[TB4CP] Making the Hard Decisions

Day 2,780, 14:29 Published in USA USA by Tyler Bubblar



It has come to my attention that many people feel there is little difference between myself and my opponent in this race as far as what we have to offer and what we stand for. Some believe with so little difference in platform this race comes down to personality and style. With respect to those who have bought into this I disagree. If my articles and the various Q&A threads have not shown a discernable difference between the two candidates for CP then that is on me. It is my job as the candidate to clearly layout and explain why I am the best choice for leading this Nation over the next 30 days.





Leading is definitely about inspiring, engaging, and in this game entertaining. However it is also very much about decision making and taking ownership of setbacks. When a department fails to complete a task or project that failure reflects on me as the person in charge of things. What is done after that is also important. It is not pleasant or fun to let go of Cabinet members that are not performing in their job, but failure to do so would be not performing in my job as CP. Being President of the eUSA requires not allowing fear of the big moment to cause you to shrink. I have been Country President for 2 terms, National CoS twice, and Fed Party President 5 times. I have had to make hard choices, ride out the consequences, and rebuild from said consequences. There have been many instances during my career of such moments, but I will share 2 or 3 depending on how you look at it.





The first such instance is near ancient history in terms of eRepublik. In August 2013 I became Party President of the Federalist Party for the first time. We had just a shade under 700 members August 16th when I took over. At that time we were fighting to finish off the Ajay led AFA as a permanent member of the top 5 Parties. August 15th Marked the third month in a row we had taken the AFA from Ajay with an ATO candidate. Derphoof was then leader of his Party the Lunar Republic. It was hoped he would direct this ATO seized Party to a lasting top 5 Party.

As Congress election day inched closer the AFA began to shoot back up the ranks as it regathered its membership in an effort to reach the top 5. The rules for Congress are fairly simple you have until reset on the 23rd (from the 23rd to the 24th) to candidate for Congress and your Party has until reset on the 24th (from the 24th to the 25th) to reach the top 5 in order to run its slate of candidates for Congress. No Congress for the Ajay AFA meant a few things all very important to the Nation. First no more rogue proposals designed to send money to orgs disguised as eUSA ones, no more rogue NE proposals to tie up our bonus damage when most needed, and lastly no more CS passes to expand their numbers from enemy nations.



The USWP, WTP, and the AMP went all in on the effort to block the AFA from rising above the Lunar Republic and reaching the top 5. WTP sent so many of their members to reinforce Derphoof that they themselves were in danger of falling out of the top 5. The other Parties had done all they could. They had sacrificed everything they could spare for the good of the Nation. So it was that as a Party President of less than 10 days I had a choice. Let the rest of the Country down, or bleed members of my Party. I chose to bleed my Party. I messaged SHIELD looking for volunteers. After I messaged more than 200+ members the old fashioned way to direct them to the 4 Parties (USWP, WTP, AMP, and Lunar Republic) we were trying to boost.

When the dust settled we had failed to block the AFA. Membership in the Federalist Party had dipped to closer to approximately 540 when the day prior we had been just short of 700. We were 14 members away from knocking them down to 6th. It was a successful failure though. The nation proved it could and would work together for the good of all. The top 4 Parties all recognized that we had done everything in our power to cover for one another. We never did get the majority of the people back who moved that day. Some of them came back, but anyone who has worked in ATO can tell you when you move large numbers of people there is always attrition. That is after all why we started hitting the PTO every month.





My second and third example involve my last term as CP in October of 2014. Rumor began to circulate that Argentina would Airstrike into Mexico. Their intent it seemed was to wipe Mexico and the eUSA. Argentina was and is one of the most powerful nations in this game. At the time their lower Divisions were second to none. Mexico had an MPP stack that was less than desirable. They did not have heavy hitters like Poland or Turkey. Which is likely why Mexico was targeted instead of the eUSA. When the airstrike was proposed and it was obvious it would be approved by the Argentine Congress, I went to SCI and laid out the situation. I asked for 1.5 million dollars to defend Mexico (and by extension the eUSA) and then asked the Media Department to publish a Special Edition WHPR explaining the situation and import of the upcoming battle to the nation.

The 1.5 million was approved, the nation was geeked up to defend Mexibro, and we waited for the wee hours of the morning when the attack would strike. We fell behind quickly and the SCI money was quickly exhausted. I went back to SCI and requested more several times. We took loans from several private citizens (Oblige, WookyJack, and WildOwl) and several allied nations. It was a long stressful 24 hours. COs, divisions, and rounds were in need of constant monitoring, refreshing, and adjusting. I had a great deal of help from Wild Owl and John NWP in doing this. At one point John lost internet and Wild Owl had rl business to attend to. I stayed up and managed the battle well past dawn. In the end we won that battle. The total amount spent was more than 5.5 million dollars.





This is all known and fairly public record. What is not known is that midway through the battle I was approached by the Argentine MoFA. He was very polite and he told me this was all a misunderstanding. Argentina wanted a TW with Mexico and the eUSA on it’s way to Spain a nation they would then wipe and hold down for the near future. I had a choice stand down and let them through after spending more than 2 million dollars on this battle or see things through. I will not say I thought the MoFA was being disingenuous, but if Spain were the ultimate goal why not just Airstrike them? We had no love for Spain, but I made the decision that we would hold firm. A few months later we signed an MPP with Argentina. I do not know this for a fact, but I believe we showed Argentina that day our value as an ally. Had we just rolled over and allowed them free passage through our Mexican ally and our territory, they likely would not have respected us.





Next I was faced with the fiscal aftermath of the battle. Between the 9/11 Thai Airstrike on New York and the Argentine Airstrike on Mexico my administration spent more than 6.5 million dollars through SCI a sum that exceeded more than half of our reserves the day I took office. CBO recommended a tax hike to more quickly recuperate our dwindled reserves. For more than a year I had crusaded on lowering the tax rate from 10%. Not too long before I took office the rate was successfully cut to 8%. With my history as a tax cut proponent I knew asking Congress to raise taxes would not be a pleasant task. The way SCI disclosures work I would have been well on my way to out the door or even gone for near a month as CP before the figures and details of what was spent became known to Congress. It would have been easy to duck the issue and let the next President deal with the fallout of my defensive battles.

Instead I opened a thread in Private Congress (as the state of our reserves and immediate details of our spending are not something that is public knowledge), informed the Senators of the our Cash strapped situation and recommended we raise the work tax rate to 12% I then published an article explaining the tax hike. I took it on the chin from a lot of folks. Many of those who had been against cutting the rate in the first place did not hesitate to tell me had we left the rate at 10% we likely would not have needed to jump to 12% now. The group that I worked with to cut the rate a few months before did not trust that the rate would eventually come back down and so were opposed. Happily the rate did eventually drop to 10% and then 8%, but at the time their concern was justified.





tl;dr version of all this: Being CP is not all about personality, style, or flair. Those are very important and necessary qualities, but being a Leader requires a willingness to take one on the chin in the court of public opinion, to make the decisions that aren’t sexy, it is a willingness to sacrifice your legacy for the good of honoring the trust placed in you by those who elected you to lead them. I have shown you examples where I have done that. I have been asked a few times why I am running for CP. I don’t “need” this and the job can be rough thus my facetious Gluttony for Punishment title to my announcing article. So why run? I have given two reasons I want to position fresh players with potential for CP runs of their own and I want to give every Major group a seat at the table. My Cabinet accomplishes that. There is however a third and probably the strongest reason. We need someone that will pay attention to the little things and make hard choices without flinching from the moment. That is something I believe we have been lacking recently and I know I can rectify that lack.


As I said at the start if this campaign is viewed as two mirror image platforms then I have not properly portrayed myself and the message I am trying to convey. I hope this article helps resolve this, but just on the off chance it does not…..





I would like to challenge my opponent BeachBunny to an eNPR debate either tomorrow evening at 5PM ish central (July 2nd) or the day after (July 3rd) in the evening at 5PM ish central. Aramec and Paul Proteus have graciously agreed to Host this debate as Derphoof will be unavailable on a family vacation. I am confident any confusion on the differences between my platform and that of my opponent will be settled at the end of this debate. I will be there ready to answer any and all questions posed to me. Will you BeachBunny?

Edit: If the above times are not good then I am happy to show whenever is good for a debate.