ENN Election Platforms Chat — Domestic Affairs

HEM

former
Jorts Connoisseur
Honoured Citizen
Citizen
Pronouns
he / him / his
"ENN Election Platforms Chat — Domestic Affairs"

Welcome to ENN's Political Chat, where we talk about the nitty-gritty issues that impact Europeia.

Today is the second, and final installment in a series that breaks down the candidates' platform. Keeping most the emphasis on policy, we try to help voters cut through the multi-thousand word platforms with thousand word content of our own!

The transcript below has been lightly edited.





HEM:

Hello everyone! After a brief 24 hour delay, we are back to discuss the Domestic portions of the candidates' agendas. This will include Interior, Culture, and Communications. Let's dive right on.

GraVandius:

Yay

Kylia Quilor

EuroWorks is amazing and I love it. This is exactly the kind of shit I've been beating a drum about on and off for years: an organized, rationalized bureaucracy.

Especially one with job titles and specific duties that will make it easier to function if a Minister goes AWOL, because that is the biggest weakness of most of our ministries.

Festavo:

Interior is not really my strength so I will defer to the others for the most part here.

GraVandius:

I agree, I think it is the best idea of the campaign it gives new members a greater purpose and sense of dignity in a specific job.

Kylia Quilor:

Cat's plan seems to be a EuroWorks 'lite' version, though I'm not sure she'd like the characterization.

The Deputy of Internal Integration seems a bit like a needless position to have for every ministry. A manpower hog we don't need

Festavo:

EuroWorks seems like a solid plan. Cat does seem to have a better Recruitment gameplan though.

Kylia Quilor:

The biggest difference between the two is the specific nature of how to organize things.

GraVandius:

Cats plan is to bring back the internship program of which is not effective. Giving everyone a little taste is stupid and has always been stupid. It wasn't the ministers fault the program failed and beating up ministers to try to make it work is a failed idea(edited)

Kylia Quilor:

Cat wants to put the onus on each ministry, and Brun wants a whole project to do it all

HEM:

Brunhilde's Infographic idea that makes up like 1/3rd of her actual Interior section strikes me as kinda bizarre. I'm not sure how you put most explanations here in pictures?

Kylia Quilor:

She means more like a powerpoint — not pictures. That's how I understood it.

HEM:

I don't think that's a bad idea for some materials, but also that wasn't clear at all to me.

Festavo:

Her infographic idea is a decent idea but it seems like she is putting more hype on it than it is worth.

HEM:

"Infographic materials" is how she referred to it. I just picture myself handing leaflets out to new members, but maybe I'm just being a hater.

Festavo:

lol

Kylia Quilor:

Honestly, leaflets are not a bad idea

Festavo:

"Welcome to Europeia. Here is your leaflet and enjoy your stay."

Kylia Quilor:

Newcomer handbooks are the one place where shorter really is better, almost universally. Whereas everything else, it depends.

HEM:

Pivoting back to Grav's point, I disagree with him about the internship program. It didn't last long enough for people to draw real conclusions, and the data that we were able to fetch for it was really quite considerable.

Kylia Quilor:

Well, isn't that the problem with Eurpeian reform ideas? The next president usually kills them before they can really do their thing. That's at the heart of our domestic issues, I think: they never work fast enough to get the love of the next president.

HEM:

Right. Which is part of the reason I was disappointed with Writinglegend's later terms because he would be the person who could take groundbreaking ideas into future terms, but never really did.

Kylia Quilor:

Assuming the next president isn't someone who opposed it initially because they had their own idea?

Festavo:

WritingLegend has been an okay president but nothing groundbreaking. No real innovation. If I had to describe his term it would be one thing: that treaty

Kylia Quilor:

WL's presidency this time has been good but not great, true. But really, we have high standards for great

GraVandius:

I believe it was Writinglegend who used "innovation" 10 million times in one of his platforms.

Festavo:

Maybe he will be a more effective VP.

GraVandius:

Everyone wants to bring something crazy new or at least sell some old thing as new and innovative.

Festavo:

Every president wants their reform or reforms to work out..

HEM:

Right, but what reforms have we even seen in the last six months?

Honest question: can't count changing the application process in the CSO.

Festavo:

I've been around for 2 months and I can say nothing has really changed in that time.

Kylia Quilor:

Well, WL isn't a reform president

Festavo:

But Cat seems to be a reform candidate.

HEM:

Pivoting back to interior, Snowball put a lot of emphasis of his platform on reviving the mentor program.

Kylia Quilor:

Indeed.

Oh god, please no Snowball. The mentor program hasn't worked... ever.

Festavo:

Snowball is not a serious or legitimate candidate in my honest opinion.

Kylia Quilor:

It's hard to put Mentorship on the assembly line.

HEM:

We don't have any polling out, so we don't know how anyone is doing right now. Even if Snowball isn't a likely winner, he could end up being a king-maker.

Festavo:

I have enough faith in the Europeian populace to say that Snowball will not win or come close to winning.

GraVandius:

Yea, Adytia is an electoral killer unless shin does his thing.

HEM:

I predict that Snowball gets 5+ votes

Festavo:

The race is going to break down as either cat or Brun winning, Leo getting third place, and snowball getting fourth.

HEM:

Snowball's mantra is "A TRUE REPRESENTATIVE LISTENS TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS" and I think that's going to resonate with people.

Kylia Quilor:

I predict that Snowballs vote count will matter less than Leo's

HEM:

I think I disagree

Festavo:

Idk man. He has Chuck Schumer as his avatar so idk how into listening to his constituents he really is.

Kylia Quilor:

Save the real life political potshots. I play Europeia to get away from the hell in D.C.

HEM:

I wrote a column about a month back about how it was hard for newcomers to break into government, and like a TON of newcomers posted saying they loved the column while a TON of more veteran members swooped in to explain away the problem. Not to get into the weeds of debating my point, but I think there's definitely some newcomer-esque populism that could swell up.

Festavo:

inb4 Snowball is Trump and ends up winning based off populism.

Kylia Quilor:

I don't think those newcomers are likely to be as politically coordinated as that — especially since I suspect Aex will canvass votes for Cat/WL.

Aex is excellent at GOTV, and he and WL are friendly by all externally available data.

Festavo:

I half expect newbies to vote for Cat just because they likes cats.

Kylia Quilor:

Well, snowball sounds cute. That's how he got those votes in the WAD election that elected Mal.

Festavo:

True. Brunhilde gets the short end of the stick there.

HEM:

Alrighty, for the interest of time, let's do some scoring on interior.

GraVandius:

It's a shame cuz snowball managed to successfully copy the format of an election he just has like no substance. Maybe in the future though.

Kylia Quilor:

Cat - 7/10, Brun - 8/10.

EuroWorks is a great idea, and I like that it doesn't put the onus on each ministry having some wonderfully effective 'deputy of internal integration'

Both are solid though.

Festavo:

Cat gets 7.5 out of 10. She has the better recruitment plan and more details, but I feel that Brun pulls out an edge overall.

Brun gets 8 out of 10. EuroWorks seems to be the real star of the Interior discussion so Brun ends up winning that close round.(edited)

HEM:

Cat - 7/10
Brun - 7/10
Snowball - 3/10

Brun scores big with me for EuroWorks, but her recruitment section is perhaps the most bland...ever. Also her infographic idea isn't bad, but just feels weird and over-hyped to me.

Cat has her own (slightly less cool) innovative idea with the return of the Internship program, and has a much stronger recruitment section imo.

GraVandius:

Cat- 6/10 Brun-9/10 Euro works is a excellent idea but the need to senselessly make a brand new recruitment star system is the only detractor(edited)

HEM:

Snowball is latching hard to mentorship, which is actually the strongest part of his platform but I don't think it will work.

Festavo:

What's next?

HEM:

Let's move on to Culture.

Festavo:

Brunhilde has good experience in Culture and I have no doubt that she can do a great job at it, but yet again Cat has the more detailed plan.

Honestly, Brunhilde gets a lot of things right and Cat gets a lot of those things detailed. They would make a great President/VP combo

HEM:

I feel like Brun's culture section is mostly pointing out everything wrong with Culture without giving any solutions. Also her ill-fated GCR awards.

Both Cat and Brun seem to have weak culture sections in my opinion

GraVandius:

Does Brun even have a culture platform?

Festavo:

She does.

HEM:

She definitely has a thesis on why culture is hard.

GraVandius:

It said GCR Awards and that was just about it.

Festavo:

Well, Brunhilde has Culture experience so I will give her that. She knows what culture is all about.

HEM:

Cat's culture section seems to be: kick up weekend games a notch, revive a roleplay, and revive contests?

Kylia Quilor:

Roleplay is really hard to make work in Europeia.

GraVandius:

Yeah.

Kylia Quilor:

Doesn't help that we buried it next to the Spam Zone, but at the end of the day, not enough Europeians really want to 'RP.'

GraVandius:

The region itself is kinda role play so it's role play inside of itself?

Festavo:

Well all of NS regional government is essentially roleplay

Kylia Quilor:

Hence why I said 'RP' like that, with the quotes.

It's a nice idea, and I'd love to do character RPs and stuff, but really, Euro RP takes up much of the time.

Festavo:

I much prefer character RPs to nation RPs.

HEM:

Anything else to add on Culture?

Festavo:

Nothing for me.

Kylia Quilor:

Nope. I can't really give a grade to either candidate... They really feel like 5/10 to me, because there's not much to go on, but I also don't know much about Culture in Euro anymore

HEM:

Yeah I feel like Cat is 5/10 and Brun is 4/10 for reasons already mentioned.

Festavo:

I'd rate Brun a 6 out of 10 and Cat a 6.5 out of 10.

GraVandius:

BRUN-4/10 Cat-7/10

HEM:

Cool, I think Communication is the last thing to discuss.

Kylia Quilor:

Brun's platform seems to act as though the President looms over MinComm's shoulder

I mean, I was only that for half a term, and Aex was hands off, for good or bad, so maybe I don't ave much experience with it, but it feels like that hasn't;'t really been the case.

I like that she's interested in the idea of MinComm to having an eye towards foreign consumption.

HEM:

Right, the first two paragraphs of her platform was very odd.

Kylia Quilor:

That was always my original idea for it, though back then it was about crafting the Update

Cat, unsurprisingly, has a stronger Radio emphasis.

Festavo:

Shocker.

Kylia Quilor:

Which... I dunno, I mean, will we really get a lot of foreign radio listeners?

HEM:

Brunhilde has a very light radio section, which might be kinda appropriate because it seems like it's been doing well?

Festavo:

Possibly. Depends on the topics. People turn out for News With Booze. If you shift it to include more foreign elements then sure foreigners will listen

Kylia Quilor:

I mean, its hard to get foreigners to read our foreign news stuff, and the radio listening takes longer.

News With Booze isn't affiliated with a specific region though

Festavo:

It is effectively a Black Hawks podcast but it is not officially affiliated with anybody no. I don't see why people would not listen to our radio if it talked about gameplay events as well.

Kylia Quilor:

We'd have to be a lot more measured about what we say on it though, since it would have our name on it. Koth (and TBH in general) don't care (much) about what other regions think of them.

By contrast, one too-frank statement or a pissed off comment from one guest taken out of context, boom.

Festavo:

I would argue the complete opposite, but I digress. Being measured on air would not be too hard.

Kylia Quilor:

I don't know if I agree with that, but that does go a little bit into theoretical.

HEM:

Beyond Radio, it looks like both candidates definitely want to distribute our content more effectively abroad.

GraVandius:

I mean Brun just says to leave it up to the minister I believe.

HEM:

Oh wow, yeah actually she is a little more coy about content distribution than I remembered.

Kylia Quilor:

Brun is a lot more Coy in general.

GraVandius:

In which case I think it would be one of those times to tell the public who she wants that minister to be. If a large plank of that part of the platform leans on the minister, it's important to know who we are trusting with policy in that area. Since it's not the Presidential candidate.

Kylia Quilor:

We pressed her on GA once. Can't pull it off again.

Festavo:

Maybe we could.

Kylia Quilor:

I pushed once because her Navy Platform was that hard to work with. This is not that bad, IMO. I'm not in favor of forcing another cabinet name out of her.

GraVandius:

Well I suppose I could always exert my "massive influence" in favor of it.

HEM:

Are we ready to score Comms?

GraVandius:

Sure.

Kylia Quilor:

Cat - 8/10. Lots of useful specifics and strong ideas. 6.5/10 for Brun, for more vagueness

HEM:

Cat: 8/10
Brun: 5/10

While I think the EO2 system is super over-hyped, it does give a vision to Cat's content strategy and makes clear that distribution is a big goal. Her radio portion is also pretty strong. Involving the RMB into media is a good call too.

Brun's media section was really confusing, and the promise to not interfere seemed very out of place and odd. Also the "who knows?" aspect to foreign content distribution was not great, and her radio portion was really lacking.

Festavo:

I don't have a rating for Comms tbqh.

HEM:

Really?

Festavo:

I will defer to the others on this.

GraVandius:

4/10 Bunn (lack of specifics) 7/10 for Cat.

HEM:

Do we want to do overall ratings and final comments?

Festavo:

Sure. I rate Brun and Cat both at 7.5. They are both solid candidates and both would serve very well as President. It's a tough call.

Kylia Quilor:

I can't even give them a final rating. I mean, FA is my most important section for me, and Brun wanting to leave CAIN counts for a lot, but Cat's desire to entrench our UCR efforts make me like her.

HEM:

Based on platform only I'm saying 7/10 for Cat and 6/10 for Brun. For me, EuroWorks does the heavy lifting for Brun but the rest of the sections have some disappointing weaknesses

Kylia Quilor:

I lean 7/10 for both, gun to my head.

Final comment: This election will come down to GOTV and how much Leo and Snowball take away to force a runoff. I call it 60-40 that Cat wins in the final analysis after a runoff.

Festavo:

I think it will be very very close. I feel like Brunhilde will edge out Cat in the end but it will be very close. I can't say for sure.

Kylia Quilor:

I think WL will be able to marshall a lot of votes for any ticket he's on. He's good at that.

GraVandius:

I averaged my 3 scores which brings out a 5.6 for Brunch and a 6.6 for Cat. I think that unbalance is due to the fact that it seems fa is stronger for brun than cat, so without that rating (since I'm not qualified) I think it makes that disparity. Snowball gets a 1.4 because that's about the effort he put into it.

I'm not in tune with the politics enough to guess who will win, but I bet it's whoever pokes the most people.



 

Whatever votes go to Snowball and whatever Leo is calling himself this week are likely best understood as protest votes against the establishment. Some, though not all, of that will be newcomers. But I'm not sure I'd read a lot into who finishes third, unless one of them does much better than any of us is expecting.

I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling to decide how to vote. I can't remember the last time I was so 50/50 between two presidential candidates.
 
I don't think those newcomers are likely to be as politically coordinated as that — especially since I suspect Aex will canvass votes for Cat/WL.

Aex is excellent at GOTV, and he and WL are friendly by all externally available data.

Just to say this publicly: I will not publicly endorse any candidate. I consider both Brunhilde and Cat to be highly capable women who would make fantastic Presidents. I will not engage in any political canvassing or voter outreach. If either candidate approaches me with any outreach questions I would be more than happy to give them an unvarnished opinion on their strategies, but otherwise I want to take no part in being any candidate's surrogate.
 
While RolePlay has historically not worked in our region, EuroTycoon which was led by Cat while I was MinCult was the most successful RP project since Survivor. We had over twenty participants, many of which were from abroad, who came and participated. This was likely due to the easy access of the roleplay, the fact that large-scale communications happened on discord with the professional aspect occurring on the forum, and the depth of the game itself. As a participant myself, it was a blast. I am glad that Cat is prepared to bring it back should she be elected.
 
Aexnidaral Seymour said:
I don't think those newcomers are likely to be as politically coordinated as that — especially since I suspect Aex will canvass votes for Cat/WL.

Aex is excellent at GOTV, and he and WL are friendly by all externally available data.

Just to say this publicly: I will not publicly endorse any candidate. I consider both Brunhilde and Cat to be highly capable women who would make fantastic Presidents. I will not engage in any political canvassing or voter outreach. If either candidate approaches me with any outreach questions I would be more than happy to give them an unvarnished opinion on their strategies, but otherwise I want to take no part in being any candidate's surrogate.
Fair enough.
 
Back
Top