another issue as well."

The big man just looked at him expectantly. 

"To explain, I'm going to have to change gears for a moment. Did you know, that depending on what numbers you use, there are between eight and ten million able-bodied adult men in the United States who are not in any form of employment?"

"I didn't know that," Dean said, clearly taken aback. "Who are they? What do they do?"

"Sit at home playing video games, mostly. Usually in mom's basement or the house of some other relative, maybe a girlfriend's apartment if they're lucky." Richard paused for effect. "Now, some are genuinely self-employed, and some are criminals, but most are just rotting. They are what the Japanese call NEETs, which stands for Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Most seriously, this demographic is also highly vulnerable to being radicalized online. They have nothing but time to lurk in Discard chat and get exposed to extremist politics. The Hacker campaign has captured them to a great extent."

"I've heard about that!" Rebecca finally joined in. 

"You know about Discard?" Dean asked in surprise.

"I've heard of it. Somebody I know talked about Discard before." RRC didn't elaborate, and they didn't ask. She went back to her phone after that. 

"Anyway," Richard tried to redirect the conversation. "These NEETs, or "lost boys" as I prefer to call them, are a massive, untapped labor force. Therefore, I propose a labor draft! This will be the key issue we run on!"

"Wait, wait," Dean said dubiously. "How is drafting guys out of their mother's basements going to help housing?"

Richard vibrated happily in his chair. This really was his most brilliant idea. "The lost boys will build housing, of course. Look at the section in your packet labelled 'Federal Labor Service'. It's modeled on the old CCC from the great depression. Unemployed men will be drafted and given a "boot camp" type experience where they have to get up early in the morning, make their bed, adhere to basic hygiene standards, and so on. A lot of them will require rehab to learn basic social skills and reintegrate into society. For two months they'll be trained how to be general construction laborers or helpers to skilled tradespeople. After that, they'll serve a one or two year term building public housing. We're talking hundreds of thousands, even millions of units of affordable housing. Rents will have to come down!"

Dean Cooper looked like he wanted to like the idea. "That could work. But how do we pay for it?"

"Start small, ten thousand maybe. Once the success is obvious, convincing Congress to appropriate more funds to build in their districts will be a simple matter. The cost of doing nothing will be higher in the long run. If you let these lost boys continue as they are they will inevitably get radicalized into becoming foot soldiers for Aaron Hacker. Even if they don't, the burden on society will just accumulate as more of these lost boys fall through the cracks. It will also play well with voters we need!"

"How so?" Dean asked. 

"There are a lot of families with a son or a grandson in this situation. How many of them would like it if we took little Jimmy off the video games and out of the house? Gave him a chance at a job and a real life? The Federal Labor Service could also take volunteers, people in bad situations who need steady work and a change of scenery. A lot of America's problems come down to the labor force becoming less mobile over time. People are trapped in depressed areas and don't have the resources to move to where the jobs are. The FLS can give them the helping hand they need. Housing will get cheaper and unemployed men will be working instead of rotting. It might even take some of the wind out of the sails of digital right-wing extremism." 

"We just need to hammer the message. Three Big Costs! Housing! Housing! Housing!" Richard punctuated each word with a clap. "We're going to make life better for regular people! We're going to lower your rent! We're going to give your son or grandson that you lost hope for a job! Housing will be the first of the three we focus on, our key issue. Campaign messaging will be a snap. This is something the voters can understand, get behind."

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but as Richard got more excited, he felt these two getting excited with him.

"Positive messaging will drown out any negative word associations you've accumulated up to this point. Yes, I'm talking about the 'S' word." Richard looked at them both meaningfully. "Socialism has negative connotations in America, especially among older voters. Last I checked, that was your weakest demographic. Solution? Just don't call it socialism! Focus on cost! In this inflationary environment, campaign messaging centered around reducing costs is a sure winner. What do you say?"

Richard looked at them both expectantly. For once, Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper was paying as much attention as her husband. "What do you think, babe?" she asked.

RRC defers to him? 

"I think it's brilliant!" Dean said excitedly. "We can really run on this! Richard, how about we start working out a plan for pushing these talking points on social media?"

Richard's breath caught in his throat. "Does this mean I'm hired?"

They both nodded firmly. 

Score! 

More Chapters