Ultimately, as political junkies, we decided to throw out wisdom and not make the political issues generic but instead contemporary.  That puts the burden on us to keep updating the game but at the very least players will be able have an advantage in being up on the latest political issues.

 That isn’t to say all the issues a candidate will run into will be contemporary, many will be timeless in nature or at least timeless enough for our purposes.

 In addition to coming up with issues, we also have to figure out how Democrats, Republicans, and Independents feel about a given issue. Even more, we have to figure out in many cases how attitudes change from state to state. This means that we have to know first what percentage of the population in each state tends to vote for Democrats and which tends to vote for Republicans.

In The Political Machine, issues aren’t about what percentage of the population agrees with a position. Instead, issues are about how much people care about a given issue. A big difference. This means that we have to know secondly roughly how much Democrats and Republicans will care about a given issue.

The role of a candidate is to accomplish three things:

 1)      To build up their strength behind a given position

2)      To convince the population that the issue in question is important.

3)      To convince the population that their opponent’s position is counter to his on that issue.

So what are some of the issues of The Political Machine? Let’s start with the “timeless” issues:

• 1)      Abortion Rights.  Should abortion be legal or illegal?

• 2)      Government Provided Healthcare. Should the government provide healthcare to all citizens?

• 3)      Tax Cuts. Should the government lower taxes?

• 4)      Increased Federal Spending on Education. Should the federal government spend more on education?

• 5)      Social Security. Should the government continuing providing social security?

• 6)      Debt Reduction. Should reducing the federal debt be a priority?

• 7)      Prayer in Schools. Should the federal government pass laws to allow prayer in public schools?

• 8)      Curbing Illegal Immigration.  Should the federal government do more to stop illegal immigration?

• 9)      Improving the Economy. Should the federal government focus on improving the economy (this stat is heavily affected by the economic climate setting at the start).

• 10)  Fighting Crime. Should the federal government do more to help fight crime? This statistic is affected by the domestic unrest setting.

• 11)  Increasing Military Spending.  Should the federal government spend more on defense? This statistic is affected by the state of war setting.

• 12)  Capital Punishment. Should the federal government support the death penalty?

• 13)  Gun Control. Should additional restrictions be made on the carrying of fire arms?

• 14)  Environment. Should the government focus more on helping the environment?

• 15)  Farm Subsidies. Should the federal government support subsidizing farming?

• 16)  Foreign Aid. Should the federal government support less fortunate nations with economic and humanitarian aid? How much?

• 17)  Civil Rights. Should the federal government concern itself more with the civil rights of minority groups?

Here are some more contemporary issues:

• 18)  Legalizing Marijuana. Should the federal government legalize marijuana?

• 19)  War in Iraq.  Was removing Saddam Hussein through military force the right thing?

• 20)  War on Terror. Should the US continue the course of fighting global terror as we have been?

• 21)  Gay Marriage. Should the federal government support and recognize gay marriage?

• 22)   School vouchers. Should parents have the ability to control which schools receive their tax money?

• 23)  Private Social Security Accounts. Should we begin to privatize social security?

• 24)  Prescription Drugs for seniors. Should the federal government subsidize prescription drug coverage for senior citizens?

• 25)  United Nations. Should the US continue or increase its support of the United Nations?

• 26)  Israel. Should the US generally back the Israeli government in its dispute with the Palestinians?

• 27)  Palestinians. Should the US generally back the Palestinians in its dispute with Israel?

• 28)  Flat Tax. Should the US switch to a flat tax?

• 29)  Affirmative Action. Should the federal government continue to support Affirmatie action.

• 30)  Kyoto Treaty.  Should the US ratify the Kyoto Treaty on global CO2 emissions?

• 31)  NAFTA. Should the US continue with the NAFTA treaty?

• 32)  Tort Reform. Should the federal government crack down on what individuals can file a lawsuit for?

• 33)  Nuclear Energy. Should the federal government subsidize the building of nuclear power plants?

• 34)  Missile Shield. Should the government build a missile defense shield?

• 35)  Campaign Finance Reform. Should the government put strict limits on how money can be raised for campaigns?

• 36)  Drilling in ANWR. Should the federal government open up ANWR for oil exploration?

• 37)  Fighting Global Warming. Should the federal government put its efforts towards fighting global warming? Does global warming exist?

• 38)  Deficit Reduction. Nevermind the debt, should the federal government be focusing on reducing or eliminating the budget deficit?

• 39)  Trade with China. Should the government be interfering with trade with China given China’s shortcomings in human rights?

These are just a sampling of issues that candidates will have to deal with. On top of these, there are personal issues candidates can target such as integrity, credibility, competence, experience, and so forth. 

In designing the game, it was important to also deal with the fact that not only do different parties care about these issues at very different levels, but a candidate’s ability to persuade the electorate will differ greatly based on their political party. 

When you speak on a given issue, you may be able to convince the population that an issue is important but they may not believe you care about it as much as you say depending on what party you are on.

A Republican preaching about the environment might help make people start thinking about the environment more but it will likely not help the Republican very much.  Similar, a Democrat talking about the importance of a strong military might convince people of the need for one but not necessarily help the Democrat’s perceived position on that matter.

Learning which issues matter and how they affect the constituencies of each party will be key in mastering The Political Machine.