Scene 1, Our Middle Class Dreams
If you just want to learn about ranked choice voting, skip ahead to Scene 5, Math Breakthrough.
Voice actors eventually will transform this dialog into an audiobook. In the meantime, during this crazy 2024 election year, this dialog is available here and now to help you make sense of U.S. politics and understand what it will take to uncrazify the political world.
[Everything you need to know for reading is within the dialog.]
K (Katerina): [She is Damien's fiancé.] Damien! Are you thinking of jumping off?
D (Damien): [Always speaks with lazy pronunciation.] With today's luck I'd land on something soft.
K: Like marshmallows in a truck bed? Or slop from a pig trough?
D: Or my head.
K: That would put a dent. In paying next month's rent. What's the matter?
D: I'm feeling sadder than a limping seagull. In winter. In Seattle.
K: How did you get there?
D: Life's so unfair. My dream's been shattered.
K: Which dream's been fractured? The picket fence around a front yard that's big enough for a Saint Bernard?
D: That's your dream. Mine was to enter the middle class.
K: Yeah. To gain that entrance you've been busting your ass.
D: My butt's busted. What more does it take?
K: Maybe a secret handshake? What's up?
D: Today my boss popped my bubble.
K: Is his business in trouble?
D: Nah. But he told me some stuff. About some laws that are rough.
K: The ones corporations can avoid?
D: Yeah. It's got me annoyed.
K: Some corporations are sneakier than pickpockets and con artists. And kids giving away free kittens.
D: Us taxpayers get pushed to the edge. Don't they see? We're looking down into a volcano of molten lava called bankruptcy.
K: You didn't tell me we're this close to the edge. How can this be?
D: How is it we who vote aren't the ones keeping afloat? We're supposed to have democracy!
K: Yes we can vote. But most candidates are wimpy puppets. Or slimy con artists.
D: Or third-party spoilers. I hate that sulfurous stink when I have to mark the lesser fink.
K: Yeah. It's a big kink in democracy.
D: How come laws favor the wealthy? We make a big fuss. Yet the few rich outvote us.
K: I wonder what happens to our votes. Are we just rabbits living near a den of coyotes?
D: I'm beginning to think the only prognosis is hopelessness.
K: Maybe it's hypnosis. Or the political ads I suppose.
D: We can see through those. Something is hidden. There's got to be another villain.
K: A conspiracy? A dark-money tyranny? Or a Bermuda pentagon with two sides missing?
D: I dunno. But as my dad would say, Get to the root of the problem, that's where the solution lay.
K: My parents, they said with a smirk, Suit up, show up, pay attention, and then pretend to work work work.
D: Yeah I'm willing to bust my ass. But I'll give it a pass if we're following the footsteps of Native Americans.
K: On a warpath?
D: Getting herded. Their shamans spoke [speaking clearly] White chieftains are lying wolves who herd us like buffalo. From our grazing lands to dry deserts where foods don't grow. They feed their greed beyond their need.
K: We're being herded indeed. Something isn't right.
D: Damn. I wanna know whose hand I should bite!
K: Financially, our life's so far upside down from where I want it to be.
D: I wanna be an employer. But I'm just an employee.
K: I wanna be a princess. But do you see a tiara on my empty head?
D: When dinner's got veggies and meat, our car's gas gauge says stay off the street.
K: My dental smile gives us cheer. But now when dining out we can't afford beer. Our finances are dreadful.
D: It's .... What's that word? Like evil. Like diablo.
K: Diabolical?
D: That's it! It's diabolical! It's a shakedown. The wealthy say that money trickles down. Maybe it does, temporarily. But not as fast as it drains from our wallet. Just for the bare necessities. They claim that working hard is a good bet. And yet, Las Vegas has better odds at roulette.
K: Do you want a chocolate truffle?
D: Something brown to get me down? No thanks.
K: They're delicious.
D: I'm suspicious. Something is going on behind our backs.
K: Yes, right in front of our eyes.
D: Work and cash should come as a pair. But one without the other. That's not effing fair!
K: Yeah. We're indentured to jerks. And getting only table-scrap perks.
D: It ain't right. The boss I've got is almost a saint. Yet he says he's drowning in taxes. And licenses. And insurance. And extra fees. Just keeping track of these, plus posting the Spanish translation of the pregnancy accommodation rules for dogs brought to work by employees, adds another employee.
K: That leaves less money for me. Your paycheck is like a balloon with a leak.
D: Times are bleak. I know how to invent. But that don't pay the rent. Not yet. And it won't if I'm not able to own my own biz.
K: I get a distressed feeling when I see you leaning over our balcony railing. I fret. Because I've read that suicide is done by guys who can't yet find anyone else to blame. So who do you think has rigged the political game?
D: I dunno. Politics's so complex.
K: Yeah. Everything interconnects.
D: Yet surely somewhere, maybe sitting in a yoga pose on a high mountaintop. Or kneeling at an altar in a Gothic cathedral. Or standing behind a counter asking Do you want cheesy garlic bread with your pasta? There's just got to be a geek, or geekette, who knows the secret.
K: Even Google couldn't find that tiny grain of truth in a pet shop's inventory of cat litter.
D: Especially because most online search has kickback associations with big corporations.
K: Let's just say you found a guru who knew. What would be your query? Specifically.
D: How can we get better democracy? ... Wait. Not that. Ah yes. I would ask What's at the root of unfairness ... in politics and business?
K: Bright professors teach at our city's college. In political science they teach about the electrical, er, electoral college. And gerrymand ... whatever.
D: Katerina. You know I would rather walk into a rattlesnake cage than turn another textbook page. Those pages shake my eyes faster than the snake's tail. My brain throbs as weaselly words try to drag me through dates and definitions. And the names of Thomas Jefferson's pets. And tests, those effing devils. They just rat out those of us who didn't read the textbook.
K: Now that's a real conspiracy. Textbooks and tests are in bed together. Making baby test questions.
D: Just being inside a classroom feels like I've stepped into a boxing ring. Without wearing boxing gloves. Instead holding pom poms.
K: Ah yes. Community college classes already knocked you out for the...
