Anxieties of Outage Part II: Politics
As I wrote about in Part I of this series, the predominant fear explored in my new thriller, Outage, is technology and our inherent dependence on it—even as technology, specifically AI, seems like an increasing threat to humanity. But the second major societal anxiety examined in the book is politics.
Before joining the tech industry, I started my career in Washington D.C. (the setting of Outage) working on Capitol Hill, first as an intern for a Republican congressman from my home district in Wisconsin and later as a deputy press secretary for a Democratic senator from Michigan. I only lasted a couple years, concluding relatively quickly that the world of politics and government was simply too partisan, bureaucratic, and inefficient for my tastes. And that was over thirty years ago.
Like most Americans across the political spectrum, I find the state of our current political landscape troubling, if not terrifying. Most mornings, I can barely stomach the news headlines, but not for the reason often cited of extreme political polarization. Democracy, by design, is partisan, confrontational, and slow-moving. It isn’t intended to be ruthlessly efficient. It is meant to be consensus-driven and based on necessary compromises to achieve progress. The separate-but-equal branches of government are intended to be checks and balances, preventing presidents in particular from exercising monarchic power.
That’s the idea anyway.
The trend I’ve found most disturbing over the last decade is the deliberate thwarting of our legal system, undermining of our institutions, and corrupting of our system by special interests, foreign and domestic. Rather than government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” we have a ruling elite, increasingly blending government and the private sector, that brazenly lines their own pockets while regular Americans fall further and further behind.
In Outage, I zero in on these anxieties that are so prevalent about the state of our political system. Without ruining the plot, the conspiracy at the center of the story manifests many of the most troubling trends that are evident in our global geopolitical landscape which I enumerate upon here.
Realignment along political loyalties—Historically, one of the great unifying forces of American politics was that we are all Americans. We had each other’s backs. We defended our nation and each other from foreign threats and upheld our common interests abroad. As another former Michigan senator, Republican Arthur Vandenberg, famously said, “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” That maxim no longer seems to be the case. Both parties have been guilty of this, but the current administration in particular regularly vilifies, even dehumanizes, other Americans with whom they disagree, as they simultaneously curry favor from and align with autocratic foreign governments like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Mohammed bin Salman. The same is true within the United States, with policies toward individual states dictated by their red or blue status.
The premise at the core of Outage is just such a geopolitical realignment, in which domestic leaders ally with foreign interests to sabotage their rivals, simply because it advances their political and financial agenda. If we are to preserve what really makes America great, we need to be vigilant about the exploitation and compromising of our system by deep-pocketed and corrupt foreign intervention.
Dismantling of governmental institutions—Perhaps the greatest attribute of American democracy is the strength and relative independence of our federal institutions. From the Federal Reserve to the Justice Department to the Centers for Disease Control, Americans at least had a reasonable hope, as imperfect as these institutions could be at times, that decisions were free from political favor, people with knowledge and expertise had their best interests in mind, and justice would be served.
The constant, relentless, and often unfounded attacks against our institutions of government is perhaps the most pernicious attribute of the current administration. These organizations have been appropriated by political cronies, deployed for personal vendettas, and consequently lost much of their credibility. In Outage, the protagonist, Rachel, succumbs to doubt about the FBI agents investigating her husband. This element of the plot shows how fundamentally undermining it is to erode trust in our principal federal law enforcement organization.
Wielding the economy as leverage—The subservience of public policy to private commercial interests is nothing new. Unfortunately, much of U.S. policymaking at the local, federal, and international level in our nation’s history has been driven by corporate agendas. From tax concessions for stadium deals that enrich billionaire sports team owners to meddling in the governments of nations across the Middle East, Africa, and South America on behalf of U.S. oil companies, America has often allowed policy to be dictated by economic considerations. It’s no surprise that elected officials, dependent on donations from those exact special interests, are compelled to govern accordingly. So while it’s not new, it’s just gotten worse and more overt.
The premise of Outage centers on the latest fixation of U.S. economic policy: the race for technical dominance in semiconductors and Artificial Intelligence. Just as with past industries viewed as strategic imperatives—e.g. appropriation of land for agriculture from indigenous peoples, slave labor, industrial production, oil reserves, rare earth metals, nuclear energy, etc.—America can be quick to set aside our moral compass and democratic ideals in the name of economic gain. Sadly, as depicted in the story, the spoils of those policies will again accrue to a tiny number of already spectacularly rich individuals.
Weaponization of corporations—The last disturbing trend I’ll note is one we seem to have learned from the autocracies of Russia and China. As if it’s the next logical step of the above-mentioned appropriation of public policy by corporate interests, we seem to increasingly be on a course in which we simply blend public and private. Russia’s version of this was the plundering of former communist-controlled corporations doled out to individual oligarchs in exchange for their loyalty. China’s version of this has ranged from fully state-owned enterprises to suspected CCP interests in companies, including Huawei and TikTok, operating abroad.
The very concept of a conflict of interest seems to have been thrown out the window. From AI to cryptocurrency, there seems to be no qualms about overt profiteering. Even Fox News has questions about the Trump family’s personal financial gains, estimated to be as high as $10 billion during his second term. I have long held that the largest and most influential corporations—Meta, Google, Nvidia, Tesla—are becoming more powerful than the nation states in which they operate. As the vehicle for virtually limitless wealth, unbridled power, and unimpeded money laundering and political influence, these mega-corporations are fast becoming the biggest threat to democracy itself.
Although our political situation can seem dire, I’ll end on an optimistic note which is that our political system has also proven to be resilient. And that is exactly what Rachel Farrell is in the story, resilient. In the face of disinformation and uncertainty, she trusts her judgement, listens to her instincts, and perseveres against the odds.
Next month, I’ll conclude this three-part series with the Anxieties of Outage Part III: People.