Pacific Freedom Party: Path to Self-Determination

[Potus]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Pacific Freedom Party

Public confidence in Nyman has reached an all-time low. Calls for dismantling the national government are now commonplace. Resources spent to put down rebellions are now considered the cost of business in modern Atlasia. Once-revered former public officials are despised by the class of up-and-coming of politicians who have been formed in the fires of revolution and reaction.

While this instability has only recently reared its ugly head in the public's view, the unrest is a long-term consequence of dysfunction in Nyman. The federal government has gobbled up the powers of the regions with only token reluctance and even lighter resistance.

This dismantling of regional governance has had larger impacts on some regions than others. Our home, the Pacific, has been hit particularly hard. This gives the impression that our regional governments are unable to govern themselves. Nyman creates the problem and then prescribes itself as the solution.

As the crisis neared, no effort was made to revitalize the intellectual and political institutions of the regions. Our leaders quietly neglected the grassroots of our Republic. Atlasia's tradition of republicanism was strangled by a forceful opposition which had the numerical advantage. Our national traditions were placed on the chopping block. So chop they did.

A reasonably free market has been crushed under the weight of incredible federal tax and regulatory burden. The basic functions of the marketplace have been decimated by Nyman's growing power. Whether you are conservative or liberal, we all recognize the role of basic market forces in the provision of goods and services. Nyman, however, does not.

Civic institutions have been destroyed by the divisive politics wrought on our people by the powers in Nyman. Political dialogue has literally turned neighbor on neighbor, making effective community groups essentially impossible. This has been coupled with a lack of commitment to civic vibrancy from the federal government.

As a consequence of our departure from Atlasia's philosophical tradition, Nyman has been unable to govern. Rebellions have shaken the very foundations of our communities. This is not right and it cannot continue.

While my personal biases are clear because of my writing thus far, the biases of the people of the Pacific are not. I am founding the Pacific Freedom Party to provide our people the right of self determination.

I admit that there are many good fights left to be had in the federal government, but I must also admit that I'm skeptical they'll go anywhere. The federal nature of our problem prevents the citizenry from disassociating themselves from the actions taken. The Pacific Freedom Party supports strengthening the role of the Pacific regional government and providing the people a worthwhile, meaningful conversation about the benefits of staying in the Atlasian Republic.

Personally, I support scheduling a referendum in the intermediate future to determine whether the Pacific stays in the Republic or moves toward a reasonable exit.

I hope that the people of the Pacific will join in supporting this honest conversation.

Thank you,
Potus

[Blair]

So the destruction movement returns under a new guise

[Senator Cris]

5 things:

1) Welcome back.
2) It's curios that the Prime Minister of a foreign republic is forming a movement for independence of an Atlasian region.
3) The region of Pacific will not exist after the end of the Constitutional Convention.
4) The region of Pacific is deeply inactive right now, with a lot of problems. Are you sure that self-determination is the best thing?
5) The federal government already adressed the Pacific crisis in the past and there was intention to do the same this time, but looks like it won't happen because the Pacific will not exist after the ConCon.

[Potus]

5 things:

1) Welcome back.
2) It's curios that the Prime Minister of a foreign republic is forming a movement for independence of an Atlasian region.
3) The region of Pacific will not exist after the end of the Constitutional Convention.
4) The region of Pacific is deeply inactive right now, with a lot of problems. Are you sure that self-determination is the best thing?
5) The federal government already adressed the Pacific crisis in the past and there was intention to do the same this time, but looks like it won't happen because the Pacific will not exist after the ConCon.

1) Thanks.
2) If someone else wants to lead this, just say the word and they can have it. I'm not doing this as Prime Minister.
3) This strengthens the case for self-determination.
4) Like I said above, the inactivity is a consequence of the federal government's usurpation of literally all powers. Returned powers to the regions will spur activity out of necessity.
5) "We addressed the problem, and we planned on addressing it again." is not a very compelling case for federal domination of the regions. If you address a problem, that doesn't mean you have to keep coming back to it. It means you solve it.

So the destruction movement returns under a new guise

The PFP is what it says in the opening letter. No sort of "destruction movement" or what have you.

[Potus]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Referenda Rights

I have filed a piece of legislation for consideration by the federal Senate that would guarantee the right of self-determination for the Pacific region. I am skeptical of Nyman's willingness to part with the significant power they have over our region. However, I am willing to make any and all efforts within the existing political system to secure a self-determining Pacific. The consent of the governed is critical to a functioning government and referenda rights as described in the proposal will provide an avenue for providing or denying consent.

I hope the Senate will secure these fundamental rights for Pacific citizens.

[pikachu]

As the now somewhat inactive former leader of the Northeast unity campaign, I think that all potential problems that the Northeast would've faced if it went independent would be even worse in the Pacific, considering the chronic inactivity and low population among other issues.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Nyman creates the problem and then prescribes itself as the solution.

As I recall, we was kinda kicking ass and tacking names there for awhile, by your own admission. 

Excellent job. Congratulations.

Of course we both know what happened later that year.

Your party members should consider themselves lucky you are Prime Minister. Works as a nice insurance policy.

Civic institutions have been destroyed by the divisive politics wrought on our people by the powers in Nyman. Political dialogue has literally turned neighbor on neighbor, making effective community groups essentially impossible. This has been coupled with a lack of commitment to civic vibrancy from the federal government.

The powers in Nyman? Oh get of your faux white horse Riley, no one takes it seriously at this point. We all know who elected to make Atlasia this way.

There is no free lunch and your IRClique willingly elected to trade away the good natured discourse in favor of the plots, schemes and treating those not in the clique like dirt for over two years. When you do this kind of thing to people, they tend to stop liking you pretty quickly and Karma is a bitch.

[Adam Griffin]

If I had my way, the opposite would occur: the Pacific would be consolidated into a singular point of dark matter that would remain in a perpetual state of simultaneous legal existence and effective non-existence.

Of course, we all should already know that such has been my position for quite some time.

[Potus]

Nyman creates the problem and then prescribes itself as the solution.

As I recall, we was kinda kicking ass and tacking names there for awhile, by your own admission.  

Excellent job. Congratulations.

Of course we both know what happened later that year.

Your party members should consider themselves lucky you are Prime Minister. Works as a nice insurance policy.

Civic institutions have been destroyed by the divisive politics wrought on our people by the powers in Nyman. Political dialogue has literally turned neighbor on neighbor, making effective community groups essentially impossible. This has been coupled with a lack of commitment to civic vibrancy from the federal government.

The powers in Nyman? Oh get of your faux white horse Riley, no one takes it seriously at this point. We all know who elected to make Atlasia this way.

There is no free lunch and your IRClique willingly elected to trade away the good natured discourse in favor of the plots, schemes and treating those not in the clique like dirt for over two years. When you do this kind of thing to people, they tend to stop liking you pretty quickly and Karma is a bitch.

Yank, I don't dislike you and I don't think I've done anything to personally mistreat you, whatever you assume of me spending time in the IRC.

If you count voting for BK over Cris as some sort of personal affront, then I suppose you have reason to be so venomous. I voted for BK because why not? We elected conservatives and libertarians only to see the tax rates go up, the government grow, the communists win, and the military shrink. There has been basically no point to play ideology in this game because our leaders get us nothing.

You were in the senate forever and you never really contributed to moving the country to the right. While you were 'leading' the right, a literal communist wrote every bill that passed. The only things Federalists ever got were big spending education, transportation, and energy programs under Duke. I voted for him and I'd do it again because he's a good leader, but he had no backup. All we ever did was capitulate. The Federalist Party's only ideology was quiet, conciliatory conservatism.

For one, brief moment we had a real policy issue to deal with and maybe win on. There was a presidential election in the middle of the healthcare debate. Was there a conservative candidate? No. We split down the middle between the slightly more socially conservative labor ticket and the very slightly more fiscally conservative Sirnick ticket. I was complicit in this only because I would have been alone in changing.

The only meaningful victories over leftism have been delivered by TPP and its allies. Oakvale lead the charge against the nationalization of energy and was joined by the rest of the reasonable people. Somehow, Yankee, you, as the de facto political leader on the right, only managed to cast a "Reluctant Nay." What is a conservative supposed to do?

The political right is a terrible joke in Atlasia which left me politically homeless. What was I supposed to do? Vote for the pro-choice, fiscally moderate, peacenik Cris because of his Innovative Conservative Game Reform Policy (TM) of having an official portraits thread so we can imitate elected politicians?

We finally got ourselves a President who would hold the line on at least one conservative issue, foreign affairs. Lumine put some work in to reverse the status quo of foreign policy and that was an exciting time to be a conservative. That lasted three weeks. Then the bills failed or were amended into oblivion while the 'conservatives' didn't lift a finger to defend their President.

When Federalist ideology is so impotent that it is somehow more impotent than Federalist political affairs, I have no reason to keep holding on for the conservatives to maybe someday get their act together and tell the senile has-been to put up or shut up in Nyman.

Who the hell has ever represented actual conservatives? Who has ever said, "I stand with JCL on Israel, maybe not on every point but bless him for fighting in the face of every leftist hurling words like apartheid in our direction? No one. Who ever said, "You know what, we just spend too much money. Cut it now." No one. Who ever honestly tried to stand up for people DC al Fine, TJ, ZuWo, or myself since I've been here? Maybe in the Mideast forever ago, but no Federalist ever rose up to defend the right to life. What political interest ever actually fought for Lumine's foreign policy? There wasn't one.

For as long as I've been around, there has been a chronic fear of going 'too far.' Every 'right-of-center' politician spends their time turning our voters and beliefs into Sister Souljah so they can win a legislative seat by the skin of their teeth every other cycle. Look at the budget being debated. Look at voter turnout. We, as conservatives, need to go far to prevent from being too far gone.

You are reaping what you have sown, Yankee. Years of conciliatory conservatism and pitiful capitulation have led you and your party to this point.

Adam Griffin is President. Communist legislation can't be repealed. Conservatism has a snowball's chance of impacting laws. A Constitutional Convention is set to consolidate regions with the consent of the Federalist Party. You and your old RPP buddies are either remarkably silent or venomously dismissive when the regions stop laying down and taking it.

When I joined the game, the one thing that held a sometimes-libertarian, sometimes-moderate, sometimes-conservative Federalist Party together was regionalism. When Reaganfan tried to primary Duke, his voters  didn't come because of abortion, taxes, and troops. They came because of Duke's pro-consolidation stance. It was a regionalist rebellion that only failed when Duke swore off consolidation in his second term. Where is that fire now? Where is that unity? Gone.

While you may sit here and hurl insults about the amount of time I spend away from the game, you should ask yourself whose time was better spent. My time volunteering in my community and pursuing real world ambitions or your time clinging to a dusty Senate seat in a dying game while the red tide laps at your feet?

So, what am I to do? Throw my time and vote into a movement killed by its politicians or make friends with the folks that are fun to talk to in the evenings? I'll take the latter, ideology aside.

[Adam Griffin]

Uh, what you're supposed to do is ally yourself with a winner like me! Obviously.

Also, it's archaic as all get out to cling to the notion that "the regions are going to be dead" because they're not being used as stagnant vessels-turned-bombs in a war against the reincarnation of the game. Judging by some of the awful decisions being made by a right-wing ConCon, the regions may emerge with even more power than they have currently.

[rpryor03]

We finally got ourselves a President who would hold the line on at least one conservative issue, foreign affairs. Lumine put some work in to reverse the status quo of foreign policy and that was an exciting time to be a conservative. That lasted three weeks. Then the bills failed or were amended into oblivion while the 'conservatives' didn't lift a finger to defend their President.

Well, weren't you a 'conservative' at this time? You were SoS. You could have worked to reverse that status quo. But you didn't. What happened? You focused on your Presidential Bid and then got the threat of impeachment and you resigned, meaning there was a divided right, allowing bore to win on the first ballot.

This post does not express the opinion of rpryor03, Game Moderator. This post does, however, express the opinion of rpryor03, Private Citizen and former member of the Lumine Administration.

[Potus]

We finally got ourselves a President who would hold the line on at least one conservative issue, foreign affairs. Lumine put some work in to reverse the status quo of foreign policy and that was an exciting time to be a conservative. That lasted three weeks. Then the bills failed or were amended into oblivion while the 'conservatives' didn't lift a finger to defend their President.

Well, weren't you a 'conservative' at this time? You were SoS. You could have worked to reverse that status quo. But you didn't. What happened? You focused on your Presidential Bid and then got the threat of impeachment and you resigned, meaning there was a divided right, allowing bore to win on the first ballot.

This post does not express the opinion of rpryor03, Game Moderator. This post does, however, express the opinion of rpryor03, Private Citizen and former member of the Lumine Administration.

I was the lone voice in the room that threw out the pretension surrounding troop deployments against ISIS. Now, here we are, a year later with that advice unheeded and the forces of terror stronger than ever.

I resigned in the face of an impeachment threat which was hardly apolitical in nature. Not saying it was not an unjustified threat of impeachment, but there have been many more cabinet members and legislators significantly less active than me who flew under the impeachment radar.

My presidential bid was the only unifying force on the right. Maxwell and I United the right, that was actually the slogan. I was abandoned by the "Too Far" Caucus in the Senate, so I withdrew to allow everyone to find what they want. If I was a flawed candidate, I think it was the right decision for our movement for me to withdraw since our own followers were calling for my impeachment and whatnot. What was the aftermath of my widely-called for withdrawal? Disaster.

[Potus]

Also,  lol at the suggestion I'm not a conservative. I'm to your right, Rpryor.

[rpryor03]

Also,  lol at the suggestion I'm not a conservative. I'm to your right, Rpryor.

Never said you weren't. I'm very aware you're to my right. I used the quotes because that's how referred to them.