A Change Would Do Us Good

Day 592, 13:19 • Published in USA USA • by fingerguns
This is a brilliant article and is much akin to my current state of mind.

Through some unexpected and sometimes dramatic changes in The Federalists, I was asked to serve as Party President. I'll admit, this was a position I was hoping to one day hold, so believe me I seek no pity. When I joined the party, Gaius Julius was PP and Bill "mentorship" Brasky was his right-hand man. Gaius' laid back, personable style matched with Brasky's keen talent for campaign strategies and passion for helping newbs taught me a lot about how political parties SHOULD function. The constant resistance we faced with the Scrabman Administration taught me a lot about how parties are expected to function. It seems to be a common opinion that political parties are no more than social clubs with vague political opinions. They're mostly irrelevant, it is just where you choose to spend your time. They are cliques.

What appealed to me about The Federalist Party, Gaius and Bill in particular, is that they had a vision beyond this accepted function. The Federalist Party is very appropriately named. If you're not sure what Federalism is, here is the entry from wikipedia:

"Federalism is a political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (like states or provinces). Federalism is a system in which the power to govern is shared between national and central(state) governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists."

As we all know, and some lament, individual states have no power and there is no local government. Sure, we elect Congressmen for each state, but their function within our government has absolutely nothing to do with the state they represent. Just because game mechanics haven't exactly replicated the state system as we know it in real life doesn't mean it is not a necessary part of a successful America. We just need to change our idea of what local government looks like.

The Federalist Party believes political parties are the closest thing to local government we have in this game, and we choose to function as such. We are not completely alone in this perspective. The USWP is also a very strong system, but I feel that because they've isolated themselves in their mission and have grown to such massive numbers, there is really very little difference between the federal government and the upper echelon of USWP leadership. A 'federation' doesn't work if there is only one group participating.

As a growing mid-sized party, The Feds have been able to put resources behind out ideas, but we realize that no party can do this alone. We cannot be the only party other than the USWP that feels empowered to be autonomous. If ALL political parties viewed themselves as small governments and functioned as such, not only would it improve both citizen retention and activity across the entire eUS but it would change the way political parties relate to each other. The eUS should be one big machine with many cogs working together to ensure its success. As it stands right now, the eUS is a scattered group of inflated egos with little to do. People complain about the in-fighting and the 'small ideas' of party politics, but is that really any surprise when political parties are thought of as social clubs? Who needs big ideas and cooperation when you're just part of a social clique?

Anticipating some of the criticism an article from me about interparty relations is bound to receive, I want to address Aren Perry specifically in hopes that this explanation will reveal how differing points of view on what a party should be have hindered our ability to work together. Aren Perry is the PP of America's Advancement Party, a title he has held for quite some time. Scrabman appointed Mr. Perry to head up the Interparty Relations department, putting him in charge of bringing all political parties together under government mandate. As Federalists who believe in autonomy, we are obviously resistant to the federal government ordering someone to lurk our forums and report back opinions revealed in what we believe to be private conversations. Well-organized parties will work together because it is in their best interest to do so. Rather than allowing these relationships to happen naturally or facilitating the empowerment of individual parties, the government sent a narc. To be clear, the government could have sent absolutely anyone and the reaction would have been the same. Aren Perry has taken our resistance personally, but it really had nothing at all to do with him.

Since that incident, many of us have taken it upon ourselves to resolve these interparty issues without government oversight. 'Ambassadors' from numerous parties now participate on the Federalist Forum and they are more than welcome there. The difference between these ambassadors and The Secretary of Interparty Relations is that these people represent their party...not the government. Their intention is to find new ways to work together...not to report our opinions back to a President that continuously bashed us publicly and believes we're trying to overthrow the government because we disagree. We aren't trying to overthrow the government, we just believe our country would be stronger if they would distribute some power.

If we don't start coming up with solutions on our own to the nation's ills, as political parties, the government will continue to mandate how we are expected to function and work together. Ideas and proposals making their way to the forefront imply we should beat PEACE at their own game by playing by their rules. They imply we should have only one political party to facilitate military domination, or at least a political landscape so homogenized that parties become even more irrelevant. I disagree. The eUS will beat PEACE by playing the AMERICAN game. We have the largest population in the new world and I think we are bound for failure if we expect a small group of elected and appointed officials to responsible for everything from the top of the chain to the bottom. If we step up as political parties and function as small governments, then we're helping more citizens in a more timely and organized manner. We will be strengthening the eUS by sharing in these responsibilities and creating more opportunities for new citizens to get involved through party organizations.

We don't need to amputate. There is an antidote to the poison coursing through eAmerican politics and I believe it is a simple change in perspective.