The People's Party December Convention - New leadership announced

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

This will hopefully be a brief affair.

Agenda

December at-large Senate endorsement
Party leadership ballot

I hope to do this in the same balloting process to save time.

If you wish to receive an endorsement from the TPP or you wish to nominate for a TPP leadership position please do so by the opening of the convention.

As I stated in my re-election announcement, I will not be seeking another term as party Chair. My priority should be my Senate responsibilities. I am taking this opportunity to formally nominate Justice Oakvale as Chair and Governor Sawx as Vice Chair.

[Flake]

x Flo

[free my dawg]

~Sawx

[sentinel]

xSirNick

[Simfan34]

x Varavour

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

X Mr. X

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

X duke

[Kaine for Senate '18]

xBen

[Cranberry]

x Cranberry

[Oakvale]

x Oakvale

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

My fellow people,

I hereby call this December convention of the People's Party to order. I will extend the deadline for those wanting our endorsement for the upcoming Senate race by another 12 hours from this being posted. At that point, I will open the ballot. It should be noted that according to our by-laws, any TPP candidate automatically receives our endorsement.

This is also the opportunity for those who wish to run for Chair or Vice Chair.

Please note that those who are nominated should acknowledge and accept their nominations.

[Sec. of State Superique]

XSuperique

[rpryor03]

x Rpryor03

[free my dawg]

I accept Senator Polnut's nomination for Vice Chair.

[Sopranos Republican]

x MattVT

[Oakvale]

I second Sawx's nomination for Vice Chair and accept Polnut's nomination for party Chair.

[sentinel]

I support Polnut's nomination for Chair. I nominate Duke for Vice Chair.

[Donerail]

xSJoyce

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

As Duke has been nominated for Vice Chair, I need him to accept or decline this nomination before the ballot can commence.

Also, as no further requests for endorsement have been received - I hereby declare that the TPP endorsed candidates for the upcoming at-large Senate election are incumbent Senators Polnut and BaconKing.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I can accept the position nomination as a sacrificial lamb, but I am fine with whatever The Party wants to do. I am sort of on hiatus from Atlasia at the moment anyway.

I appreciate the nomination though, glad to see people still remember me sometimes.

[Cincinnatus]

X Cincy

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'll officially decline to run against Sawx in the Vice Chair race. From all I've seen, he has been active, capable and honestly, I am enjoying my hiatus away from the game. When I do feel the call to return on a more active basis, I might pursue a more visible role within The Party.

As of now, I support Oakvale and Sawx in their journey to lead The Party forward. They just must't lose sight of The People they serve and take lashings for every day.

Thank you, SirNick, for nominating me. Maybe in a few months, I'll be ready to come back and lead The Party once again into the sunny fields of Atlasia.

[sentinel]

Now that our legendary leader Duke has decided to stay out of the race, I formally back Sawx for the position of Vice Chair. He will do a fine job.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

As there have been no other nominations - I can confirm that Justice Oakvale and Governor Sawx have been duly confirmed, by acclamation, to serve as the next Chair and Vice Chair of The People's Party.

----

So, that draws nearer to the end of this convention and my Chairmanship of the TPP. I have seen this party emerge as a strong and viable alternative to the two major parties.

We have been accused of standing for nothing, being a personality cult or perhaps worst of all, a hindrance. But we have shown that by building up from the ground, determining a set of core principles that reflect who we are as a party, not changing the party to suit an existing set of ideas. We have been the masters of our own destiny.

This is the vision we want for all Atlasians. We don't believe the Government is Satan, nor to we believe it is Santa Claus. We believe in the state as a tool for development and opportunity. We believe that people should be encouraged to build businesses from an idea. To pursue their dreams, their dreams. We want an open and inclusive society, but that openness being delivered by deeds and true and honest words not from the fear of punishment.

We have a clear idea of who we are, what we want to do as a party and what we can deliver to the people of this country. Real opportunity, real progress and not being bound by the ideological bogs of the past.

The future is bright but only as bright as we are prepared to work for.

So, I officially hand over the baton to the new Chair and Vice Chair of our party, and I pledge to them my best wishes and full support.

Thank you.

[Oakvale]

First and foremost, I want to thank the party for the trust they have placed in me and sawx. We will not let you down.

And I want to thank Polnut, who was the best Chair we could have hoped for and who built this newly revived effort from a minor party struggling for recognition into the thriving, principled and committed team that we are today. The TPP is a singular force in Atlasian public life because of Polnut, and all of us who take part in this movement owe him our deepest gratitude for his service to our cause and to our nation.

In the national elections this weekend, Atlasia faces a clear choice - to move backwards to the days of rancor, party-line tedium and innumerable reckless political stunts, or to push forward with the work of building a better Senate and a better nation. Too often, still, the Senate is clogged with irrelevancies and impracticalities, and while I apologise to my many friends on the political right, it must be said that this epidemic of crackpottery seems to more recently stem from extreme right rather than left.

Our party's representatives in the Senate are among the most dedicated and diligent public servants I've known in all my years in Atlasia. Senator Polnut, a true statesman, has established himself as the conscience of the Senate, a (too often sole) voice of reason when the fringe right or left champion unpassable and unworkable legislation as red meat to their supporters. And in his short time in the Senate since rejoining the fray, Senator Bacon King has been an eloquent and thoughtful legislator, seeking to build consensus in unlikely places instead of burning bridges, as well as serving with distinction on the blue ribbon commission on electoral reform.

We are a small party. We always have been, and likely always will be. A message of cross-party compromise and consensus solutions will never be as popular or as exciting as caterwauling about the gold standard or the guillotine. But what this party exists to offer is simple - good government. That is what our Senators work for every day in Nyman. That is what my friends, Governors Sawx and Simfan work for every day in the Northeast and the Pacific. That is what Vice-President SJoyce works for every day in the White House. What Duke, Averroes, SirNick, Flo and our other regional legislators, party elders and friends of The People are fighting for.

Now can I promise perfection? No. No one can and it would be irresponsible to do. People slip up. We will sometimes make the wrong call. That happens in government - it's the nature of the beast. What I can promise is that TPP is a party that holds dear Edmund Burke's belief that your representative owes you not just his work, but his judgement. We have our clear principles and platform, but the people that serve as our at-large Senators are above all else people whose judgement you can trust, and know that no one is cloistered in party HQ sending out decrees on the official line. That's not how we do things, and never will be. That's not good government.

I'd like to end by quoting our departing chair, Senator Polnut, who I think wonderfully summed up the vision of this party -

We are driven by best-evidence and best-practice, not ideology. We believe in aiming for the future with open eyes and a heart full of optimism.

So my friends, if you want good government, for the people, and, yes, by The People, we must work like never before to re-elect our Senators this weekend. It will not be easy, but I am confident that we can do it, together.

We must move forward not back and always twirling, twirling towards freedom.