THE CRACKPOT OF THE EMPIRE
(originally broadcast 3 September 2023 on IBN2 as part of its series,
Contenders for the Crown)
[Interview with Barnabas Isherwood, professor of constitutional law at Alpin University]
DANNER: Is there anything in the law, or perhaps in imperial decrees on electoral procedure, that precludes a commoner from being elected to the Imperial throne?
ISHERWOOD: Well...no. Nowhere does it say, whether in recorded law or in decrees on succession issued by...any past emperor, that a duly elected Emperor must be of a royal or noble background. It's just simply something that legislators, jurists, and emperors of years past took for granted. They never wrote out such a rule because they never thought a commoner would ever be so audacious...so presumptuous as to seek the throne. To them, it never came up because it simply isn't done.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: It simply isn't done. That's a line we've all undoubtedly heard by now—a commoner can't be elected to the throne because it's something that's simply not done. But what happens when one actually tries? I'm Rowan Danner, and welcome to
Contenders for the Crown. Today, we take a look at Texan president Armando Larraín Nava, who is almost certainly waging an unprecedented concerted effort to become the Confederation's first emperor of common background. Larraín, of course, isn't brazen enough to disrupt the convention against openly campaigning—but to political insiders, it is no secret that the bombastic statesman isn't satisfied with the sash and chain he currently holds. And that has led some in the aristocracy to lash out at this supposed effrontery. The Marquis de Lac-Saint-Jean, a former Governor-General of the United Provinces, has called his candidacy "an impossibility." Prince Lionel of Nova Scotia, the late emperor's younger brother, said it was "a fool's errand, a non-starter, a bewildering spectacle." Yet, the epithet that sticks out the most is one that was reported anonymously, a leak from a cabinet cocktail party in New Amsterdam, published last week by the Erskine Times: "the Crackpot of the Empire."
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas Ferrer, investigative journalist with La Prensa Libre de San Antonio]
SALINAS: Well, he can be a crackpot!
(laughs) He can be a crackpot when he wants to be. When it suits him. Larraín, he is perhaps one of the most gifted political communicators Texas has seen. Who is he? He is whoever you want him to be.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Armando Larraín Nava was born in 1967, the only son of automobile salesmen in the city of Dos Rios. As he likes to say, their family income was inconsistent, and he would be spoiled one day and scrimping the next. Admitted on a scholarship to the University of San Antonio, he rubbed shoulders with the scions of Texas's elite.
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: Yes, so some of his classmates, they were heirs to oil, airship, media fortunes, what have you. Others went on to be pioneers in science, television. There were even some nobility, especially from Florida and California.
DANNER: And how did his university education mold him into the man he is today?
SALINAS: For one, his attitude towards the nobility, the Confederation's upper class in general. He developed a...I won't say resentment. No, that's much too far. It was more of a general distrust. He was a social climber in university. Even he openly admits that. It's part of the story he tells: a scholarship kid enters the big leagues, tries to climb the social ladder...and he's stopped. He doesn't fail, he's stopped. He's stopped because they're threatened by him, they don't want him.
DANNER: And is that story at all true?
SALINAS: Well, you just have to look at his wife.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Since 1994, Larraín has been married to Raquel Téllez de Silva, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Carlota. The two first met eight years earlier, in a drama club in their second year of university. He was adapting the script, she was the production manager. They've been together ever since.
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: In many ways, she was his ticket into high society. It's no secret that the only reason he has so many friends in high places—and, also the reason why his presidential campaigns never came under relentless attack from major media conglomerates—was because of his wife's connections.
DANNER: An invaluable political partner, then.
SALINAS: Absolutely.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: After graduating from university, Larraín began his career as a solicitor, first at a San Antonio firm, before striking it out on his own and forming his own firm in Nacogdoches. Here, his public image was formed.
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: His legal career really formed the backbone of all his political campaigns. There was this public image that he cultivated and refined and polished as his career took off. The recurring themes were always there. He stuck up for the little guy when nobody else gave him the time of day. He was a champion of fairness, of equity. He was the people's lawyer.
DANNER: And how accurate was that?
SALINAS: Well, fairly accurate. He handled lots of pro bono cases from the start, his wife's fortune meant he didn't have to focus relentlessly on client fees. But he did have his fair share of controversial clients. When he eventually moved to San Antonio, he became known as the go-to man for public figures facing scandal. Actors mistreating their maids, industrialists underpaying their staff...politicians accused of fraud. Of course, once his political career took off he handed those sorts of cases off to his junior partners, so that it'd be their names on the documents, not his. But people knew who they were paying for.
DANNER: And how did his political career take off?
SALINAS: It started with his run for Mayor of San Antonio in 2002. The city had always been dominated by the Conservadores. The old saying was that a Conservador could be in a coma and they'd still win the mayoral election by thirty points. Larraín, he turned that on its head.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: With no political experience, Armando Larraín stood as the Liberal nominee for mayor of San Antonio in 2002. When the votes were all counted, he received 45% of the vote, while the incumbent Conservative mayor received a historic low of just 53%. Not quite enough to win, but enough to set off a political earthquake. And more importantly, enough to put him on the map.
[Interview with Macario Regalado del Valle, Liberal Deputy from 1991-2023]
REGALADO: Back in 2003, I was the deputy leader of the conference of Liberal deputies in the Assembly. And of course, as you know, at every election you get a fairly diverse intake of new deputies. And of course they each have their own ideas and expectations and conceptions of the place—how it works, their place within it, what they'll get out of it. Everyone usually comes in with wide eyes, you know? Ambition without direction. But Armando was different.
DANNER: How so?
REGALADO: He knew what he wanted. And he knew he wouldn't be there for long.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Larraín quickly made a name for himself from the Assembly backbenches. He took the lead in writing legislation overhauling urban planning, raising salaries and training standards for law enforcement, and expanding Internet access to deprived rural areas. But perhaps the most important move he made in those early years was gunning for and winning a valuable seat on the Imperial Parliamentary Assembly.
[Interview with Macario Regalado]
REGALADO: The Imperial Parliamentary Assembly only meets twice a year. Thrice sometimes. So it's not a very common occurrence. You prepare your agenda, then you show up. But what was truly invaluable about it was the connections it provided. This shouldn't surprise anyone, but Armando formed some of his closest friendships on these trips. And they have obviously served him well.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Over a decade-long career as a Texan delegate to the Imperial Parliamentary Assembly, Larraín forged and solidified alliances that served and continue to serve him well. Former Nova Scotian foreign minister Isidore MacDougall, Ohioan power brokers Owen and Astra Dawson, and former Virginian prime minister Priscilla Napier are among the many friends he made over that crucial decade. Jean-Baptiste Ancelot, once a political adviser to the foreign minister of New France, now sits as Prime Minister and is rumored to be a chief lieutenant in Larraín's bid for the throne. In any case, with these bridges firmly built, there was only one more step Larraín had to take.
[Clip of Armando Larraín Nava speaking at a campaign rally in January 2014]
LARRAÍN: My friends, together we can begin a new era for the people of Texas!
CROWD: (cheers)
LARRAÍN: The political class has controlled our lives for long enough! [Incumbent President] Ortiz has the gall to tell you there isn't enough money for your local utilities, then he pardons his fraudster friends, is that fair?
CROWD: No!
LARRAÍN: He tells migrants they're welcome, but so many young Texans aren't able to get jobs, is that fair?
CROWD: No!
LARRAÍN: To Sebastián Ortiz and the political class, I say your time is up! A new day for Texas is coming, my friends, will you join me?
CROWD: (cheers)
LARRAÍN: Will you join me?
CROWD: (cheers)
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Larraín went on to defeat incumbent president Sebastián Ortiz in a historic landslide. With his grip cemented on Texas' levers of power, Larraín now had both the mandate and the means to enact his grand vision for Texas...and for the Empire.
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: He really hit the ground running on the policy front. He campaigned on the whole 'people's lawyer' thing, so he pushed through a bill to overhaul public defender services, including requiring law graduates of state-run universities to serve a minimum of one year as a public defender on half pay. Then, of course, on the diplomatic front, he picked a very public...and very targeted fight with the Louisianan government. The prime minister, Aurelien St-Paul, was, of course, the protégé of Stanislas Bonnaire, whose father founded the Alternative party. Their signature policy was anti-bilingualism, you know, 'keep Louisiana French,' that whole slogan. Restricting provinces' rights to have Spanish as a co-equal official language, mandating knowledge of French for non-refugee citizens, that sort of policy. And so, what did Larraín do? He said, very publicly during a televised address...
[Clip of Armando Larraín Nava giving a televised address in September 2014]
LARRAÍN: The Spanish-speaking people of Louisiana have no greater friend than me. We in Texas stand wholeheartedly with you and we will do all in our power to ensure that your rights are protected and your culture, language, traditions, and identity are preserved. This is my promise to you.
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: And then, there was the immigration issue. He slashed the number of work visas, considerably. Increased the tech budget for the Directorate of Border Protection, even subsumed maritime security directly under control of the presidential office. Really, the only thing he didn't touch was asylum policy, which, as per the Alexandria treaties, he couldn't touch. And, of course, he broke the century-old stalemate in the area of indigenous rights. With the San Sabá Accords, the entire principle of "autonomy without sovereignty," untouched by either party since 1919, was out the window.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Larraín registered a sky-high 76% approval rating his first year in office, and has never managed to dip below 59% at any point in his presidency. For his re-election campaign, he stood as an independent with the endorsement of the Liberal Party, and even earned the financial backing of several Conservative donors. He's forged close ties to leaders around the Confederation, and beyond it. But can this man really pull off the inconceivable? Can he really become the first commoner to take the throne?
[Interview with Buenaventura Salinas]
SALINAS: I know Confederation-wide opinion polling is notoriously hard to organize, and of course the results should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is quite staggering how he's held a consistent lead over the, you know, the more conventional candidates.
[Interview with Macario Regalado]
REGALADO: (laughs) You know...Armando is a friend. And while we certainly have much to disagree about on policy, I honestly believe that he will be a capable Emperor. It sounds ridiculous to even say these words, but consider: he did incredible work on indigenous rights and sovereignty. His negotiation skills proved invaluable when he acted as a go-between in the latter days of the Hindustani Civil War. And honestly...this may just be the Texan in me, but can you really say that any of these royals and nobles are more qualified than he is?
[Interview with Barnabas Isherwood]
ISHERWOOD: As far as the law goes, there is nothing stopping him from being elected Emperor. The only question is whether the electors will view it that way.
[Studio voiceover by Rowan Danner]
DANNER: Doubt, then, seems to be Armando Larraín's biggest obstacle. Unlike most prospective emperors and empresses, it's more than just a numbers game: it's the fundamental question of whether the electors consider him a contender at all. Larraín must first convince them that the answer is a resounding yes—and only then can he begin playing the numbers game. More on that when
Contenders for the Crown returns.
Title taken from the brilliant BBC series
Father Brown! One of my favorites of all time.