MDP - The Road To Somewhere

Day 1,777, 19:27 • Published in Canada Canada • by Muglack

Before I weigh in on the current leadership battle happening in the MDP let me throw down some history so that those of you who have only been here for about a week know where I'm coming from instead of just dismissing what I have to say.


Military Dictatorship Party - The beginning

When the MDP started there were essentially 4 members. Rylde, Powerown, Adasko and myself. The basic premise was simple. We'd build a party up to a point where we would be hard to ignore, and then use that sliver of relevancy to troll, attack, and erode our enemies until they capitulated or disintegrated.

The party's first real push came from Kilgore Trout. He made it his business to go on a recruiting drive like I had never seen. He added newbs to the party by the dozens. In a matter of weeks we went from just a small group of core players, to the 5th spot in the Top 5 parties.

The Early Congressional Elections

With our arrival in the top 5 we gained the right to run candidates for Congress. For a party who's sole purpose at that point was to attack and sling mud at the "infidels" in other parties, while focusing on our street credit this was virgin ground.

As was to be expected the first Congressional election was a disappointment. If memory serves we elected 5 congressmen. For other parties at the time that may have been par for the course on the 25th, but for the MDP it was unacceptable. We saw our potential even if no one else did, so we decided to change the way we operated.

The first step was to cash in some of our "Street Credit" for "Political Capital". We turned our personal and unorganized attacks into a unified front that was focused on other parties in our weight class. We knew we couldn't compete with the EPIC's, but parties like the UN and MOO were more than fair game.

Using this strategy the MDP was routinely able to capture the number 2 spot in Congressional Elections despite rarely being ranked higher than 5th. Our SVT was a thing of beauty. We'd make calls in the last minute that sometimes would steal us 2 or even 3 extra seats. When parties like MOO and the UN were getting 2-5 seats each we were pulling 10-12.

We were hitting above our weight and we made it look easy.

The Decline

The problem with the Dog Days of Summer, is that the cold fall isn't far behind, and the MDP learned this the hard way.

With Powerown's rage quit (and forum wipe), Adasko's first of many exits, and Rylde's "Swedish adventure" by the end of the Golden Days there was just me left from the original quartet.

While the first 2 leaving wasn't the end of the world (since powerown was never really a part of the "team", and Adasko, while valued, hadn't evolved with Rylde and I and remained the attack dog of the party) Rylde's departure for Scandinavia left a vacuum at the top.

I did what I could, for as long as I could, but eventually even I was overwhelmed. The summer of 2011 (June and July) were some of the worst months the MDP has ever seen. Despite my focus not being on the game at all, I was forced to maintain leadership of the MDP at a greatly diminished capacity because no one else was willing or worthy of taking my place.

A Derp in sheep's clothing

By the time the August PP election rolled around I was out of gas. The July Congressional election had garnered the MDP 4 seats, which in and off itself should have been grounds for my immediate removal (had there been someone left to remove me). In the two previous PP elections I had to step in at the last minute because other players who I had hoped would take some of the responsibility proved to be completely unreliable.

Then leading into the election I got a PM that would change the course of the MDP forever. Aeriala wanted a chance. In those days the CPF wasn't even close to relevant. What little there had been left was completely gutted by Addy and the MOO which was on an upswing with MDP's decline. So, Aeriala's PM promising an infusion of membership from CPF holdouts (most importantly Funky) seemed almost too good to pass up.

It was then that I made one of the only decisions I truly regret in the game. I stayed neutral in the MDP election. I told both front runners that I would stay out of it, and the party could decide. As it turns out a Party did decide, but it wasn't the MDP. In the first real act of PTO of a Canadian Political Party since JB_Divinus and I won the DAL by a single vote, the CPP pushed Aeriala to a victory in the MDP.

However in true MDP style, he may have won the battle but he certainly lost the war. By the end of last September (after using the MDP and the CPP to get elected Country President) Aeriala earned the distinction of being the only sitting CP in eCanadian History to get both a forum and IRC ban. As in most things, I laughed last and loudest.

But sadly the damage had been done. Soon after that I parted ways with the MDP, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. Rylde had re-emerged on the scene and tried to pick it back up, but it never became more than a shadow of it's former self.

So here we sit, 13 months after Aeriala's CPP backed power play. The MDP has come a long way since then while at the same time going nowhere. A Coalition of Convenience, Congressional elections that have been called "victories" that should of been reason enough to dismiss the Party President, and a list of "Victories" that in the old days wouldn't worthy of mention.

Which brings us to today.

I guess to me the question is simple. With the power struggle already taking shape there's only two things you need to ask yourself.

Is the heir apparent and chosen successor to an undeserving and under-preforming Dictator the right choice?

Or do you put your faith in what may be the second coming of Aeriala. Making promises he knows you want to hear so he can put himself half a step ahead before he does everything in his power to sell you down the river.

I'm glad the choice is yours, and not mine.

Although, there is another option. With all the references to the "Tenets of the MDP" maybe I should make public that unwritten tenet that no one seems to be talking about.

You keep what you kill. Which begs one final question:

Is there a hunter in your ranks?