Belittling Congress

Day 1,652, 16:51 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Ian E Coleman

Est. 2010
Thirty-first Edition: Tuesday, May 29, 2012


New Faustian Man: "Threatened"

Recently there has been some interesting reading in the eIrish media. One of eIreland's congressmen, New Faustian Man (NFM), approached the eTurkish Country President about pursuing an alliance with eTurkey. This became an issue after eTurkish representation made an alliance proposal with eIreland based only on correspondence with Congressman NFM. You can read more into this incident here (government's reaction) and here (NFM's self defence).

Now, while this incident is important as a current issue, the details of New Faustian Man vs. the government are not what interest me. What has piqued my interest is one of the matters that NFM brought up in his defence (following an article from the current administration aimed at him).

"...my view (is) that my original intention (to pursue an alliance with eTurkey) was within a congressman's remit, and that the separation of powers built into the game between the executive (CP) and legislature (Congress), allows for this scope; and that the executive (CP) has very little right either to hamper or constrain congress (the legislature) in this manner..." -New Faustian Man ("Threat made to Irish Congressman")

NFM here argues that because the game's mechanics afford him the power to propose alliances, the authority and responsibility to shape foreign affairs should fall to him. Following this logic, Foreign Affairs (alliances), Finance (transfers of money and taxes), Immigration (citizen requests), etc. should all be primarily handled by congress through the free judgement of congress representatives.

This argument interested me because I whole heartedly disagree. I see this as a perfect opportunity to make a point about the mechanics of eRep governments and how congress should behave.


Why I Don't Like Congress

I really don't like Congress, but it's nothing personal - Congress often includes a small collection of high quality citizens (Ministers, high-ranked soldiers, military officers, MU leaders... people who know what's going on).

However, my problems with congress really start on the 25th of the month. Congress elections make no sense, and winning a seat in congress is less about being elected, and more about election planning, and strategy. Our congress is not elected based on their abilities or their track record as public servants, but based on where they run, which party they belong to, and who they know. And does this produce a high quality congress?

No because our congress is generally an ill-informed, poorly disciplined, strategically illiterate group of two-clickers and randoms... and often they don't communicate with each other, and they end up making costly/stupid mistakes...

No, because apparently in the last congress elections, our system worked so well, that Ethel Rosenberg, an upcoming candidate for CP of eIreland, didn't even make it into congress. Was it because no one thought she would make a good congress member this month? I would guess not.

Here are a few possible explanations:
The people who might have voted her in,

- Were told to vote for someone else
- Voted for a less qualified close friend instead
- Didn't vote for her because she wasn't in their party
- Voted for someone else because they thought she would already have enough votes to get in
- Were lazy and lived in a different region
- Voted for someone else who paid them

And then maybe it was just that she ran in the wrong region. But at the end of the day, and at the beginning of every congress term, there are countless great citizens who get overlooked by our election system (I've seen Sw33t, Irasian, Marcus, etc (random examples of people I would want to see in congress who I've seen not get elected)). There are countless more who have been elected despite only being in it for the gold (and then leaving the country), being a PTOer, or being completely clueless. And when the issues surface in front of congress, no matter who it is, or how they got elected, every congress member has an equal say in the result of that proposal. And every congress member has the absolute independent power to choose two new citizens per month.

And ultimately, these are the citizens who we trust with the power to move around our taxes, choose our alliances (which can dictate our entire military strategy), decide which citizen applications to accept (does anyone remember The Bremen Clubhouse?), and decide how much tax we pay (and then what it goes to). Hmmm... and the stupidest thing of all? Willy-nilly, congress can decide who our Country President should be by impeaching our current one for the runner up. Do they need a reason? Nope.

A collection of politically unscrupulous congress representatives, with only three or four votes (to be generous) each to their names, could overthrow the authority of a majority of more than 100 eIrish citizens on a whim by impeaching the elected CP.

Considering how easy it is to fly under the radar and get elected to congress (even while other better candidates will put in more effort, will deserve it more, and will not qualify), it should now be apparent that Congress, by default, is an unbalanced, unstable, and dangerous powerhouse within our political system.

The only way to protect ourselves, is to elected representatives who have the attitude that their powers are a responsibility, and not a privilege to massage their egos.


Let's Play A Game

Irish Rebel Reborn received the support of 125 citizens during Country President elections on May 5, 2012. (reference) He was running among the constituents of eIreland.

New Faustian Man received the support of 4 citizens during Congress elections on May 25, 2012. (reference) He was running among the constituents of a single region (Scotland perhaps? - I'm unsure).

Who should have the power to be making important decisions for eIreland?


Two Idiots Are Dumber Than One

Granted, the powers of congress aren't all in the hands of one congress representative, but in the hands of the collective who will vote on proposals. And yet, I would argue that often, because congress has so many two-clickers, and a good number of poorly informed or uncommitted representatives, the more congress that we have, the worse their performance is likely to be. There was a time when congress communicated on issues and even decided issues before proposing them and voting - that was a long time ago.


My Advice to Congress

If you're in Congress, please don't take this article personally. I know from serving in Congress myself in the past, that there are a lot of bad congress representatives that make it through (case and point, I've been a congress representative). There are also a handful of really good ones each month. The key to being a good congress member is to pay attention to the Ministers and CP.

GOOD CONGRESS REPRESENTATIVES DON'T HAVE EGOS

Don't try to propose something only because its to your benefit. Take into consideration the whole picture, and keep an open mind. Especially if you're new. The best advice when playing eRepublik, is to forget everything you thought you knew about politics and government. eRepublik doesn't work anything like real life, so don't go around trying to raise minimum wage to improve our standard of life, before you bother to notice that minimum wage is an irrelevant piece of legislature and raising it would only serve to destroy eIrleand's military and commune structures.

It only makes sense to me, that our CP should be in charge of forming a cabinet capable of executing one cohesive plan for government. With this method, we've seen longer term planning both financially and militarily. We've seen supply programs and a military that hits above its weight, and an overachievement in our international stature. None of this would be possible under an "anarchocapitalist" model of government. We can't trust an invisible hand to lead us to greatness.

Anyway
Cheers,
Ian E Coleman - The Coleman Global




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