[Lake4SFP] The Tough Gets Going

Day 3,585, 20:54 • Published in USA USA • by J.A. Lake
The Tough Gets Going

In the struggle to recast the Socialist Freedom Party as modern, efficient, and politically powerful, we have to come to the field with the strongest team we can. As outlined in my previous article, my program is one of radical reform in the party that will grant party officials greater power. It will ideally create a central committee that will make information easily accessible and allow for greater efficiency in running the party.

To that end, I've worked to assemble what I hope to be a strong team. Without further ado, here they are!
Deputy Chairman (Vice President): Salty

While I know the majority of SFP members have the best interests of the Party at heart, I'm certain that Salty does. Choosing a Deputy Chairman was difficult, but at the same time easy. I have full faith that in any incidence of my absence Salty can step in and handle the administration of the Party adroitly.

General Secretary: Ilene Dover

This is a position I found of paramount importance, as if the Party is to be organized it will come through this department. I've worked with Ilene Dover in the past and respect her abilities as a member of an executive team and as a contributor to discussion.

Spokesman: Maxwell Hanz

Maxwell Hanz is our outgoing Chairman, and someone with whom I haven't had many chances to work. I take his election to the SFP Chairmanship to be a vote of confidence, and his openly disagreeing with me is another thing I not only respect but desire in a teammate. I trust that he will be an excellent editor of the SFPOM in the month to come.

Regarding my program, there have been questions raised about the fate of the Revolutionary Committee. I'll say it clearly: I do not want to abolish the Revolutionary Committee. It's an immensely valuable tool for player involvement in the SFP. That said, my goal is to create a coequal administrative body where the SFP can be organized.

Ours is a party culture based on the idea that organization arises where it's needed, and that excessive bureaucracy is undesirable. I agree with that in spirit, however I think that at this stage of the game we could use an administrative organ that will keep us organized and help us to plot a course more effectively. I don't want us to stop agitating for change, I want us to do it more effectively.

In service to that end, I want us to become a bigger part of the eRepublik community. As a party, we are alone amongst the Top 5 where it comes to Presidents- we've elected none (save for the GR4ND campaign, which was launched as a joke). That's something of an unfortunate theme: we are the butt of jokes in Congress and throughout the metagame (just read this thread for a half dozen examples of that).

"Lake," you might say, "We simply don't care about the metagame. It's useless, it doesn't have anything to do with game mechanics, and it's overall a burden on our enjoyment of the game."

You know what? On many of those points I agree. It can be a toxic, generally awful place. I will counter with the following, though. A few weeks ago one of our own on discord said something to the effect of, "Nobody sticks around here that's worth writing about." I think that sort of brain-drain is a colossal issue. I recall the aftermath of the December Revolution, the high water mark of the Revolutionary Era of the SFP. While we celebrated we suffered horrific losses. Players like Illiguy, Jaden A., and Jude Conners abandoned us. Motivated, eloquent, and generally awesome players fled the SFP for the Federalists or simply quit.


What makes the Democratic and Republican Parties so successful in reality is that they're "big tent parties." They lack ideological potency but gain in membership and common ground with the other parties. What the SFP needs to do, in my opinion, is widen our tent. We need to make the SFP a good place to grow one's character into a potent political force, we need to create a new party atmosphere that is not so subject to the derision of the other major parties.

Without respect, without organization, and without an unfortunate degree of bureaucracy we will not be a springboard for players who have national ambitions. We will continue to lose out on the few incoming new, talented players. This is tragic, and something I do not want to see happen as a result of our actions. We can and must be better- ours is a vibrant community full of awesome people that we should be able to push into high-level government positions and yes, even the Presidency. I know we can do it. This is my rationale for wanting to change the SFP- not change for the sake of change, but in service to the cause of progress.

As the saying goes: "Let us move forward together."