28 December 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2965: the authority

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“OK, I'm getting sick and tired of this soda-slinging retired army grunt running our politics – is he even registered with us? If he isn't, why is he running our party politics without even being in the room?”

Lofton County Supervisor Evan Brown of District 8 was sick and tired of Capt. Robert Edward Ludlow Sr.

“This man does not have the authority to be telling us what we have been and what we needed to be doing – his father is dead, our fathers are dead, and enough is enough. I need y'all to get out there and start telling the people what our party offers us, what the other party doesn't, and that these zip dang purplers don't know how to do anything. We hold the majority of the seats in the country even with the necessary resignations – and the things Edwin Ludlow built are no longer state of the art, so it shouldn't really even be an issue. His stuff is going to start falling in soon enough – it's not even relevant!”

Supervisor Brown had done his best, but half the people looked around – City Hall, one of Edwin Ludlow's designs, looked solid enough to stand another 200 years, and nobody had even thought about it being ready to collapse while they were in it.

And then there was the thing about Edwin Ludlow's only surviving son.

“Supervisor Brown,” one of the partisans said, “have you even met Capt. Robert Ludlow?”

“I don't need to meet him!” Supervisor Brown roared. “I am elected by we the people! He was commissioned by the federal government – but he's retired, and I'm still here and if y'all want to be here, you need to realize that he is nothing for us to worry about! He only has one vote!”

“That's an awful big loud nothing,” another man said. “Our polling numbers fell down 20 percent the last time he opened his mouth.”

“OK, so are we just going to roll over and die or get out there and fight?” Supervisor Brown said. “Go tell your people in your districts why you deserve getting those 20 points back!”

“Uh … we never really had to do that before, though,” another said.

“And this is why the baby son of Edwin Ludlow is beating you down, and he isn't even running against you – go figure it out!”

But later, the fiery partisan politician realized why men like Capt. Ludlow were turned off with both parties: the war hero did not respect the lack of grit and the lack of courage to solve the real issues instead of extracting political points to please their base and making policy to fatten up their corporate funders. Men like him didn't care about any of that. He was forward-looking in an age of backward-looking … he and Supervisor Brown had that in common, but because Capt. Ludlow was not a politician, he did not have to be bothered with the party fight.

Supervisor Brown had another thought … what would happen if his party ended up being the forward-looking minority, all of the sudden? The purplers were too new to know what they were doing, and the other party … what if the people they got in were still backward-looking? Yes, they would take heavy lumps in 2020 … but maybe, in 2024 or 2028 … maybe they could make the comeback of a lifetime.

On the other hand … how many purplers were at Capt. Ludlow's level? If there were enough, they might do all right, and coalition government could work, maybe … but indeed, that would mean everybody without a plan would need to get out of the way.

On the other hand, when people were sitting up in a party meeting talking about how they had never needed to convince people to vote for them before … oh well, they were done anyway.

A day later, Capt. R.E. Ludlow saw Supervisor Brown on television giving a speech about not quitting, not giving up, and about how his party had to take responsibility for the messes of the past and plot a new course for the future – and he had a good plan for his district!

“Too bad he doesn't have the authority to get his own party to support all that,” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said.

“He doesn't know that,” Capt. Ludlow said, “and, like me, sometimes what you don't know about may not exist by the time you get through using the authority you choose to have. How many of the people holding up progress do you think are going to be in office next year?”

“Good point,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “but then, the state party hierarchy exists. Not everybody is out here end-running generals.”

“Not everybody out here is crazy,” Capt. Ludlow said, “which is good when one considers a politician. Could have been good when considering a husband, but it's too late for all that.”

That gave Mrs. Ludlow a good laugh!