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During my run for President as the Socialist Freedom Party and Green Party candidate, I was interviewed as part of an article on the positions of the various candidates on the issues. Today, I'm running on the same platform to be the Senator of South Dakota.

Here are my responses to the questions I was asked, in full:

First of all, let me thank you for giving me an equal opportunity to engage with the eAmerican public and for allowing the eAmerican people a full choice this election day. I think it's unfortunate how our political system seems to be so intensely focused around only a few major parties or even, given the size of the United States "Workers" Party, just one party.

But I digress.

"1. With the collapse of ATLANTIS, eUSA is in a position where we must map out a new course in international relations. In a post-ATLANTIS world, what do you envision eUSA's role to be?"

1. The end of ATLANTIS has thrust the eUSA into a position in the world which he have not been forced to embrace for a long time. This new position is far less secure than we once were, and today we face, seemingly alone, a strong and well-armed alliance of enemies. Some may face this and see the best path as refusing to engage with the outside world; for others, the solution might be trying to take over every new nation that comes into being -- and perhaps many existing smaller nations -- via PTO as a means of protecting ourselves against PEACE aggression. The answer, as it usually is, is in moderation here.

The eUSA cannot afford to ignore the events taking place around us -- as PEACE becomes stronger and stronger; but neither can we afford to dedicate all of our resources to costly PTOs. Furthermore, we must take immediate steps to, first, explore new methods of warfare in order to turn back the advances of PEACE; and, second, to ensure that our defense capabilities will be able to cope with whatever it might be that PEACE throws against us.

All of this must be done on two fronts -- neither will be entirely effective without the other: an international/diplomatic front and a domestic/economic front.

First, we must ally ourselves with other, powerful, non-PEACE-aligned nations, such as Great Britain and Canada, as well as those nations with contain important resources for our fight against PEACE, such as Spain. We must work with these allies to ensure the liberty of both ourselves and them, and protect one another against PTOs. At the same time, we must organize an alliance-wide system of combating PTOs against smaller nations, so that we can take action when and where it is necessary -- however, we cannot afford to retain costly alliances with them from which we will gain nothing. In the end, such binding alliances will only hurt our credibility and overall ability to fight against PEACE.

This brings me to the second front of the defense of eAmerica: our homeland security. It was not long ago that someone pointed out the possibility of PEACE waging economic warfare against us by simply pooling large amounts of gold and buying up our iron and weapons companies and producing or selling nothing, thereby eliminating our ability to resist any aggression on their part in only a matter of days. Whether this is actually happening this instant or not is irrelevant: what matters is only that it could happen and we would be entirely unprepared. If I were elected, I would immediately begin work with the top military experts and generals to create a new branch of the military to monitor, prevent, and counter any economic aggression on the part of PEACE nations.

This alone is not sufficient, however. In the so-called 'free market' that exists today in eAmerica, we cannot produce enough weapons to fight a real war for any longer than a few days. This is not a new problem, and we've lost more than our share of wars as a result of it. An additional problem that we frequently face is a shortage of q1 employment opportunities. That, combined with the fact that many patriotic employers must frequently provide such jobs at a cost to themselves (frequently leading to failed businesses), has led to an economy that is weaker than it could be, and an eAmerican population that is poorer than it should be.
In eRepublik, the usual moral arguments for a social safety net and social programs go right out of the window. But that does not mean that such programs are worthless. Rather, eRepublik dynamics create a situation in which such social programs are more necessary than ever. By providing jobs to new eAmerican citizens, we can work towards convincing more of them to stick around and advance to higher levels. By providing them decent wages, we can ensure that they will be able to remain healthy and thus be able to produce more and fight more.

And, of course, by creating government-owned companies to provide iron to weapons companies, and weapons to eAmerican citizens, our government can make sure that no matter how many private companies that PEACE buys up, we will never be totally unprepared for an invasion or without a source of weapons.

"2. What makes you the best candidate to lead us through these times of uncertainty?"

I arrived in the eUSA shortly after the fiasco in which our president the gold from the treasury and we faced an economic crisis in which the government was desperately short on money. From my first moment in eRepublik, I have hardly had a moment of ease or comfort. Whether it was the computer problem that led me to lose not only a vast amount of data, but also two weeks in eRepublik – along with the hard-worker medal, health, and money that went along with that – or starting off my elife with extraordinarily high taxes, I am no stranger to treacherous times.

But my personal experience is not the only experience that I have to offer. In Jamarcus’ last election as a candidate of the Green Party, he selected me to be his vice-presidential candidate. Unfortunately, our ticket was eventually bounced off of the ballot by larger parties, but the experience in campaigning and my continuing relationship with Jamarcus and other members of our government has kept me informed of the on-goings-on in the halls of Congress as well as the most important issues of the day.

Furthermore, I have served as a member of the government as a senator from the great state of North Dakota. While in office, I led the fight against the Value-Added Tax on food – a tax which disproportionately affected the poorest ecitizens, harmed our economy, and drove down consumption. Even before that, I was an active member of eAmerican civil society, participating in the forums, producing newspaper articles, and being a productive worker.

Additionally, shortly after I joined the Progressive America Federation, I reinvigorated its membership, wrote the Party’s manifesto, and quickly became the Party President before I ran for Congress.

Today, I am a member of the Steering Committee of the Socialist Freedom Party as well as an active and well-respected member of the Party.