Paladin's Honor

9 December 2009, Day 750 of the New World. While I think I am reasonably thorough in my semi-regular voting records and Congressional report, the most recent of which is here, some important things do tend to get buried by routine donation proposals and mutual protection pact renewals. I want to address a few specific issues in some more detail. This has certainly been one of the most interesting fortnights in Congress and the political world for me.

There are many topics I wish to discuss, making this article somewhat long. However, I find this method preferable to me annoying my readers with several shorter articles spread over the next few days. Just click the internal link to be taken to the topic you want, such as how I organize The Briefing Room.

1. <a href="”#CongressStuff">More about Congress and Inter-Party Cooperation</a>

2. <a href="”#IndiaPP">Allying with India</a>

3. <a href="”#SpainFrance">Statement on the Spanish Invasion of France</a>

4. <a href="”#Election">Follow-up to Election Night</a>

5. <a href="”#Kyushu">Justification for Invasion of Kyushu</a>


<a id="CongressStuff">More about Congress and Inter-Party Cooperation</a>

When I stepped up as Chairman of the Congressional Elections Committee for America’s Advancement Party, there were some things I wanted to see done differently (many changes were already being made). The Party had earned a reputation for fielding poor candidates, who went on to become inactive Congressmen, and ousting qualified ones. The Congressional Elections Committee exists to vet candidates and only sanction people who will be good for our e-nation to run.

Many people still don’t realize this, or possibly even believe it, but despite the large number of Congressional candidates last month in AAP colors, the Party only sanctioned 17 of its own members to run for Congress. The month prior, we won one more seat than that! I hoped that by scaling back, we were severely cutting back on how many inactives would get into Congress and advance our nation with many intelligent, dedicated, and capable individuals serving as elected representatives. I still occasionally hear insults about the “AAP newbs,” but no one has been able to point to a specific Congressman, making me think they are insulting the America’s Advancement Party of two months ago rather than the one of today.

Many people in AAP colors last election were either blockers sent by other parties or two-clickers, who we couldn’t deny a place on our ballot. It’s impossible to do that if you only have one candidate. We won 14 seats of those 17 we were contending for, which I consider a moderately successful record, and won an additional three seats for the six qualified sixth-party members our ticket sanctioned to run. I don’t think we won a single race, for ourselves or with sixth-party candidates, that one can definitively and honestly claim that the opposition was a uniformly superior candidate.

Another goal undertaken by America’s Advancement Party was increased inter-party cooperation. All parties have a vested interest in seeing the strongest candidates get into Congress to work for America, and no one really wanted to see a poor candidate defeat a more qualified one simply because of party affiliation. The strongest candidates tended to be directed away from each other. Obviously, the elections were not entirely harmonious, and sniping still occurred. So, basically, I failed to overcome a long-standing culture of partisanship, and I wouldn’t be surprised if two or three parties wanted to snipe me out of office next election. Still, I wish more citizens acknowledged the strides that were made last month and, instead of focusing on Connecticut and Delaware, Oregon, Texas, and Hawai’i, consider the many dedicated and competent people the Nation came together for. I think part of advancing America is overcoming partisanism.

Usually we have several two-clickers who sneak onto the ballot. November was no exception, but what made that election different was that zero of them actually got elected. That’s right – of the 51 Congressmen who were elected, all 51 were sanctioned to run by at least one of the Big Five parties. Congress has a very high level of activity right now, as evidenced by 100% participation on important votes like the decision to join EDEN and the Speaker of the House.

Last term, there was talk about forming the Strong Congress or the Plus Twelve Caucus, a mixture of an earlier eRepublik meme and a reference to the first “Congressional check-up,” which later spawned Astra Kat G’s report card and a later Congressional check-up. Some veteran members of Congress have commented that we accomplished the Strong Congress this term. Admittedly, this is probably the best Congress I have served on so far, but I remain confident that we can improve.

In a slightly unrelated topic, I have updated one of the Congressional maps. A Congressman can’t change his birth date or number of terms served, but he can freely change parties after being elected. This new maps reflects changes in party affiliation of the representatives from Minnesota, Texas, and California. As the Nationalist Party is no longer represented, I decided to use orange for the Democratic Party. Both of the Democratic regions are coastal, and I didn’t like their white states bordering the white space on the map.



<a id="IndiaPP">Allying with India</a>

For those of you who don’t remember, the United States rejected a mutual protection pact offer by India on Day 742 of the New World in a 22-30 vote. It was proposed by the President of India, and the Indian Congress approved it 25-4. The reasons for the American rejection of the offer were that it was proposed prematurely, before India offered anything to the United States to make this alliance “mutual.”

Recall that after the liberation of Northern India from Iran in a resistance war, the United States proposed a mutual protection pact to India, which they rejected. We voted on that mutual protection pact on Day 692, accepting it 38-0 while India rejected it 11-13.

Those that argue that America’s actions on and around Day 692 were attempting to force India into their camp are digging themselves into a hole on the Day 742 debate, because India appeared to be doing the exact same thing and, unsurprisingly, received the exact same treatment. I was not particularly thrilled by the Indian president for jumping the gun on the mutual protection pact proposal.

After I published a Congressional report containing that vote, I was contacted by the Secretary of State of India and the Party President of India United, the largest political party in India, Jelly9473. I understand that there may have been circumstances preventing the President of India from proposing a mutual protection pact later, making it a now-or-never situation for their side. It was not my intent to blame the entire Indian nation for an attempted deception. I believe that India and the United States can work together, and that our friendship is not contingent on actually having a mutual protection pact signed. India is now at war with Iran and is fighting to reclaim their territory of West Bengal. I think this is something we can support, even though have not signed a mutual protection pact with India.

<a id="SpainFrance">Statement on the Spanish Invasion of France</a>

Not even two weeks ago, in discussions on joining EDEN, I said, “I want to bury Hungary, but you won't be able to shut up my criticism if we start pushing around France or Israel.” Less than four days after the United States joined EDEN, Spain invaded France.

France was one of the first nations to manifest fractures in the foundations of the PEACE Global Community. Their president refused to participate in a PEACE-wide offensive which would have included another French incursion into the United States. They were willing to sign peace with the United States, ending one of the many PEACE-EDEN wars and one of the many border wars of the United States. While they did occupy Spain quite extensively during World War 3, I think it should be more important to reward them for opposition to PEACE and prevent them from sliding into the new Phoenix camp than to punish them for World War 3.



Spain is now in a weaker position strategically, and France is not going to become pro-EDEN. The next time Croatia comes under three-front siege, France might as well attack or resistance war its regions back. Spain will have less to commit to important engagements, and the alliance will be weaker. The wood-rich regions of Rhone Alps and Aquitaine did not appear to be the motivation for the invasion – revenge did. Spain was seeking revenge on the France of two months ago by invading the France of today, instantly discrediting all the diplomatic efforts of the Frost administration. It is, of course, difficult to speak out against Spain, a fellow EDEN member and a supplier of much of the alliance’s iron, so no official government stance will likely be taken. I do not condone the Spanish invasion of France, and I would like to see France liberated and become an EDEN-leaning, rather than Phoenix-leaning, nation.

<a id="Election">Follow-up to Election Night</a>

First, let me say that I continue to meet my undefeated streak in my own elections with a winless streak in picking the winner of the Presidential elections. It seemed almost without question that Josh Frost would be elected to another term just a week before the election.

Three factors have been credited with Jewitt’s upset victory – his pledge to attack the United Kingdom, Frost’s lack of campaign goals, and the AAP endorsement. As I had the most immediate connection to the America’s Advancement Party endorsement factor, that is what I mean to discuss. I was on Rizon.Net when Herrn Sterling, Congressman from Vermont and Ambassador to Germany, was made the America’s Advancement Party Candidate for the President of the United States. Congressman Sterling himself was not online, most likely being asleep. We obviously did not know that the decision deadline had been changed. Our primary was still underway, and we could not ‘call’ a winner to be our nominee at that time.

A similar situation happened in the Socialist Freedom Party. Both AAP and SFP eventually endorsed Josh Frost for POTUS, but that could not be reflected in-game. AAP endorsed Frost in November, and SFP endorsed Jewitt, so Frost can be credited with picking up at least one new party endorsement. The Conservative Party had to cancel their primary. Allegedly, Mattoze5 was winning it, but he already was off the ballot in-game, so I assume there was no point in publishing their nominee.

Sterling attempted to resign candidacy, but was unable to. He even left America’s Advancement Party, hoping that would remove him from the ballot. It obviously did not. While America’s Advancement Party’s endorsement was undoubtedly one factor in the results of this election, I contend that it was not the most prominent one. Notice that without national goals, Sterling pulled in a little over 300 votes. Don Keedick, a candidate from the Umbrella Research Party, who had national goals, pulled in about that much. Last month, Keedick pulled in just 94. His party is currently 82-members strong. The only explanation I see for Keedick receiving more than triple as many votes as last election was the national goals. Keedick’s campaigning was conducted no differently, and the United States population did not triple during that month. Keedick and Jewitt were the only two candidates on the ballot with national goals, and presumably we would only be eligible for a national monument if we elected one of those two.

It looks like Josh Frost pretty much got screwed because the eRepublik servers would not let him set national goals. Similar problems influenced elections all over the New World. The election is said and done, though, and I see little point in crying foul over the results. I would like to say that President Frost is someone I respect, and during his administration he managed to assuage all the concerns I had when he took office. He also gave me my first Cabinet post, which was pretty sweet. Jewitt let me keep my job, and is a pretty cool guy too.

For those of you who were curious about the national goals screen, I have some screenshots from when I was playing around with it:

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3

Herrn Sterling was on the ballot with the endorsement of America’s Advancement Party despite that party more officially endorsing Josh Frost. It was by no stretch of the imagination his fault, however. His “campaign” was very obviously, at least to me, a joke (slashing all military funding to build Liberty Prime is an idea that has been around long before this Presidential election). Several people apparently attempted to bully him into changing his avatar to something like “Vote for Frost,” similar to some blockers during Congressional elections. Just because his party supported one candidate and he is a member of that party does not make him a mindless automaton of the Party. As Sterling did not ask to be put on the ballot, he was under no obligations from it. He, as an individual, is free to vote as he wants. Those of you harassing him need to stop right now.

<a id="Kyushu"> Justification for Invasion of Kyushu</a>

I hope everyone understands by now that the plan to invade Kyushu predates Jewitt’s presidency. It would have been executed if Frost was in the White House still, with or without national goals to conquer British regions. I had been aware of our long, sustained efforts diplomatically with Japan for passage through Kyushu. At no time during these did we threaten Japan with annihilation if they did not comply, unlike Indonesia’s negotiation with Japan for passage through Kyushu.

I was frankly surprised by some of the “anti-imperialist” backlash in our media. I am fully aware that a few trolls writing articles do not convey the sentiments of our populace, but the number of their supporters and defectors was troubling.

Iran holds regions belonging to India and Pakistan. They held a diamond-rich Canadian region for an extended period of time. Hungary has oppressed Heilongjiang for a considerable length of time. If the world is so anti-imperialistic, why is there no criticism of these powers? In my entire e-life, the United States had only legitimately attacked two regions it did not originally own – Manitoba and Nunavut, Hungary – until the invasion of Kyushu (the hacker-inspired wars with Portugal, Britain, France, and Mexico do not count). To call the United States imperialistic is a joke, and anyone who would believe that banter is a fool.

So let’s look at Japan. I have heard rumors that this nation is honorable or righteous. They’ve also been called neutral. While they certainly aren’t our biggest enemy in the e-world, Japan is neither neutral, honorable, nor righteous. Japan was an accessory to a war of aggression against the United States. Allowing Indonesia access to Kyushu was not neutral, just like Mexicans allowing Colombia passage through their territory denies them any “neutral” label.

Some have commented that Japan’s only alternative was conquest by Indonesia. While this may be the case, if Japan was a righteous country that would be the option they would have taken. Allowing another nation that was not threatening you to be reduced to one region to save your own country is the opposite of righteousness. Self-sacrifice would have been honorable. Japan was a pragmatic nation. I know a thing or two about honor; I am a Paladin.

When we invaded Kyushu, we weren’t invading Japan. Look at the battle statistics if you believe Japan was our enemy. Japan contributed less than 6% of the damage for the Japanese side. Hungarian and Russian citizens combined contributed over 52% of the damage in the defense of Kyushu. We did not come to conquer Japan. Russia and Hungary (neither of which had an activated MPP) came to protect their empire. Those of you anti-imperialists who fought for Japan yesterday are hypocrites of the highest order. To stop America from liberating the oppressed nations of the Orient, you tacitly helped defend the Hungarian Empire. By continuing to permit Hungary to control Heilongjiang, you allow them to develop the most powerful and well-funded military in the New World, and they will continue to be able to strike at Croatia until they level our ally into dust.

While the topic of Croatia has been mentioned, I want to stop and say how much I love Croatia. Really, Croatia is just awesome. Canada is pretty awesome too, and not just because they blocked the United Kingdom at Pennsylvania. Romania didn’t really pull through for us like our other allies did, and I wonder if this had something to do with it…



So, anyway, back on topic. If you are an anti-imperialist who didn’t deploy to Hungary after they conquered Slovakia but did fight for the defense of Kyushu, you are a hypocrite. If you think Heilongjiang can be liberated in a resistance war, then start it.

On the lighter side of Kyushu, I used the following as my avatar during the invasion:



The President of Japan, Dokomo, promptly accused me of besmirching the icon of the noble Godzilla Party and demanded satisfaction. I have accepted the challenge, but as of yet have not received another message from the Japanese president.