Listen everyone, I apologize that I'm late to this party. Anywho, I'll try to answer the best I can.
For Matt: What would you say your guiding principle (I.e. Liberty, equality, order)?
I think that for the most part, all three of these go together. For instance, I support decriminalizing all drugs and most other personal behavior to promote liberty.
Secondly, I think that we need a strong welfare system to ensure that there's a good degree of equality between the disadvantaged and rich Atlasians. Lastly, I do think that order is an important principle to go by, since crime and a lack of deference to law violates the liberty of The People. Everything beyond that is just a matter of nuance. I'm guessing this is something me and the Senator agree on more than we disagree.
For Both: Do you approve of Senator Lumine's performance as PPT?
Lumine's been doing a great job in my opinion. Chiefly, I think that the office of PPT should be about making sure that the Senate runs on time, and that partisan concerns shouldn't factor into the PPT election. Lumine is an excellent PPT, and so was TNF before him - anyone who can do the job actively and without bias has the potential to be a great PPT.
Would either of you have voted for the energy nationalisation legislation?
I would've voted against energy nationalisation in it's final form.
I think it's important that we deliver cheap and equitable energy and heating to The People, but I'm not convinced that nationalizing the whole industry is the best way to go about it. A public-private partnership that offers vouchers for the poor would be preferable. I also agree with Averroes's proposal that weatherproofing homes would be a more cost-effective way to go about reducing the energy price burden without wholesale nationalizing a huge portion of the economy for ideological reasons.
Well, first of all, I thank Bore for his approval, although I honestly feel that Yankee should definitely be the one leading the Senate right now, xD
For Matt: What are your views on the proposed change to the Senate rules and the current amendment to secure the independence of the Game Moderator?
The event with SirNick is troubling, and I think that it's unfortunate that he was dismissed for political reasons. I shared most Atlasian's outrage at that decision.
I'm not certain that delegating the authority of appointing the GM to the Senate is a good way to go, though. I think it's important that we have a fundamental discussion on what the job of the GM is; is he supposed to create events, or just produce numbers? Furthermore, if his events can be ignored, then why can't his numbers? We need to reevaluate the role of GM but I don't think that curtailing presidential authority on the matter would be constructive.
My question is to both candidates:
It is my personal opinion that the current position of Game Moderator is unworkable. This isn't intended as a slight to any officeholder past or present, but I think that the way the post works simply hasn't proven to be effective and is in need of larger reform than simply a revolving door of GMs.
Do you agree with this assessment, and if so, what do you think should be done to reform the position and role of the GM?
I would refer you to my above statement.
Our job is to simulate a government, and thus it's important that we have numbers to reference when discussing new policies. Otherwise, all debate would just be linking to RL articles which aren't reflective of what Atlasia looks like. Obviously there has to be a middle ground, because when the GM goes too far people stop paying attention, like with alien invasions or editing past job numbers. But as I said earlier, I think we should try and reevaluate the GM position but getting rid of it whole-hog would be crazy and I would vote against any bill that attempted to do that.
Matt: Why are you so great? Why am I so awesome?
Your awesomeness comes from the blessing bestowed from the Ice Gods upon the King of The North, which is an eternal blessing that lives on even long after The King has left his throne. My greatness comes from The People, of course.
Matt: What about Bore makes your eyes sparkle?
His Godlike Glow, and confidence.
