[Self Righteousness: Standard American Politician Characteristic?]
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by Ian John Locke IV
Recently, a member of the USWP considering a run for congress was offering his employees Q1 houses, and moving tickets.
I think I can say for everyone in the USWP and every honorable party member of every other party in the eUS, that this is despicable and a characteristic of electioneering that is dirty and desperate. I do not mean to offend this person, but it seems that the employee who blew the whistle on this operation, as well as several other American politicians are shouting from their soap boxes that this is standard USWP procedure.
Most of you who read this paper, probably remember that most of my eLife, I have been a member of the America's Advancement Party. So how would I know so well that the USWP does not do this? For a large amount of my time in the AAP, I collaborated with USWP members, and officials on public relations and congresional endorsements as well as presidential endorsements and advice on general game matters.
I can honestly say that I can recall no member of any party who tried to buy votes that was still supported by his fellow party members or party president.
And for those of you young enough to not know, this kind of thing has happened all too often in eRepublik in the past. I can recall plenty of elections where the night before some innocent citizen blew the whistle on a candidate. And some of you who remember the candidates and their parties may say "But the USWP had more of those people than any other party." And that may be true, but if you look at the sheer size of the USWP, statistically and by running probability calculations, they are more likely than anyone else to have a member try this.
In the past, the whole party was not painted with the same brush - as vote buyers. And even though vote moving is popular and legal in this game, it is still frowned upon by the self-righteous. Who are these self-righteous? Well I would never name names. That should be obvious by now. They know who they are.
These are the people who have admitted to doing it, and then turn around and start writing articles blasting those who do it as well.
[Personal Experience]
I have never moved votes for a Congressional Election, and never requested a friend move to help me. However, the second time I won the Party Presidency of the AAP (the beginning of my first term), I had several friends from parties including the USWP, and the, then, UCP, now, UIP. Why did they switch parties?
Well for one, they knew I had big plans for the AAP. Another reason was that they all disliked Uncle Sam. And a third reason was that they knew I was a hard worker and deserved a chance at winning it "fairly" so I would not have my arm twisted into resigning again.
Did I appreciate their efforts? Yes of course I did. I felt guilty about it and even revealed it in the article I published when my one vote win was revealed the next morning. Why didn't I resign? Because Uncle Sam did not want it, and I knew that the party had grown by at least 40 that day, and only 15 were votes for me. It made me question some of Uncle Sam's votes, as at one point, i was very far ahead of him, before any of my friends had started to help me. Later in the day, over the course of an hour, Sam gained some double digit lead over me. And I figured, well that's it. The elections over. I'm done. So I was resigned to a loss.
[How can I call others self-righteous?]
Easily. I did not do anything to encourage these people to change parties to vote for me. They did so on their own. And yet I still blew the whistle on the election.
[Why are these people self-righteous?]
Well let me focus on someone we will call Person "A".
"A" ran an indecent campaign in a state for reasons of "revenge". "A" won because they messaged every citizen of that state and stated that they were a candidate endorsed by the RightCon and then proceeded to list several parties (including the AAP, SFP, and other leftist parties) among the RightCon. "A" did so to encourage "party line voting". Young members of parties do not always think logically or think to PM their Party Presidents. Thus "A" won in a landslide.
"A" left a state where "A" was previously a Congress member, and a respectable one at that. Once "A" left, "A" endorsed another candidate who messaged their state and offered the citizens ways to level up in order to vote (which allows a person to gain an experience point without hurting their wellness). Naturally, this person, won as well.
"A" commented on the article about the member of the USWP offering houses and moving tickets decrying the evil that is the USWP and promising articles exposing the corrupt USWP organization of political campaigns.
At this comment, i yawned. It was posted approximately 2 days ago and is not worth my worrying. I would believe that my fellow party members and I will be able to disprove every one of "A" 's accusations.
What bugged me, was how "A" has so blatantly misled voters in order to win, not to help the country, but to embarrass another player, and yet "A" continues to defame a whole party.
[Now look at the kettle calling the pot black]
Who here recalls my last article? I count, oh I can't see all the way that far back in the audience...
Anyway, "A" and several other people accused me of calling the Federalists (as a whole) a group of people who feel entitled and are bitter, for many different reasons. For those of you who can actually read an article carefully, my point was that the active Federalists, all 50, or so, of them, took up the charge of another player and after another of their members messed up, started screaching at the top of their lungs for reinstatement.
So do I fit in with these self-righteous politicians? Well of course I do.
My last two terms as Congressman, (1 term from NJ, 1 term from MO) I was less and less active. Now I criticize congress members who vote without knowing what they're voting for. I did not vote like that, I took the time to follow the links on the page and look in the forums for the discussions, but did not have time to participate in them.
Toward the end of my last term as AAP PP, did I not vet all the congressional candidates properly? Of course not, I had assigned someone else to. Do i criticize smaller parties for not vetting their parties? Of course I do.
Am i self-righteous? Of course. it's like Avenue Q says, Everyone's a little racist. Likewise, everyone's a little self-righteous. It is just the extreme boldness of some of these other self-righteous politicians that really gets to me.
Disclaimer This is not a USWP opinion, or representative of the USWP's leadership. This is an individual's opinion who just so happens to be both a member of the USWP and it's Executive Board.
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Comments
>Everyone's a little racist
I'm very racist.
About Claire and Tyler. Tyler claimed that the citizens came to him. I've been in a similar situation, so I'm inclined to believe him unless you have proof otherwise.
So that's why you left the AAP, USWP offered you a seat on the executive board, ohhhh! And I'm not racist at all, I just can't stand fools.
Actually Greg, I was tired of the AAP. So many people were so ... stale ... I was growing tired of the inactivity and having to continually pick up other people's slack.
In the USWP, there's always someone else waiting to do something. And they didn't offer it to me. I joined and consequently was offered a position, but not before I joined.
Also, Emerick, I am in the process of messaging some of the citizens involved to find out exactly what the situation was.
hmm, I must say that I never asked people to move places and vote for me in the party elections that you mentioned.
I will admit that I tried to give people moving tickets to come in and vote for me during the following elections.
December Congressional Elections (USA, PA) (loss)
April Party Elections (Latvia, United Democratic Coalition)
April Congressional Elections (Latvia, to vote for any PD candidate, not myself)
Who cares if one member of the USWP bribed people for votes? It seems counter-productive and a little ridiculous to even address this. Furthermore, if someone wishes to pay for votes, so what? Are they not losing one thing for the gain of something else? It doesn't matter whether they are losing time through campaigning or losing money through buying votes.
As I said, I'm more concerned with the hypocrisy that is so inherit in "A".
IJL, well said. Always refreshing to hear an contrarian point of view. I know you to be a man of your word so I would certainly believe the veracity of your claim.
Voted. You raise important points of discernment.
That said, here's one or two of my own. I think you mean 'hypocritical,' not 'self-righteous'.
And by calling self-righteousness a 'standard American political characteristic,' aren't you painting with an even broader brush than Person 'A' painted the USWP?
Manuel: Ian never said that Tyler was lying, he says in the third post that he's investigating it. Nice jump to a conclusion
There's no need to jump to conclusions on your own--I've created the very first "jump to conclusions mat".
Well ssomo, if you were to read the last article I pointed out some hypocritical people and situations, however, I seem to be doing poorly at explaining exactly my meaning lately.
And to be honest, a day later, and half asleep, I can't quite put it down exactly as I meant it yesterday.
I might have read the same article(s) that Ian read, and I think I know who he means and what he means.
It seems (by reading those articles) as if Candidate "A" did the something about equal to the person sending his employees houses and moving tickets.
The difference is that the latter admitted he misworded the messages and did not convey what he meant properly. Candidate "A" maintains that what they did something that was without fault, especially since I received the message from "A" telling me to vote for them because the RightCon supported "A" and along with the traditional conservative parties, "A" included clearly left parties such as AAP and SFP.
Apparently "A" has no conception that orgs cannot vote.
But yes, I think Ian was getting at the idea that "A" maintains they did nothing wrong and in fact everything right, while trying to defame someone, based solely upon their party.
TWP: read my first post. There's a key difference here. One person asked for people to come to him, and then offered a house for a vote, while the other says that voters came to him, and he told them how they could level up to vote for him
Emerick, where did I call anyone a liar. I merely pointed out that I liked IJL's paper.
I was just making sure that you understood that Ian didn't have any solid proof