Political positions of Isaac Dillon
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Leader of the Opposition and UCP 19th President of Superior Policies Major events Appointments Elections
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This article is about the political positions of Isaac Dillon, member of the House of Delegates for Northern Greater Duluth since 2015, Leader of the United Conservative Party of Superior since 2018, Leader of the Opposition from 2018 to 2022 and President of Superior since 2022. His positions have changed over time from a more moderate liberal conservative stance towards adherence towards national conservatism since his election as leader of the United Conservative Party. Many political analyists have called Dillon one of the most conservative politicans in Superior, though some claim that he has a moderate side that gives the United Conservaitves some broad appeal.
During the debates for the 2018 United Conservative Party leadership election, Dillon stated that he was a "common sense patriot" and a "Superior loving, pro-monarchist, loyalist conservative citizen" and stated that he was dedicated towards national conservatism, economic liberalism, nationalism, and limited government. While being a national conservative and bringing his party in a more right-wing direction, Dillon has openly stated his willingness to work with other ideological factions and caucuses within the party stating that "all conservatives must unite as a single force, regardless of differences, in order to defeat the Progressive Bloc" in a 2018 interview after being elected party leader.
Dillon espoused national conservative and populist rhetoric during the 2019 and 2020 federal elections campaigns, however he would adopt a more moderate, center-right approach for the 2022 election to appeal to non-conservative voters. As president, Dillon would govern in a moderate fashion for his first year in office, but has since shifted to a more conservative and partisan direction, supporting and adopting socially conservative policies and legislation, espousing nationalistic and right-wing populist rhetoric, and frequently focusing on culture war issues as president.
Economic policy
Taxation and regulation
Infrastructure
Minimum wage
Dillon supports a gradual increase of the minimum wage to $10, in order to allow small businesses time to adjust to wage change before it can be fully implemented. He is critical of attempts to raise the minimum wage to $15, citing the possibility of mass small business closure.
Social policy
LGBT+ rights
Dillon has voiced public opposition towards legalizing same-sex marriage in Superior arguing for same-sex civil unions to be legal instead as more preferable alternative. Dillon has claimed that marriage is a sacred institution which can be "undermined" by same-sex marriage being legalized as stated in an interview he gave back in 2012. When the National Acceptance Act was passed, he criticized the act for legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide where he argued that such a move should be left up to the states. In a 2020 interview, he stated that he wouldn't touch the bill if his party won the majority of votes and if elected President saying "gay marriage has been legal in Superior for five years now. I may not personally like it, but at this point it's too late to do anything about it" when asking a question at a campaign rally and stated that his current stance on the issue is the same of Christian Democratic leader Charles Griffith.
Dillon has had a mixed record on legal protections for LGBT Superians. In regards to hate crimes, he's stated that anti-gay hate crimes should be punished and that businesses, schools and other employment establishments shouldn't be allowed to fire employees for their sexual orientation calling it "blatant discrimination", but has stated that private businesses should be allowed to refuse certain services to LGBT couples if it violated their religious beliefs and/or conscious. Dillon has supported legal protections for gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens in schools and the workplace, but has opposed applying most of the same protections to transgender citizens saying in a 2019 interview "there are only two genders and you're stuck with it the moment you're born. Any attempt to change it is a violation of your natural design and shouldn't be legally legitimized".
Abortion
Dillon considers himself "staunchly pro-life" and supports restrictive legislation against abortion. Dillon is against taxpayer-funding of health services that provide abortions, calling it "state-sponsored murder". Dillon is a co-writer and sponsor of the Born Alive Survivor's Act which would provide funding for abortion survivors and their families, along with additional government assistance. He calls opposition to the bill "pure evil", saying: "[the Born Alive Survivor's Act] doesn't even restrict abortion. The only opposition to this bill is from the liberal elite who want to de-populate our great nation". The Superian National Right to Life Council has given Dillon a A+ for his "efforts to curb infanticide", while Planned Parenthood Superior has given him a F, calling him "a opponent to a woman's right to her own body".
Immigration
Dillon is against illegal immigration and supports measures that push of the deportation of illegal immigrants. Dillon has harshly criticized the Granholm government for its response to illegal immigration, calling the President "complicit with the infringement of our sovereignty". Dillon supports removing protections put in place to protect illegal immigrants from being deported. In 2018, Dillon expressed his support of constructing a border wall along the United Commonwealth and Tournesol borders, hoping to prevent any more illegal immigration. Dillon's position is highly contested by the Continentalist government considering nearly 94% of all illegal migrants originate from states within the Conference of American States, with most coming from Mexico and Central America. However, in 2019, he contradicted his previous beliefs, voting against a proposal to build a concreate wall between Superior and Tournesol. Dillon supports removing outdated provisions for legal immigration, hoping to inspire others to legally migrate instead of illegally.
Healthcare
Dillon is against the nationalization of Superian healthcare, calling it "extreme government oversight". Dillon is supportive of adding regulations on the prices of lifesaving drugs and medicine, saying that the high prices of such medicine is "a national embarrassment". Dillon is fully against the creation of a single-payer national healthcare system, calling it "expensive, bloated, and utterly useless". Dillon is against the ending of private health insurance and is supportive of promoting private healthcare services. Dillon is against legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, calling it "cowardly" and "legalized murder". Dillon is also against the legalization and distribution of medical marijuana, citing its high rate of abuse in Superior.
Education
Dillon supports a complete transformation of the educational system and curriculum in Superior. Dillon is one of the creators of the 1866 Initiative, which is a commission supportive of creating a "patriotic education" in Superian schools and exploring ways and solutions to do so. It has been criticized for its nationalist look at Superian history. He is a vocal advocate of the 1866 Initiative, believing it would prevent the supposed indoctrination of anti-Superian and "pro-Landonist" teachings in Superian children. Dillon is a critic of Common Core, calling it "useless for real life situations" and cites the growing rate of anxiety and depression in Superian adolescents as a direct result of Common Core.
Since 2020, Dillon has been a critic of Critical Race Theory accusing it of being "racis psueo-historical propaganda disguised as historical education" and has been calling for a ban on its teaching in educational institutions since 2021. He's endorsed several state governors that have passed laws banning the teaching of CRT in schools and has pushed for a federal-level ban calling it "necessary to combat racially motivated and inheritcly divise propganda" accusing it of seeking to divide in the general public based on race. In May, he and his Shadow Cabinet proposed the Educational Reform and Protection Act which included a ban on the teaching of CRT in all educational institutions in the nation. The bill failed to pass, but remains supported by the Conservative Coalition.
Foreign policy
Middle East
Dillon has criticized Superior's involvement in the Syrian Civil War, calling it "costly and wasteful". However, Dillon does not support withdrawing from Syria, instead wanting to "finished what we started". During the 2020 Superian federal election, Dillon promised to "stay out of foreign wars" and to "not participate in any new war".
Asia
China
Dillon has long since criticized what he's called the economic reliance on China, or the "economic plantation" as he calls it, that Anglo-American states such as Superior along with other nations are in arguing that it's used as a barginning chip by the Chinese government to avoid serious repercussions for accused human rights violations. Following the 2014 annexation of Rehe Province, Dillon held a rally outside of the Chinese embassy where he called on the Superian government to impose sanctions on China. During the 2015 Superian federal election, he criticized the Granholm government's limited sanctions on China calling it "lukewarm" and accused her and the LDP of "appeasing" China. He also claimed that Granholm's response to the Chinese annexation of Rehe Province and other aggressive actions against Manchuria inspired him to get involved in politics.
In 2016 Dillon signed a bill which permitted the deployment of Superian military and medical personnel to support CAS forces stationed in Manchuria to protect the region from any major acts of aggression by China and said that it was one of the "few genuine acts of courage" by the Granholm government. During the campaigning session of the 2019 Superian federal election, he promised to enact more harsh and tough sanctions and would adopt a more confrontational stance towards China and echoed the accusation of China as a rogue regime seeking to control all of East Asia that was made by then-Sierran Prime Minister Nemesis Heartwell. Dillon would later adopt an even more aggressive stance towards China in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic where he accused the Chinese government of "criminal incompetence" and for indirectly starting the pandemic and called for travel restrictions between China and the CAS.
Dillon has been supportive of protectionist economic policies like those passed by Heartwell against China and has called for Superior to support Sierra in its ongoing trade war saying "China and Anglo-America are caught in an economic struggle and we must remain united and stand strong against Chinese aggression". During the 2020 American Parliament election, he stated that Superior's delegation to the American Parliament should be "willing to stand strong against Chinese aggression regardless of party affiliation".
Russia
North America
Conference of American States
Dillon has voiced criticism of the Conference of American States and is a vocal critic of the organization, but is opposed to leaving the organization in contrast to much of his party and the faction of the party he aligns with and leads. Dillon opposes the hypothetical withdrawal of Superior from the CAS, commonly known as Surexit, calling it "a reckless and ineffective act" that will accomplish nothing and not address the issues of the CAS in a 2018 interview and believes that electing conservative members to the American Parliament would be more effective than leaving the conference completely.
During the 2020 American Parliament election in Superior, he campaigned for the American Conservative Coalition and while he opposed leaving the organization, he criticized the CAS accusing federalization of ending Superior's sovereignty and called for "true political representation" in the American Parliament arguing that the Liberal Democrat-led 2015-2020 delegation over-represented Superior's urban communities and cities while a conservative delegation would represent all of Superior, especially its rural electorate. During the campaign session, he accused the 2015–2020 delegation of "deluding Seattle into thinking that Saint Anthony and New Hamburg represents all of Superior" and believed that improper representation has been the biggest problem with Superior's delegation to the transnational legislature.
His statements had been shown to be effective with 53% of Superian citizens believing that the American Parliament delegation hadn't been representative of Superior and its interests. Dillon's opposition to withdrawal and push for a more representative delegation had been more popular than Surexit.
United Commonwealth
Dillon is opposed to normalizing relations between Superior and the United Commonwealth and has denounced the latter as an oppressive dictatorship and has frequently refered to it as the "crimson meanace". Dillon is a promoter of Anti-Landonism and has talked about how it is one of the core ideologies of Superior's political culture and has called efforts to normalize relations between the two states as appeasement. In 2017 when Jennifer Granholm began normalizing relations between both nations including the establishment of embassies in major ciities in both nations, Dillon protested the event calling it a "surrender" and attended a rally in Uppasala where he denounced the effort and stated that he would fight for the people in Michigan for "their freedom from Continental tyranny and occupation". Dillon would emphasize his stance in 2018 during the party leadership election that year.
In 2019, Dillon and Daniel Meijer, President of the Uppasala State Senate, organized an event where they walked towards a portion of the Superior-Continental border between the State of Uppasala and Michigan as part of an even held by the Michigan Initiative where the two spoke in either refugees from Michigan or descendants of refugees where they spoke on the region and how the Continental annexation of the state in the 1930s during the Crimson Spring was an illegal act and how Superior must fight to restore Michigan into the kingdom and end precieved Continental occupation. This event caused controversy and even condemnation from the federal government. Dillon defended himself stating that he held a legal and peaceful rally to showcase his opposition towards normalizing relations with the United Commonwealth and how he supports restoring the Superian claim over Michigan.
Antilles
Dillon is a staunch supporter of Antilles calling it a "fortress against Landonist tyranny" and calling for Superior to recognize Antilles as a sovereign nation and establish proper and formal diplomatic relations. In 2019 he and other Conservative Coaliton MPs pushed for the Diplomacy Reform Act of 2019 which called for Superior to open an embassy in Antilles and establish official diplomatic ties as a mirror to Superior establishing new ties with the United Commonwealth.
South America
Africa
Europe
Domestic policy
Law enforcement
Dillon has been a frequent critic of the Black Lives Matter movement calling it a "dangerous far-left anarchist force" and has opposed any form of legislation that seeks to implement the policies that the movement has called for. He has frequently sided with the police and has called himself Superior's "most staunch defender of the police" in a 2019 speech. During the 2020 election campaing phase, Dillon sided with the police and opposed the George Floyd protests and accused participants in the protests of being urban terrorists and accused the Granholm government of being complicit in urban terrorism due to her decision to hear out and meet the demands of the BLM movement. Dillon opposes defunding police departments calling it a "gateway to anarchy and crime sprees" and has also been critical of most attempts to demilitarize the police calling it "the right decision for the wrong time" and accused the riots that have occured as part of the protests of being evidence that a more militarized police force is a necessary evil.
After Derek Chauvin was found guilyu on all three chares, Dillon called the verdict "ultimately just" and believed that Chauvin was guilty, but only stated that he should've been guilty on the first two charges. He would controversially claim that the threats of riots and "the left-wing mob" had influenced the decision of the jury and also said "make no mistake; there remains a war against law enforcement and all police departments across Superior who seek its dismanteling no matter how few police offcers are guilty of genuine crime and murder". His statement was criticized by many and he was accused of being an apologist for police brutality, but he would deny such claims along with official party organizations.
Capital punishment
Dillon is a proponent and supporter of capital punishment, believing the practice it is "the best punishment for hardcore criminals". During both the 2019 and 2020 election, Dillon campaigned on preserving capital punishment, though also promised he would "lead the transition to abolish it" if the Superian populace demanded so.
Drug policy
Dillon has been highly critical of drug liberalization calling it "naive and destructive" and has opposed most drug liberalization policies. He supports continued criminalization of drugs like heroine, but has supported reducing marijuana's position on the government's list of most dangerous drugs calling marijuana "risky, but less risky than others".
Environment
Corruption
Isaac Dillon has made anti-corruption a core part of his personal platform having ran on opposing it during the 2018 UCP leadership election. In the 2019 federal election, Dillon ran on cracking down on corruption, increasing government transparency, and pushed for greater governmental accountability in the wake of Interngate. In 2020, Dillon called for a federal-level anti-corruption commission and later a government agency meant to crack down on corruption in 2021. The latter has been emphasized more since the beginning of Courtgate in September 2021 and in November, Dillon stated his support for a Department of Corruption and Ethics to be created as part of the official cabinet and that he would establish it if elected president.