The impressive part is that we have two less popular candidates than Trump and Hillary. And that election had people wishing for a meteor to end the earth.

I think you, and others here, are forgetting the amazing up side to a country that controls a giant space death ray. It's kind of like asking Iran why they keep trying to make nuclear weapons. I dunno, why would a nation want the ability to surgically melt building size targets anywhere on the hemisphere?

Given the ability to automate production, its not really a bad thing for the population to decrease. Of course the process of decreasing and the sociatal adjustments are going to be... difficult.

I'm trying to think of a real world example of government breeding growth that's gone wrong, but I can't think of any.

There's plenty of examples of breeding control that have gone horrific of course. I just can't think of the opposite example.

It was hand holding for the politically opposed viewer. Just saying the law doesn't make the point to those who have a more narrow view of what asylum is.