Marokai Blue/Purple State for Atlasia, Campaign HQ

[Associate Justice PiT]

Term limits? Bleh.

My thoughts exactly.  Atlasia's population is too small for term limits; after a few elections we would run out of people to replace the good 'ol boys.  Especially when one takes into consideration what percentage of this citizens are active and willing to run for federal office.

Well, they could be put off by just joining the game, then having to face off against this established poster. While the population is small, i'm sure theres something that would work.

     The beauty of regional offices is that they allow newbies to start off at a lower level, getting their sea legs & gaining crucial allies that will give them a real shot at winning a Senate seat.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Term limits? Bleh.

My thoughts exactly.  Atlasia's population is too small for term limits; after a few elections we would run out of people to replace the good 'ol boys.  Especially when one takes into consideration what percentage of this citizens are active and willing to run for federal office.

Well, they could be put off by just joining the game, then having to face off against this established poster. While the population is small, i'm sure theres something that would work.

     The beauty of regional offices is that they allow newbies to start off at a lower level, getting their sea legs & gaining crucial allies that will give them a real shot at winning a Senate seat.

I guess I'm a bit of an anomaly. My first real position was Attorney General, and I went from there. I was never very involved at the regional level.

     My first position was Senator, but my situation was definitely an anomaly. I just happened to ride the resurrection of the Atlasian right-wing to a resounding victory over an established member of the forum. Those circumstances would be difficult, though actually not impossible, to replicate today.

     The point is that it's definitely possible to make it without ever holding office on the regional level, but it's far more difficult & highly luck-based. It's easier if you are established on the forum at-large, but I don't think that should be a requirement to starting a political career in Atlasia.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     As for the term limits proposal, there's a fifth-term Senator right now who happens to be the primary reason the Senate is even functioning at all at this point. Sounds great on paper, slightly less so in practice.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     As for the term limits proposal, there's a fifth-term Senator right now who happens to be the primary reason the Senate is even functioning at all at this point. Sounds great on paper, slightly less so in practice.

Yankee is moving the Senate along because he's Yankee. It has nothing to do with him being a fifth-term Senator. You and I both know he's the exception. It's impossible to make the Senate more interesting and functional, and get new people in the game at all, when the same people dominate the positions of the game time and time again.

Consecutive term limits alone won't solve that problem, but they're one of the crucial pieces in doing so. I think serving 8 months is plenty of time for someone to be a Senator. Hell, I was PPT and passed a ton of legislation as Senator, and I didn't even serve 8 months myself.

I mean, the way I see it, we either do something to actually change the way the Senate operates and the people in it, or we just stop complaining altogether. People lose alot of credibility when their rallying cry is "The Senate is inactive and sucks!" but when people brainstorm, they just sort of quietly mumble "But I don't really wanna do anything about it and stuff.." It's hard to take direct action and change people's behavior, but we have no room to talk if we do nothing beyond crossing our fingers.

     I did not mean to suggest that the length of his tenure was at all relevant. Rather, I meant to suggest that any change that would deprive the Senate of his continued leadership would be unfortunate. I sort of doubt that this change would be that crucial to making the Senate more active, though, as opposed to just creating a reasonable activity requirement for Senators that actually has a basis in the requirement.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     As for the term limits proposal, there's a fifth-term Senator right now who happens to be the primary reason the Senate is even functioning at all at this point. Sounds great on paper, slightly less so in practice.

Yankee is moving the Senate along because he's Yankee. It has nothing to do with him being a fifth-term Senator. You and I both know he's the exception. It's impossible to make the Senate more interesting and functional, and get new people in the game at all, when the same people dominate the positions of the game time and time again.

Consecutive term limits alone won't solve that problem, but they're one of the crucial pieces in doing so. I think serving 8 months is plenty of time for someone to be a Senator. Hell, I was PPT and passed a ton of legislation as Senator, and I didn't even serve 8 months myself.

I mean, the way I see it, we either do something to actually change the way the Senate operates and the people in it, or we just stop complaining altogether. People lose alot of credibility when their rallying cry is "The Senate is inactive and sucks!" but when people brainstorm, they just sort of quietly mumble "But I don't really wanna do anything about it and stuff.." It's hard to take direct action and change people's behavior, but we have no room to talk if we do nothing beyond crossing our fingers.

     I did not mean to suggest that the length of his tenure was at all relevant. Rather, I meant to suggest that any change that would deprive the Senate of his continued leadership would be unfortunate. I sort of doubt that this change would be that crucial to making the Senate more active, though, as opposed to just creating a reasonable activity requirement for Senators that actually has a basis in the requirement.

I considered some sort of activity requirement when I was brainstorming a few weeks back, but there's no activity requirement for a Senator that I could think of that could be both reasonably implemented to have a real impact, and that would be realistic. What would we do, make people introduce a minimum amount of legislation, post a minimum amount of times in the Government board? It doesn't really get to the heart of the problem and you really can't just force people to debate if they have no desire to do it.

The only requirement I could think of would be some sort of Amendment that would expel a Senator if they miss x number of votes. But it's a pretty harsh idea that would either end up being so weak it doesn't actually make a difference, or it would expel people who were away for the weekend, or some sort of equivalent.

Any solution has to keep in mind that Atlasia can't be made to be someone's second job. Things should be tough, but still fair and give room for people to actually enjoy being a Senator. I don't want to make the job hell for people.

     How about combining that suggested requirement with the current one? Expel someone if they miss all votes for 10 or 14 or however many days, unless of course the number of votes is less than some reasonable minimum (say five). That way they don't have to debate, but they also have to actually show up to engage in critical matters of Senate business.