Why Run For President When the Circus Is In Town?

Day 2,071, 20:19 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Arjay Phoenician III

You’re counted as a reader, you might as well vote!



I was considering making a run for president this time around. I believe I have one quality that makes me a desirable candidate: activity. It doesn’t matter if a person is endowed with a masterful knowledge of game mechanics if he never steps up to demonstrate, and it doesn’t matter if a person achieves status in a community if he doesn’t find ways to keep that community vital. Activity, not game mechanics, is the true currency in this world, and those who are out there every day, speaking their minds, taking positions on topics, meeting people, finding ways to keep others interested in eIreland, they are the ones with the power in this game, and all the wannabe-Machiavelli’s and chest-beating patriots end up in their service.

Apparently, however, the circus has come to Ireland. Between Death and Taxes daring Viktor Kurgan to run for president and ReleaseThe Krakken making his own eloquent and boisterous announcement, the upcoming campaign promises to be entertaining in a watching-the-car-wreck sort of way. If someone is willing to devote an entire party, currently named Viktor Kurgan for CP Party, to goading one of the more prolific cynics in our community to step up, that someone is either incredibly bored with himself, or he’s incredibly irked with Kurgan and just wants him to shut the freak up.

Should Kurgan decide to run, it will make for an interesting campaign. It will definitely be a dick-measuring contest, who hates the so-called Kunts more?



Perhaps it would be unwise for them to both run, they would split the anti-Kunt vote.

In any case, it will be much more interesting than last month. All we had is Coolburger / Cairpre write a couple HI, VOTE FOR A NICE GUY articles and Sweet Drinker post an image of one of his ministers flipping the voters off. That’s it. The people of Ireland deserve a little more than that, if not in substance, then certainly in entertainment.

That’s why I was going to run for president. I haven’t seen a true presidential campaign since I got here. While I understand concepts like organization seem passé, it would have been something I would have pushed for. I would have lined up volunteers to knock on ever door in Ireland to ask for their vote on August 5, because it’s so true, people respond to personal effort, and a single half-assed campaign announcement doesn’t cut it for a lot of people, especially the 2-clickers many people write off as robotic and uncaring. Candidates would be wise to make the effort, to forge a true grass-roots campaign that attempts to jumpstart interest and get more people voting; even if such a campaign does not result in a win, any attempt to make the community more active is a plus, and true leaders will make such efforts whenever they can.




Then there’s the media blitz. Every day or every other day, there would have been something new from the Phoenician campaign committee, telling you what our platform is, what our short and long term visions are, and how we get there from here. The newsfeed would have been Arjay’s, 24/7. As well, we’d be talking in more detail at eIrish University about this, because, though too many people will tell you the national forum concept is dead, the university is alive and kicking. We’d not only be discussing Irish politics, but how an individualist can have the audacity to run for president, how he can employ individualist concepts and motives at a job that requires him considering the futures of others. It would have been interesting to have public debates on this.



There’s currently three candidates, the previously-mentioned two, and T.E. Lwrence. Between the three of them, they represent the three least populous parties in Ireland, with seven members total. I’m not sure who will be running from the larger parties, perhaps Sweet will again. I’m guessing this will be a five-horse race.

Would I like to be one of those five horses? Perhaps. My goal, though, was to make this campaign season more interesting. I wanted to force Sweet to have to actually campaign and work for some votes instead of just take it for granted like he did last month. If Krakken is serious, and if Kurgan or whoever runs in the party that bears his name is serious, it will be plenty interesting. Not particularly intelligent, but at least it will be entertaining. I doubt it will mean Sweet will break a sweat and have to actually do the barest minimum, because, as I said, there’s only so many voters who will support all the talk about traitors and kunts and patriotism, and with two candidates saying the same thing, that bloc of voters will be split. By all means, if someone in this country wants an old-fashioned campaign where a candidate actually busts his hump to present himself as presidential material, talk it up. If someone wants at least one candidate who will treat his campaign as an event instead of an obligation, PM me. If there’s a party looking for a candidate with a pulse and a brain, recruit me.

Otherwise, I’m going to grab a bag of popcorn and watch this circus unfold. I see the clowns are already starting to juggle. When will the lions take the center ring?




Belfast Lough Times: Issue #37