This Is Why Europeia's Political Parties Are A Huge Joke

[HEM]

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"This Is Why Europeia's Political Parties Are A Huge Joke"
Written by HEM Tiberius
Editor-in-Chief

Today, right before polls opened, something very interesting happened:



The Europeian Progressive Party, while fronting the only partisan ticket in the April 2016 General Election, endorsed one of the independent tickets.

As GraVandius rightly notices, it is a little odd. And it is also why Europeia's modern political parties are a giant joke.

Firstly, why did the party even consider other candidates than their own? Isn't the idea of a party that your people, your candidates, are best suited to implement your agenda — which is in turn best for the region? Why did there need to even be a "party vote" to begin with?

The tradition of having a "party vote" for its endorsement stems from the somewhat recently founded and more recently imploded Action Coalition of Europeia. And this "voting" policy sort of made sense in the context of ACE, seeing as the party was originally some nebulous social organization that stood for nothing much more than baked potatoes and fun. And that's fine. But it wasn't a serious party. And while there was maybe a five minutes window in which it looked like it would become one, it ultimately couldn't take the strain and totally imploded, resulting in a few successor parties and a lot of independents.

But here's the big point:

Political parties need to believe in themselves. They need to have confidence that their members and policies have the best solutions for Europeia. They need to have the gall to stand up and fight for what they believe Europeia needs. It is total nonsense to have a poll to vote for what candidate the party will endorse. The party should endorse their members — that is, if they are indeed a political party. Right now, I'm not convinced.

Political parties cannot just be social organizations, and if they are, they should move to whatever dusty subforum we dumped the Wellbeing Hub in and get off our main page.

I do not hold the view that Hyanygo, and other celebrated citizens hold, that political parties are forever a waste of time and energy. I believe parties can be a force for good, a force for integration and quick political involvement. But right now we don't have parties, we have chill gatherings of people who came for the happy hour and will leave before 8:30PM.

And the thing is, it's honestly a shame, because GraV and Kaboom put forth a compelling platform that deserved to be heard over the sounds of people unzipping their zippers to compare recruitment stats. And if a collection of individuals had stood behind Kaboom and GraV, their ideas would have been heard, and this might have been an even better election. But nobody did, and they weren't.

If political parties want us to take them seriously, they need to take themselves seriously first — and right now they absolutely aren't.

 

[Malashaan]

I think you make a great point about taking Kaboom and GraV seriously. The interior portion of their platform was excellent. Regardless of the election result, I will be advocating to implement some of their ideas. The FA portion suggested to me that they still need to get more experience in that area, but their ticket deserved far more substantive discussion than it received.

In mitigation, I think that Kaboom's leave of absence (for his birthday?) really derailed their campaign. I hope to see them running again in future and continuing to contribute ideas throughout the coming term.

 

[GraVandius]

Firstly, why did the party even consider other candidates than their own? Isn't the idea of a party that your people, your candidates, are best suited to implement your agenda — which is in turn best for the region? Why did there need to even be a "party vote" to begin with?

I for one have not been democratically elected as Chair, and only serving as leader from the position of founder. I personally am not anxious to totally override any opinions of my fellow compatriots to force the backing of a ticket that I am personally on. Furtherly it's not like the party got together and decided which of it's membership was most experienced to run, me and Kaboom made that decision independent from the party. Perhaps all of this is a lapse in leadership on my part. We will however be holding an election for chair shortly after the election.

Political parties need to believe in themselves. They need to have confidence that their members and policies have the best solutions for Europeia. They need to have the gall to stand up and fight for what they believe Europeia needs. It is total nonsense to have a poll to vote for what candidate the party will endorse. The party should endorse their members — that is, if they are indeed a political party. Right now, I'm not convinced.

I personaly value our policies over who might implement them. At the minimum this endorsement does not betray our values, Calvin and Mal, to their credit do have a good interior proposal.

And the thing is, it's honestly a shame, because GraV and Kaboom put forth a compelling platform that deserved to be heard over the sounds of people unzipping their zippers to compare recruitment stats. And if a collection of individuals had stood behind Kaboom and GraV, their ideas would have been heard, and this might have been an even better election. But nobody did, and they weren't.

Unfortunately HEM, I don't think the endorsement of ourselves would have made much of a difference. In this kind of campaign environment we are overshadowed by the past accomplishments and name recognition of our opponents. I will personally promise however that I will harassing the crap out of the elected president and interior minister until some of the ideas of this Interior Speech are implemented.

In mitigation, I think that Kaboom's leave of absence (for his birthday?) really derailed their campaign. I hope to see them running again in future and continuing to contribute ideas throughout the coming term.

I concur. I'm personally actively going out and seeking some FA knowledge for myself this term if we do not win this election (have joined ERN and will be more actively participating in the FA ministry.)

 

[HEM]

I for one have not been democratically elected as Chair, and only serving as leader from the position of founder. I personally am not anxious to totally override any opinions of my fellow compatriots to force the backing of a ticket that I am personally on. Furtherly it's not like the party got together and decided which of it's membership was most experienced to run, me and Kaboom made that decision independent from the party. Perhaps all of this is a lapse in leadership on my part. We will however be holding an election for chair shortly after the election.

Okay, so I can understand this. But the party should have had an election for a leader who was clearly the party's Presidential candidate. And then it should have been an expectation that the party support that leader. It isn't a criticism of you personally, it is a criticism of how our political party system has operated since 2014.

I don't think it's a matter of democracy, it's a matter of supporting the party if you are in it. If you don't support your own candidates, then why is anyone even there?

I personaly value our policies over who might implement them. At the minimum this endorsement does not betray our values, Calvin and Mal, to their credit do have a good interior proposal.

Then, whats the point of the party? I'm not trying to be glib or rude, I'm just being serious. If you don't think your party is the best unit to govern, then might as well save us the front-page space and support these policies as independents.

And if you think you don't have the right candidate for a specific election, parties should be making sure that they are forming formal coalitions that will offer the party something in exchange post election. Because you should want to gain positions (or legislation), because you should want to advance your agenda. That's the point of a party. Not just sitting around and discussing issues in a smoke-filled room. That's a social club.

 

[Kuramia]

A good commentary, and one I agree with. Perhaps we're tying this into our own political parties in RL, but goodness, would the Republican or Democratic Party even consider endorsing an Independent? No, of course not! They back the people that are supposed to represent what they stand for.

So we must ask ourselves...why didn't the EPP back their own party members...and one their founder? It...it makes the party look indecisive and weak. And like HEM, I mean no disrespect. Of course, you shouldn't go 'you need to vote for me!', but you certainly should be saying 'why don't you vote for me?'

Then maybe the campaign can be centered around that.

 

[Aexnidaral]

would the Republican or Democratic Party even consider endorsing an Independent? No, of course not! They back the people that are supposed to represent what they stand for.

 

[HEM]

would the Republican or Democratic Party even consider endorsing an Independent? No, of course not! They back the people that are supposed to represent what they stand for.

Okay, but like, his past aside, Mr. Sanders is seeking the Democratic Party nomination via the Democratic primary process. If Calvin had actively sought the EPP endorsement and joined them in some kind of formal coalition, I wouldn't have written this article.

 

[Aexnidaral]

would the Republican or Democratic Party even consider endorsing an Independent? No, of course not! They back the people that are supposed to represent what they stand for.

Okay, but like, his past aside, Mr. Sanders is seeking the Democratic Party nomination via the Democratic primary process. If Calvin had actively sought the EPP endorsement and joined them in some kind of formal coalition, I wouldn't have written this article.

His past aside? His past is incredibly relevant, lol. He's an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination, he has no loyalty to the party besides his own ideology. Which is fine, but it hurts Democrats downballot (and in races that are competitive: see Wisconsin Supreme Court Election). I think I would be more prone to agreeing with your sentiment had Bernie spent years and years working to elect fellow Democrats and Progressives, not those who are just equally ideologically pure like he is.

 

[Aexnidaral]

ftr, I posted that as a joke.

 

[HEM]

ftr, I posted that as a joke.

It was an inaccurate comparison in light of my argument I tried to make in this opinion piece, so I wanted to address it, because I think this is an important discussion.

 

[Aexnidaral]

ftr, I posted that as a joke.

It was an inaccurate comparison.

No, it really wasn't.

 

[Lethen]

A simple rebranding of the current parties to something more akin to what they are - societies perhaps - would do much more to solve this problem

 

[Brunhilde]

His past aside? His past is incredibly relevant, lol. He's an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination, he has no loyalty to the party besides his own ideology. Which is fine, but it hurts Democrats downballot (and in races that are competitive: see Wisconsin Supreme Court Election). I think I would be more prone to agreeing with your sentiment had Bernie spent years and years working to elect fellow Democrats and Progressives, not those who are just equally ideologically pure like he is.

At least he has loyalty to something other than money and power.

 

[Aexnidaral]

His past aside? His past is incredibly relevant, lol. He's an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination, he has no loyalty to the party besides his own ideology. Which is fine, but it hurts Democrats downballot (and in races that are competitive: see Wisconsin Supreme Court Election). I think I would be more prone to agreeing with your sentiment had Bernie spent years and years working to elect fellow Democrats and Progressives, not those who are just equally ideologically pure like he is.

At least he has loyalty to something other than money and power.

Yeah, like most of the Democrats that are running.

 

[HEM]

His past aside? His past is incredibly relevant, lol. He's an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination, he has no loyalty to the party besides his own ideology. Which is fine, but it hurts Democrats downballot (and in races that are competitive: see Wisconsin Supreme Court Election). I think I would be more prone to agreeing with your sentiment had Bernie spent years and years working to elect fellow Democrats and Progressives, not those who are just equally ideologically pure like he is.

At least he has loyalty to something other than money and power.

Yeah, like most of the Democrats that are running.

Exactly:

 

[Aexnidaral]

His past aside? His past is incredibly relevant, lol. He's an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination, he has no loyalty to the party besides his own ideology. Which is fine, but it hurts Democrats downballot (and in races that are competitive: see Wisconsin Supreme Court Election). I think I would be more prone to agreeing with your sentiment had Bernie spent years and years working to elect fellow Democrats and Progressives, not those who are just equally ideologically pure like he is.

At least he has loyalty to something other than money and power.

Yeah, like most of the Democrats that are running.

Exactly:

Yes, etc., etc.

 

[Anumia]

HEM has the right of this. If political parties are not cohesive and self-propelling on the matter of politics, they are not political parties.

 

[hyanygo]

Societies/clubs would be a better way to describe what our parties are right now. Politically recent parties have been a horrendous waste of time and energy with no positive impact.

 

[Common-Sense Politics]

In this kind of campaign environment we are overshadowed by the past accomplishments and name recognition of our opponents.

Really?