Summer Struggles



Summer Struggles
What is to blame?
By Rach
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Few Europeians would hesitate to deny that this summer has been a difficult one when it comes to retaining people in the government. In addition to the three missing Senators, two Ministers have recently resigned, the Attorney General was removed and there was a successful vote of no confidence against the Citizens Assembly (CA) Chair. Compounding this problem is that the Senate has had difficulty confirming the replacements for the empty cabinet positions. This is highlighted by Common-Sense Politics, whose nomination over a week ago for the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs remains in limbo. It is doubtful that Le Libertia, Calvin Coolidge and Jahka, who are set to replace Coherbia in Interior, Cat in Radio and McEntire as the Attorney General respectively, will be able to be confirmed any time soon unless one of the missing Senators unexpectedly returns.

President Writinglegend has worked hard to rally the region and quickly replace the missing Ministers. In his address ‘Together’ he urged Europeians to not give up: “Will we respond with grit and action, or will we throw in the towel? Nay, I say to the latter. We must respond with full vigor, full force, and full energy to revitalize our region from the ground up”. To keep the government running, the President has empowered the leading deputies in the Ministries without Ministers to keep their respective Ministries running.

The rash of government inactivity and resignations has led some citizens to question whether there is more than just bad luck to blame for the current state of affairs. North East Somerset, the director of the Europeian Intelligence Agency puts the blame squarely on the political fighting that occurred earlier in the Senate term stating that: “This trend of resignations over the past 6 months or so is not merely a coincidence, but a reflection of the political tensions in the region”.

Even Coherbia, who resigned as Minister of Interior due to real life reasons, was quick to blame the atmosphere of Europeia: “How many people over how long of a period of time have to say there is a problem before it is accepted? I have a personal reason for leaving, but it's just as important a reason as the political atmosphere I and others have struggled to work and exist in”. Even though he himself had resigned due to real life, Coherbia still felt that the atmosphere was to blame for the government disappearances and resignations.

Vice Chanceller Drecq pushed back against the notion that the resignations were a result of the political atmosphere: “I don’t think they [McEntire, Drexlore and XIV] are going to disappear because of political tensions. Certainly not without saying anything”. In addition to those three, Cat and Coherbia also stated that they had resigned for real life reasons.

It is difficult to tell if this search for a deeper answer to the resignations and inactivity is based on facts or is simply the result of Europeians looking too deep into the struggle to retain activity in a browser based game in the middle of summer. Regardless, exploring ways Europeia can improve retention and make the region even more appealing is a worthwhile pursuit no matter the reasons behind it.
 
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I think we've had mostly bad luck here, but we can't ignore the underlying political atmosphere that has been swirling around in private and public conversation for at least the last few months. WL hinted at it in his speech; NES noted it; and I wrote about something similar in my ENN op-ed during the SC discussion hullabaloo. Good read, Rach.
 
I think there was a lot of burnout after the HC and SC fights - I had a lot more 'umph' and drive for Senate activity before those sapped a lot of my will on that front - hence why I accept a portion of blame for this Senate term.
 
To me, it's a sort of feeling that there's nothing new under the sun. No offense to WL, but he's president again for the zillionth time, we have largely the same people in positions of power, and after this shit Senate term we're likely to get a reactionarily old Senate as well. I can't help but feel that it's time for a bit of a shake-up. We should do something crazy.
 
Sopo said:
To me, it's a sort of feeling that there's nothing new under the sun. No offense to WL, but he's president again for the zillionth time, we have largely the same people in positions of power, and after this shit Senate term we're likely to get a reactionarily old Senate as well. I can't help but feel that it's time for a bit of a shake-up. We should do something crazy.
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I think we're likely to get a mix of older and newer members in the Senate, most of whom have not recently served in the Senate. That's a healthy response to the laggard term we've had -- new blood can mean new citizens, but it doesn't need to mean that exclusively.

We would also do well to take people's track records into account. Mac has a long history of being active for a couple months, then disappearing; asking him to serve simultaneously as a Cabinet Minister and as Speaker of the Senate was a mistake we should have avoided. It's much wiser to trust a newer citizen with responsibility than to trust a citizen with a long track record of not following through on commitments -- as Brunhilde said in another thread, we too often look at length of résumé without regard to the quality of performance in the positions listed on that résumé.

I think it's crazy to suggest shaking up the entire political system at a time like this. Maybe we should make changes, but first let's focus on filling the positions we have with capable people, regardless of how long they've been around.


 
Honestly, given that Leo and Punch were more active than old hands like Mc and Drex, we're likely to see more newer senators this time, I think. Which may have its downsides, but will have its upsides.
 
Sopo said:
To me, it's a sort of feeling that there's nothing new under the sun. No offense to WL, but he's president again for the zillionth time, we have largely the same people in positions of power, and after this shit Senate term we're likely to get a reactionarily old Senate as well. I can't help but feel that it's time for a bit of a shake-up. We should do something crazy.
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I don't think we should "do something crazy," but I agree with the feeling of nothing new and business as usual - at least with the Executive.
 
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