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[mainiac]

The 1st and 2nd should be the most crucial amendments.  The 2nd should be the greatest defense against LCS victory, as once that's gone, the citizens lose their personal defense against LCS activism.

The 1st amendment on the other hand is the cornerstone of the liberal political agenda in this country.  As soon as the 1st amendment is gone, the conservative agenda leaps forward because the 1st amendment was what banned C+ sodomy laws, what got abortion to L/L+, free speech obviously, flag burning and much more.  It's the catch all excuse for the supreme court to make liberal decisions.  If the 1st is struck down, a flurry of conservative law changes should follow. 

Spoiler: wall o' text (click to show/hide)

Additionally, past this point, conservative media goes into overdrive, brainwashing the populace far more effectively.  The liberal guardian represents the few underground liberal publications left at this point.  Maybe this could be modeled by special "state press" media which doesn't follow the ordinary rules.  80% of the people who don't have a favorable view of the LCS are assumed to be getting their news from the state press.  If these people don't hold conservative views, propaganda will quickly indoctrinate them.  Every month, half the people reading the state press who don't hold conservative views on the issue give into the brainwashing.  For simplicity, we assume that those who hold the LCS in high esteem have no conservative views, because they are a defiant counter culture.  It's only once they become disillusioned with the LCS that they can be brainwashed.

So suppose at the end of the month, only 35% of the country holds the LCS in high regard.  Of the remaining 65% of the country, 80% are watching the conservative propaganda networks, i.e. 52% are being brainwashed.  So any views which are bellow 52% conservative will quickly deteriorate.  Suppose CSS and LCS rampages had 80% of people wanting tighter gun laws.  That's 45% of the country who supports a liberal view, but is only reading state propaganda about it.  80% of them are brainwashed each month, meaning in the first month, gun control deteriorates by 36% of the general population.  This is all before the effects of other media, sleepers, etc comes into play.

Now think about what this does to the LCS's popularity.  Society is being strongly tugged in the conservative direction every month.  That makes the LCS less popular, which in turn makes the state propaganda reach more people.  The country started at 65% conservative, about enough for amendments to start passing.  But in one month, the state propaganda would have done huge damage to any liberal views held by society.  Eventually, societies views will become roughly even across the board and state propaganda will stop working, there's no one tuning in anymore who isn't already brainwashed.  At this point society is completely polarized into a state sponsored conservative culture and a liberal underground.  But the game is probably over by the time the issues level out like that.

Additionally, any negative press against the LCS is deadly.  Screw up at all, and the public turns against you and starts getting brainwashed.

So yeah, one mechanic, REALLY scary country...

It would be cool to make a tough endgame, but it might need some mitigating factors to make it less impossible.  Maybe a fraction of those brainwashed become "disillusioned" instead?  Disillusioned people can't be brainwashed into conservatism, but won't support liberalism either.  However, if you survive and liberalism gets a big enough victory like the election of a liberal president, the disillusioned are inspired by Liberal hope and become liberals in droves, allowing a massive liberal reawakening, carrying you to victory.

This could also make for an interesting alternative start of game scenario.  The game starts with society being left of center, a roughly balance but slightly C house and a moderate senate with say... one more liberal then conservative.  However, the Supreme court has 4 C+ members and 2 C members and the C president just died in a terrorist attack, letting the C+ vice president succeed him.  The new president used the crises to repeal the first amendment with only half of congress in quorum, which the court supports. 
So basically, it's conservative semi-coup that's repealed the 1st and now society rapidly deteriorating into conservatism.  The LCS starts the day after the 1st is repealed and needs to quickly become a national sensation and start publishing the Liberal Guardian to reverse conservative propaganda.  This would make the middle of the game very hard, as society is very conservative, but make the start of the game safer as society is more liberal then before.

Such a scenario might benefit from the effectiveness of state propaganda depending on free speech law.  At M, 20% brainwashing effectiveness, meaning 20% of those not reading the guardian succumb to brainwashing but there is still a free press to keep the brainwashing from being more effective then that.  At C, brainwashing works 50% of the time as the government can now prevent free media from correcting their lies.  At C+, free media is shut down so brainwashing shoots up to the full 80% and the disillusionment effect appears.  Conservatives would naturally focus on overturning free speech first and foremost in a country without the 1st amendment.

Yeah, I kinda got carried away...
But basically four mechanics proposed for a country without the 1st amendment:
1) state media that works in a different way.
2) disillusionment
3) state media effectiveness scaled to free speech laws
4) conservative "focus" on overturning free speech laws without a first amendment.

And really, 1 is the important thing and everything else is just gravy.

I think the first 3 of these would be pretty simple, right?  For 1 and 3, it's just another couple calculations on how public opinion changes at the end of the month.  Concept 2 is a new thing to track, but doesn't need to show up anywhere except when calculating propaganda effectiveness and if the disillusioned become liberals in a liberal awakening, the other methods of tracking aren't affected and conservatism and liberalism still add up to 100% of the public opinion.  Concept 4 seems like it requires the most new work.  Maybe if there's no 1st amendment, the president could automatically issue an executive order in January of every year, bringing free speech law closer to his views if they don't match up?

[Servant Corps]

The only reason I suggested the repeal of the 1st Amendment was just to get LCS members charged with the crime of being in the LCS. That's it. It also applies to the other Crime Squads too. Basically, it's the Radical Moderates in the military trying to stop the extermists.

I just want this amendment to get rid of Freedom of Assembly. Not Freedom of Speech.

[mainiac]

That still doesn't change the fact that the 1st amendment is the linchpin of liberalism.

[Servant Corps]

No, but it does mean I'm changing the text of my amendment so that it doesn't touch the First Amendment.

Due to the rise of terrorist groups that threaten to overthrow the domestic tranquillity of our nation by using military force, it is necessary that extreme measures must be taken so as to safeguard our American Democracy from coercive influences. Therefore, we place proper guidelines by which all organizations must follow. If an organization violates either the spirit or the letter of these guidelines, the organization is hereby BANNED, and anyone who associates with said organization will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

This law applies to the Conservative Crime Squad too, so don't you Liberals start complaining.

[EuchreJack]

I'd say the state propaganda-brainwashing thing just looks a bit too effective.  About 10% of the moderates at least should be immune to it.  That reflects those who realize just what the state media has become.  I'd probably throw in another 10-20%, who simply ignore the state media because it's boring.

[Fieari]

There should also be constitutional amendments that LIMIT the direction a law can go, as opposed to locking in a law at a certain point.  That is, instead of making a law C+ or L+, it would prevent congress from making a law more liberal than M, or more conservative than M.

Think the "Defense of Marriage" act, for instance.  It doesn't make gay hunting a legal sport, it merely makes gay marriage laws unable to occur.  That is, it doesn't set the law at C+, it merely prevents the law from going more liberal than M.

[mainiac]

I'd say the state propaganda-brainwashing thing just looks a bit too effective.

Keep in mind, this is supposed to represent a very dire situation, conservatism has started rewriting the constitution, by this point liberalism is being driven to extinction.  The struggle is supposed to take on a desperate note at this point.  The LCS can change societies views a lot in a month, so I figure propaganda needs to have a big one month effect as well.  Propaganda could have a smaller effect if it was done weekly or daily, but that would require changing the way public opinion is tracking.

But you can fight back against it.  Deliberately target the most conservative views that society has.  Assign liberals to community service.  That way, the liberal counter culture, which is immune to propaganda, will expand to it's maximum size and hopefully stem the tide.  As soon as society is polarized by the views being the same across the issues, propaganda stops working.

About 10% of the moderates at least should be immune to it.  That reflects those who realize just what the state media has become.  I'd probably throw in another 10-20%, who simply ignore the state media because it's boring.

That's what the "disillusionment" is supposed to be.  Keep in mind that the game doesn't currently track the number of moderates (at least I don't think it does) on an issue.

No, but it does mean I'm changing the text of my amendment so that it doesn't touch the First Amendment.

Well, I do think your amendment should specifically call out the first amendment as well.  But we are essentially talking about two different situations.  There's the C+ repeal and the M+ repeal.  Both should specifically overturn the 1st amendment.

IMHO the M+ needs to make it slightly more clear that it's M+.  The last line is a keeper, but it doesn't make this clear that it's a M+ proposition.  For instance, the M+ amendment could overturn both the 1st and 2nd amendments, attacking the bulwarks of both C+ and L+ thought.  Maybe the M+ amendment needs specific limitations as well, instead of congress enacting whatever guidelines it wants, congress can label organizations "subversive to democracy."  This naturally, leaves a small amount of legal wiggle room, a problem a moderate recognizes can't be eliminated without tyranny.

[Servant Corps]

While planning on making the M+ Amendment more...clearer, I got another idea:

Trigger: Justices are L+

We the people believe that "Change is Good" (tm), and therefore judge it necessary that a full-scale reform of the US Consitution is necessary, by repealing ARTICLE FIVE. All new amendments to the US Consitution need merely the Majority of Congress, and the Majority of the States.

Hey, if amendments are going to be a new part of the game, at least make them easier to pass.

[EuchreJack]

But you can fight back against it.  Deliberately target the most conservative views that society has.  Assign liberals to community service.  That way, the liberal counter culture, which is immune to propaganda, will expand to it's maximum size and hopefully stem the tide.  As soon as society is polarized by the views being the same across the issues, propaganda stops working.

Now that you mention it, we could also just shut down all the Conservative media outlets, at least currently.

"OH NO, The LCS killed 5 people at the local AM radio station in Denver, Colorado!  We'd better shut down all the AM radio stations for the month!"

He he he...those conservatives will never get off a broadcast...

[Servant Corps]

I am bumping this because I realize of another effect the Constitution amendment may have.

Instead of capping laws at M/L/C, an amendment could just increase the 'bias' the Supreme Court has towards a law. For example, the Supreme Court currently has a bias in favor of Free Speech, and a bias against Gun Control. This bias is reflected by the fact that the Supreme Court, even if it is filled with political ideologues who want to promote their respective ideology, is constrained by the First and Second Amendment, respectfully, and is expected to pay lip service to at least the text of the amendment.

So, if Conservatives repeal the First Amendment, the Supreme Court will no longer have a bias in favor of Free Speech. In fact, it may even have a bias AGAINST free speech. If Liberals repeal the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court will no longer have a bias against Gun Control, and be more free to rule as they please.

Preventing laws from either going above or below a certain threshold doesn't seem right to me, because sometimes, the people and/or Congress may approve a law that may very well be unconstitutional according to a certain reading of said amendments. It's the job of the Supreme Court to actually find those unconstitutional laws and strike them down, hence why we have the court cases. Giving the Court have a 'bias' in favor or against certain laws based on new amendments seem like a good way to reflect this.

I'm fairly certain bias can be easily overcome though, which may not actually be a good thing, since it would weaken the power of the amendments...

[Ampersand]

Of course Bias would be easily overcome, because once the constitution no longer explicitly states the possible extent of government control, it is up to the individual Justices personal opinion. The bias would be toward their own political ideology.

[Servant Corps]

Been looking at the code, and I realized that certain Supreme Court Justices are immune to the effects of bias. All other Supreme Court Justices must bow down to Bias.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The only Justices who are immune to bias are Elite Liberals and Arch-Conservatives.

[Ampersand]

We shouldn't forget the 21st amendment to the constitution.

[kotor39]

Amendment: Women aren't equal
Trigger: Women's rights is C+.  Conservative 90% or more  of the House and Senate.
Effect: Women are not allowed to leave the house.

Women are only found in apartments/gentlemans club, and sometimes in apartment or drug den, or homeless shelter, all women rebels reside.
 
 
 

[Little]

It should be:

"Some women are radical Liberal feminists, so in the interest of public safety, all women are not allowed to leave the home."