Join the new world

First off, let me congratulate all the members of the 17th Congress on their successful elections, the citizens of the eUnited States of America will be well-served by such an outstanding array of diverse and qualified individuals.

Shortly after the completion of the elections, I took the opportunity to congratulate those individual “night-owls” that remained in the #congress IRC that room. Some in the room were congratulatory of my hard fought electoral victory in Florida, others were more inclined to negativity…I guess everyone has their own way of dealing with the stress of election day, so I do not hold that against them.

One recurring theme that I received messages on IRC regarding was the opposition's attempt to paint the 52 State Plan as some form of failure, which is amusing and more so revealing regarding the character and motivations of some players. To those congressional candidates that seek to mark the efforts of the United States Workers Party yesterday as a failure based on number of congressional seats accumulated, let me state clearly that if the primary measure of success had been the size of our delegation this morning, the campaign and outcome would have been very different.

In that light, I am going to explain why, even though we would have welcomed a larger delegation, the 52 State Plan was an incredible success:

1. Over 30 members of our party had their first opportunity to participate in a Congressional Campaign, receiving full support of the United States Workers Party, which is ostensibly the reason we exist, to support our members and provide opportunities for them in eRepublik. Since I, personally, consider it a privilege to provide opportunities and encourage engagement for all citizens in the eUnited States of America that are willing to contribute to our success, I am thrilled that I was able to facilitate that opportunity.

2. For the first time in any Congressional election that I had been involved in, the leadership of the USWP did not have to spend the day trying to address threats of foreign political takeovers from those that ran under our banner. We successfully placed qualified, vetted candidates in almost every region in the eUnited States if America, and those that we were unable to place candidates into, several members of the USWP executive board stepped in to provide a block to entry.

3. An additional point that needs to be made, is that some of our strongest members with greatest name recognition and “electability”, stepped in specifically for PTO blocking alone and then joined with me in endorsing and campaigning for members of other parties. While the accusation of “partisanship” and “takeover attempts” continue to be used in relationship to the USWP strategy this election, the reality remains that had the USWP focus been on either of those points, we could have successfully added four or five representatives to our delegation.

4. I am also thrilled with the fact that I made clear at the beginning of the campaign that I wanted to see a clear focus by our candidates on positive solutions, the merit of their candidacy and the ability to contribute. I believe that campaigns can only be considered truly successful when, regardless of the results, the tone is positive and the campaign clean; that tone was adopted and put to use by our candidates for the most part. While I cannot say that all of our candidates or the candidates of other parties completely eschewed negative and ad hominem rhetoric, I can say that I was extremely proud of the positive message promoted by our candidates.

5. Finally, and possibly most importantly, for the first time in eUS history to my knowledge, 50 of 51 original states were contested by qualified eUS candidates, which means that in 50 regions the eUS voter had a choice. That is the beauty of democracy, regardless of whether you may like or dislike the candidates offered, you are provided a choice.

So, in summary, the 52 state plan was an unmitigated success. It provided 30 eUS citizens to engage, many for the first time, in the process; it successfully defended the US from foreign infiltration; it provided a level playing field for candidates of other parties to contest states without unvetted candidates co-opting the USWP banner; it was successful in injecting positivity and solutions focus into the existing rancor of the election cycle; and it provided viable choices for all of the states and all of the citizens to select from.

Obviously, for those that are wondering, I remain unapologetic about a strategy that provided such a victory for the eUnited States in this cycle, and while I am disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to serve with some of my esteemed colleagues from the 16th Congress (which is to be expected in any democratic election), I am thrilled to see new faces and new ideas entering the 17th Congress of the United States of America.

In conclusion, there are many lessons to be learned from this congressional election cycle and one critical question to be answere😛

Why isn’t every major party fielding candidates in as many states as possible, thus providing more opportunities for citizen engagement, eAmerican security and, quite frankly, fun and competitive elections?

Again, congratulations to the entire 17th Congress on your successful campaigns, and thank you Florida for returning me to office to represent your interests in Congress!

Ananias – Congressman for Florida
Party President, United States Workers Party
Proud Member of the USWP!