Atlas Star: Federalist primary debate

[Oakvale]

Friends, Federalists, President Fhtagan,

My first duty is to thank Progressive Democrat for hosting this debate. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the fate of the Federalist Party, and of our nation, will be decided in the coming days and weeks.

When I returned to Atlasia the thought of running for President didn't so much as cross my mind. I've been down that road - it's gruelling, as it should be - before. But when I stared in despair at the state of the union, it became clear that something had to give.

Look around you.

The Senate is fossilised.

The House is in collapse.

The regions are moribund.

The Presidency is ignored.

The Cabinet is crippled.

The parties are practically indistinguishable.

The game is dying a slow and undignified death.

We simply cannot go on like this.

We need to stand up as one people and say "enough!"

I've worked at every level of government in Atlasia over a long and chequered political career. I've been an executive, working to rebuild shattered regions. I've been a legislator, holding the powerful to account and reforming constitutions. I've twice had the honour to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, serving as a bulwark against unchecked federal power and the erosion of the Constitution. One of our greatest leaders and finest Federalists, President Duke, awarded me the nation's then-highest civilian honour, the Order of Atlasia, for my work in salvaging the late, lamented Pacific region from anarchy. I know what it takes to turn this country around.

You know, we've had plenty of Federalist presidents in our time, but very few conservatives. The incumbent President is well-liked, but lacks the experience and vision to turn things around. She is the preferred candidate of the backroom bosses and cigar-chompers who know they can rely on an inoffensive, unspectacular administration to run out the clock on, if, by some miracle, she manages to defeat Crooked Harry Truman, a vicious operator.

When the Supreme Court banned federal legislation on abortion, I was the author of that ruling, the greatest victory for conservatism in a generation. When Labor tried to nationalise our energy system, I was there, leading the fight against a government takeover. When an out-of-control executive disgraced his office, I was there, leading the charge to strip him of his powers. And, look, I don't have the most orthodox conservative credentials in the world, I'll be the first to admit, but I'm not the one who journeyed from borderline communist to centrist in a matter of weeks. You can always count on me to defend limited government, because I genuinely believe the regions are the lifeblood of Atlasia and, when they become merely a proving ground for federal candidates, the game dies.

Folks, it's clear - if you want a Federalist nominee who'll represent those old Federalist values and restore conservatism to Nyman, I'm your only choice. I'm running for the Federalist Party's nomination because I think you deserve a President with the stature and the skill to defend those values in the nation's capital.

In Atlasia, with all its liberal leanings, there's nothing as radical as an honest conservative. And, yes, we need radical solutions to our malaise.

Let us slash the state. Let us return power to the regions. Let us reform a bloated bureaucracy. Let us come together, as a nation, and get Atlasia working again.

I'm running for President because that's what I want to do - make Atlasia great again. We will face challenges. We have before, will again. But none are insurmountable if - if - we have the courage to change.

Thank you.

[Oakvale]

Do you believe the GM is a generally useful position and why? Are their any changes you would make to it?

No, I don't - and I think history has proved that I'm right on this - as I've mentioned before that the game went nearly two years without the position and those were some of the most engaging, active and productive years we've ever had. The vast majority of the time the position slowly dies off as the holder of the office loses interest and realises no one's paying any attention.

This isn't an indictment of you, or of any particular GM. As far as I can see you've been doing the job as best it can be done - but the inherent problems in the role are too large for any one person to overcome.

I think there's one way in which a GM could arguably be useful - as a kind of CBO scoring mechanism. But the obviously problem there is no one in their right mind is going to want to such a tedious job, and in any event I think it'd be more entertaining to have everyone squabble over the costing of legislation.

So, look, it's a noble idea but it just hasn't worked. Never had, never will. If elected as your President, I'll move to abolish the position of GM on my first day in office.


What is one thing you would change about the fourth constitution? and how will it improve the game?

I don't know if there's one single thing that needs changing - the current Constitution is, frankly, a semi-literate mess, riddled with loopholes.

Again, this isn't really any single individual's fault - the mechanism of a Constitutional Convention is absurd and byzantine and leads to lousy results. Can there be a better example than the fact we forgot to include Arizona in the original?

I've authored several constitutions in my day. Within one month of my inauguration Vice-President Potus and I will introduce an amendment to the Congress that would replace the current Constitution in its entirety and create a Fifth Constitution of Atlasia. The House and Senate can then hammer out concerns and issues in a dignified, manageable and transparent process, in stark contrast to the quagmire of a convention. We’re going to fix this mess, and we’ve got the experience and the skill to do it. Mark my words.

Does free trade generally benefit the economy positively or negatively? Is their any changes you would wish to make to are trade deals?

I might be running on a MAGA platform but I am and have always been unapologetically pro-trade and will be so in the White House. It makes us more prosperous and more secure. I understand my opponent’s instinctive sympathy for the plight of workers in our trading partners, but let me be absolutely clear - as your President, I will aggressively and selfishly promote our national interest. Period. Remember - what’s ultimately going to be best for the sweatshop worker is increased trade and the increased prosperity that results, and for all the liberal handwringing about the working conditions in some of these foreign plants they’re a hell of a lot better than a population living off subsistence agriculture.

Are you generally supportive of the most recent healthcare bill (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=270082.0 ) ? Is their any changes you would make to this bill?

There’s some good stuff in that bill, which isn’t something I get to say often about Atlasian public policy. Ideally I’d prefer that healthcare was entirely the provision of the regions, but the bill as passed does have some movement in that direction, so I’ll happily applaud those.

A key part of the RRPHA is the regionalisation of healthcare. That’s great. But why is the ‘public option’ administered federally? I’ve been talking a lot about regional rights and I think this topic’s a prime example of the federal government harming regional autonomy in the pursuit of a ‘one size fits all’ policy that’ll look good on a resumé. It’s exciting to think of a world where our regions pursue their own individual public healthcare provisions and the heated debate and - inevitably - controversy that would ensue. Instead, what do we get? We get a bill passed with barely any debate by a unanimous Senate vote because only a handful of people apparently bothered to read the damn thing.

We can have an honest debate about what role the federal government should play in healthcare, and what the appropriate ratio of federal to region responsibility is. It’s a shame the Senate barely engaged on these questions.

What do you see as the biggest threat to regions? and how will you promote regions as President?


The President and I disagree on this issue - sure, the obvious response is a pat 'inactivity', but that's not really the issue when you get right down to it. The root cause of inactivity, the age-old plague of Atlasian politics, is not some kind of moral failure or dereliction of duty for its own sake. People go inactive if the position is powerless and neglected.

The greatest threat to our regions is what it has always been - the federal government.

Our regions have forever been cruelly neglected, their power stolen by an ever-expanding federal bureaucracy in Nyman. Regional government has been shorn to shreds, reduced to a skeleton crew of half-filled offices, a jumping-off point for the ambitious and wily to seek an office that actually counts - on the federal level.

The solution is clear - to fix regional inactivity we must return power to the regions. I want to dramatically reduce the powers of the national legislature - and, yes, the Presidency itself - to make the regions the heart and soul of Atlasia, vibrant and thriving paragons of democracy. Imagine what this game would be like if we could look once more to lively debate from left-wing bastions on our Pacific shores to heartlands of Conservatism in the deep south, instead of this bleak homogenous grey blob of nothing we face today.

The Congress had made some baby steps in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near enough and we’ve seen the consequences.

Give the regions power, and they will thrive. I promise you this. It’s an iron law.

[Oakvale]

What kind of reforms to the Atlasia tax code would you make if any? How will you balance affordability with balancing the budget?

My opponent’s quite right - we don’t have a budget, and as far as I can recall we haven’t had one for years - and in any event never had regular budgets. This is a game mechanic problem - most people find budgets excruciatingly boring and as such avoid working on them whenever possible. It’s also a blast to just make up figures and violently argue for their validity, I guess. This isn't a problem in and of itself - as I've said on the GM issue, that's half the fun of the game. But we run into inevitable issues with double-counting. By the time of the reset I think the wealthiest 1% must have been taxed cumulatively at about 800% of their income. A solution TNF would be proud of.

But the broader question’s not really about the Budget per se. It’s long been a running gag that Atlasia in real life would be like Venezuela or Weimar Germany, old ladies bringing a wheelbarrow full of money to pay for a loaf of bread. This is because many - not all, I will happily grant, but many - of our programs are paid for by magic fairy money.

Therefore I believe the next President should take long overdue steps to building a fiscally responsible society with a simple pledge - to veto any bill that does not clearly and specifically - “raise taxes on the rich, I guess!” isn’t going to cut it - how its outlays are to be paid for.


How will you balance natural resource distraction with helping protect the environment?   Would you support a carbon tax as President?

The environmental debate in this country all too often devolves into bitter accusations and recriminations about the validity of anthropogenic climate change. I think this misses the point. Whether we contribute to climate change or not there are myriad other reasons that it’s in our national interest to address damage to our environment from the exploitation of our rich reserves of natural resources. It’s one of the few true public goods we share. Like such notorious left-wingers like James Baker, I am in principle open to a carbon tax. I think it’s a preferable - and a conservative - solution to more onerous government impositions in response to our environmental challenges. A lesser evil. Naturally I’d have to see the specifics of the final product when it arrived on my desk - anything excessive or ill-planned would become fast friends with my trusty veto pen.

For both of you what is more important: Having a member of congress  that is active and fully engaged in debate  but from Labor  or an inactive Federalist that misses several votes and contributes little to debate?

As I said above - and I’ll be making a speech on this in the coming days - I think it’s a grave mistake to treat inactivity as primarily a moral failing.

Prof. Gary Becker’s landmark 1968 theory of criminality springs readily to mind as an analogy - criminal behaviour’s not some psychological sickness, it’s a rational weighting of cost and benefit. So’s inactivity - inactivity’s a symptom, not a cause of our national malaise. This can’t be stressed enough. With the right reforms, activity will follow.

Now, as to your question - would I rather have an active member from the Communist Party or a deadweight Federalist? Let’s first of all say that I’d hope such a grisly situation would never occur. But the answer’s quite simple - if we had a situation wherein a deadweight member could be easily expelled and a suitably conservative replacement appointed with due haste then clearly it’s a moral imperative to prefer the inactive Federalist rather than bowing down and letting the Communists run roughshod over the constitution.

If we were stuck in some unfortunate series of events whereby our only choice is a Federalist corpse or an active Communist I believe our only option is to close our eyes and pray that they selected a relatively sane soul for the job.


How do you respond to Atlasians that may have trouble trusting you to lead the country after on multiple occasions have openly supported and even campaigned for regional succession of Atlasia?  How do you quell peoples fears that you will attempt to dissolve the game based on some of your past actions such as leading A new Start?
 

I make no apologies for my longtime advocacy of urgent measures to reform Atlasia. As a committed regionalist, I’ve taken that position to its radical conclusion and called for giving the regions a choice on whether to remain a part of the nation. That’s a rational response to decades of federal overreach, and I have zero regrets about it. The New Start manifesto lead to a movement for reform and, then, directly to the ultimate implementation of the Great Reset. Unfortunately we were nowhere near radical enough, and the results amounted to just shifting around the furniture in a burning hotel room.

It’s no surprise that the grubby goons who got us into this mess are trying to spook people about my record in this regard. But I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m proud of my record, and, frankly - look, if some people are concerned, I’ve got two words. Don’t be. The President doesn’t have the power to unilaterally dissolve the federal government, much as some of us might like to. The position’s primary power is in that of the bully pulpit, but President Oakvale is not going to be leading a revolt on horseback  - the revolution I’ll lead is political.

Thank you.

[Oakvale]

So, look, it's a noble idea but it just hasn't worked. Never had, never will. If elected as your President, I'll move to abolish the position of GM on my first day in office.

I'm not going to go into some history lesson about what has happened in the past because:
1. I'm not going to speak on something I was not present for.
and
2. I'm not going to pretend that what has happened in the past should apply to the situation currently.

I think our current GM, 1184AZ and his deputy, Encke, have done an amazing job with their positions, have truly set themselves apart from GMs and their deputies in the past, and have set an example for how the positions should be run in the future. While it is true that more people should take notice on what they do, to say that no one is paying attention is not only completely false, but shows how out of touch you are with how Atlasia is run today.

Have you bothered to pay attention to the amount of activity that surrounded GM stories such as the recent wildfires in Fremont, NLLC terrorism, "Hurricane Harvey" (the Atlasia version that hit FL), and the current crisis involving North Korea? There has been plenty of activity from the President, cabinet officials, Congress, and even regional governments in response to the GM since 1184AZ has taken over, and I have no reason to believe that given the new expectations of the position that whoever takes over after he is gone will just let it fade away.

It's easy to say that because things were bad in the past to just abolish it instead of fix it, but it is a shame that laziness is being mistaken as legitimate policy to run on.

You're quite right that the incumbent GM has done sterling work. And we've had good GMs before - Purple State was a legend for a reason. But they are, sadly, the exception that proves the rule. At some point Progressive Dem and Encke will move on to greener pastures and we'll be forced to search again for some unfortunate soul to take over that thankless role.

The basic problem with the GM position, Madam President, is what I've touched upon already - the benefits for the position don't justify the immense effort expended by the holder of that office. With elected offices the benefit is the prestige, the thrill of engaging in heated debate, the fun of running in close elections and fighting your political foes. The GM gets, what, a pat on the back?

There's no reason that events like hurricanes and so on couldn't be implemented into our fictional world without a GM to declare such. I do pause in trepidation when we move on to foreign affairs, which has since the implementation of 'story-writing' powers in the Secretary of State office lead on most occasions to the holder of the office writing ill-judged self-insert fanfictions about their Nobel Peace Prize winning feats of diplomacy.

The best solution for the GM would, in a perfect world, be to pay them a salary. That'd do it! Since that's - I hope - not an option we're going to have to be realistic about the future of the job. This also applies to the bizarre position of National Archivist - it makes sense in theory to hire someone to handle the dull work of updating the wiki. But what's the incentive? Okay, sure, you'll occasionally find a Tim Turner or a homelycooking who genuinely enjoys the tedious business these jobs require, but it's not common.

It's simple economics - the fundamental flaw in our system of government is that we act as if positions should be filled and active for their own sake, but that's not how human behaviour operates. If you want to ignore history, we can do that, but what's that old parable about those who forget history? Mark my words - in a few months we'll be in the same old position again, doomed forever to repeat without reform.

[Oakvale]

I thank 1184AZ for generously agreeing to host this debate and for providing such thoughtful and illuminating questions. I trust it's been an informative experience. I'd also be remiss if I did not thank President fhtagn for her diligence in answering and her willingness to debate the issues with me. It's a sign of good character that this was the case when others would have ignored requests and sequestered themselves away in the White House. Most of all, I should thank everyone who's watched, Federalist or not. I hope it's been informative and you've seen some of our dividing lines, and some of the places we agree, too. I think it's clear that, whatever our differences - and they are real and serious - the worst day of either of our presidencies would be better than the best of a Crooked Harry Truman administration. If you've got any further questions my door's always open.

I began this campaign with few illusions about the hurdles such a bid would face. Challenging an incumbent President's never easy, to say nothing of doing so as a member of their own party. But I got in this race because I saw that Atlasia needed a change and the same old way of doing business just wasn't going to cut it any more. I'm an old man and an old hand - I've seen this play out before.

History repeats itself.

Spasms of brief activity subside and are squandered, neglected, suffocated in the crib, by self-interested careerists and party power-brokers who care only about one thing - themselves. I believe President fhtagn's a good person who cares about Atlasia. But she was manoeuvred into office by these very shadowy forces, an unelected president - the second! - foisted upon the nation. Presented to our party as a preset choice. The bosses have rallied around her banner. It's not about party, not really. It's sure as hell not about policy or ideology. And it's not about the President, either. I have no doubt that if I should be your nominee many of these cigar-chompers will desert our party and vote for Crooked Harry Truman, who they trust will uphold the system they've so benefitted from.

Let's not give them the chance.

To all Federalists, and all Atlasians, I say this.

If you want regions that work, bustling with activity, I need your vote.

If you want a bloated bureaucracy shattered, I need your vote.

If you want vigorous debate and political combat, not bland consensus, I need your vote.

If you want a Federalist Party that stands for principle and conviction once more, a true conservative party, I need your vote.

If you want to get this country working again, I need your vote.

This weekend, the Federalist convention will select our Presidential candidate. Let's send a message that business as usual is over. Lend me your vote.

Thank you.