South Gubernatorial Debate

[Lumine]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to the first of many initiatives brought forward by the Political Tracker. With the South Gubernatorial election looking quite competitive between Flo and DeadPrez, I've been asked to open this potential debate so the voters can hear from both candidates before the election is held.

I will message both Flo and DeadPrez, and if both candidates agree to attend this debate we will start as soon as possible.

[Flake]

I'd love to debate my opponent!

[Lumine]

Right, we only need DeadPrez to confirm then.

[Lumine]

DeadPrez has just confirmed that he will attend this debate, so we will begin right way with opening statements. Gentlemen, the stage is yours!

[Flake]

Thank you so much to The Political Tracker and former President Lumine for hosting us, it's a great honor to share the stage with Legislator DeadPrez, and I'm glad we can have this discussion with the good people of the South.

This election will determine the future of our region. We have the choice of whether our future will be one where we move forward, or one where we re-institute the policies of our past. A choice where we advance issues that benefits all the people, or we advance issues that the people of the south have clearly rejected.

Under my leadership, the South has seen tremendous success from economic issues to social issues to cultural issues. When I took office, our region had an unemployment rate of 7.9%. Today, we have the 2nd lowest unemployment rate in the nation, at 6.0%. Under my leadership, our police had the means to find a terrorist, and the means to find a serial killer that was terrorizing our postal workers (the latter can not be said without thanking SoIA Barnes for his service). We've passed a bill that treat drug addiction as something to be rehabilitated for, not a crime. We've passed bills that I've authored that bring qualified teachers to failing schools and get our infrastructure code in check. We passed an amendment to the constitution, with 78% in support, bringing our region to a more modern time, not a time of dungeons and dragons.

The South has been more active now than in years. We've passed bills, had discussions, seen the good we can do if we work together, and if re-elected, I will do even more of that in my 2nd term. I've outlined specific policy proposals (and even introduced some into the Legislature) that I plan on bringing to the table. I'm making sure our region will have a great business and worker environment. I'm making sure our region will be sustainable for years to come, creating blue collar Southern jobs in the process.

I've always been a fighter for the South and I will be working for the good of the people of the South if y'all give me the honor of serving to be your Governor for four more months.

[Lumine]

Thank you, gentlemen, we will now move into the questions, which I have more or less divided based on overall policy and recent events. Our first question is related to the issue of terrorism, which has affected Atlasia in recent times as early as October 2014. Even yesterday we had a potentially dangerous situation at the Southern Legislature which ended up with a quarantine.

The question is, what is your stance on these ongoing situations, and what do you plan to do as Governor to address them? Furthermore, what is your stance on the use of militia when it comes to situations like these?

[Flake]

Y'all already know my stances. I have enacted orders and made statements many times that terrorism will not be tolerated, but defeated, and I will use any force necessary to protect our citizens from domestic terrorism.

[Lumine]

Very well, gentlemen, we now move to questions regarding governance and recent events:

1.- The obvious question in these races is obviously that of activity, which is a constant problem with the regional government. What are you plans or proposals designed to combat inactivity?

2.- The past days have seen significant debate on two pieces of legislation: the Policing the Police Act and the Affirmative Consent in Post-Secondary Education Act. What is your stance on these bills? And, would you consider addressing these issues via the regional legislature?

[Lumine]

Very well, gentlemen, we now move to questions regarding governance and recent events:

1.- The obvious question in these races is obviously that of activity, which is a constant problem with the regional government. What are you plans or proposals designed to combat inactivity?

Forgive me, but I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean the inactivity with the legislature?

In a broad sense, both regional government and voter activity.

[Flake]

However, what makes this region different is not just our stunning level of activity, our sweeping improvements in social reform, or the presence of such greats in our legislature as our dear former President Duke. What makes our region special is its fierce commitment to the right of every to move up in society. The condition of a Southerner’s birth has no effect on the condition of that Southerner’s death. We are the land of opportunity within the land of opportunity.

What does this mean for activity, you might ask. People are not active without a mission. Our purpose is clear: to improve the lives of our citizens. What has my opponent in pursuit of this unified vision? This is the point at which most politicians would attack their opponent’s record. However, I can’t do that because there is no record. The DeadPrez record can be reduced to one word: Nonexistent.  He’s got a track record of failure on the activity front, rarely contributing to debates while he was a legislator. He was too inactive to know that he had been defeated for re-election! Even more so, you see that he was deregistered from the game for being inactive and failing to show up to the voting booth.

The solution to activity isn’t rocket science, it is engaging our legislators and our voters with a mission to improve every Southerner’s life. Through community engagement and having a discussion with everyday Southerners about the issues that affect us all, we’ve been able to accomplish great things in our region.

While the means may be debated, the mission and its ends are clear. The South demands an active Governor.

And I have proven that I have and will be that active Governor.

[Flake]

I think I should clarify my positions on the issues while we have the time.

On activity, I have to ask: What lack of debate? We've seen the legislature amend bills and bring up a lot of issues with their views on those issues. That statement is, quite frankly, rude to think that X, Duke, PiT, or Maxwell have contributed little or nothing to the debate when we've seen the exact opposite. You've attacked me for not supporting the repeal of the three strike law or the abolishing toll roads acts (and I do support both of these), but not once have you brought up the three strike law during this campaign, and it's a bit redundant to support the abolition of something that has been abolished already. You also attack me for not bringing up a plan in the legislature that would allow for private companies to also offer plans in the healthcare market, but the law's amendment was passed nearly a year before I was Governor (which is a bit hypocritical, since I never saw you mention Emperor PiT for not introducing an amendment during his tenure as Emperor at all during this campaign), but I've talked to a Senator about amending the Act so private insurers can still insure people who are willing to pay for their insurance. Whether or not he will introduce it, I have no idea, but I'm not entirely sure it's valid to amend a federal law on a regional level. My views on abortion are that it should be legal until the end of the second trimester, and that women who are victims of rape, incest, or those whose life are at risk if they give birth should be able to get an abortion anytime during the pregnancy. However, this is yet another issue you attack me on for not providing a stance yet, where you've never even outlined your view on it during the campaign.

Secondly, I never said we're finished moving forward. We still have a lot of work to do in the South, and I will be prepared to take that on during my 2nd term.

Answering the second question, I have supported a watered-down version of the Policing the Police Act. In fact, Maxwell introduced a bill to the Legislature that I supported that would require all police officers to wear a body camera, however there was a bill such as that on the federal books that made it a redundant bill, so he withdrew it. The point I'm trying to make here is that I feel that we can go a bit further in our monitoring of police behavior so the events of police shootings that we've seen don't happen again.

We're addressing an Affirmative Consent in Post-Secondary Education-esque bill right now, contrary to Mr. DeadPrez's belief that we have little to no debate, and we've amended the hell out of it, and I think I can support the amended version as it stands if it goes to a final vote (PiT -- I think this answers your question).

[Flake]

1. What do you mean three to four comments? As you can see, those are the latest bills that were debated in the South that were introduced by a Legislator or myself. The bill with the least number of responses was 20.
2.

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3. Whoever the Emperor of the South was did have something to do with it, iirc, you were a legislator two days before the signing of the bill, and you raised no fuss then. I'd also like to add that we're going to be debating the bill in the South that addresses the concerns about there being no healthcare bill, thanks to PiT to introducing it.

[Lumine]

I'm sure we can return to this later, but after the past rebuttals and with the debate commentary thread on fire we might as well go on. We didn't have the chance to enter into detailed policy as I would have liked since the election is near, but I think I might as well ask another question before moving into closing statements.

This will be highly unorthodox, but... There is an ongoing discussion about strategic registration as of now, which is admittedly a very important part of regional politics. Would both of you be so kind to state your position regarding the practice of strategic registration? Furthermore, is it good for our politics? Should efforts be made to reform it in some way?