Otaku Translation: Forging America: My Campaign Manager Is Roosevelt C30

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Chapter 30: Bad News from Washington 2 in 1

A week later, Leo received a call from .

The voice on the phone was weary.

"Leo, I’m sorry, but we’ve run into some trouble," Kevin got straight to the point. "Your federal grant application was rejected during the preliminary review stage at the ."

Leo’s heart sank.

"What happened?"

"A deputy secretary named rejected it, citing that your application materials didn’t comply with their latest internal guidelines." Kevin explained.

"Internal guidelines?" Leo pressed. "What are those? The materials we submitted fully complied with all federal regulations."

"I know," Kevin’s tone was filled with resignation. "That so-called internal guideline has never been publicly disclosed. It’s one of Washington bureaucrats’ favorite tricks—they always find an obscure internal rule you’ll never know about to reject any project they don’t want to approve."

"This is classic bureaucratic obstruction; they’re trying to wear us down."

"But that’s not the main reason," Kevin continued. "More importantly, this Deputy Secretary Coleman is a holdover appointee from the previous . His sole political objective is to create trouble for any project led by our Democratic Party."

"Especially community projects like yours, which have clear welfare implications—they’re his biggest target."

"But that’s still not the crux of the matter." Kevin’s voice lowered further. "We found out that this Coleman has a very close relationship with Warren, our ."

"And who stands behind Senator Warren, I believe you already understand."

Leo immediately grasped the full picture.

This wasn’t just Washington bureaucracy.

It was a precise long-distance sniper shot from Pittsburgh’s local power structure.

While had superficially conceded, the real power players behind him wouldn’t let Leo off so easily.

Senator Warren was one of the most powerful figures in Pennsylvania’s Republican Party.

And his biggest campaign donor was none other than the head of —.

Leo recalled what his father once told him:

"In Pittsburgh, mayors come and go, but the Morganfield family will always be here."

They were the true rulers of this city.

Mayor Cartwright, , —they were merely proxies of this vast interest group working openly.

"See, Leo?" Roosevelt’s voice rang out. "This is the fusion of with the local oligarchic network."

"You thought you were just fighting a minor bureaucrat at , but in reality, you’re challenging a massive interest community spanning both Washington and Pittsburgh."

"Congressman Murphy may have some influence in the House, but in the Senate, his words carry little weight. Alone, he can’t withstand the combined pressure from Senator Warren and the Morganfield family."

Kevin’s voice on the phone was helpless: "John is doing everything he can. He’s planning to contact several other Pennsylvania representatives in the House to pressure HUD together. But he needs time—it could take months before we see results."

Months.

That timeline was far too long for both Leo and Murphy.

By then, Murphy’s primary election would already be over.

If he couldn’t deliver tangible results to voters before then, his loss was inevitable.

And Leo’s would die a slow death in endless delays.

Leo hung up the phone and fell into deep thought.

He knew it was his turn to act now.

His alliance with Murphy was built on mutual benefit.

If he couldn’t help Murphy resolve this immediate issue, their alliance would be nothing more than an empty promise.

Murphy would unhesitatingly abandon him as a worthless ally.

"What should we do?" Leo asked Roosevelt.

He felt stuck.

They couldn’t directly confront a federal deputy secretary in Washington, let alone entrenched like Senator Warren and the Morganfields.

Roosevelt chuckled.

"Child, never use your weakness to clash head-on with the enemy’s strength. What we need to do is drag them out of their fortified position and onto a battlefield most advantageous to us."

"We need to draw them into a ."

"Remember, what bureaucrats fear most isn’t a stronger opponent—it’s endless trouble. Unpredictable, grassroots-level trouble that doesn’t follow the rules."

Under Roosevelt’s guidance, Leo began devising a new battle plan.

An entirely overt strategy.

The first step was to redefine the enemy in this fight.

Leo immediately had Sarah set up the camera—he was going to record a special episode for .

In the video, Leo sat in front of the familiar fireplace, but his expression was no longer one of anger—it was a mix of sadness and confusion.

"My brothers and sisters of Pittsburgh."

He spoke to the camera in a low, somber tone.

"Today, I must announce some bad news to everyone."

"Our , supported by Congressman Murphy, which could bring millions of federal investment dollars and hundreds of new jobs to Pittsburgh’s working-class communities, has been rejected—in Washington."

He paused, letting the gravity of the bad news sink in.

Then, with an absurd tone, he revealed the so-called reason.

"The reason for the rejection sounds unbelievable. An official at HUD told us that the painstakingly prepared application report did not meet their latest internal guidelines due to a trivial formatting issue, so it was returned."

He reduced a complex political issue involving partisan struggles and local interest groups into an utterly ridiculous bureaucratic joke anyone could understand.

That was enough.

The next step was to mobilize the masses.

At the end of the video, Leo delivered what appeared to be a "non-political" call to action.

"Friends, I know hearing this news will make you angry and disappointed."

"But we cannot give up; we’ve only encountered a minor technical issue."

"I believe the officials in Washington simply don’t understand the real situation in Pittsburgh or how much we need this plan."

"So, I humbly ask for your help."

Sarah typed out the public contact number and official email address of Deputy Secretary Robert Coleman’s office in the largest font possible on the screen.

"Let’s communicate politely, peacefully, and rationally with the staff in Deputy Secretary Coleman’s office."

"Let’s tell them we are citizens of Pittsburgh, and we support this urban revival plan."

"Please give our application another chance."

Before releasing the video, Leo confirmed the feasibility of this plan with Roosevelt.

"We aren’t attacking him, we aren’t insulting him—we’re just having thousands of Pittsburgh citizens ‘greet’ him. Will this really work?"

"Child, you still don’t understand bureaucrats," Roosevelt explained. "A single complaint call from a citizen will be politely noted by his secretary and then thrown in the trash. Ten calls might annoy them. A hundred calls will paralyze their normal operations."

"When over a thousand, or even ten thousand calls from the same city flood every line in their office simultaneously, it becomes an outright political disaster."

"Deputy Secretary Coleman will drown in this tidal wave of calls from Pittsburgh."

The special episode of The Heart of Pittsburgh was released that evening.

The impact of the video exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Steelworkers, already seething with frustration from unemployment and hardship, were completely incensed upon seeing this absurd “formatting issue.”

Frank and his union buddies were the first to take action.

They copied the Washington phone number onto pieces of paper and distributed them throughout the community.

"Brothers, don’t say anything else—just dial this number and tell them you’re a steelworker from Pittsburgh, and you need that money!"

Residents of the community center, including retired elders, also picked up their phones.

They had plenty of time.

They could call from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon.

Some local small business owners, upset by the obstruction of a plan that could bring investment and jobs to the community, joined in as well.

They had their employees call the number during work breaks.

A telephone blitzkrieg remotely orchestrated by Leo from his tiny Pittsburgh office had officially begun.

Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Deputy Secretary Robert Coleman’s office descended into chaos promptly at 9:00 AM the next day.

The four phones in the office started ringing non-stop from 9:01 AM.

Coleman’s secretary, a young woman named Susan, felt like she was losing her mind.

She answered one call.

"Hello, this is Deputy Secretary Coleman’s office."

"Hi, I’m a steelworker from Pittsburgh, my name is George. I’d like to ask why our urban revival plan was rejected?"

Susan could only respond with the official line.

"Sir, your application materials do not comply with our internal guidelines…"

"What kind of nonsense is this! When I was fighting in Vietnam, I didn’t see all these rules! Put me through to whoever’s in charge!"

Susan was forced to hang up.

But as soon as she did, another phone rang.

She scrambled to answer it.

"Hello, this is…"

"Hi, I’m a single mother from Pittsburgh. I want to know why you’re taking away my child’s hope of going to college?"

All morning, the phone lines in Coleman’s office remained flooded.

His email inbox was being bombarded with hundreds of emails per minute from Pittsburgh.

By the afternoon, things escalated further out of control.

Some angry Pittsburgh citizens began searching online for Coleman’s personal information.

His private phone number, his wife’s social media accounts, even the phone number of the school his children attended—everything was exposed.

Coleman had to turn off his phone.

His wife was forced to shut down all her social media.

This telephone storm from Pittsburgh severely disrupted his work and private life.

And this was only the first day.

On the second day, the situation worsened.

The video from The Heart of Pittsburgh began spreading nationwide.

Some national left-wing news sites and bloggers with millions of followers started sharing the video.

They framed the incident as a quintessential case of " people resisting Washington bureaucracy."

Pittsburgh’s telephone blitz began receiving support from across the country.

Auto workers from Detroit, coal miners from West Virginia, unemployed individuals from Ohio…

These Rust Belt residents, equally resentful of Washington, also started calling that number.

Deputy Secretary Robert Coleman’s office was completely paralyzed.

His secretary Susan, at 10:00 AM on the second day, tearfully submitted her resignation to HR.

Coleman had to personally borrow two interns from another department to handle the telephone tsunami.

But it made no difference.

Soon, this caught the attention of politically astute journalists in Washington.

That afternoon, the renowned political news website "" published a report.

The headline read: "How a Community Project from Pittsburgh Triggered a Telephone Tsunami Against a Federal Department."

The article detailed the video from The Heart of Pittsburgh and the ensuing events.

The author wrote in a half-joking tone:

"Looks like in future elections, candidates will have to worry less about their opponents’ TV ads and more about the angry armies from the Rust Belt flooding their office phones."

Robert Coleman’s name appeared in political news in a way he absolutely did not want.

Back in Pittsburgh, Leo watched all this unfold from his office.

"Now, it’s time for our ally to step in," Roosevelt said.

Capitol Hill, Congressman John Murphy’s office.

Congressman Murphy seized the opportunity Leo had created for him.

He immediately instructed his press secretary to contact reporters from all major media outlets, announcing an emergency press conference on the "Pittsburgh Incident" within half an hour.

During the press conference, Congressman Murphy portrayed himself as a tragic hero fighting for his constituents but ruthlessly obstructed by Washington’s bureaucratic system.

"I am incredibly proud of my constituents!" Murphy declared fervently to the cameras. "Their voices are filled with power and love for this land! Their voices deserve to be heard by everyone in Washington!"

"I am deeply disappointed and outraged by the actions of that bureaucrat at HUD! I cannot comprehend why a plan that could bring hope to our Pittsburgh was rejected for such an absurd reason!"

"I will personally visit HUD immediately! I demand they provide a reasonable explanation to Pittsburgh!"

Murphy’s performance was flawless.

He successfully cast himself as a warrior willing to challenge federal bureaucrats for his constituents.

His approval rating in Pittsburgh soared by ten percentage points the next day.

Meanwhile, pressure mounted on Republican Senator Warren’s office.