The People's Party: June Convention

[Oakvale]

I wept tears of joy when I saw this thread, and from somewhere on the wind I could almost hear a voice whisper "The People return". Glorious, glorious news.

[Oakvale]

As a proud member of The People's Party my stand against right-wing social control and in favour of Senator TNF's laudable efforts to legalise freedom remain.

[Oakvale]

I nominate Cincinnatus for Chairman and Polnut for Vice Chairman.

[Oakvale]

I also decline Secretary Superique's kind nomination for Vice Chair, and urge the party to support Polnut.

[Oakvale]

I would heavily advise against bothering with regional chairmen.

[Oakvale]

Aye.

[Oakvale]

I will be running for Vice Chair alongside Polnut.

[Oakvale]

I thank my party colleagues for the trust they've placed in Polnut and myself in electing us Chair and Vice Chair by acclamation. I'll be brief - I want to echo what our new Chair said in that I hope our party can work to end the bitter personal dramas of the last few months and focus on substance. The last election got extremely negative in the waning weeks, not always from the candidates themselves, and I don't think it was healthy or productive for anyone concerned.

There was a recent thread asking 'what it means to be a member of The People's Party'. In that thread, I offered the simple summary that while we are not conservatives, we are, unlike our friends in Labor, not - nor do we claim to be - socialists. I think a party like that has an important role to play in the Atlasian political landscape, and if we stay united it's a role we can play well.

We are a small party - twelve members, half of those active. But while we lack hordes of party-line voters and rank-and-file members, The People's Party has always been, and will remain, a party where some of the most talented figures in Atlasia find a home. But, with a small party, things that larger parties can shrug off become vitally important. Polnut, and Cincinnatus in months prior, spoke about the crucial importance of party unity - if we stay united, we can remain a significant force in Atlasia. When we have members literally offering to write the platforms of opposing parties things quickly become farcical. I'm hopeful that these issues can be addressed in the coming months.

Finally, I'll again second what Polnut said - for a small party, and one that is content to remain a small party with little aspirations of dominating the political scene, cooperation with larger, establishment parties is a fact of life, and not something to be feared or mistrusted. At the height of our party's success, we had productive relationships with the Labor Party and our friends in the Federalist Party. Since the revival of the Party, all too often those relationships have been let decay. I look forward to rebuilding them, together.

Thank you.

[Oakvale]

While we are experiencing growth at moment I'd like to take a moment to remind all members of this party that we are at our best when we punch above our weight. We must be wary of turning into some kind of heterogenous "catch all" blob, populated with zombies.