Yankee4Senate: Yes We Can...Save Atlasia (Sign the Con-Con Petition)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Many who are knew may not realize this but when first ran for the Senate, I borrowed heavily from a politician in real life who at the time seemed like he could walk on water and bring you right along with him to lofty heights. I admired his genius for campaigning even as I disagreed with him and therefore I borrowed a good bit of his rhetoric.

crowd laughs

Some good and decent, honest folks out there today in Atlasia, have concluded that we cannot save Atlasia. That Atlasia's present chapter will be its last and that people will look back on it and say "what was" as opposed to to what is. They will look back on it and say it was destroyed by somebody and give all sorts of reasons for why and how they destroyed it.

There are still some more who think that that best way to start over is to burn the whole game down with no idea of how to proceed. There are still some more who think the only way to save the game is for the most radical of radical reforms and anything less will be deemed a failure regardless of what it is or how good it may in fact be. 

So there are three questions I will pose to you tonight.

Can we save Atlasia?: Say it with me audience: YES WE CAN!!!

Can we save Atlasia without destroying it? YES WE CAN!!!

Can we pass significant reforms without unrealistic expecations killing it:  YES WE CAN!!!

This will not be Atlasia's epilogue. Richard Rodney Bennet hasn't started to play following a bloody massacre. That was the story they hoped would be told of July. A story of revolution, a story of destruction, a story of dissolution! This is not new, this is already the past. They tried to claim Bloody July as the future, as the new way forward.

But this is August!  This will be the start of one of the greatest plot twists in history. We are going to turn the page on the despair of July. On the waves of deregistrations, on the witch hunt prosectutions, on the organized murder some call Proletarian Revolution. We are going to save Atlasia and then we are going to drive it to new "august" heights of success and participation. However, this is not a job for one man to do alone. This is job for all of us. Audience: Yes We Can!. Yes we can by engaging, by running for office, by proposing ideas and respectfully debating issues of disagreement. That is how we will save Atlasia.

But, I don't want this to be a campaign that reaches only those who are eager shout Obama's campaign slogan when asking about saving Atlasia. I want to reach out to those who are unsure, those who are discouraged and maybe those who have embraced dissolving the game.

I want to make a pitch not just for me, but for the game. If we join together and determine as a group to save this game, by actually playing it, we can in fact do so regardless of what reforms we actually pass.

However, reforms are important, but the reforms must take a look to the future and be mindful of what is necessary for this game to work. Reforms prove their worth by resolving a deficiency of one or more of the following areas:

1. We need active players both new and old! Both right and left!
2. We need to maintain competativessness so both sides feel they can have a shot
3. We need a reasonable match between the number of players and the number of offices
4. We need to avenues to apply activity and play the game.
5. We need to balance novel ideas with falling too far down the rabbit hole.

In my next speech in New York City, I will detail where I stand on the various reform issues. I hope you will join with me and not only support my reelection bid for At-Large Senator, but join with me, and together, YES WE CAN save this game.

Thanks and Dave Bless!!!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

NEW YORKERS!!!

A city that has defined modernity for civilization, I come here to expound on how we will drive Atlasia into the future. How we will write a new chapter for this game and turn the page on the despair of Revolution and dissolutionism. YES WE CAN!!!

The answers to our problems come not in resorting to the failed ideas and methods of the 20th century, but instead rest on the new technology and innovations of the 21st century. As many of you know, I love history, but you are not going to save an internet game reading from a textbook on 1917.

To save Atlasia we must join together. To bring activity, we must value each other's role in the game and not long for the guillotine for your opponents. We must respect and welcome old players who return/keep playing and we must support and encourage new players not inksing try out your best Inks impersonation on them.

We also need structural changes. I remained neutal at first on the Con-Con because I feared my support would hurt it as opposed to help and ironically, even that wasn't enough because my support (not yet existing then) was used against it anyway. So I signed the petition in July and since have pushed support, helping get it secured in the Pacific, and hopefully the South as well in the next day or so.

Constitutional Convention:
Please sign the convention if you have not already.
Please also vote for the constitutional amendment to allow the Senate to call a Con-Con

Regional Consolidation: This issue has tormented me for three years now almost. I personally prefer a five region map but we are in a new era and therefore a 3 or 4 region map is the only one practical, since we are now competing with a new Simulator. I support consolidating to three or four regions.

Legislative Restart: I have pushed this idea for a good two years now either partial or in full. Even a partial restart could allow for regional devolution. However, setting the clock back to 2004 as an automatic thing might be just a problematic since we live in 2015.  I support legislative restart with some important caveats, to facilitate engagement in passing laws by both people and the regions

There are some laws that we need to keep. We need to maintain those governing elections. They can be changed any time, but throwing out the rule book for elections would cause chaos of the like we saw in the Midwest last month with a revolution and people declaring themselves whatever office without being elected.  

Regional Devolution: If people need issues to discuss hence the drive for a restart overall, regions need some piece of that pie as well, be them at 3 in number or 5 in number. I supported a partial restart to facilitate this as far back as 2013. Regions should have more power. There is a push for devolution here in the Northeast, there has long been a hunger for it in the South and I fully support that movement.

Legislative Branch Reform: I actually helped Duke to craft the legislative portion of his consolidation plan back in 2013.  I have always liked that aspect of the plan and would love for it to be enacted. I support the Duke Plan's bicameral legislature with a Regional based Senate and a People's House and a Vice President that would act as the go between the PEople's House Speaker and the Senate PPT. I also support the present amendment to make the VP elected seperately and thE Duke plan would answer the present divide over giving the VP a defined roll

Three-Dimensional Game: Right now we have elections and domestic governance. Foreign issues are generated by the GM sorely for the purpose of driving domestic debate and policy. The presence of a new sim means the opportunity for diplomatic interactions  that could make foreign policy actually matter in campaigns. I support establishing diplomatic interactions with the Mock Parliment Game

I realize some may disagree with one or more of these proposals. Not all of them are going to happen and bicamerialism for instance may be too much right now. I would ask for your support even with we disagree on one of the specific ideas, we share a commone desire to reform this game and bring it to a better place and I ask for your vote as At-Large Senator.

Thanks and Dave Bless!!!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I could not leave New York without first making a point of a very problematic situation for our present economy. I have not been favorable of Wall Street for many years, but they serve an important purpose. In the midst of the revolutionary flames the President made a wise call to close the markets, on July 18th, 2015. However, the revolution has been dead for three weeks and now we are at August 18th and still President bore has not lifted the order. The Atlasian economy is grinding to a halt and unemployment is beginning to rise. The continued closure of the market could very well result in a worsening economic contraction. Closing the market works for a short term crisis, but it shall become a crisis in and of itself if it is remained closed for too long.

Therefore I urge President bore to immediately lift the order closing the stock market and I plan to introduce legislation to limit the length of time that such an order can be put in place without a review of some kind.

[Leinad]

ENDORSED! Probably first preference, as well, unless Ron Paul signs up for the game and runs.

I may not agree 100% with your platform (foreign relations with the Mock Parliament sounds good in theory, but in reality I think we need to allow simultaneous officeholding, as it's the only way to have activity in both games), but I agree with most of it, and you've consistently been the sanest Senator for a long time now.

Your experience, activity, sanity of policies, and optimism are the traits we need to (and this slogan has been used several times, but it's trendy and applicable) Make Atlasia Great Again! Can we do that?

YES WE CAN!!!!

(Oh, and Bore really should re-open the stock market. It's silly how he's neglected to do that.)

[CLARENCE 2015!]

Endorsed of course!!!

[Senator Cris]

Congratulations, Mr. Senator!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Congratulations, Yankee!

[CLARENCE 2015!]

Congratulations, old friend!

[Leinad]

Congratulations, Senator! Yes we WILL!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Yankee enters the arena and approaches the podium as Waitin on a Sunny Day by Bruce Springsteen plays


Atlasians!!!


I purposely delayed my victory speech because I wanted to wait for the petition for the convention to be activated before I went ahead with declaring victory, and then I had to work.

I come before you today to give my thanks for the trust placed in me by you, the Atlasian public. It had not been objective of mine, nor even a desire to be the first place finisher in this contest, it had merely been my desire to ensure that the best mix of Atlasians committed to a brighter future, committed to reform but steadfast in their desire to preserve the game and the country, were elected to help us lead Atlasia towards a better future. And we succeeded in that objective, as left, right and center we have a some of the best minds in Atlasia and I think one of the most solid combinations of At-Large Senators this game has had since the era of Good Feelings. In the process our message resonated with a large number of Atlasians who demanded a balance between the excesses of the dissolutionists and the status quo, as well as a consistent voice for the values of conservatism, freedom and protection of life.

This election, followed by the activiation of the conventions, has demonstrated clearly that the people of Atlasia demand a future. A future of a game build around reason driven reforms, aimed at fixing Atlasia's deficiencies, not satisfying the drama filled demands guided by some irrelevant history of a faraway land. A future not build on the radicalism of July, on Revolution, dissolution and seperatism. Instead the people of this great land have indeed risen up and called instead for approaches that have seen timeless success.

The people have demanded reason over radicalism, reform over revolution and devolution instead of seperatism. We have too many offices in this game, therefore reason dictates that with two games competing for the same pool of participants, we must consolidate the number of regions. We have too much law and statute built up over years by people who long gone from this game and we need a fresh start, guided by reason and sound judgement to avoid a chaotic repeat of July. We have had regions starved of considerable purpose and influence, therefore we must devolve some essential functions to the regions.

We must determine to not concentrate authority in Nyman, just as we should seek to not concentrate wealth in the hands of Wall Street. Such concentration empowers the few at the expense of the many of the many. We should seek to have large debates over big items at the Federal level as oppose to having narrow determinations of the most finest points of law, and thereby starving the regions of responsibility. 

In a convention we have not a magic bullet, nor a guarrantee of success. The past two conventions illustrate full well the road ahead is a difficult one fraught with peril. However, if we remain focused on solving key deficiencies, if we be mindful that everyone has different expectations ranging from the most radically extreme to the most cautiously conservative, then we can come up with a design that left, right and center will feel comfortable playing the game after such is put in place. It can be done and I am confident that we will succeed as long as we have the collective determination to save this game. Yes we can save this game and yes we will!!!

Thanks Atlasia for the faith you have demonstrated in me!

Yankee departs from the stage as Springsteen's The Rising

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Wait, we closed the stock market?!

[Classic Conservative]

Wait, we closed the stock market?!

It's been closed for over a month, I think.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Why on earth is it closed? That's terrible. No one will ever be able to make any money now!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Why on earth is it closed? That's terrible. No one will ever be able to make any money now!

The president closed the exchange during the Communist crisis to prevent a crash and has seemingly forgotten about it.