A new political board game has come out called Wreck The Nation.
You can see how it’s played here. On its blog the game is explained this way:
The Nation is a game about political misbehavior; a reality-based civics lesson in American Politics. Wreck The Nation is a resource for factual information to help you understand the counterintuitive actions of the U.S. government over the last term. WTN will keep you in the know, releasing updated versions of the Expenditure, Revenue & Homeland Security card decks. Wreck The Nation is an online community of progressive individuals. But mostly, Wreck The Nation is damn funny.
Happy Inauguration Day, America! (See? Funny!)
Originally, we hoped to have the game launched before the 2004 Presidential Election. However, since we only came up with the game idea in July of 2004, it was nearly impossible to meet the Election deadline. After the Election, with so many non-Progressive elected officials dominating Washington, we knew it was more important than ever to launch Wreck The Nation and do everything possible to promote the fact-based Progressive Movement that is growing here in the U.S.
And in a way, I think our experience launching Wreck The Nation is indicative of the new 21st Century Progressive Movement as a whole – we have the right idea, but it will take a while for us to get ourselves together. WTN is committed to being a focal point for progressive political thinking, which surely includes using satire as a way to inform the public about everything that is wrong with government and politics today!
In their press release (titled: BUSH SHENANIGANS BECOME NEW BOARD GAME…"Wreck the Nation" Makes Back-room Dealing Family Fun") the game’s designers urge Democrats to play the game tonight rather than watch GWB’s State of the Union Address:
Chances are that President Bush won’t talk much about turning a multi-billion dollar budget surplus into endless deficits with tax giveaways, pork-barrel spending and an ill-advised war. Bush’s game of wreck the nation has cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars. But in "Wreck the Nation," players will be able to compare George Bush’s past statements and the true costs of his first-term policies, against the soaring rhetoric echoing through the House Chamber.
So how did this game come about?
The brainchild of two first-time game designers, Julia Carson and Jennifer McGlynn, "Wreck the Nation" injects political satire into a classic board game format, as players race to spend billions of dollars in play money. Says Democrat Carson, "The last election proved that most people aren’t paying attention to what is really going on in America. Our board game is a way to reach people and give them something important to talk about."
"Besides," adds McGlynn, a recovering Republican, "Bush has been playing games with the budget for the last four years, so we decided to follow his lead and have some fun, too."
Julia and Jennifer agree that sitting down to play "Wreck the Nation" with your children, siblings and friends is a positive way to promote and imbue family values.
And, they say:"Earlier this month, The Democratic National Committee offered the game as a premium to renewing contributors, in a message calling for action against the same destructive Bush Administration policies on which the game is based."
This should be a special hit in Washington, D.C. — game playing Capitol of the World.
And this is SURE to inspire a GOP countergame…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.