The Leftist Assembly

----Grey----

Greylyn wrote:

I agree that more can be done on the foreign affairs front, but we don't know how long the 2nd Samon Cabinet had been working on the Foreign Affairs Act before presenting it to the General Assembly. Breaking down our diplomatic relationships by clearly defined categories (consulates, embassies, and alliances) has laid the groundwork for more intercommunal dialogue and productive foreign policy. My main complaint with TLA's foreign policy (during the times that I've been active) is that our embassies just kind of exist.

Admittedly, last election I argued against Consulates, however I've since changed my mind after seeing the Foreign Affairs Act (FAA). Thanks to the 2nd Samon Cabinet, our region now has a Foreign Affairs dispatch which has consolidated all of the important information related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are some small things I'd do differently, but overall, I'm grateful for the work Samon has done alongside their Cabinet to strengthen our foreign affairs.

The samon cabinet has done alot of work towards foreign affairs, that is true. And I am also grateful for what they've done in the time they've had. But we should expand our efforts in this area in the future, and establish relations with more regions.

Greylyn wrote:

RE: awards -- that's great, but even if Samon hasn't listed it in their campaign, I know for a fact Vice Secretary/MoI Comria takes awards seriously and I'm confident that this will be done in a 3rd Samon Cabinet -- if not, I'll complain and do anything within my power legislatively to ensure our regional awards aren't neglected to individuals who have earned them (specifically for awards that can't be self-awarded).

If Samon does it, great! It should be done either way, but if elected it would be one of the things i would make sure I do.

Greylyn wrote:

RE: Manual recruitment -- What ideas do you have to incentivize manual recruitment more than the government already is? I have an idea myself, but overall, I think the leaderboard and a dedicated Discord channel has proven to be effective. Our regional population is growing at a rapid pace thanks to former Secretary United Asahi's government promoting this manual recruitment campaign.

I lay it out in my platform, but adding rewards for reaching certain milestones, like 1,000 or 5,000 telegrams. publishing that alongside the weekly leaderboard(on the RMB, probably not on the WFE) and giving card rewards for hitting those milestones would get new people into recruiting, and maybe one or two of them decide to keep going.

Greylyn wrote:

By definition, I'm fairly certain your "newer members in govt" policy is populist.

I replied longer in the discord, but yeah probably. That isn't my intention though. My pledge to appoint 1-2 new members to the cabinet is not being made in a cynical vote grabbing effort, its being made because i believe it is in the best interests of our long term future. My first position in TLA government wasn't in the GA or in an elected office, it was appointed by podria(not the cabinet though, the SC).

Greylyn wrote:

You are arguing that the Cabinet doesn't reflect the ideas of the region, but I know for certain that Vice Secretary Comria has promoted the suggestion box at least once this term and Samon is enjoying a large amount of support in their campaign; not exclusively from older members either, mind you. Yes, there's an incumbency advantage, but I know from personal experience as well as previous elections (e.g. former Secretary New Flamington) that being elected back-to-back isn't guaranteed. Samon and their Cabinet have also been responsive to my suggestions for events/contests, even though I ran against Samon and I'm not in the Cabinet. Yes, I've been around for a while and might have some influence, but I don't think it's my political clout that's the reason for Samon's Cabinet being open to individual members of our community pitching in to help with the Cabinet's activities whenever and wherever possible.

A) when I say "the cabinet does not reflect the people", I do not mean its actions don't reflect what the people want. I mean that the majority of the cabinet have been in the region for years, and we havent been giving enough new people the chance to gain experience and learn how to participate in the regional government.

B) I am fully aware that samon has broad support from nearly every corner of TLA, and that beating him is nigh impossible. I would say that you being speaker differently helped get your voice heard in the cabinet, especially since you are also very active in the community discord server. Even still, yes, the current cabinet has been open to aid and ideas.

C) Looking at mentions of "suggestion" on the RMB, I found 4 mentions of in in the last 90 days from government accounts. To be honest, that's more than I expected and remembered. Still, Comria claimed in one of their messages that:

Comria wrote:

We don't get that many suggestion box suggestions. We have literally publicised and executed every single one of them.

We don't get that many suggestion box usages, even if its promoted. Wanting to have more people utilize the suggestion box shouldn't be controversial, and I doubt it is.

also, I would like to say sorry for comria for saying you didnt promote the suggestion box, I should have fact checked that

Greylyn wrote:

People can be in the legislative and executive branches at the same time (excluding the Secretary) and experience in the legislative branch doesn't necessarily translate to the executive. However, it would be disingenuous to ignore the historical and cultural background of both of these institutions. Having been a part of the group that coauthored the Separate Cabinet amendments way back, I have been here long enough to know that with the exception of certain Cabinet positions, individuals have always been encouraged to start their electoral campaigns in the General Assembly. The General Assembly has historically allowed newer members to familiarize themselves with our region's political and legal system so that they are better equipped to serve as Secretary. It's not foolproof. As you said, being a good MGA doesn't mean you'll be a good Secretary or Minister.

personally, I didn't get my start in the GA, and I think its served me well. I don't believe starting in the GA should be the path for everyone, but i do agree that it is a very good path to start from.

Greylyn wrote:

However, to ignore the relationship between these two branches (even if they are legally separate entities) is doing a disservice to your campaign, in my opinion. MGAs have a lot of legal control over the Cabinet. The same isn't true in reverse. If I wanted to, I could author a series of amendments abolishing the Ministries of Information and Recruitment and give their responsibilities over to the Ministry of Community Affairs. It's this legislative power that makes the People's Assembly amendments as well as the Legislative Committees Act so politically and historically significant, in my view.

I am not ignoring the connection between the two branches. As an MGA, I know how the legal system works, and I know that the cabinet is beholden to the laws of the GA.

Greylyn wrote:

You say that you're not trying to replace the entire Cabinet with new faces. I'd argue that Secretary Samon isn't going to have the entirety of their Cabinet staffed with older members. We don't even know for sure whether Samon is going to keep this current roster. For any number of reasons, Ministers could be swapped out in the 3rd Samon Cabinet.

We don't know though, they haven't said anything. I have. And your first part is correct, I don't want to remove many people from the roster of our current cabinet. I think they've all done amazing jobs in their current term and they should continue to serve. I think that there is room add a minister of community affairs(3 is not unheard of, and its been done before). Another spot where a newer face wouldn't cause much trouble whilst still giving experience would be Alternate Justice. Its where I started, its got very little responsibilities, and you still get to learn how one of the most important and overlooked/inactive parts of our government works.

Greylyn wrote:

Lastly, having former Secretaries in a Cabinet doesn't undermine the executive branch's connection to the community. Each of these Cabinet members have been duly appointed and confirmed. If they were not acting in accordance with regional law, or if community members simply wanted someone else in the position, it would've been clear by now. TLA isn't exactly known for people biting their tongues.

Obviously someone being a former secretary does not remove their connection to the community. And yes, these people are widely popular and yes they should remain in the cabinet. As I say in my platform, I want to keep experience in the cabinet. And no, I didn't just edit this in, the last time I updated the dispatch was 4 days ago. Again, you're arguing with a strawman, I don't want to remove these people.

Greylyn wrote:

Also... just because it wouldn't completely destroy the GA doesn't make a by-election less disruptive (especially if it can be avoided).

this point I agree with, and it is one of the reasons I considered not running myself. However, I believe that I can make TLA better, and so I'm running. I am sorry for the pain it'll cause, and yes I know it is hypocritical for me to use that in my previous campaign and then violate it here. The GA was still productive after the by-election after Samon resigned last election.

----Samon----

New Samon wrote:

I’d like to hear how you plan on focusing more on foreign affairs than I did. We had a very active term with our foreign affairs, and I think you would’ve been able to recognize that as an ambassador. With the obvious items aside, such as our Foreign Affairs Act, the No Big Banks consulate and game night, and reworked dispatch, we focused on a more active Diplomacy Hub. Immediately after beginning our term, Comria and I worked with our Ministers to appoint missing ambassadors, work on getting our embassy leaders + ambassadors in the Diplomacy Hub, and begin to receive ambassador reports– which we hadn’t received in a little less than a year. So far, with one exception, every region has an Assemblian representative. Currently, besides only a few consulates, I represent our region as Secretary in multiple regional Discord servers, and have a nation in a couple of regions.

Well for one, I would immediately work to fill the ambassador position with Kantrias. I would also do much of what you would do, but something that I would do differently is encourage TRF. right now we only have 3 MVC, while we have ~200 endorsements on the delegate.

New Samon wrote:

We have worked to commence relations with The Region That Has No Big Banks, and look forward to opening relations to Wintercrest, the East Pacific, and Refugia if I am re-elected. We’ve had a game night with No Big Banks, but I’m disappointed our plan to have a game night with Gay never worked out. I hope to work with them next term, though, although there is a plan to organize something with Forest. In addition, our relationship with our NSLeft partners are key. I hope to do more with them, especially with the Communist Bloc and the Social Liberal Union, while looking into an initiative to assist the Internationale.

We have quite literally expanded foreign affairs in a massive way, and I want to stress how much my MoFAs have managed to accomplish.

All of that is great, and 100% be done, and yes the ministry of forgien affairs has done much in its term, but what I want to do is both build off what we currently have(establishing consulates and maybe even embassies with regions like TRTHNBB and Wintercrest) and doing more, mainly supporting TRF

----Comria----

Comria wrote:

The 1 billion number conveys your point very effectively, I'll give you that. Still, considering you're appealing to newer members who might not know the ins and outs of population growth: I founded my nation on May 24th. Population on NS goes very fast. The only reason you're using the number, while you fully know it means I am still new, is because it looks and sounds big.

Let's indeed look at how long I have been in the region. I joined May 24th, the day I founded the nation. There were, at the time, on the low end of 300 nations here. However, I only became an active member in July, when I ran and got elected to the 33rd General Assembly. I am not a 'newer member of the Cabinet', I am as new as I could have possibly been. The very first Cabinet.

yes, I would say you're new and most people would agree. The first thing I said in the message you're replying to is me saying you're new. I'm saying we need more people in your position in the cabinet. People who are both qualified and who want to help make the region a better place.

Comria wrote:

I want to specially respond to something that was left in the suggestion box. I do not know who it was left by, but it states:
"...Now that comria has hit 1 billion, there are no cabinet posts with a “newer” member"
It's not about the population count. I am the new member. I am the newer member. I was not politically involved when Asa got re-elected, and I became Vice Secretary three months later.

As I said before, yes. I don't

Comria wrote:

I agree, we should be granting the opportunity for more new, ambitious Assemblians to serve in the Cabinet where it's not too disruptive. Because I was a new, ambitious Assemblian. Not even two GA terms later, I am a new, ambitious Assemblian. The opportunity is there, obviously. Both you and Kunskil have said that I am the exception to your complaint, that I am an appreciated new Cabinet member. At the exact same time, you both do your best to make me sound older than I am, to fit your political purposes. It's demagogic and populist, and like all such things, false.

I mean, we agree? We should give new, ambitious assemblians a chance in government. And you are the exception. obviously TLA is not a monolith, no argument, especially one as broad as age in the region will be completely true.
Also, just because something is populist doesn't mean its inherently wrong or bad. that seems to be a common theme in your criticism, and I'd be inclined to disagree.
A) I'm not proposing this solely as a political ploy, I believe new people deserve a chance in government. your constant insinuation and claiming of otherwise is just false
B) there are plenty of people in TLA's history who have used populism to some effect in their campaign

Comria wrote:

I, as stated previously, do not care about faces being new or old. That's exactly why I take issue with your argument. You stated a couple of hours ago that the average age of the current Cabinet is your biggest problem with it. If you want to give us a thousand new ideas, we are listening. I would argue against other parts of your campaign if those were the ones you decided to raise. I would take on other parts of your campaign if those were the ones you decided to bring to us. Age isn't important to how well you do your job. I do it just as well as my colleague Minister who was Secretary three years ago. You pick the people who can do the job the best. Two weeks old or eight years. I'm sure some new people would be great in the Government. I don't think they'd be great because they're new. Or you're fundamentally wrong about the origins of new ideas.

I don't only want to appoint based on just age, but I do think it should be considered in positions where a newer person wouldn't be detrimental. As I've said earlier in this wall of text, MoCA and Alternate justices are good places to appoint newer members who want to participate and make the region great, but might not know how or where to start.

Comria wrote:

Okay, this is very insulting to me, because I actually pushed the suggestion box this term. As you are once again well aware, it is not only the second link on the WFE, but I also called everyone to submit and posted updates several times. If a new person doesn't know the suggestion box exists, that means they must not have read the WFE. I think we should potentially have slightly better-informed Ministers. Of course, people don't leave their entire eighty-point plan in the suggestion box, but I doubt you'd get new Ministers who are adequately progressively inspired without even knowing about its existence.

I should have fact checked that before I said anything, but yes you did talk about the suggestion box 4 times this term on the RMB.

Comria wrote:

The current Cabinet does not reflect the ideas of the region? In the past three months, I have rarely heard an opinion offered to us, that we did not share. You are free to correct me with actual proof, but you cannot make such a strong claim as that without at least three pages of logically sound explanation. If the Cabinet did not reflect the ideas of the region, why did you not sign a complete and total Motion of No Confidence? Throwing out something like this is akin to painting the 2nd New Samon Cabinet as 'the elite', the corrupt force working against the morally good 'people'. Basically, it's a populist claim. And it's bull.

Comria wrote:

Your main priority would be Foreign Affairs. I'm happy to discuss that further, but I do wonder what else we can do when the past two weeks of four Cabinet members' work has been nothing but. We passed the Foreign Affairs Act, updated the Foreign Affairs dispatch, reorganised the entire Diplomacy Hub, twice. I will come back to this later.

I Think the MoFA has done an amazing job, and my priority would be to keep that going and use the progress made to establish all the different embassies and consulates planned

Comria wrote:

Once again emphasising you are making a baseless and unexplained populist claim, and that there are three (four if you count Glo) new members in important Government positions right now.

Who? I can think of two off the top of my head, and again there are tons of government positions

Comria wrote:

I'm going to sound spiteful here, but I think I earned it.
Okay, so you know about the Foreign Affairs Act, and want to use it. Do you want to look at it real long and see who wrote it? The 2nd New Samon Cabinet spent weeks on the FAA alone. We got the Diplomacy Hub running from a place where MLoP was tagged as Secretary to one where productive conversations happen weekly. We managed to get the Ambassadors back to their former glory. We (re)established relations with NBB. We are looking towards more regions for relations. You'll 'focus more on Foreign Affairs than Samon', but you are selectively ignoring everything we've done. As to awards, I genuinely agree with you. I was the one to even bring them back to public attention, but okay. Manual recruiting is not my area.

As I've said before, I am fully aware of the progress that has been achieved under Samon, and my goal with becoming secretary is to build on what has been done

Comria wrote:

I have already pointed out populist tendencies of yours twice in this response. It is not populist to campaign on your platform. It is populist to make your main point about 'the people', the new Assemblians in this case. I could argue that 'a platform that is popular amongst many in TLA' is also a way of sketching yourself to be aligned with 'the people', ergo populism, but I will move on.

And I've addressed you claims of populism
populism is not inherently bad, and the issues i've laid out are not irrelevant, and they can't just be dismissed by calling them "populist" and relying on the negative connotation that brings.

Comria wrote:

Yes. You can't, but I'll come to that in the next section. I disagree with you on another thing. We should not give experience for the sake of giving experience. We should 'give experience' (i.e. electing people) for their merits and ideas. The General Assembly and Cabinet are very different, but I find the experience did in fact transfer. It's mostly about being in the Government and having up-close experience with our laws.

Agreed. I don't want to give positions to random nations just to "give them experience" or something like that. New nations who have good ideas and are willing to dedicate time to the government

Comria wrote:

So, what about the last Secretary election cycle, when you emphasised again and again that you wouldn't trigger a by-election? It was possible then, too. It just seems to me that you choose your points of critique in a very specific manner. Might want to read up on it: http://bit.ly/41kpkXW

Yes, I addressed this under Greylyn's post. That was a point I made last election, and it was quickly waved away as not too big of a deal. Yes its an issue, and it would seriously hamper the processes of the GA. However, the GA would still have time to finish its work, and I could see it passing the two major things in the queue. Even in worse case scenario, the two amendments can be passed to make the PA, and then that body can pass the remaining queue

Comria wrote:

It comes down to this, Rhenna. I want to focus on comparing our campaigns, coming up with good ideas. Instead, we're focussing on unimportant things you are willing into existence. You have made false and misleading claims about me and my Cabinet. You focus on the most shiny things you can, but it's not how to run a region.

P.S. Greylyn, New Samon, you really did steal my thunder. Still, I hope everyone actually read every sentence of all our responses. It's important to tread with care in politics.

I dont want to spend all my time debating this, and I didn't make it the massive deal. when samon asked kunskil what could be made better, I responded with several things from my platform. I will gladly discuss Awards, Manual Recruitment, and the other things on my platform