Eli Baker

Elihu "Eli" Joseph Baker (born January 10th, 1932) is the 28th and current president of Quintessence of Dust.

Early life

Baker was born to wealthy parents in Dareb, Starkresh, but spent most of his childhood growing up on their estate in Eastling. His family's secure financial status and geographic distance from the epicentre of the Second Civil War meant he saw less of its immediate effects than many of his generation, but he developed a profound interest in the politics of Reconsolidation, later writing a two-volume history of the period, The New Nation. More local influences came from the family farm, where he developed a love of nature as well as a strong interest in preserving the commercial viability of agriculture, and the frustrations of poor rural transportation networks, which he came to believe constituted the greatest disadvantage to economic development. He attended the private Georgian Academy, where he excelled at both academic work and sports, and then took a year out to help manage the family farm before heading to the University of Zyarn to read economics. He completed his education at Blaubeck University, where he earned his J.D. in 1959. Already politically active, he helped campaign for Artellius Kryager and the Liberal Party in the elections of 1952 and 1956.

Business career

Commercial law

Following graduation, Baker secured a lucrative position in the legal department of shipping giant QuodLine Express, based in Cleanport, West Sponson. Although he was considered brilliantly adept, gaining promotion after promotion and often being entrusted with the most challenging cases, he became increasingly frustrated with the seemingly insurmountable complexity of the tax codes with which he was dealing, the simplification of which was to become one of the cornerstones of his political philosophy. After five years in Cleanport, during which he had saved scrupulously and invested wisely, he moved to Highmark City to establish his own commercial law firm with two friends from university, Robert Waters and Keith Bellingham. After some tough early years, they managed to gain several important contracts and began to rise to prominence, specialising in working with the chemical industry. They expanded to an extensive office complex in the Central Commercial district as their staff grew, while Baker came to be recognised as one of the country's most able legal minds. He argued in front of the Supreme Court on numerous occasions, most notably in the landmark case Corelli vs. Eastern Brewing, which struck down portions of the 1971 Civil Rights Act as unduly restricting constitutional guarantees of economic freedom. Baker particularly took on antitrust laws, which he felt unduly restricted freedom of assembly. Although his legal career brought him financial and professional success, he later spoke of regret for some of his actions, feeling that at times they were "fighting for the wrong side". He was probably influenced in this assessment by a fatal accident at an agrochemicals firm that he had previously helped defend in an industrial safety lawsuit. In any case, after fifteen years of commercial law, he had grown tired of his lifestyle, and in particular of living in the city, and decided to move on.

Voluntary service

Since university, Baker had been actively involved in charity work, and in particular the private ColonyAid project, that helped provide for the development of healthcare and infrastructure in the Quintessential Tropics. Starting in 1960, he took annual trips to the South Island to assist with field efforts, and was a regular financial contributor. In 1972 he had been elected to the Board of Directors, and he became known as an organizer of fundraising dinners in Highmark. In 1975 he moved to the South Island for a year to oversee an irrigation project there; he also assisted in the establishment of a literacy project under the organization of the Department of Education. Once again, his experiences influenced his political outlook, and on his return he became an advocate for allowing the colonies greater self-determination.

Farming

In 1976 Baker returned to the family farm at Eastling, which his brother Mal had taken over. Baker initially engaged in legal work, commuting to Dareb, but soon he decided to become more involved in the running of the farm, which was declining in profitability. He and his brother set about comprehensively reorganizing it, with Baker investing a considerable amount of his own savings to buy new machinery. At his suggestion, they began a program of diversification. This included expanding the variety of crops grown, rennovating and then renting to tourists a series of cottages on the land, and making better use of the land's forests. For many who knew Baker as a rich city lawyer, the concept of his returning to the soil may have seemed almost farcical, but he was hugely successful, turning the farm into one of the best in the state.

Early political activities

Baker had joined the Liberal Party at the age of 14, and long before entering politics professionally he was active in support of them. He contributed financially to the party, and regularly campaigned for Liberal candidates in local, state and national elections. He was himself regularly encouraged to run for office, particularly after moving to Highmark, but he consistently declined, citing lack of experience. As his legal expertise became increasingly apparent, his name was mentioned as a possibility for judicial appointment. He was never formally nominated, and never made his feelings clear, but his departure from the legal profession suggests he would have declined. Nonetheless, he was clearly intensely interested in politics, and by the 1970s was intimating that he would pursue a career in it once he had settled his business concerns. He was influenced by foreign liberal and libertarian writers, and began describing himself as a "classic liberal"; he nonetheless also supported numerous environmental and social justice campaigns. He avoided association with the Free Colony movement, although he expressed support for greater self-determination on numerous occasions.

Personal life

During his final year at Blaubeck, Baker met Patricia Lewis, then completing her teacher training. Shortly after moving to Cleanport, they married, but the marriage proved neither happy nor long-lasting. Baker was devoted to his job, and did not want to start a family at that stage. The couple drifted apart, and within 18 months were separated; they filed for divorce in 1963. Lewis would later remarry and bear two children; she died in 2001.

In 1966, his firm hired on a new legal secretary, Mae Woolmer. The two became close, and married in 1968 at a small ceremony in Eastling. They had three children together: Lucinda (born 1970), Robert (1972), and Allison (1975). The family accompanied Baker to the Tropics, and then to the farm in Eastling. Baker would later say of his wife that "she was with me every step of the way, even those steps she disagreed with". She died in 1992 after struggling with breast cancer for several years.

Baker's youngest daughter, Allison, succumbed to a heroin overdose in 1997. Since her mother's death, she had become increasingly estranged from the family, finally running away from home at the age of 18. She moved overseas for a while, and then returned to Highmark City, where she refused to contact her father. Rumours of drug abuse circulated in the media, but the extent of the problem was not realized until she was discovered dead in her apartment. Her death influenced her father's reversal of his opinion on drug policy, where he had previously strongly supported legalisation.

Governor of Starkresh

In 1980, Baker finally decided to run for elected office, and set his sights high, seeking the Liberal nomination to run for Governor. Impressing party members with his obvious charisma and public speaking ability he easily won selection. He proved an able fundraiser and was popular on the campaign trail, and swept to a comfortable victory in a difficult year for Liberals. His campaign concentrated on modernising agriculture, reducing government waste and developing a better rail system. He admitted tax rises might prove necessary, but he managed to resist increasing state taxes until his third year in office through careful reorganization of the state bureaucracy.

He was friendly with President Olleno Sanchez, and came to national attention with his moving eulogy at Sanchez's funeral. He supported many of Sanchez's policies and suggested at a speech to the National Liberal Party Organizing Committee in 1982 that the Liberals could learn from him. He nonetheless vigorously opposed his successor, Ralph Heinecker.

Baker's policies proved broadly successful in regenerating the declining economy of Starkresh. The state became a net exporter of foodstuffs after years of dependence, and he negotiated special initiatives to promote the use of Starkresh ports in preference to those in West Sponson and Robary. He made less progress towards improvement in state rail services, and was frustrated at the lack of federal support for the project.

He was criticised by environmental groups who took issue with numerous policies. Aside from his strong support of modernised agriculture, incorporating a heavy dependence on artificial fertilisers, he reduced the area of protected forest on two occasions and strongly supported plans for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Starkresh. In an unguarded moment he denounced Green Party legislators as "filthy little hippies", a remark for which he later apologised.

The most controversial aspect of his governorship were his views on gun control. Departing from the Liberal Party national platform, he opposed almost all gun control measures, and almost all of his vetoes were of bills to restrict sale or possession of firearms. Several times, he was bypassed by federal legislation; moreover, the state legislature was able to override his veto with a two-thirds majority on three occasions. A popular governor, his stance on guns was lauded in rural communities but seen as reckless in major settlements such as Dareb. In 1983, he authorised the use of state funds to finance an amnesty, in which hundreds of illegal weapons were handed in.

Baker and the First Colonial War

In 1979, sporadic rebellion on the South Island turned into open warfare between QDF troops and members of the People's Revolutionary Army. President Powalsky was seen as reluctant to commit the necessary military presence, but Olleno Sanchez swept to victory in the 1980 elections on a platform of swift resolution.

Baker came out in support of Sanchez's policies while the Liberal Party vacillated hopelessly. Throughout the election of 1980, and on into 1981, Baker gave speeches where he advocated the use of military force to restore order. As Governor, he addressed the Quintessential Congress in a speech on the need for authorisation of increased troop numbers, uttering the words, "We must ten thousand today, that we might not send one hundred thousand tomorrow." His position did not change immediately following Sanchez's death, but he became increasingly critical of the way in which the operations were being conducted, and called for enquiries into possible human rights violations by QDF troops.

His position, at odds with many within the Liberal Party, was partly influenced by his resolute opposition to communism. He later admitted that had the PRM been of a different political character he "might have seen the conflict very differently". He came to believe that the communist factions within the PRM were subverting the will of the general colonial populace, who he had found largely receptive to relations with the metropolis.

In 1983, he announced that he could no longer support the war effort, and called for the troops to be brought home. Opposition to the war became a cornerstone of his Congress campaign in 1984, and his final act as Governor was to authorise a large peace demonstration in Dareb, which he then attended as a guest speaker, delivering his most famous anti-war speech, in which he suggested the war had become a tool of imperialism.

Once elected to the Senate, Baker consistently voted to end the war, and was included as part of a Congressional delegation to negotiate the Treaty of San Lombard. However, he displayed admiration for soldiers who returned home, and sharply criticised those in the anti-war movement who tried to cast veterans as pariahs. He published two books on the affair: Worlds Away was a largely autobiographical account of his changing views on the conflict, and Intemperance and Intolerance a more strictly historical work, that tied Heinecker's foreign policy to a culture of closet racism within the Conservative Party. The book remains hugely controversial.

Conressional career

1984 election

After only one term as governor, Baker was eligible to stand again, and would almost certainly have won. However, he had come to believe that without federal support, his plans for Starkresh could never come to fruition, and hence decided to run for Congress. He worked with the Liberal Party and incumbent Francois Neuvelle to develop a coherent campaign platform, and raised funds with extraordinary aplomb. He then sought numerous political endorsements from organizations including professional and trade unions, charities and anti-war groups, and individuals, led by Liberal Presidential candidate Jose Mannero. His campaign was boosted by the state's good economic performance in 1984, and he left the role of Governor a strong favourite.

His campaign concentrated heavily on foreign policy, mainly because Gusmeier and he agreed on many aspects of economic policy. Portraying himself as the candidate of peace and reconciliation, and Gusmeier as a war-mongering imperialist, Baker was able to whip up tremendous popular support across party lines, and took up a commanding lead in pre-election polls. He toured the state relentlessly, addressing upwards of a hundred events and conventions, and concluded his campaign with a rousing speech on the steps of the State Congess in Dareb, before returning to the Eastling estate with his family to await the results. He was comfortably elected, winning over twice as many votes as any of his competitors; Gusmeier ulimately finished third to Green Party candidate Henry Isaacs.