Join the new world

Table of Contents:
1. Chairman's Word
2. Point/Counter-Point

As my term as PP comes to an end, I'm grateful for the opportunity you all gave me to lead this great party. There's been a lot of accomplishments. We had a good turnout for the congressional elections and sent a good delegation to congress. We ran a candidate for CP under our banner, and ultimately secured several spots in Orikfricai's cabinet. While I enjoyed these highlights, there are some areas I challenge myself personally and the party as a whole to improve upon in the coming months. Our media presence has waned recently, and SFPOM and individual writers need to pick up the pace if we are to increase our visibility. I am also looking forward to having that Party Program sometime soon. I really think it will be medicine for our rabble rousing souls. I wish the next Chair the best of luck, and thanks again to the Revolutionary Committee and the membership of the glorious Socialist Freedom Party for making this a good month.

Point

Monetarily, we're hurting a little bit. The recent war against FYROM, Bulgaria, and Indonesia cost us an obscene amount of money. This much is factual, and for the purposes of this article we won't debate why it was spent where it was spent, how much should have been spent, or any of a number of armchair general-style arguments.

We should instead focus on how to recuperate as quickly as possible to lower our equally-obscene tax rate. One idea that was floated by the Custer campaign was to cut spending wherever it may be cut to lower the budget and allow that many more thousands of CC to make it to the reserve. Though it would be less-than-popular, the largest item on the budget (coming in at $80,000) is the USAF. Should it be targeted for budget cuts? Perhaps so.

The USAF's primary job is to protect the eUSA, and they, like all of us, performed valiantly during the Airstrike War. Any budget cut would not reflect this. However, if it is peacetime the USAF has less use than if we were in the middle of a war still. Our enemies have also likely exhausted themselves, and it's possible an unannounced drawdown in expenditures to the USAF might help.

However, the gains may not outweigh the potential risks.

Counter-Point

As the largest item on the eUSA budget, USAF sees plenty of action as a political football. The stakes of this particular game of football are even higher now that government spending is under increased scrutiny. Despite this reality, USAF passes muster. I've never belonged to USAF in its current iteration, and there's relatively few SFP members that belong. Yet the national MU undoubtedly has value that SFP can get behind. The military module is obviously the core part of this game, and having a government-sponsored representative there is important for several reasons.

One of SFP's main tenets is helping new players. While most of the major MUs have programs to help players build strength, USAF is more specifically dedicated to guiding young players through the military module and other aspects of eRep. Recruits are often pointed towards AU and other DoCA programs as well. The goal of USAF is also not to top the damage boards, so it allows them to more fully concentrate on new player development. USAF also fills an important niche of providing for those who enjoy the RP aspects of fighting for the official eUSA MU.

USAF is accountable to Congress. While other MUs ultimately depend on the will of their commanders, USAF's direction and policies are heavily influenced by the democratically elected Congress. Without doing any research, I'd say this is fairly unique in eRep. Besides being unique, this oversight is crucial to the Defensive Dictatorship the eUSA employs. The mechanics of the dictatorship module require that a MU leads the coup, with that MU's commander becoming the dictator. In our case, the democratically-elected CP takes the helm of USAF, regardless of their usual MU affiliation. The fact that USAF is answerable to Congress helps keep the DD law in the hands of the people and from drifting into a pure dictatorship. While SFP has typically been anti-DD, having USAF at the center of it makes the law more tolerable.

Editor's Note:

Seeing as I'm the presumptive PP for the Feb-Mar 2016 term, I've turned over the keys to our outgoing Chairman Illiguy, who has graciously agreed to add editing the Party paper to his busy schedule. Thanks for reading, all!