Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt-Chapter 67 - 53: Value Exchange

Leo’s decision made everyone in the meeting room tense.

"Leo, are you sure about this?" Karen was the first to object. "Going to see Morganfield now is too dangerous. It’ll show our hand too early and make him think we need something from him."

"That’s right," Ethan agreed. "What we should be doing now is building up our strength according to the plan, not proactively provoking that behemoth."

Frank shot straight to his feet.

"I disagree!" he said, his voice firm. "We shouldn’t have any contact with that Vampire! He is the eternal enemy of our working class!"

Leo looked at them and said calmly, "Everyone, I understand your concerns."

"But you have to understand, Douglas Morganfield is the single biggest uncertainty in this campaign. His attitude will directly determine how difficult this fight will be."

"We can’t be like ostriches, burying our heads in the sand and pretending he doesn’t exist."

"I have to go and confirm his true intentions myself. Only then can we formulate the most effective counter-strategy."

...

Smoke filled the air of the familiar cigar room at the Allegany Mountain Summit Club.

Leo and Douglas Morganfield sat facing each other once again.

This time, by tacit agreement, neither of them brought up the previous verbal agreement of "benevolent neutrality."

Leo cut right to the chase, probing for a reaction.

"Mr. Morganfield, thank you for making time for me. I think we’re both well aware that the future of Pittsburgh will be decided within the next five months."

"I came here today because I want to hear what your thoughts are on that future."

Morganfield took a sip of the whiskey in his glass, his eyes scrutinizing the young man before him, who seemed more composed than at their last meeting.

"Let’s be frank, Leo," he said, setting his glass down and leaning forward slightly. "The last time I helped you, it was just to knock some sense into Carter Wright."

"He’s been Mayor for eight years, and he’s gotten more and more arrogant, more and more foolish. He’s starting to forget who put him in that seat in the first place."

"I needed someone to cause a little trouble for him, to sober him up, to make him remember his place. You and your community center just happened to be the perfect trouble."

"I thought you’d be content with being a community hero, a pawn I could use to keep Carter Wright in check. Even if you had ambitions, I figured that would be a decade from now."

"But I never expected you’d want to become the chess player yourself so soon."

"That complicates things, Leo."

"Carter Wright may be a fool, but he’s a fool I know. A controllable fool. But you..." He reassessed Leo. "You, the people behind you, and the power you represent... you are a massive unknown."

After saying this, Morganfield fell silent.

He placed his glass gently on the table and leaned back into the enormous leather sofa.

The air in the cigar room seemed to freeze.

He just watched Leo calmly with those eyes of his.

The silence itself was a question.

Leo knew the man had laid his cards on the table.

Now, it was his turn to make an offer.

’But what can I offer?’

’Promise tax cuts for Morganfield’s businesses?’

’Promise to relax regulations on industrial pollution after I’m elected?’

All of these ran completely counter to his core campaign platform.

If he made any such promise here today, it would be tantamount to political suicide.

He fell into silence. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

’Child, do you think dealing with these financial backers is a simple exchange of interests, an ’I give you money, you do things for me’ kind of deal?’

Roosevelt’s voice echoed in his mind.

’Wrong. That’s just the lowest form of transaction. High-level donor politics is an investment based on trust, a systemic symbiosis.’

’Think about it. Why do those oligarchs so readily pour millions, even tens of millions of US Dollars in political contributions into the candidates they support? What makes them believe that these candidates, once in office, will honor the promises made in back rooms one hundred percent?’

’Because they are never investing in a specific person. They are investing in a closed system built on common interests, common social circles, and a common ideology.’

’They support Carter Wright because he’s a member of the same golf club. They show up at the same charity galas. Their children attend the same private schools.’

’They belong to the same class.’

’Therefore, they don’t need any specific promises from Carter Wright. They trust that every decision he makes will instinctively align with the common interests of their class.’

’It doesn’t require a contract. It’s a class instinct.’

’But you, Leo Wallace, you’re an anomaly outside this system. You are not one of them.’

’That’s why Morganfield doesn’t trust you. Even if you stood here today and promised him a fifty percent tax cut after your election, he wouldn’t fully believe you.’

’Because your instincts, your origins, your principles—they all dictate that you stand in opposition to him.’

’So, your only mission here today is to give him a good reason, a reason that will convince him that investing in you, a dangerous anomaly, will yield a higher rate of return than continuing to invest in Carter Wright, their controllable insider.’

Leo looked up from his thoughts.

He understood.

He couldn’t just cater to Morganfield; he had to create new value to offer him.

’But how can I do that?’

Just as he was at a loss, Roosevelt’s voice sounded again.

’Child, sometimes, to achieve a great goal, you must learn to make necessary compromises with harsh reality.’

’Even I was no exception.’

A scene from the White House’s Oval Office in 1935 appeared in Leo’s mind.

Roosevelt was sitting at his desk, with two men standing before him.

One was the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the other was a very powerful Democratic Party Senator from the Southern State of Georgia.

They were fiercely debating a federal bill to ban lynching.

"Mr. President!" the black leader said excitedly. "Just last week, another innocent young black man was lynched by a mob in Mississippi! We can no longer tolerate such barbaric acts! You must immediately push Congress to pass this anti-lynching bill!"

But the Southern Senator spoke in an icy, threatening tone.

"Mr. President, I must remind you that lynching is an internal affair of our Southern States. The Federal Government has no right to interfere."

"If you insist on pushing this bill, then I will unite all of our Southern Democratic congressmen to vote down the Social Security Act you are about to submit to the Senate."

Roosevelt was caught in a dilemma.

On one hand were the societal principles of racial equality and judicial justice.

On the other hand was the most central and important cornerstone of his entire New Deal system—the Social Security Act, which would provide basic living security for millions of unemployed, disabled, and retired elderly people across the country.

’Child, tell me, what would you have chosen if you were me?’ Roosevelt’s voice echoed in Leo’s mind.

Leo was silent.

Although he knew the final outcome, he didn’t know how to answer at that moment.

’I ultimately chose to compromise,’ Roosevelt answered. ’I temporarily shelved the anti-lynching bill in exchange for the support of those Southern congressmen for the Social Security Act.’

’But if I hadn’t done that, millions of American seniors, disabled people, and unemployed workers would have died alone in hunger and poverty during the cold winter of the Great Depression.’

’Leo, politics, more often than not, isn’t about choosing between good and bad on a chessboard.’

’It forces you, in a game that couldn’t possibly be worse, to choose between ’bad’ and ’even worse’—the only move that lets you stay in the game.’

The scene in Leo’s mind shifted again.

This time, he saw a well-dressed man with sharp, shrewd eyes sitting across from Roosevelt.

That man was Joseph Kennedy, President Kennedy’s father.

He was one of the most notorious speculators on Wall Street at the time, a financial tycoon who had made a fortune off the nation’s misery during the Great Depression through various insider trading and market manipulation schemes.

’I appointed him—this crook whom everyone despised—as the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,’ Roosevelt said.

’At the time, everyone in my cabinet thought I was crazy. They said I was letting the wolf into the henhouse, putting the biggest thief in charge of the nation’s treasury.’

’But what was the result? It proved that only a crook who knows all the rules of deception knows best how to catch other crooks.’

’I exploited Joseph Kennedy’s greed, his vanity, and his desire to launder his family’s reputation, and I had him build for me an unprecedented financial regulatory system, arguably the strictest in the world at the time.’

’I turned the most ferocious wolf into a shepherd dog to watch over the flock.’

Roosevelt’s voice grew solemn.

’So, Leo, don’t be afraid to make a deal with the Demon.’

’The key is that the content of your deal with the Demon must itself be beneficial to the people, and the initiative in the deal must be held firmly in your own hands.’

’What you need to do now is find such a project—for Morganfield, and for yourself.’

’A project that can both show him enormous commercial benefits and genuinely promote Pittsburgh’s economic development, creating a large number of jobs for our working class.’

’A benign deal with the Demon.’

A flash of insight struck Leo.

He remembered the idea Ethan Hawke had proposed in that thick policy white paper, the one they had all temporarily shelved.

The Pittsburgh Inland Port expansion plan.

Leo raised his head and looked at the city oligarch waiting for his reply, his eyes filled with an unprecedented confidence.

He began, "Mr. Morganfield, I’ve been thinking about what Mayor Carter Wright can offer you."

"Some tax breaks? Green-lighting a few municipal approvals? Those are policy benefits tied to his term in office. But policies change, and mayors get replaced. Once he’s out, you’ll have to renegotiate with the next mayor."

Morganfield tapped his fingers on the table, cutting him off.

"Young man, you have it backward. It’s never been me needing them; it’s them needing me. The Mayor comes to me, gift in hand, hoping I’ll still take his call next time."

Leo shrugged noncommittally.

"Well, the gifts he can bring you are more of the same," Leo continued. "But I can give you something he could never give you."

"A logistical lifeline that will permanently reduce the transportation costs for all of Morganfield Industrial Group’s products by twenty percent."