Lethen is Donald Trump

HEM

former
Jorts Connoisseur
Honoured Citizen
Citizen
Pronouns
he / him / his
"Lethen is Donald Trump"
Written by HEM
ENN Editor-in-Chief

In November 2007, President Lethen returned to the Goldenblock in the final election without P/VP tickets (at the start of the Republic, the candidate who came in second place became the Vice President). It was a close but decisive election between him as the Centralist Party candidate, and Danoboy63 as the informal leader of the Independent Faction.

Politics at the time were divided between two competing groups: "The Centralist Party" led by me and Lethen, and the "Independent Faction" led by Pineapleboy and Danoboy. While the Independent Faction was not formally an organized political party, it very often behaved as a unit and had some unifying characteristics.

The Centralist Party was largely defined by the belief in a very strong, almost overpowering, executive government dominated by the former royals and their allies like Cordova I. They usually fought for broad deference to executive power, and favored expediency and strong action over the technical nuts and bolts of the law.

The Independent Faction was a slightly younger group that resisted impulses to maintain deference to me as the former monarch, and prioritized rule of law over expediency and shortcuts. They were sometimes criticized for being too deliberative and slow to take action (as President Pinapleboy was when he failed to replace idle Ministers for over half of his term).

When new elections rolled around in January, a rematch was set between Lethen and Danoboy — this time, with formal tickets. Lethen picked me as his Vice President, while Danoboy picked Pineapleboy.

The more skilled politician, Pineapleboy crafted the ticket's main speech of the campaign. Counting on institutional support and party politics to win, Lethen only released an equivalent campaign thread two days before the voting started. There was also a massive four-way debate that descended into a bit of a brouhaha when fiery Centralist Party-aligned Immigration Minister Paleomiz jumped into the fray.

When election day rolled around, the vote was incredibly close. The Centralist Party establishment was shocked at how they seemed to be behind, and outrage also ensued when it was discovered that Centralist Party member Stratus voted for Danoboy63 because he hadn't been given the new Centralist Party private subforum password. Lethen embarked on a last minute mission to find more votes, but it was too little too late.

Ultimately, Danoboy and Pineapleboy won the election by two votes (10-12, for reference).

Lethen was obstinate at the apparent loss, and almost immediately told me on MSN Messenger that he had no plans to concede. Centralist Party activists, Paleomiz unsurpisingly being the most vocal, began suggesting foul play in the elections.

While Paleomiz used words like "fixed" and "cheating" the lawsuit that Lethen (and by extension me, filed) was focused much more on technical flaws of the process. The objections surrounding the election can be summarized as:

(1) Cordova I reported his votes for Senate did not properly register on the forum poll (no such technical difficult had ever been reported before, nor was ever reported again)
(2) Not all masks were updated prior to the election, meaning inactive/non-citizens could vote
(3) It was discovered that the "honorable guest" mask, which was granted informally to friends of Europeia to view the full forum without being citizens, accidentally allowed people to vote

The elected Chief Justice, Pez201 ruled that (1) was not sufficient to overturn the election because even assuming Cordova was telling the truth, one vote was not sufficient to trash the entire election. (2) was discussed, though was also hilarious, because Lethen was essentially arguing that because as Supreme Chancellor and Vice Chancellor we had not done our jobs properly as the law required, we should be rewarded with a re-vote of the election.

But it was the third argument, (3) that convinced Pez201. When it was demonstrated that users in the honorable vote mask could vote, and that two of them had indeed been online on Election Day, Pez201 ordered a new election. Lethen also embarked on a public relations campaign to try to sell the region on why he has gone to court — though it didn't go great, considering he started off by admitting that the fact he lost was a motivation for taking the election to court.

After resolving pending questions about whether the Senate elections would be redone as well, a fresh round of elections were held a few days later. If Lethen was hoping for a cakewalk this time, he didn't get it, putting together a comprehensive voting tracker to make sure he got every last vote. In the end, the Lethen/HEM ticket won the new election by a margin of a single vote (9-8).

A few days later, Pez201's final term as Chief Justice would end as his quest for re-election would be foiled by Anumia. His tenure had been extremely useful to the Centralist Party, not only in granting this revote, but also by finally being the court Justice who would give me my wish of an indefinite ban on Lord Alphanesia in a fourth blockbuster treason trial against him. Anumia and the justices that followed would be much more strict adherents to the letter of the law, though as the quality of our legislation improved, this task surely also got easier.

The immediate impact of the election was Danoboy leaving the region, and a reduction in activity for Verteger and Pineapleboy (though their activity had been naturally decreasing over time as well). Lethen's third term was a dark time for Europeia, with inactivity hitting new highs, and a threat from me as Supreme Chancellor to declare a state of emergency.

In terms of the merits of the suit...honorable guests could vote. And two had been verified as active on election day. If only legal citizens had voted, it would've meant a 92% (23/25) turnout rate would sounds pretty extraordinary, but not impossible. Furthermore, the follow-up election did have significantly less votes, but that could also have been less active citizens not logging on for the re-vote.

With a weak bench of Presidents in the aftermath of Lethen's term, Nlhp would serve six consecutive months in the Goldenblock — where Lethen and I were generally allowed to run amok. Danoboy63 would later briefly return to the region, but never achieve the Presidency.

-30-​
 
I really enjoy reading articles like this about our former history, I always find it cool how we still have those "historical" documents from like 12 years ago on the forums.
 
I hate this title, and I wish we had Skype screenshots (or MSN?) of our conversations, but I loved this. We were so wet behind the ears! Talk about an immature player base and an immature regional community.

Also, Boots was such a bad President.

EDIT: Also also, were we laying the groundwork for Independence with this "mercenary" schtick, @HEM ?
 
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Oh this is fascinating!
 
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