Chapter 1674: Death without Distraction (37)_1

From the perspective of the era in the Prime Universe, this is no longer the economic upswing period that Shiller was in. After enduring two economic crises, America is gradually distancing itself from the Golden Age. Under such historical circumstances, people's expectations for their leaders naturally change.

During periods of economic boom, people hope that leaders will be wise, visionary, and potentially great, leading the entire country and even the world to the next level, creating real miracles.

However, during economic downturns, people inevitably complain about not earning enough money and the high cost of living. With the declining quality of life, people no longer have the mindset to be concerned about national affairs. They hope more for leaders who can effectively change the current predicament and improve people's living conditions.

Most voters in this era of the Prime Universe think this way. They don't want those great figures who boast about the perpetual glory of America. They hope more for someone who can truly see the predicament most people are in and get the economy back on track.

This leads to the trend that, from the presidential election to the election of governors and mayors, voters tend to prefer pragmatic leaders who can display an image of hard-working, energetic, capable, wise leadership, and who can propose feasible solutions for every problem. At the same time, they should also have some friendly hobbies to close the distance with voters, making them feel that they are on the same side with them.

The campaign teams of Lincoln March and the current Mayor Magon both have rich experience. In this era, having plenty of campaigning experience means that they have built such images for several candidates. Therefore, when it comes to Magon and March, they naturally want to create a magic bullet strategy.

The image the campaign team created for March is that of a genius businessman who achieved remarkable success at a young age. Possessing a keen sense of business and an extraordinary investment vision, he is concerned about the current economic downturn and wants to turn the situation around with his own hands by participating in politics.

Thus, in his speeches, he often borrows some renowned quotes from Roosevelt's market rescue approach, emphasizing that professionals should do professional things. He claims that he will run the city like his own business. As long as he can make the economy prosperous, all problems could be solved.

However, Magon's campaign team chose an image of an experienced, mature old fox for him, emphasizing his origins from a family of farm owners. With his ability, he climbed to his current position, showing a miracle of a poor boy climbing to the top of the political circle.

During his speeches, he often calls his opponent a "young punk" to take advantage of his age advantage, subtly degrading other opponents as being too idealistic, while he is mature and steady, committed to steady development while maintaining stability.

Indeed, among these two, March is trying to win the favor of the nouveau riche, while Magon seeks to secure the support of the established and wealthy families. But they both forget one fact— this is Gotham.

If other cities are currently at the bottom of development, then Gotham has always been an abyss. In other cities, leaders who can turn the situation around in the eyes of their citizens are likely economic pragmatists. But in Gotham, in the citizens' view, the leaders who might be able to improve the city are probably more like iron-blooded emperors.

Astute and industrious pragmatists could be considered as hardliners in other cities. But in Gotham, their extent of toughness is far from sufficient. Typically, iron-fist leaders emerge in times of war because during these times, people need clear guidance and firm attitudes to build confidence.

However, it's not accurate to say that Gotham has been in a state of war for a long time. It's more like it has experienced a devastating defeat every few days. Therefore, even a leader who is like a military strongman isn't enough. To put it bluntly, what this place needs is a tyrant.

Perhaps even a sufficiently autocratic and tough emperor wouldn't be able to solve the darkness in Gotham rooted in metaphysics. Still, at least he could tell Gothamites what they should do now. Even if it means running headfirst towards death without looking back, it's better than living in confusion now.

What Gotham needs now is not justice but a clear path.

Mob-style violence, tyrant-style power, and even theology that lags several centuries behind, as long as someone can firmly implement a clear path to the end, the situation will be much better than it is now. Even if the darkness continues to bring physical suffering to Gothamites, having a spiritual pillar is salvation in some sense.

A comprehensive look at the comics reveals that in most cases, when Batman changes his path and comes to the forefront, the possibility of Gotham's salvation increases significantly. However, the issue is that it's not up to Batman himself to change his path in a universe.

In some remote universes, editors might make decisions that defy tradition for the sake of novelty. But the Prime Universe represents the face and essence of the DC World, and the games that Batman and the villains play provide the most popular content in DC Comics. Therefore, the Batman in the Prime Universe is unlikely to step forward into power.

But for now, Batman is still Batman, Gotham is still Gotham, and even Penguin Man is still the ambitious Penguin Man. Penguin Man's rise to mayorship is indeed something that has happened in thousands of universes. It's just that the arrival of the Robins has accelerated this process.

But perhaps they themselves haven't realized that a change in the language and style will also impact the person who plays the role, which is the so-called concept that pretending to be someone can eventually become a reality.

After Jason fully taught Penguin Man how to speak and act in his style and his experience in running for mayor of Gotham City from his universe, Penguin Man suddenly realized how tremendously useful this strategy is.

The so-called "as long as I lack morality, you can't morally kidnap me", or rather "I've already fallen this far, why can't I continue this decline?". In short, as long as you clearly recognize Gotham's positioning and align your moral bottom line perfectly with this positioning, living here would be like a fish in water.

The dilemma of Penguin Man was that he was born in the chaotic city of Gotham, used gangster tactics to accumulate resources for himself, but after achieving a bit of success, he gave up such direct methods, wanting to cloak himself in the guise of civilization and blend into so-called high society.

But the fact is, this takes a lot of manpower and resources, careful planning and extreme caution.

But really, there's no need for so much trouble in Gotham, just pull your opponents down to your level and then use your wealth of experience to defeat them. It's the greatest advantage of battling on your home ground of Gotham.

The war happening in midtown Gotham made Penguin Man understand this, and he quickly discarded his civilized disguise and began to do what Gothamites do.

Who cares about deep-sea port approvals, do Gothamites need approval for anything? I'm going to hammer in the first pier piling right now, and anyone who disagrees can try stopping me.

What? Condemned by environmentalist groups in the media? Even when Gotham is taking environmental steps, they receive nothing but condemnation! So why should I care about it? Build the deep-sea port, discharge the wastewater, even if Godzilla emerges from the sea, we'll deal with it ourselves.

Penguin Man's connections in crime are far stronger than Robin's. He directly brings a few regulars from the Iceberg Restaurant on board and contacts some smugglers from out of town. Ignoring the environmental laws and state council, they stride to the site of the new dock.

Building the deepwater port won't happen overnight, but the smugglers' ships can't wait. Large ships can't dock but small ones can, brazenly approaching the shore to unload, with the threat of any obstruction leading to death.

You're asking, does Gotham police not care? Aren't they engaged in warfare in midtown? Even if Gordon had three heads and six arms, it would be impossible to tackle regular crimes, stop a war, and inspect smuggling all at once.

This brings us back to the topic. If Gotham's police force is insufficient, why don't the Federal Bureau of Investigation step in? Even when there's a war happening, where are the troops?

If the federal government and state council didn't behave like turtles hiding in their shells, Gotham wouldn't have become this rotten. So why can't we be rotten too? We're rotten!

Factually, as long as one can blame others with a set of logically coherent excuses, life would become so much brighter, free of lower back pain or leg cramps.

Not only did Penguin Man illegally built the deepwater port for welcoming smuggled ships, he unabashedly admitted it in public speech.

"Dear audience, I think you've heard that our lovely state councilor was once again cursing Gotham at the last conference, particularly cursing me, Oswald."

"But do I care about him? No, I don't care at all, no matter what they say, I don't care, because they've never cared about me."

"They don't care how geographically advantageous Gotham Bay is for trade and transportation, how many people could have worked as dockers or sailors, they don't care."

"What do they care about? They only care about their goddamn environmental laws!"

"Last week, Councilor Lode bought a private airplane for his newly-wed wife, flying between Metropolis and San Francisco over a dozen times in a week. Just now, he has claimed in his private media that 86% of factories in Gotham are wasting energy and requested factories to halt operations for self-inspection."

"They're not just targeting Gotham, they're targeting me too, just because I hired over two thousand workers to build a dock without approval, introduced several thousand vigorous young men as crew members for my business partners. I made them smuggle, work as mercenaries, mix with the gangs."

"But even if I'm utterly wicked, these soft eggs who can only blabber can have no say in me – Anders Lode, listen carefully. You called me a filthy gangster residual and a hangman full of blood, right? When you're beheaded on the guillotine by me, you better pray your environmental laws can save you!"

Watching the broadcast, Batman's eyes narrowed. Is Penguin Man planning to kill the congressman? No, it can't be so simple.

As Batman speculates rapidly, he disappears from the Batcave. Moments later, a Batplane takes off, disappearing into the endless night of Gotham.