Fictional Political Party: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Remember Terra Firma on Election Day because Terra Firma remembers you!"''|'''Charles Saracino''', ''[[Mass Effect]]''}}

 

 

Political parties are a common occurrence to be found in just about any democracy. Individuals sharing similar ideologies and opinions band together to try and win elections and promote a political agenda that best serves the interests of people pertaining to that ideology and, if you're lucky, other people as well. Likewise, fictional settings that are democracies are typically shown to have political parties which reflect the issues and opinions which characterize the political climate of a story's setting.

Occasionally, a story taking place in a [[The Future|Future]] setting may suggest that two or more [[Real Life]] political parties from the present day will have combined into a single party, for example, "The Republocrats." For added humor, combine two modern day parties with conflicting ideologies, like the "Traditional Progressive Party." Likewise, an [[Alternate History]] story may rewrite political history, suggesting that a party developed a similar yet different platform, compared to their actual counterpart, or even suggesting that major parties fizzled out while minor ones became big players long after they had disbanded in the real world.

 

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== Comics ==

** In the short spin-off ''Robo-Hunter'', the robots on the planet one story takes place on have built an entire government full of political parties. Since the robots are actually controlled by a genius dictator robot, the government robots are utterly insane and spend most of their time arguing and trying to push pointless agendas.

** A common criticism of 'New Labour' by some was how on certain issues they had become more right wing than the Tories, which also hindered Tory attempts to regroup as their traditional ground had been usurped, which might explain where Moore got the idea.

* In ''[[Superman]]'' comics, [[President Evil|President]] [[Lex Luthor|Luthor]] represented the Tomorrow Party...well, to be precise, he ''founded'' the Tomorrow Party at a press conference where announced that he was running for President, but "not as a Democrat or a Republican, because both their ideas are too old." While the books didn't elaborate too much on the party's politics, what we saw during Lex's initial declaration of candidacy and in the months after he was elected indicated that the party's politics were probably centrist, with conservative viewpoints on fiscal issues and liberal views on social issues. Lex's platform also apparently contained a pledge to move towards renewable energy and to put technological innovation at the forefront of his platform. In the first few months of his presidency, Lex also "passed the most sweeping education reform in American history," but it was left deliberately vague as to what exactly those reforms were (which is probably for the best, seeing as how ''any'' type of education reform tends to be extremely contentious in [[Real Life]]).

** The Tomorrow Party seems to have dissolved after Lex's fall from power. [[Word of God]] says that in the months after Lex's fall when Vice President Pete Ross was left to run things, Pete had to deal with massive political fallout from Lex's fall. As of the DC: Decisions storyline, featuring Republican and Democratic Party candidates in danger, there was no more mention of the Tomorrow Party.

* [[Captain America]] featured a Presidential Candidate who started the Third Wing Party. It was all part of Red Skull's latest evil scheme.

* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' has "the reigning party" and "the opposing party", which depends on who the President is.

* ''[[Bloom County]]'' gave us the Meadow Party, which the main characters formed each election year and seemed to rely more on political double-speak and good publicity than actually, you know, taking a stand for anything. It ran presidential candidates in 1984 and 1988 and lost both times.

** During and around the time of the Prequel Trilogy, the two main factions in the Galactic Republic are the Separatists, led by Count Dooku, who wanted to leave the leave the Republic as see that it was disbanded and the Loyalists, led by Senator Palpatine, who wanted to remain with it; as we all should know, this eventually led to the rise of the [[Evil Empire|Galactic Empire]].

*** Also, before the Clone Wars, the Republic had two factions in the Senate. The Core Faction was liberal, supportive of trade tariffs, and made mostly of humans. The Rim Faction was conservative, anti-tariff, and made up of non-humans. During the election alluded to in [[The Phantom Menace]], Bail Antilles represented the Core Faction, Ainlee Teem represented the Rim Faction, Palpatine was independent, and Valorum was just fighting for his career; every faction had abandoned him.

** The True Victory Party was a political party comprised of radical Bothans who wished to continue ar'kai (i.e. "genocidal warfare") against the Yuuzhan Vong.

* In the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]], the Parliament Andoria is split between the Visionists (who are conservative and somewhat isolationist), and the strongly pro-Federation Modern Progessive party (liberal). On planet Mestiko, meanwhile, there's the Payavist Inward Party, which objected to alien interference in the world's rebuilding following the "pulse" disaster. It eventually overthrew the ''Zamestaad'' government in a coup (see [[Star Trek Mere Anarchy]]). Finally, on Kropasar, the two major parties are named "Agreement" and "Consensus".

** Some of the non-canon earlier novels also mention the Revanche Party on Cardassia, who are militarists who want to restore the glory days of Cardassian power. After the Dominion War there is Alon Ghemor's Reunion Party, which seeks to restore the original foundations of the Cardassian Union.

* The Industrial Radical Party in the [[Steampunk]] story ''[[The Difference Engine]]'', who believe in scientific endeavor, industrial progress, and meritocracy, appointing peerages to "savants". [[Lord Byron]] is Prime Minister. So yeah.

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' brings us 'The Party'. Simply 'The Party' since they've long since gotten rid of the competition, forming a totalitarian regime. Judging from what little history we can discern, they were originally a very left/communist party which formed in Britain or Europe, eventually succeeding in revolution. Of course, their communist beliefs about social equality were all just a sham, or have long since become one- the only thing The Party wants is power.

** There are two similar parties controlling the rest of the world, Eurasia apparently following Neo-Bolshevism; whilst Eastasia follows a philosophy "called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-worship, but perhaps better rendered as 'Obliteration of the Self'".

** In the same series, the United States' two main parties are the right-wing Democrats and the left-wing Socialists, with the centrist Republicans as a minor third party that draws most of its support from the agrarian [[Flyover Country]] states. Party colours are also different (as they are [[Newer Than They Think]] in real history) with the Socialists using red, the Republicans using yellow, and the Democrats using red, white and blue together due to [[Patriotic Fervour]].

* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dead Zone]]'', Greg Stillson forms the America Now party after he gets into the Congress as an independent. He's obviously based on John Birch-style right-wingers, though.

* The [[Honorverse]] has a sizable collection of these. Manticore alone has the Centrists, the Crown Loyalists, the Liberals, the Progressives, the Conservative Association, and the New Men. The newly reformed Republic of Haven is also rapidly developing several.

 

 

** There was also a "Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Wood Party", in which the Minister giving the broadcast fell through the Earth's crust.

* During ''[[The Daily Show]]'''s coverage of the 2000 Presidential Election, host Jon Stewart once claimed that the Green Party was the result of a joint rally for the Yellow and Blue Parties held during a rainstorm.

* The Finnish TV comedy series ''Ihmisten puolue'' is about the titular fictional party ("Humans' Party"). The party in question has little detectable ideology, being composed of a small group of individuals that bicker about everything.

* When Mr Gribble from ''[[Round the Twist]]'' runs for the Senate in the second series, he belongs to the fictional (in Australia) "Progressive Conservative Party," who have the same party colour (blue) as the real-life Liberal Party.