Chapter 591 - 276: Capital Supremacy

"Politics isn’t just about empathy."

"You’re now facing the same dilemma."

"You’ve turned this group of people into your private army. They recognize you, not the party. If the name on the ballot isn’t Leo Wallace, they have absolutely no motivation to leave their homes and go to the polls."

"This is a transference of political apathy."

"Richard Taylor sees this clearly. He knows you can’t take those votes with you. But more importantly, he knows that by taking down an anomaly like you within the Democratic Party, or by forcing you to make a mistake, he can make these voters become completely disillusioned with politics."

"As long as the workers stay home and don’t vote, the Republican Party wins."

"So, the war isn’t over."

"Next, the Republican Party will concentrate its fire on you. They’ll exploit the fact that you’re still a Democrat, using every resource at their disposal to attack you and, in doing so, damage the entire Democratic Party."

"Now, let’s look at the Democratic Party."

Roosevelt continued his analysis.

"Those people in Washington, the bigwigs at the Democratic National Committee."

"You held them hostage. You blackmailed them with votes. You forced them to swallow a bitter pill, abandoning the meticulously groomed Monroe and accepting a fool who can do little more than dress the part as Governor."

"In that moment, they were truly frightened by the destructive power you displayed. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes are their lifeblood. With the presidential election less than a year away, they couldn’t afford to let the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania descend into endless infighting."

"All of this was possible because you were still wearing the cloak of the Democratic Party. As long as you nominally belonged to the blue camp, they could publicly claim this was just a normal transfer of power and thus protect their base for the general election. But that doesn’t mean they’ve accepted you."

"In the eyes of the Establishment Faction, you’re a madman who could blow up the whole building at any moment. They’re avoiding a direct confrontation with you for now, not engaging you in a bitter fight at the State Government level. This isn’t because they’re afraid of you, but because they need time to regroup."

"This is where the administrative purge comes in."

"Those institutions you’ve established, your Industrial Revival Alliance, every key position is filled with your people—and that’s precisely where the danger lies."

"Those people in Washington will use the procedural power they command. Today it’s an audit, tomorrow it’s a compliance check. They will use their own methods to replace your people, one by one."

"Once the system you’ve built starts being run by their people, your control over Pennsylvania will diminish."

"When that time comes, they’ll prop up a compliant puppet to take back control of this territory. And you, you’ll just be framed as a historical footnote: someone who stepped up in a crisis but then faded away due to a lack of administrative experience."

"And most importantly," Roosevelt continued, "the reason they compromised with you, decisively abandoning Monroe, was because you blackmailed them with votes, telling them you could make tens of thousands of workers stay home."

"That phone call happened too fast. They didn’t have time to think it through; they were intimidated by your audacity."

"But those people are meticulous calculators. Once they’ve had a moment to recover and get their hands on more detailed voter psychology reports, they’ll realize your control over those votes isn’t nearly as strong as you boasted."

"The people’s anger is only on loan to you. When their bellies are full, when the roads are fixed, when that extreme existential crisis disappears, this fanaticism will cool down."

"You taught them to distrust authority, but that’s a double-edged sword, because you are now a part of that authority."

"This is the cruel nature of voter politics. ’I might love you for giving me a pension, but I will never fight forever just to keep you in power.’"

"When Washington realizes you can’t actually take those votes with you, when that vote-strike bomb in your hand turns out to be a dud..."

"At that moment, you’ll lose even the right to negotiate with them."

"You’ll just be a local warlord who has lost his teeth, an obstacle who’s king of his little hill."

"The Establishment Faction can tolerate a corrupt Politician, and they can tolerate an incompetent fool, but they will never allow a warlord who tries to carve up their power to exist for long."

"In the logic of this country, Washington is the one and only center."

"They’re sharpening their knives, Leo. Before they make their move, you must secure absolute control over Pennsylvania."

"Otherwise, when the first snow of next year falls, there will be no place left for you here."

Finally, Roosevelt’s analysis wasn’t finished.

"And then there are the moderates."

"The doctors, lawyers, and small business owners living in the suburbs."

"The Luigi case has been resolved, the pardon has been signed, and the workers are cheering and hailing you as a hero."

"But in the eyes of the silent majority, you’re a dangerous element."

"You’ve undermined the rule of law, and that makes them feel unsafe."

"This fear is long-term. When it’s time to vote, they might not dare to oppose you publicly, but they’ll vote with their feet. They’ll move out of the city, taking their tax dollars and their capital with them."

Roosevelt summarized.

"Politically, you’ve become an island."

"To your left are your party colleagues who hate you. To your right are your Republican opponents who want to make an example of you. And beneath your feet is a terrified middle class."

"All you have is that one group of fanatical blue-collar workers."

"But that group is the most unstable."

"This is your situation, Leo."