The best President’s Day deals

It’s appropriate that President’s Day comes right after Valentine’s Day because there’s nothing we love more than democracy. To celebrate this most sacred of holidays, we’ve collected some games and literature to deliver some of that piping hot liber-tea directly into your veins.

Video Games

Helldivers 2 is all about freedom, liberty, and putting the “friend” back in friendly fire. If you’re not opposed to a little blue-on-blue co-op action, you can join the Helldivers to hold back the tide of disgusting aliens and mindless robots to protect the democratic utopia of Super Earth.

If you’re ready to join the fight to bring managed democracy to a chaotic galaxy, you can pick up a copy of Helldivers 2 from Amazon, Walmart, or directly from the PlayStation Store for $39.99.

Cyberpunk 2077 and its amazing expansion Phantom Liberty not only envision a future unfettered by socialism but entrust you with safeguarding freedom’s most precious asset, the President of the United States. If you haven’t had a chance to visit CD Projekt Red’s excellent world of capitalism run amok, you can currently pick up Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition from Steam for just $51 (was $89.99). The Ultimate Edition includes the base game and its expansion along with a handful of in-game cosmetics.

Are you a bad enough dude to protect the President’s daughter? Step into the boots of agent Leon S. Kennedy and fight off hordes of zombies in the excellent remaster of the third-person survival shooter Resident Evil 4. The remake modernizes virtually every aspect of the 2005 classic with more fluid controls, sharper graphics, and tighter gunplay than the original. Whether you’re experiencing this title for the first time, or returning to the foggy hills of Spain, you can currently pick up a copy from Steam or Fanatical for around $40.

Being a great ruler in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 requires a loose understanding of nuclear arms treaties and explaining to Congress that you were willing to go to war over a single fish tile. Sid Meier’s Civilization 6: Platinum Edition is the most comprehensive version of this essential turn-based strategy game and is currently available from Green Man Gaming for around $13 (was $79.99). The Platinum Edition includes the base game, as well as six new civilization and scenario DLC packs to add to the base game: “Vikings,” “Poland,” “Australia,” “Persia and Macedon,” “Nubia,” and “Khmer and Indonesia,” along with the excellent expansions Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm.

Board Games

Democracy recognizes all genders, but it wasn’t always that way. Votes for Women celebrates the struggle to bring equality to the vote. This excellent card game can be played cooperatively or competitively as players work through our country’s 70-year battle to ratify the 19th Amendment and secure the right for women to vote. Votes for Women can be purchased directly through publisher Fort Circle Games for $74.99.

Regularly ranked among the best board games ever made, Twilight Struggle uses unique card-driven mechanics to tell the story of the Cold War. While the gameplay can be a bit dense, Twilight Struggle proves that keeping democracy propped up in the shadow of nuclear holocaust is harder than it looks. If you’d like to try your hand at tearing down the Iron Curtain or beating America to the moon you can pick up a copy from Amazon for $54.99. However, if you can’t find someone to play Gorbachev to your Kennedy, Steam has a digital version available for $9.99.

People like democracy, right? How long could it possibly take to institute free elections and stabilize a region with little to no infrastructure? If you think you could do a better job than the Bush administration, we dare you to try Labyrinth: The War on Terror. Brought to us by the same publisher that made Twilight Struggle, Labyrinth challenges players to manage America’s most recent military quagmire by balancing funding and public opinion of the war while maintaining the flow of that sweet, sweet oil. Physical copies are available directly from publisher GMT Games for $54.99, while a digital version is available on Steam for $9.99.

Books

Election and Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perotta both offer fantastic insights into the immaculate American Electoral Process through the lens of high school politics. Both books follow Tracy Flick: first, through her attendance at a New Jersey high school, and then, through adulthood. She attempts to navigate a microcosm of American politics, complete with sex scandals, smear campaigns, and power brokers. If you’d like to learn more about what democracy can do for you, Election and Tracy Flick Can’t Win are available through Amazon.

Election

• $10
• $17
• 39% off

Prices taken at time of publishing.

The excellent Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a romance novel that shows that even a British monarch can’t resist the sweet temptations of democracy. The book centers around a blossoming romance between the son of a U.S. President and the Prince of Wales that subsequently up-ends diplomatic relations between the two countries. If you’re curious to see how this pans out, you can pick up a copy of the book from Amazon for $11 (was $17).