"Okay so it is clear that the best course of action will have to be well thought out, because we cannot go into this half cocked, We cannot take on the entire political system without knowing what we are doing, without planning out every aspect of our plan. We all have great resources within our campaigns to do some snooping, but we have to be smart about it." Scott looks at his best friends, smirking at the 'war room' that they have created.
"Marc, you need to keep an eye the campaign email, any email that pops up I want you to record somehow, discreetly." Megan and Scott have both taken control of the situation because Sarah is too angry to think logically and Marc is still in shock that this is happening. If it were up to Sarah they would call a press conference right now and call Bunker out, but it isn't the smartest way to go about this, and so her friends are there to help her get there.
"We need to keep an eye on all the campaigns, I mean the last person I would think would cheat would be Schwartz but we have to make sure." Marc has stopped denying that Bunker is cheating but he has to believe that one of the other candidates are too.
"I've been doing some research, ever since you told me what was happening, I don't know if any of the campaigns are entirely clean. There have been whispers, and the whispers are not kind to any candidate." Sarah clearly did not sleep at all and has pages and pages of research in front of her. She understands that politics is a dirty game, but she is not going to sleep until she is sure that they uncover everything that they need to uncover, she is not going into any situation half cocked and unprepared.
"Sarah, why don't you go rest for a little bit, we will wake you up if we come up with a plan, and I promise we will go through your research." Scott is clearly worried about Sarah, because she takes this cheating so seriously, it hurts her ideals.
"I'm fine, I'm not made of glass, people suck and politics are dirty, we knew this, let's try and make it less dirty okay? I think I found something, we need to build a strong enough case that this is an institutional failure, and then we need to find someone strong enough to be a third party candidate. It's late in the game but it's not impossible, we just need someone with enough clout." Sarah is determined to not let this get to her.
"You want to run a separate candidate while working on campaigns?" Marc can't believe that she is actually suggesting that. Sarah is the most loyal person that he knows, and even if she knows that her campaign is doomed she would never consider abandoning ship because it is just not who she is.
"Technically the third party candidate will not be running against any of the candidates in the races that we are employed for. We all are going back to school before the general election work, we are only employed for the primary races, therefore any third party candidate we help campaign will be outside of the races that we are employed for." Sarah may not show it but she has a devious brain and knows how to use it.
"That is genius Sarah, do you have anyone in mind?" Scott is impressed with Sarah and that she understands sometimes the rules of the game aren't inherently corrupt.
"Not yet, but I'm sure we will be able to find one, we have quite a bit of brain power here."
The four friends brainstorm well into the night.
The Confusion.
It must have been around two in the morning and Marc and Megan had already crashed due to the all the work that they have been doing but Scott and Sarah are still going strong.
"I am impressed with how well you are taking this Sarah, I mean you are the biggest idealist and I would think this would shock you to the very core. I half expected to find you curled up with a tube of cookie dough and fuzzy socks, not working on how to fix the situation. Don't get me wrong, I knew you would get there, I just expected you to need some time to wallow first, mourn the loss of your innocence." Scott looks up from the paper that he was looking at.
"I don't think that politics are perfect, I just think that people can do more, can care more than politicians believe that they can. I believe that politics would be cleaner if politicians were held accountable, and the way that they become accountable is that the people need to stand up. I don't think that anything will change if we just ask politely for them to change, we have to be willing to work until real change happens, so that is what I'm doing, there's time to wallow later." Sarah is sick and tired of people thinking that she has unrealistic expectations of the world.
"I agree, just because we disagree on policy does not mean that we disagree on the integrity of the system, and the need for integrity of the system. I know you think I'm some terrible fake imitation of a human being for my political beliefs but that is just part of who I am. I have morals that would make a priest think I'm being too harsh on myself, and this whole situations hurts me just as much as it does you."
"Who would ever think that we could actually agree on anything, I mean we are about as different as can be and yet we are the best of friends." Sarah smiles at him, knowing that even if they believe completely opposite things they will always be best friends.
"You actually amaze me. I know that we are all friends and similar in our passion for politics but you have this aura that is just so passionate and it amazes me. I have become so cynical and it just warms my heart that you can still believe in the good of politics."
"Politics aren't inherently dirty, it has become that way due to human nature and I think that if we get a group of people who want to go into politics for the right reasons we might just be able to change the game, without ruining the system.There just needs to be more accountability to ensure that there is less cheating. I don't think that there can ever be no cheating but I think that if there is more accountability, then I think the cheating will be less, and a little less cheating is a little more honesty which is all we can ever truly ask for."
"I may not be one for big government or most of your policies but I have to tell you, if you ran, I would probably vote for you, you just ooze honesty, which is missing from most of the politicians these days. I would rather have a president who is honest with me and I disagree with, then one who lies but says that they have the same beliefs as me. How do I actually know that if they are always lying to me?"
"And I might hate the idea of losing social programs but if you ran I would probably vote for you because you ooze confidence and understanding even in the face of all the terrible cuts you would make." Sarah looks at Scott and blushes slightly, not understanding why she all of a sudden feels awkward, but puts it down to just being tired, given that she hadn't slept since they found out about the cheating.
"It's probably a good thing that Marc is the one who wants to run, given that he is in the middle of the two of us." Scott smiles at Sarah, knowing that he has liked her for awhile, but doesn't plan to do anything about it, because they will probably end up killing each other if they ever ended up dating.
Sarah just laughs before the two of them get back to work, looking up to look at each other when they don't think the other was paying attention.
The Project.
"I know what we need to do!" Megan looks up from the papers she was planning, excited that she has a plan, or at least the beginning of a plan. "We need to create the illusion of an investigation. We need to convince people that there has been serious misconduct and the best way to convince people of that is to make them believe that there an investigation going on. And thanks to the wonders of the internet this should be less of a problem, a couple tweets from the right accounts, a couple messages on Facebook and it will work." Megan has been working on this plan for a couple of hours and then it hit her all of a sudden.
"How do we do that without getting caught? The most important part of this is that we help fix the system, but we do it without ruining our chances at a future in politics?" Marc may be just as enthusiastic about this as his friends, but he is also the only one interested in becoming a politician and therefore wants to makes sure that nothing will ruin that future.
"We will use fake accounts, we have a big enough network of friends that we know what hashtags and things they follow, it is entirely possible to do this, and when it comes out that there is no investigation people will still believe