SENATE BILL: Atlasian Reboot Act (Withdrawn)

[Cincinnatus]

Atlasian Reboot Act

All acts, bills and resolutions passed by the atlasian senate are hereby repealed in their entirety.

Sponsor: bore

[TNF]

I strongly oppose this bill, given that we've got a lot of good things passed and there's no point on debating them over and over and over again just to reauthorize something we already voted to do.

[DemPGH]

We would indeed end up revisiting everything, so why not a "review and repeal" kind of approach? If something isn't needed, is outdated, has been rewritten or amended fifty times, or is too convoluted, then toss it. But just to dump everything seems to be a throw the baby out with the bathwater approach.

[TNF]

I would certainly support something like this for the Constitution, though. Perhaps an amendment to the present Constitution that forces it to expire within x number of months every so often, so that we aren't all at the mercy of past legislators in terms of what we can and can't do, because lord knows our constitution needs changing.

[Dr. Cynic]

If I could offer the Senate my testimony on this issue, given that it is something I've spoken in favor of. Unfortunately, I ask the Senate to reject this bill. Senator Bore, I feel, is on the right track, but only a legislative reboot would simply not be far enough.

If it's going to be done, a full reboot would be necessary. That means, and I know this would not be something many of you would want to do, everyone is out of a job from the President on down. We would create an entirely new constitution and an entirely new nation. If it's going to be done, it should be done right and I feel this bill only goes halfway.

I thank the Senate for their time.

[bore]

I don't think anyone can deny that atlasia, at the moment, is stagnating, a full day recently went by before a new post was made on fantasy elections, the mideast had 5 votes on the most recent amendment to the constitution, large sections of the wiki including the constitution page, are out of date, elections aren't competitive and apart from a handful of people, our laws on everything from health to education are an indecipherable mess.

Clearly, something has to be done. I introduced this bill not because I think it's perfect, or the solution, but because anything is better than the current malaise. I'd welcome possible amendments or changes, but we need to get the ball rolling.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

If we get rid of all the laws, what will we revert to?

Anarchy? 

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

We should just clear the field and let each side pick teams and go from there. Sounds good, right?

[Adam Griffin]

As stated in the past, I'm open to this. A statute reboot is probably the most necessary element from the perspective of the jumble of laws that contradict or otherwise do not complement one another that needs to be revised.

I tend to take Cynic's view on this as of now, though. I've always been a believer in big and uncertain change; I think we'd be much better off if we were to wipe it all and fundamentally construct a few form of governance from the top to the bottom. In case it matters, though, here are my thoughts on the matter from eight months ago:

Anything covered under statute (that would include Consolidated Social Security Reform Act, Labor Rights Act, Right Wages for Right Regions Act, etc) would be subject to review, extension or repeal based on our main goal of a statute reboot. The fact is that there are so many laws technically on the books these days that many individuals do not know what is what. Compounding the problem is the fact that many statutes have not been properly added/revised in the Wiki. As Game Moderator, this was very frustrating when dealing with certain pieces of legislation and knowing how to proceed. For legislators, Senators and other members of the game, it is equally frustrating to know that most of what people think they'd like to accomplish has already been accomplished.

As my honorable superior from Georgia pointed out, some of the statutes on the books are quickly approaching the age of our youngest players. It's only going to get more difficult from here to keep all of this information relevant and accessible as we continue to compound (in many cases) duplicate statutes on top of that. There is no doubt that both of us support the continuation of Social Security, Fritzcare, the minimum wage and labor rights, but we cannot expect real reform if anything is left off of the table.

Elections have consequences. Under our proposal, the Senate would be tasked with selecting which statutes they wish to keep on the books: the rest would be repealed. Currently, the right has perhaps the strongest Senate presence in many years. If anything, this approach would make the game more exciting again as it would allow for various legislative and policy battles to occur that have since long been settled. I can't see how many conservatives would disagree with this approach, since it gives them an actual shot at influencing policy (rather than being locked into the current multi-year, left-dominated trajectory from which they can't escape otherwise).

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I'm open to this in some form but I would prefer a more selective approach as opposed to this, which seems the equivalent of just angrily sweeping everything off of your desk with your arm.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So we gonna pare this down to a more selective approach, or is there a desire to pursue this through a different medium perhaps?

[bore]

As I said, I by no means envisage this as being the final text we vote on, and anticipate further amendments.

Perhaps one thing we could do is get a GM like figure/commission to explain what our current policies are- sort of like the mock parliament thing, where it's established, from the start, that, say, gay marriage is legal, the defence budget is X billion as a sort of baseline explanation which we could work on.

[Lumine]

As I said, I by no means envisage this as being the final text we vote on, and anticipate further amendments.

Perhaps one thing we could do is get a GM like figure/commission to explain what our current policies are- sort of like the mock parliament thing, where it's established, from the start, that, say, gay marriage is legal, the defence budget is X billion as a sort of baseline explanation which we could work on.

I personally feel that would be a sensitive approach. It seems Simfan will be confirmated without problems, so we could set up a Senate committee or something like that to help him in that task. We really should have a thread with this kind of information (constantly updated), that could have very positive effects for the game.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Government Oversight and Reform Committee?

[Lumine]

Government Oversight and Reform Committee?

I've advocating for committees for a long time, so why not? xD (I would volunteer to participate as well)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

You didn't get the joke.


We had committees for a year including one devoted to reform, but they didn't survive the Nix era. Primarily because even controlled discussions are impossible to facilitate.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I'm not the biggest fan of this here bill;
We've done so much work in these past ten years.
But, then again, there is a cosmic cycle
Of governance and lack thereof in things.
For now I think I'll have to vote Abstain,
Although I stress I keep an open mind.

[Adam Griffin]

Part of me thinks that we might owe it to the public to at least attempt a ConCon before the Senate itself develops a framework for a reset - after all, isn't that the truest committee of them all?

Sooner or later, radical change shall come, but it needs to be done in a way from the get-go that includes more than 10 people. Triggering a ConCon might also be easier than getting a bill that 6 of us agree upon through the Senate. If anything, the ideas from the ConCon could be used in the crafting of future acts by us.

[Lumine]

Part of me thinks that we might owe it to the public to at least attempt a ConCon before the Senate itself develops a framework for a reset - after all, isn't that the truest committee of them all?

Sooner or later, radical change shall come, but it needs to be done in a way from the get-go that includes more than 10 people. Triggering a ConCon might also be easier than getting a bill that 6 of us agree upon through the Senate. If anything, the ideas from the ConCon could be used in the crafting of future acts by us.

The constitution says the citizens of a majority of regions must apply to start the call for a constitutional convention, but since I have never witnessed one I am a little bit confused on the process. It's like the citizen initiatives we used to have?

[bore]

Wouldn't a constitutional convention just lead to changes in, well, the constitution? That would surely still leave legislation unaffected.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Wouldn't a constitutional convention just lead to changes in, well, the constitution? That would surely still leave legislation unaffected.

nah.

if that were the case, the current constitution wouldn't have needed article viii section 1.

[bore]

 

Wouldn't a constitutional convention just lead to changes in, well, the constitution? That would surely still leave legislation unaffected.

nah.

if that were the case, the current constitution wouldn't have needed article viii section 1.

Thanks.

Given that a constitutional convention could, if it wanted to, change legislation, I wouldn't be opposed to going down that path instead.

[TNF]

Upon further reflection, I think I've changed my mind on this legislative effort. I'd say it has my tentative support, but I'd also like to see another Constitutional Convention in tandem with it.

[Adam Griffin]

If it's any conciliation, I wouldn't expect a ConCon to pass as-is. It could, however, serve as a more organic platform for us to determine what needs to be changed and what new ideas we could implement. Since it's pretty easy (relatively speaking) to trigger one, it might be a good idea to see what the people have to say. Maybe it'd be just the thing we need to revive this otherwise very boring game.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I think I could get on board with a ConCon, especially if there are cool costumes.