Northeast Senate Election Candidates forum

[bore]

Welcome.

Me and matt have decided instead of having a formal debate to instead answer any questions posed by citizens of our great region. (Though if other atlasians have questions we're more than willing to answer them as well)

So, fire away

[Potus]

For Matt: What would you say your guiding principle (I.e. Liberty, equality, order)?

For Bore: Do you regret your vote for DemPGH?

For Both: Do you approve of Senator Lumine's performance as PPT?

[Maxwell]

Would either of you have voted for the energy nationalisation legislation?

[bore]

Lumine, like TNF and Yankee before him, has been a very good PPT. He's been active, has shown a very good grasp of the senate rules and has always been responsive any time I've contacted him.

With regard to the DemPGH question, very few people think dempgh's term was successful and I doubt even he thinks that. I acknowledge this, and this is proved by the fact that there were many moments when I strongly disagreed with him, for instance, over hifly, over the Thursday night massacre and on a not insignificant number of bills. But I'm not divine. I, (along with, lest we forget, conservatives like hagrid, clarence and tmth) could not predict how his presidency would work it. Frankly, everybody who's been in atlasia has made votes for either inactive or just plain unsuccessful candidates, for instance, the entire mideast region recently voted overwhelmingly for a governor who then disappeared for a month.

During the campaign, dempgh had a record of being a moderate centre left governor, with similar views to mine, in the same party as me. It would have been strange for me not to vote for him, even though I consider sirnick a good friend. In retrospect though, yes, atlasia would have been better off with a sirnick presidency.

[bore]

The Energy Nationalisation bill has probably been my biggest mistake as a senator (although in the end I was a Nay, and at one point during the debate I was called the senate's 6th rightwinger). This mistake, it's worth noting, was not due to my seeing the public's reaction and changing my mind, but because, with there being 15 or so bills on the floor, it being really difficult to follow each one with the care they deserve. To an extent, you're reliant on other senators to do their job as well.

I will also note that, maybe because I'm british, and see things like the NHS and the difference between a state controlled railway and a private one, and the huge subsidies the government has to pay to private firms for them to build power plants, I'm much less afraid of state ownership of key industries. In principle, I would not be opposed to some form of energy nationalisation, as in common in so many european countries. In practice, that particular bill was a bad bill, and I should never have supported it.

The other thing I'll point is out is I was the deciding vote against nationalisation of all energy and transport companies in May.

[Lumine]

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?

For both candidates: Both of you have already been on the Senate, what would you say was your proudest accomplishment while serving there?

[Barnes]

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?

[sentinel]

Matt: Why are you so great? Why am I so awesome?

Bore: Why are you so awesome? Why am I so great?

Matt: What about Bore makes your eyes sparkle?

Bore: What about Matt makes your eyes glisten?

[bore]

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?

For both candidates: Both of you have already been on the Senate, what would you say was your proudest accomplishment while serving there?

I'd say my proudest accomplishment would be the repeal of useless laws, because I think that one of the biggest problems we face as a game is the inaccessibility of our laws, and that bill went a good way to alleviating that, although there is still a long way to go.

Runners up would be many of the reform amendments I've passed through the senate, such as the amendment handing control of the amendment process to the SoFE, the amendment reducing the lame duck period to a shorter length of time, the amendment changing the number of people needed for a party back to 5 and the amendment changing the amount of time needed to move states to put it into line with the regions. Those being runners up because though they all passed the senate, none have yet been ratified.

I'm also very proud of my work on the end the doctors shortage act, which provided critcal new doctors, on the public means public act where I helped to pass the redraft that duke proposed giving more funding to regions to help homelessness (and, as most citizens will know, homelessness has always been an important issue to me- I authored the bill that provided everybody in the northeast with shelter) and, on a regional level, a bill clearing up the SOAP and a bill making sure the ludicrously short campaign of the special election me and matt fought last time doesn't happen again.

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 think that the problem the GM has always had is that it's difficult to get people to follow the story provided, because there are no consequences. (And also because the GM could easily be dismissed by the president. A fact that I disagreed with before it was cool () as can be shown by the fact that only me and lumine voted to change that before the thursday night massacre) Now, there was a clear backlash recently about dempgh ignoring the GM's story, so maybe that's beginning to change. I think we should give sirnick a chance to see if that change can continue.

If that change doesn't continue, then, given that very capable atlasians, who have excelled in other areas of the game, like sirnick and griffin and nix couldn't get it to work, I think it's fair to say there are sever structural issues.

In that case, seeing as enforcement of any type of storyline is impossible to avoid making in some way biased, and with people not being willing to follow the story, I think we should just scrap the position, maybe replacing it with some very limited God figure, who can tell people like snowstalker that they're talking crap.

Bore: Why are you so awesome?

My fabulous locks.

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Your majesterial presence.

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His smile of eternal reassurance.

[Sopranos Republican]

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.

[bore]

Bump

[Sopranos Republican]

Any more questions, anyone?

[SWE]

If elected, in what ways would you abuse your power to my benefit?

[Lief 🗽]

I am not sure if I'm invited to this debate, but as the pro-incest lobby is spending tens of millions on the Northeast airwaves to attack my character and the character of my lovely wife and adequate children, I feel the need to address the good people of our region directly. 

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Thank you for this fantastic question. Look, I think it's clear that the federal government in Nyman has been hanging our great region out to dry for far, far too long. We send senators to the capital, and they waste their time debating on whether or not to install guillotines on Wall Street? Are you kidding me? Meanwhile, here in the Northeast, millions of men, women and children are homeless refugees, their homes destroyed by the rebellion. We need investment. We need pork barrel spending. If elected, I will introduce a $1 trillion package to rebuild the Northeast. Furthermore, I will cast my ideological scruples to the wind, and will support whatever legislation I need to in exchange for bringing home the bacon. Some right-wing kook from the Mideast wants to pass a bill executing gay children? Sure, I'll vote for that; but I'm gonna need him to vote for my amendment to his bill which will build an expensive, unnecessary bridge in Connecticut. That is my promise to you, citizens of the Northeast.

Let me answer as well the marvelous question from Mr. Sir Nick. First of all, let me say that my opponents seem to be good, honest people. We've all heard the nasty rumors about them (the corruption, the adultery, the allegations that they've diddled themselves in front of staffers, etc.) but I want to state unequivocally that I think those rumors are probably not true. What I will say about them is this: Senator bore should be ashamed that he has done nothing to rebuild the war-torn Northeast or combat the incest problem that is ravaging our families, our communities, and our schools; and Matt should drop out of the race immediately, as he has proven himself to be completely unfit for office.

Thank you for the questions, and I hope you all vote next weekend!

[bore]

Obviously all candidates, including lief, are invited to this debate.

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This post is utterly ridiculous. As an atlas forum member I have obviously never even been close to having sex.

 

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I've repeatedly pointed out that I oppose incest and have done everything I can to oppose it (which, as it's a regional matter, isn't much). If the so called champion of the people Lief was really concerned about incest he would drop the campaign for this office, which has as little effect on marriage laws in the northeast as the president of Argentina does, and run instead for either governor or ( a better choice since there are already three candidates for governor) the assembly. That he refuses to do so suggest he himself is actually a tool of the nefarious pro incest lobby, trying to distract the public from were marriage laws are really decided.

[Lief 🗽]

I intend to introduce and pass a constitutional amendment that would outlaw incest in the entire country as soon as I am sworn in as Senator.

[bore]

I intend to introduce and pass a constitutional amendment that would outlaw incest in the entire country as soon as I am sworn in as Senator.

Well, you would say that, wouldn't you?

Not only is taking the right to produce marriage legislation away from the regions a bad idea anyway (I may disagree strongly with the bill, but no one can doubt it has provoked a lot of activity in the region), it will also never pass the senate or the regions. That amendment which you claim you would introduce would never, ever, pass- and the pro incest lobby that you allege that you're not a part of knows this.

Now, obviously I would never say that you're a pro incest plant, but it would be very convenient for the incest cause if a senate bill that could never pass was introduced, as it would naturally suck the energy out of regional efforts, which could actually pass.