Laura Roslin Was a Horrible President
Aug. 29th, 2015 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastLaura Roslin was a horrible president!
Presidents, in the likes of the Democracy that existed before Laura Roslin became President, aren't typically judged to be successes if the nations they govern merely continue to exist. The judgments come in a variety of forms. Did they negotiate well with foreign powers? Did their domestic policies positively impact the economy, the environment, education, etc.?
I don't want to say that President Roslin benefits from the near-eradication of her entire nation/species... but her PR certainly does. We do see President Roslin keep her composure and make reasoned decisions under extreme pressure, including the duress of extended sleep deprivation. We cannot take that from her... but neither should we hold her to a standard best reserved for figure-heads.
Sooner or later, as President, she has to do something beyond look non-panicked.
But, let's look at the only thing on my non-exhaustive list I gave that still applied; education. Before being President Roslin, she was Secretary of Education Roslin. One would, based on her holding this position, reasonably conclude that she has some appreciation of both the long-term and short-term values of education.
After the short stay on a planet, after becoming President again, after having been in her second term for a while... Galen Tyrol brings up an issue. Children are being locked into the jobs of their parents. Laura Roslin explains that, considering the circumstances, parents are teaching their children the only skills they have. Galen Tyrol responds, quite reasonably, that this would force a de-facto class or caste structure.
Tell me, why didn't President Roslin see that coming?
Why didn't former Secretary of Education Roslin have plans, quicker than most other matters, for an education program to give the children of the colonies reading, writing, arithmetic, basic engineering, and basic first aid?
Okay, maybe the entire time was too focused on immediate survival. Anybody who could have taught was flying a raptor, practicing medicine, or... well, there are a number of jobless refugees on Galactica, but let's ignore them and move on from Education.
If immediate survival is the name of the game, you'd better make sure that the people that make the most basic element of survival possible have everything you can reasonably supply.
In the same episode in which Galen Tyrol makes the point about the end of class mobility, we find out that the people refining the fuel on which all the ships run... haven't had a day off since leaving Caprica.
On a humanitarian level, that's horrific. On a basic survival level, that's idiotic. On the level of learning, from history, what happens when you treat sentient beings like disposable things, that's a complete and utter failure.
Remember, both of these are issues that had to have been continuing problems ever since leaving Caprica. That means that earlier, before planetfall, when General Adama noted that the population so rarely went up, President Roslin hadn't taken any effort, whatsoever, to encourage people to reproduce. Her only thought on how to accomplish the increased population of the Colonies was to, unilaterally, criminalize abortion.
Now, we could get into a discussion of the rightness or wrongness of abortion. But, what isn't a matter of opinion is that criminalizing abortion doesn't reduce abortion.
You know what would encourage people to reproduce? A sense that their children would have a good education and occupational opportunity. Maybe time off from refining fuel long enough to actually engage in the act of reproduction.
Okay, so we're only seeing what she doesn't do as President. What does she do? She abducts a citizen's child. She attempts to criminalize religious freedom because Gaias Baltar really bugs her.
If she's such a bad president, why did the people elect her? They didn't. We all know that the first time she was sworn in as President it was because everybody else was already dead. The only election in which she actually ran, she lost to Gaias Baltar. She sent one of the most needed Raptor pilots back to the radiation-charred planet to acquire a religious artifact.
After Gaias Baltar was no longer President, Thomas Zarek became President, made her his Vice President, and then resigned. The reason he did so was that General Adama had made absolutely clear that, had Zarek not done so, he would die. That's not Democracy. That's a coup d'etat.
It's a good thing that, according to the show, history didn't record her presidency. She'd be recognized as an idiotic religious fanatic with high-level military support.
Presidents, in the likes of the Democracy that existed before Laura Roslin became President, aren't typically judged to be successes if the nations they govern merely continue to exist. The judgments come in a variety of forms. Did they negotiate well with foreign powers? Did their domestic policies positively impact the economy, the environment, education, etc.?
I don't want to say that President Roslin benefits from the near-eradication of her entire nation/species... but her PR certainly does. We do see President Roslin keep her composure and make reasoned decisions under extreme pressure, including the duress of extended sleep deprivation. We cannot take that from her... but neither should we hold her to a standard best reserved for figure-heads.
Sooner or later, as President, she has to do something beyond look non-panicked.
But, let's look at the only thing on my non-exhaustive list I gave that still applied; education. Before being President Roslin, she was Secretary of Education Roslin. One would, based on her holding this position, reasonably conclude that she has some appreciation of both the long-term and short-term values of education.
After the short stay on a planet, after becoming President again, after having been in her second term for a while... Galen Tyrol brings up an issue. Children are being locked into the jobs of their parents. Laura Roslin explains that, considering the circumstances, parents are teaching their children the only skills they have. Galen Tyrol responds, quite reasonably, that this would force a de-facto class or caste structure.
Tell me, why didn't President Roslin see that coming?
Why didn't former Secretary of Education Roslin have plans, quicker than most other matters, for an education program to give the children of the colonies reading, writing, arithmetic, basic engineering, and basic first aid?
Okay, maybe the entire time was too focused on immediate survival. Anybody who could have taught was flying a raptor, practicing medicine, or... well, there are a number of jobless refugees on Galactica, but let's ignore them and move on from Education.
If immediate survival is the name of the game, you'd better make sure that the people that make the most basic element of survival possible have everything you can reasonably supply.
In the same episode in which Galen Tyrol makes the point about the end of class mobility, we find out that the people refining the fuel on which all the ships run... haven't had a day off since leaving Caprica.
On a humanitarian level, that's horrific. On a basic survival level, that's idiotic. On the level of learning, from history, what happens when you treat sentient beings like disposable things, that's a complete and utter failure.
Remember, both of these are issues that had to have been continuing problems ever since leaving Caprica. That means that earlier, before planetfall, when General Adama noted that the population so rarely went up, President Roslin hadn't taken any effort, whatsoever, to encourage people to reproduce. Her only thought on how to accomplish the increased population of the Colonies was to, unilaterally, criminalize abortion.
Now, we could get into a discussion of the rightness or wrongness of abortion. But, what isn't a matter of opinion is that criminalizing abortion doesn't reduce abortion.
You know what would encourage people to reproduce? A sense that their children would have a good education and occupational opportunity. Maybe time off from refining fuel long enough to actually engage in the act of reproduction.
Okay, so we're only seeing what she doesn't do as President. What does she do? She abducts a citizen's child. She attempts to criminalize religious freedom because Gaias Baltar really bugs her.
If she's such a bad president, why did the people elect her? They didn't. We all know that the first time she was sworn in as President it was because everybody else was already dead. The only election in which she actually ran, she lost to Gaias Baltar. She sent one of the most needed Raptor pilots back to the radiation-charred planet to acquire a religious artifact.
After Gaias Baltar was no longer President, Thomas Zarek became President, made her his Vice President, and then resigned. The reason he did so was that General Adama had made absolutely clear that, had Zarek not done so, he would die. That's not Democracy. That's a coup d'etat.
It's a good thing that, according to the show, history didn't record her presidency. She'd be recognized as an idiotic religious fanatic with high-level military support.
