The People's Party: June Convention

[Lumine]

Well, I was not a member of this party during my early times in Atlasia, but now that this party is back and with the demise of the Progressive Union, I would be glad to be a part of it!

[Lumine]

Cincinnati, could you possibly change Assemble to something else? When I first saw this thread I thought it said- something terribly different. Anyways everything else about it looks good, here's to the new alter-ego of the Progressive Union!

Fun fact: TPP held a Senate majority with 18 members nationally. The PUAs have never won a national election ever.

(according to oakvale, at least)

Another fun fact is that I was elected Senator as a Progressive, but I highly reccomend not talking about the Progressive Union so we can avoid potential debates, xD

[Lumine]

I'm actually curious, are we going to have a special convention or just hold a few relevant votes?

Superique raised a great point in the potential that the platform has for reform, and I think we have to see what will happen with the Vice-Chair, the Secretary and the Regional Chairmans (I assume Cincinnatus will remain as Chair). Also, is the party going to use the old by-laws or create new ones?

[Lumine]

I second nominating Cincinnatus as Chairman, and I nominate Flo for Vice-Chair.

[Lumine]

Oh, before I forget, I will not to accept the nomination for Vice-Chair. I honestly don't have the time right now (perhaps for Regional Chairman, but certainly not for Vice-Chair), and Former President Polnut obviously has both the widespread support and the ability for the position.

[Lumine]

The only nominations seconded and accepted for Chair and Vice Chair are myself and Polnut, respectively.  If there's no objections, we will skip the formality of a vote.

Completely fine with me, and congratulations, Mr. Chairman! What is next for the convention?

[Lumine]

The by-laws look good to me, and I would prefer if we had Regional Chairmans, I believe the positive effect on turnout should not be underestimated.

[Lumine]

Well, first of all, congratulations to Ben on getting elected to the Mideast Assembly!

In second place, the old platform still seems quite suitable for our times, but I would recommend higher emphasis in foreign policy beyond the use of diplomacy. I believe we should commit ourselfs to encourage democracy in other nations when possible, and I think it would be innovative if we were to pursue NATO and UN reform (enlargement of NATO, reform of the Security Council and so forth), and a more concrete approach towards the continents as a whole (with an increased focus on Latin America, Africa and Asia in terms of trade and diplomacy).

I also like the approach towards the environment, but is there a chance we could make that commitment go even further? I'm sure Superique would be far more eloquent than me in this area, but we could try to pursue more regulations and more investment in that area, along with an increased use of solar and nuclear power.

Game Reform is an area that seems a little bit dead after the failure of changing the regions, but perhaps (and this is just an idea) we could go for something like changes in the Cabinet?

[Lumine]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[/quote]

Certainly, it would be for the best to drop that part as well. Glad to see there's a lot of potential for platform reform!

In relations to your concerns about foreign policy. The danger of highlighting 'encouraging democracy' opens up a can of worms, to what extent would we 'encourage'? We spent a long time and lot of money to get ourselves out of the nation-building business. I believe we can support democracy movements, but I do not think it is our place to create it.

You're right on that, it seems I still have the bad habit of using the wrong terms when it comes to foreign policy. In this case I meant closer ties (trade, culture and so forth) with democratic nations while we use diplomacy and trade alone (no military interventions) to try and persuade authoritarian regimes to go for democracy. A use of soft power never hurts, I guess, and it doesn't involve real "nation building" if played right.

[Lumine]

Bump!

I am a little bit unsure as to how to proceed here, sould we propose formal amendments, delegate platform reform to a few experts...?

[Lumine]

If we can please get over the usual discussions of betrayals and the usual "the centrist part has no soul!" argument that I've been hearing since at least September (and I'm absolutely sick of it, so I am going to ask whoever still wants to discuss that to do it on another thread), we should really just recognize that we lost this one, and that we just have  to move ahead and start working on what's left to do.

I formally offer the following amendments:

The People's Platform

You must be logged in to read this quote.

They are mostly devised to encourage discussion, since they are rather simple. I left out potential support for a national High Speed Rail (like the one enacted in the Midwest) and some environmental/foreign policy details for now.

[Lumine]

Lumine, I have a question, what do you mean by a "National High Speed Rail" exactly?

He's probably talking about what we already have.

Yes, we do have a High Speed Rail passed in 2009 and two regional High Speed Rails in the Midwest and the Pacific in construction (I believe the Mideast one was repealed, but I'm not entirely sure). The wording was not precise, but would like to see the High Speed Rail expanded and with several different routes so it can serve as a truly massive way of transportation.

[Lumine]

Lumine, I have a question, what do you mean by a "National High Speed Rail" exactly?

He's probably talking about what we already have.

Yes, we do have a High Speed Rail passed in 2009 and two regional High Speed Rails in the Midwest and the Pacific in construction (I believe the Mideast one was repealed, but I'm not entirely sure). The wording was not precise, but would like to see the High Speed Rail expanded and with several different routes so it can serve as a truly massive way of transportation.

Good idea Lumine!

Thanks, Windjammer!

We don't have a national system? I know they repealed the Pacific HSR- so we only have one in the Midwest? Yikes, we need to move quickly on this.

Huh, I missed the Pacific repeal, I thought we at least had two regions with HSR...

[Lumine]

Bump! It's been almost a month already since this convention started...

[Lumine]

Whats our IRC channel? Cincin messaged me saying we had one...but didn't say the channel name...

I have the same doubt, what is the channel name?

And I vote Aye.

[Lumine]

Well, I agree with the proposed method. If I'm not mistaken the election will be on April 17 (I thought it was on April 24 at the beginning), so that gives us four days in case we hold a vote for the At-Large Senate endorsement between Simfan and me (since both of us already announced our candidacies).

[Lumine]

It's sad to see that Butafly could not win a seat this time around, but I'm sure a future run could be very productive. In the meantime, I'll be glad to continue to work in the Senate representing our party. Thanks, Polnut, and thanks to the party for all of their support!