Join the new world

The end of ATLANTIS has thrust the eUSA into a position in the world which he have not been forced to embrace for a long time. This new position is far less secure than we once were, and today we face, seemingly alone, a strong and well-armed alliance of enemies. Some may face this and see the best path as refusing to engage with the outside world; for others, the solution might be trying to take over every new nation that comes into being -- and perhaps many existing smaller nations -- via PTO as a means of protecting ourselves against PEACE aggression. The answer, as it usually is, is in moderation here.

The eUSA cannot afford to ignore the events taking place around us -- as PEACE becomes stronger and stronger; but neither can we afford to dedicate all of our resources to costly PTOs. Furthermore, we must take immediate steps to, first, explore new methods of warfare in order to turn back the advances of PEACE; and, second, to ensure that our defense capabilities will be able to cope with whatever it might be that PEACE throws against us.

All of this must be done on two fronts -- neither will be entirely effective without the other: an international/diplomatic front and a domestic/economic front.

First, we must ally ourselves with other, powerful, non-PEACE-aligned nations, such as Canada, as well as those nations with contain important resources for our fight against PEACE, such as Spain. We must work with these allies to ensure the liberty of both ourselves and them, and protect one another against PTOs. At the same time, we must organize an alliance-wide system of combating PTOs against smaller nations, so that we can take action when and where it is necessary -- however, we cannot afford to retain costly alliances with them from which we will gain nothing. In the end, such binding alliances will only hurt our credibility and overall ability to fight against PEACE.

Furthermore, as our foremost goal, the eAmerican people must commit themselves to surviving the onslaught of PEACE. Together with our Canadian allies, we have held PEACE nations off for quite a while, but our military might and the strategic plans of our generals are not enough.

Despite the fact that we now face the greatest challenge to our existence and might, we must remain resolute in our dedication to our principles. Though PEACE may have no qualms about the unethical manipulations of elections for their own benefit, the American people and our institutions must work to preserve democracy at home. As such, I have spoken out against the plan to suspend congressional elections. It was out of this conviction that I circulated a petition against the move – however well-intentioned – away from democracy. Four other senators signed (two from the UIP, one from the Federalist Party, and one from the Conservative Party), three party presidents signed (Socialist Freedom Party, US Capitalist Party, US Patriot Party), and the former party president of the AAP signed as well.

But this does not mean that I am so naive as to believe that PEACE will not attempt to corrupt our elections as well. It may be necessary for some action to be taken and that, for this month only, a sort of primary system should be put in place. However, such a primary system must be implemented in such a way that it does not disenfranchise legitimate American voters.

Once this war has been won, we must have retribution against the eUnited Kingdom for their treachery. We cannot afford to countenance a world in which our allies can turn us over to our allies for profit and come away unscathed. To fail to either engage in a PTO, impose an embargo in perpetuity, and/or invade would be unacceptable both on principle and as a practicality.

This brings me to the second front of the defense of eAmerica: our homeland security. It was not long ago that someone pointed out the possibility of PEACE waging economic warfare against us by simply pooling large amounts of gold and buying up our iron and weapons companies and producing or selling nothing, thereby eliminating our ability to resist any aggression on their part in only a matter of days. Whether this is actually happening this instant or not is irrelevant: what matters is only that it could happen and we would be entirely unprepared. If I were elected, I would immediately begin work with the top military experts and generals to create a new branch of the military to monitor, prevent, and counter any economic aggression on the part of PEACE nations.

This alone is not sufficient, however. In the so-called 'free market' that exists today in eAmerica, we cannot produce enough weapons to fight a real war for any longer than a few days. This is not a new problem, and we've lost more than our share of wars as a result of it. An additional problem that we frequently face is a shortage of q1 employment opportunities. That, combined with the fact that many patriotic employers must frequently provide such jobs at a cost to themselves (frequently leading to failed businesses), has led to an economy that is weaker than it could be, and an eAmerican population that is poorer than it should be.

In eRepublik, the usual moral arguments for a social safety net and social programs go right out of the window. But that does not mean that such programs are worthless. Rather, eRepublik dynamics create a situation in which such social programs are more necessary than ever. By providing jobs to new eAmerican citizens, we can work towards convincing more of them to stick around and advance to higher levels. By providing them decent wages, we can ensure that they will be able to remain healthy and thus be able to produce more and fight more.

And, of course, by creating government-owned companies to provide iron to weapons companies, and weapons to eAmerican citizens, our government can make sure that no matter how many private companies that PEACE buys up, we will never be totally unprepared for an invasion or without a source of weapons.