2032 Presidential Acceptance Speech: Dr. Henrietta Pfizer Lacks

CHAIRMAN DEAN: My fellow Americans, you have made your excellent choice to vote independent Dr. Henrietta Pfizer Lacks as your next President of the United States. Running on the platform of free healthcare for all, funded by a decrease of international aid and military spending due to the atrocities’ that followed the sea level rising of 2025. For too long we have focused on issues outside our own borders and now we have an American focusing on the needs of Americans. From the years of 1990 till 2025 obesity had been on the rise peaking with 60% in the year 2022, these statistics cannot continue to rise with the country still dealing with the effects of global warming. With the added increase of diseases that have come from sea levels rising, such as Cholera and Malaria you have understood the ideals that the President elect has preached to you, the public. You, the voters, have stopped health insurance companies from holding the American public hostage with ridiculous prices and overbearing lobbying. It is simply un-American for corporations to dictate the lives of American citizens. This is not what we need and you the public have understood that free healthcare for all is needed! With all the challenges that we face, we need to clean up home and prove America as the number one nation in the world. With free healthcare, our nation will become stronger and healthier meaning that we can continue to keep the American dream alive for the next generation and for centuries to come. Citizens of America I give you the 46th President of the United States President Henrietta Lacks

DR. LACKS: Thank you very much to the Chairman Dean and to my fellow citizens of this great nation, with profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for presidency of the United States.  Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey.  To everyone who endorsed this campaign, President Hickenlooper and to the next vice president of the United States I thank you. 

Twelve years ago President Hickenlooper and the Senate named me as Surgeon General and together as a nation we made health care accessible and affordable for every citizen of this great nation. We said no to big Pharm lobbying and we drastically advanced medicine as we knew it.  Although water levels have risen and we continue to face difficult times in health, international relations and our economy, what sets this nation apart from any other is the ability to achieve whatever we set our minds to.  Through hard work and sacrifice each of us can pursue not only our individual dreams, but also come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams too.  That is why I am here right now, because ordinary men and women found the courage to keep that dream alive and elect the first Surgeon General to office, the first independent since John Tyler in 1845, and the first elected independent since our first president of the United States.  You have elected someone who stands for change.

It is in these defining moments, with our soldiers still deployed, millions of people displaced due to climate change and our economy in turmoil, that the American dream has been threatened again.  Tonight Americans are out of work, uninsured and have been manipulated by the government one too many times.  These challenges can be fixed: it is time to be a better government, a better community, a better country.  Tonight I accept this presidency without a big party platform, or funding. The people have spoken and it is no longer about being a Republican, or a Democrat, it is about doing the right thing, being the best we can be individually and together as one.  We can be better.

Let me add there is no doubt that my fellow nominees deserve the utmost gratitude and respect, but let me be clear they are endorsed by and support the same mechanisms which have continued to hurt this country for the past fifty years.  It is time to reevaluate progress and what constitutes progress in this country. It is time to stop being satisfied with the way things are going, stop wanting to get where we were before and start going to where we want to be.  Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new innovative ideas, new leadership, new politics for a new time.  This is a time of change.

At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise, that American dream, and in the words of scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Candidate Cruz, Information Party for President

[This speech will be delivered via your personal augmented reality device, when available.]

Facts-at-a-glance: 

Charlotte Cruz, Presidential Candidate

Gender: Female  

Race: Latina

Age: 46

Party: Information Party (IP)

Candidate Background: Google executive running for U.S. President

A few days ago, I was able to take a stroll with a lovely young woman named Tatianna Rosewater. A survivor and refugee of the Great Flood that occurred 15 years ago, she told me her story. At 4 years old, Tatianna frantically scrambled about her house to grab the bare necessities, before narrowly escaping the wall of water that consumed the entire West Coast. Though she was separated from her parents, she has been able to maintain a great degree of contact with them. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from MIT's Open Online University, she has been awarded a scholarship to visit them in Eurasia next month. Tatianna's story exemplifies the American Spirit and condition -- it also serves as a reminder that though some have evaded the flood unscathed, others were not so lucky.

Before I was CEO of Google, I was Director of Humanitarian Efforts. Having a longstanding tradition of charity and philanthropy, Google immediately came to the aid of those affected by the floods. I spearheaded programs that provided real-time refugee location data to government responders. I created an initiative to equip the National Guard with Oculus Glass, which helped them relay critical information to other relief agencies. We gave children like Tatianna, who were separated from their parents, Oculus Glass equipped with free lifetime service of free voice and video chat.

        I, along with other Information Party members, have not only demonstrated our efficacy and no-fail record, but also an undying fidelity to the American people. Here is how we will continue to help Americans.

There are two issues that need to be addressed on the homefront. First, the reinvisioning of education. Second, the reinvisioning of civil engineering. As President, I will encourage private sponsorship of Massive Open Online Courses, otherwise known as MOOCs. Traditional schools currently are packed to the brim, because of the mass exodus inland. Overwhelmed teachers and under-taught students will harm America. MOOCs make top-tier education accessible to all. With currently existing virtual communities, students can receive personal teaching from world renowned educators without being pushed into already overcrowded classrooms.

I will also push for vertical construction and efficient city planning. The harsh reality is that we have lost hundreds of thousands of square miles of coastlines, and land is now a luxury we cannot afford. Rather than crowding one another out, which will most definitely breed unrest and ill will, we must build upwards and onwards. We must invest in promising environmental industries to improve our energy efficiency, preserve our natural resources, and build better homes and cities. By investing in hydroelectricity, hydroponics, as well as environmental consulting and planning firms, we will be proactive in eliminating any future oversights that can affect the welfare of our infrastructure. The Lost Country of Singapore did this best, and they experienced great prosperity. We will model their civil planning and infuse honest American ingenuity into it.

Now, you may be wondering, how will we pay for this? How will our country--our generous country, that took in refugees from all around the world--compete in the global economy and feed all the hungry mouths here at home?

The truth is, since the time of the Great Flood of 2025, perhaps no place in the world has changed as swiftly or dramatically as the United States. Our living standards have risen while poverty has plummeted, but that has been and will continue to be a struggle. The fortunes of America and the global world have become more closely linked than ever before with the help of advancing communication technologies. American industries need to match the global demand for our augmented reality equipment, our innovative software products, and our high-quality labor.

As a nation, we must continue to strengthen alliances in all regions of the world. Our current success can be attributed to continually improving technology, however, this technology has so far been exclusive to large and wealthy countries—leaving the digital divide as wide as ever. As President, I will strive to create a resale industry for our used augmented reality goods.  By encouraging recycling and refurbishing industries to collect unwanted devices, such as Google Glasses 1 or 2, and selling them at a heavily subsidized price to our struggling neighbors, we can bridge that pesky divide.

Distributing these older devices will also encourage companies to maintain support for older generations of products. Annual product revisions, such as the iPhone 8 to 8s, replace older models, like iPhone 6, when they are still fully functional. This is wasteful. By recycling these products to other nations, they can continue to be useful and users in our own country won’t find that their devices are suddenly obsolete or unsupported. Countries with lower GDP were the most affected by the Great Flood, which made them even poorer. The resale economy will expand the market of Augmented Reality to struggling nations and allow them to continue their technological development. Occulus Glass, equipped with Skype and MOOC accessibility, will enable them to connect with family members and receive excellent education to pull themselves out of their economic depressions.

In addition to our multilateral relations strategy, we can promote growth at home by supporting the nationalization of corporations. Given my experience as the chief executive officer of Google, which today leads the world in innovation, I know the significant roles that  corporations and governments play in the job market. Americans can only benefit when the two work together to provide goods and services for our country. Allowing more public and private mergers will create a free market where people can work when and where they please, with the full support of their employers and their government.I fully support  lower taxes and higher minimum wage for all Americans to ensure that all citizens can fully participate in the new and exciting changes to our national and global economy.

We, as Americans in 2040, are stronger than we have ever been. Our ability to cope with, and adapt to, the Great Flood of 2025 demonstrates our resolve and solidarity. If elected president, I will serve our citizens, resident refugees, corporate guests, and future generations with the integrity and compassion that Google Inc. is best known for. Vote for me, Charlotte Cruz -- an Information Party candidate for an informed America!

Candidates from the Futures

For futurists, the future does not exist. Alternative futures, however, can and should be forecasted and, perhaps most importantly, critically examined. As part of the course requirements for POLS385: American Politics, students worked in groups to imagine political candidates for 2032. In order to craft a speech given by their candidate, students examined trends and emerging issues for what might lie ahead.

In each candidate's speech, one can find possible, probable, and plausible aspects of the futures. Each group worked diligently to find evidence of trends and emerging issues for their scenario, and as alternative scenarios are always critical reflections on the present, one gets a sense as to how each group views the challenges and opportunities of the present. What about you? What do you think of their candidates? 

If you have any questions about their candidates, please post a comment. If you have any questions about the course or Futures Studies at the Manoa School, please email me.