Clarence for President- A New Era

[Yelnoc]

Thank you Clarence, I'm honored to join your ticket.

For over two years I have been active in Atlasia.  In that time I passed bills in the southern legislator, not bills to pad the statute page but the kind of legislation that has given the old south a character of its own.  I am proud of my work on the game moderator staff, notably converting the Secretary of Internal Affairs from a fluff post to a real job.  But, as Tweed points out in his latest video, there is more to Atlasia than government structure.  The core of this game is relationships.  You, the people, are what matter.  Over the past two years I have done my best to build relationships with people from all over the political spectrum.  In fact, I consider a number of the other Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates friends (at least in the forum sense, more so for some).  

Why did I accept Clarence's invitation then, you might ask?  It all comes down to substance.  Not policy details, as great as those are, but substance of character.  Love him or hate, we all have an opinion of Clarence.  We need a president who will spice this game up, a president who will inject fresh life into a game that is floundering.  Yes, floundering.  Like most of us, I remember the days of the JCP-RPP duopoly.  Casting off the old system was a healthy first step, but we still have a long way to go.  When only two people declare their candidacy for two open seats, and when barely half of the registered population can be brought out to vote in an even more competitive election, it is evident that this game still has deep structural problems.  

These are problems that go beyond partisan concepts of left and right.  Indeed, I believe my lack of fixed ideology or political slant gives me a unique view on the situation.  We cannot let ourselves get dragged down into squabbles about the budget when we cannot get half of our fantasy country to the polls!  I say this as the man who drafted the majority of Imperial Budget and, as Secretary of Internal Affairs, tried to get the other regions to follow suit.  Budgets and bills are great, when they bring in new people and new ideas, when they get the wheels of this game turning.  But the wheels can turn when the spokes are falling out!  

That, folks, is the key problem Atlasia faces and the main issue which these presidential campaigns need to address.  I hope you will listen as Clarence and myself attempt to address these problems over the campaign.

Vote Clarence/Yelnoc in June 2012!

[Yelnoc]

Wow, that's not what I expected. But I'm pleasantly surprised-except for that last bit.

Do you think marijuana should be illegal because it is worse than tobacco, or are in the ban tobacco camp?

And thanks, TJ!

[Yelnoc]

A campaign banner, made by yours truly!



If you want to sig it, use this one.

[Yelnoc]

How can you reconcile your views on gay rights with the communities of faith. Especially the ones that view homosexuality as a sin due to the tenants of faith and by right of conscience will not perform such weddings?
I support much of your policy views but this one puzzles me as we are both part of a conservative leaning political party and usually conservatives oppose gay marriage on religious grounds, even secular conservatives do on such grounds as they view it as a potential socitial harm.

Conservatives who oppose gay rights on biblical grounds generally have a flawed understanding of the bible's teaching.  If you believe that Jesus's crucifixtion and resurrection represents the end of the old covenant of law and the beginning of a new covenant (and as far as I'm aware that is the predominant teaching in Christian Communities) then this quote from Chapter 12 of the Gospel of Mark makes the commandments of Leviticus null and void.

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[Yelnoc]

The Equal Representation Act, sponsored by ilikeverin, has just been brought to the senate floor for debate.  Clarence and myself both strongly disagree with this initiative to do away with regional senators in favor of "districts".  These districts would be created by negotiations between governors and could change three times every year.  This leaves the door wide open for gerrymandering, with no real checks by the citizens.  The last real world element we want to bring into this game is corruption, but I fear all this would serve to do is entrench established interests.

Additionally, this bill would strike a deep blow to regional authority.  By eliminating regional senate seats, one eliminates the relevance of the regions on the national level.  Under this new model, if the Midwest or the Imperial Dominion wanted to a regional issue to be discussed at the federal level, they may conceivably not have a regional senator to contact. 

Down south we have a saying.  If it ain't broken don't fix it.  That certainly applies to the regional senate seats.