A Fictional Debate
On Wednesday's [Political Communication](http://explorecourses.stanford.
Confession of a Stanford Sloan Fellow Series EP33
On Wednesday's Political Communication class, we were divided into groups to do mocked debate representing Winterfell and Casterly Rock. In my group I was assigned the task of speaking about foreign policy for 1.5 minute. Before coming to the class I only had five sentences as clueless talking points from the perspective of Winterfell. During the class while listening to Professor David Demarest, I started jotting down some phrases that might help me get through this 90 seconds, which accounted for 25% of the grade. I obviously didn't have the slightest idea of Winterfell's foreign policies, but I was reasonably versed in great speeches by Hollywood, MLK, JFK, RFK, Yoda, and Lennon. So it became an impromptu, and seemed to have amused my very understanding classmates, who were mostly Winterfell political and historical junkies. Here it is:
As we close behind a chapter of a ferociously-contested general election behind us, we see not the end of a beginning, but the beginning of a beautiful bipartisan cooperation in the next four years on the horizon.
The central task today under foreign policy is to reestablish Winterfell as a military and economic superpower. Our leader should lead the world, not apologize to the world; our economy should recover from the crisis, not become the root of the crisis; our jobs need to attract the best talents in the world to join us, not to run away from us; our military needs to pre-empt strike, not to invite ambush. The murder of Eddard Stark served as a sober wake-up call for us all.
So how can we achieve that? We need to do three things:
First, maintain strong military strength with sustained investment to counter potential state-based threats, especially in the Western Mooncific region.
Second, open Winterfell up to the global market by attracting more high-skilled workers. Look at these talented GSB students in this room, especially those international ones who have no idea what is Winterfell's foreign policy but sit in anyway. Their brains so intelligent, attitude so diligent, dance moves so elegant! Somebody please give them visa so that they can stay here after graduation!
Last but not the least, adopt a stronger stance toward Casterly Rock's unfair trade practice by imposing higher duties to level the play field in a global market. Ensure they will not steal our intellectual properties; ensure they will not manipulate their currency; and ensure they will not grow at the expense of Winterfell. Fear not, the one gazillion dollars we owe to the Lannisters; fear not, the so many gold medals they won at the Hunger Games, because, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hates leads to suffering of Winterfell people!
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope by the end of this debate you will join us. And the Starks and the Lannisters will live as one, leading Winterfell to prosperity, once again!