gv
Party Member
Posts: 104
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Post by gv on Oct 4, 2020 14:57:20 GMT -6
Party Members, your speeches go to this thread - thanks in advance for all your words of wisdom!
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gv
Party Member
Posts: 104
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Post by gv on Feb 1, 2021 10:00:23 GMT -6
We live in prophetic times. Spiritual forces are busier all the time as the world transitions to a better time. Until that happy day, there will be a dark space, and for as long as we can, Talossa must step into the breach and be a tiny light in a wilderness of increasing murkiness. May God preserve our country through to the age to come.
We will never go 'back to normal'.
When last we convened, it was before SARS-CoV-2 (as manifested in COVID-19) and the unprecedented worldwide governmental-reaction to same shut down the world. The virus was a disease on the other side of the world, and like ebola and other pestilences, it would be contained to its country/region-of-origin and not bother us too, too much. How wrong we were.
Heretofore, the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions have not affected Talossa in its day-to-day functions: the Clark still goes out every month, and Dr. Nordselva continues to do sterling work as Secretary of State, as does our entire civil service in whatever jobs they may have.
It is inevitable, in my estimation, Talossa will be affected directly such the Clark cannot be published and our day-to-day functions cannot be sustained. The government will need a plan of action for such a calamity with buy-in from our conservative fellow-Talossans.
In the light of all of this, the continual absence of our healthy and real-life-crisis-free monarch is unacceptable, even with our current and competent Regent who remains as active as we wish the King himself to be. What a bulwark John could (and should!) be for all of us in Talossa during 'these unprecedented times'!
In the light of this, is it any wonder our country is polarized on the question of what the monarchy should look like going forward?
54RZ28's passage in referendum a few months ago was the greatest political achievement in Talossa since Reunision, which remains possibly the greatest diplomatic triumph in all Talossan history. 54RZ28 is the jewel in Miestrâ's crown, and as she seems to have indicated her wish to step down from our party presidency, she will step down with her head held high as one of the most effective and patriotic Senescháis Talossa has ever seen, Republic or Kingdom.
There is much left to do, however. The country in the recent monarchy-referendum has given us the worst-possible outcome: an inconclusive and nearly-tied result: the perfect recipe for maximum confusion, living into the present spirit of this age of the world. And we must live into this result, finding competent compromise where we can and standing firm when we must.
And I believe we have the competence on both sides of the aisle to see this done: preserving tradition and democracy, both - keeping Talossa 'free, fun, and fair'.
In addition to this convention's seeing to the business of monarchy-reform (as it is clear to me the country wants to retain the monarchy), we must in this time see to our party's future and what it will look like. It is my hope we FreeDemocrats do not balkanize/throw ourselves against the hard granite wall of political perfection, and I urge our party to remain well and whole through at least the process of making the monarchy and democracy one.
Our history as a party and political movement is loud, proud, and I continue to be happy to be a part of it.
Happy convention, everyone!
GV, Senator - Fiôvâ Party Secretary
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Post by Eðo Grischun on Feb 7, 2021 15:58:31 GMT -6
Fellow Free Democrats.
I come today to make my speech to the conference ahead of seeking your nomination to become the next Party President.
I have struggled with this speech. I have no idea what I am supposed to say. I am finding it really difficult getting into the mindset required for this.
If I am to be honest with you then I have to tell you that I don't want to lead the party. I would also have to tell you that I dread the thought of becoming Seneschal. I've said before in another speech that I used to want it or, at least, used to think that I wanted it, but that is no longer the case. As I grow older I desire completely different things than I did five to ten years ago. I can admit, today, that I was once driven by ego. That I was once driven by a lust for prestige and accolade. That is not me today. I don't want to be in the seat of power. I don't particularly want to be in the limelight. I don't want medals and I certainly don't ever want a knighthood. The truth of the matter is that I have come to terms with the fact that I am not as smart as I used to believe I was; and that I am not a great leader; and that my ideas are not always the best ideas. I have learned that it best for me to sit down and shut up and listen to other people and follow people with better ideas and leadership than me. I have discovered that I work best as second fiddle, or even third or fourth. I've done great stuff as a Minister working under a tremendous leader. Thinking about reversing those roles... well, I'm just not sure that I will be able to do as good a job as party leader as I have done as a Minister.
I have many apprehensions, reservations and fears about becoming party leader.
There is one particular area of reservation, and fear, that I wish to speak about. I am aware that in the aftermath of the referendum there may be a period of 'storming' (context: Bruce Tuckman, stages of group development). The core of this party is mostly Republican and I imagine a number of you feel that our compromise position following the referendum doesn't go where you want it to go. I imagine there are some of you that want the next stage of the FreeDem journey to go full tilt Republican. I won't be able to lead a Republican party like that. I don't want to. I don't have the fire and conviction for it. I am only able and willing to lead the party on safe ground. Positions of compromise and methods of gradualism will mostly be my style as a FreeDem leader. My fear is that this style of leadership and the positions I ask us to take will lead to the party fracturing, with 'Go Big or Go Home Republicanism' splintering away from the more moderate 'small r -republic of the people' style. I mean, if that happens then that happens, but I urge you all to consider how far the party has come using methods of gradualism. The journey doesn't need to stop here. We can stay unified and keep chipping away, slowly, surely, to achieve something closer to your overall visions.
Our work is not done. Obviously, this includes the next chapters that are to follow the referendum. We need to deliver on this. However, even when that is delivered our work will not be done. We will have achieved a massive milestone, but the FreeDem journey will not be complete. Our focus for the next chapter of campaigning should now turn to the Ziu. The campaign for a unicameral chamber with multi-member constituency elections should now begin. I want to see this happen. On that particular manifesto point, I feel like I can lead us on the next stage of the journey.
I believe that I am one of the most reliably active members we currently have and as a result the party will benefit from a highly visible leader. That is not intended as a slight on any other FreeDem member. I understand we all have things that take our attention away from Talossa at times and that is fine. What I am saying is that my unhealthy obsession for this Nation that disallows me from ever taking a break of any more than 48 hours away from it could be beneficial.
I am not a die-hard Republican. Nor am I even a die-hard Monarchist anymore. I am stuck in a weird limbo between the two ideologies. I just want whatever is best for Talossa and want the system to reflect the wishes and desires of the people. You see, political parties don't really get to set the terms. We think we do, but we really don't. Something short of amazing happens during an election; a moment where the collective voice of a nation decides what it wants. Yes, sometimes they make a mistake. Sometimes they get it wrong. Or do they? Who knows? It doesn't matter though, because they still got to choose. The electorate gets to dictate the terms. They get to decide the mandates. It is a responsibility of a governing party to listen to the voice of the people and shape itself to the desires of that voice. Because I am neither hard core one way or the other on Monarchy vs Republic I believe I can provide a style of leadership that can navigate its way through the immediate near future on issues of compromise on these issues ... or at least try.
And that's all I can really offer you. A promise to try. A promise to try and do my best. A promise to try and achieve the goals that we, as a party, set ourselves. A promise to try and lead us into government for one more term. A promise to try and deliver on our manifesto pledges and mandates.
I refuse to make any grand promises over and above that. I refuse to make promises on things I can't guarantee delivery on. As my father likes to say, if you want a guarantee then go buy a toaster. All I can promise is to try. And if that is not good enough, then don't choose me as your next leader.
We have achieved great things as a party. We have achieved great things as a government. We still have more things we want to achieve. We want to deliver on the mandate of installing an elected Head of State. We want to reform the Ziu. We want to complete the modernisation programs of our national web infrastructure. We want to get more people learning the national language. We want to see an increase in activity levels in the nation. We want to see the remainder of our manifesto achieved. Let us come together as we have always done and forge forward to achieve these wants and goals.
Unified. Strong. Free.
Long live Talossa. Yours for Talossa. Eddie.
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gv
Party Member
Posts: 104
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Post by gv on Feb 7, 2021 16:53:39 GMT -6
GV's second speech to formally endorse E. G. as Party Leader
When I became Prime Minister in 2002, the one thing I realized immediately was nothing can prepare one - I mean *really* prepare - one for the fact when one sits in executive leadership of any organization, literally everything that happens in that organization goes through one's 'desk' so to speak. For me, that realization was terrifying.
Edo, you will (presumably) step into a PMship unrecognizable from that which I had nineteen years ago. Back then, the real powers in the Progressive Conservative Party were Ben, JJ, and Eiffler (may he rest in peace). They had the street-cred of decades of Old-Growth Milwaukee, and they were at that time the center of the Talossan universe.
Thus, I may have had party leadership by which my voice could be heard, but in the end, control of the agenda lay mostly with those three and to a lesser extent the other party grandees (M. Harth, M. Loquatsch, etc). Had Ben truly had his way, JJ would be Seneschal of Talossa today, having never left office.
You will serve, as I did, over an 'umbrellamalgumation' of various political threads with a single commonality: the hereditary monarchy with veto-power over legislation had to go, and if the monarchy could have been made to go altogether, so much the better.
But unlike me, you will serve, as Miestrâ and all Seneschais since August 2005 have done, without 'uncles JJ, Ben, and Eiffler' to guide one, keep the rudder going, and make the truly consequential decisions. Your activity, transparency with real-life situations affecting your Talossan activity (only as much detail as we need to know), and our activity and return will help to keep this party unified.
And yes, it's a two-way street. The appropriate time will come (within the next year-and-a-half at maximum) where the disparate interests of our party will need to assert ourselves. We *must* survive as a unified political entity through the installation of the first elected Head of State, be it King or President. #Malaysia
In other words, people, WE MUST STAY INVOLVED!! Checking Witt every day - answering emails promptly - making sure our IT gurus do not get burned out - reading up on Talossan history and caring for the language and the past - keeping Ben's bedroom kingdom alive. Complacency is our country's doom.
I would suggest web infrastructure is a forever-project. I would also put the Database System at the top of the list, gently putting MPF's feet to the fire to figure out the future of talossa.ca by the end of the 56th Cosâ. We need for MPF to be able to walk away, knowing it can be maintained by multiple people in such a format as to not be proprietary and dependent on one particular bit of software to run and with such integrity he can sleep at night.
Many other things I could talk about, but know, Edo, you have my formal endorsement as Party Leader and Seneschál and an entire party rooting for you and ready to do what you need to have done. Be strong, have a clear agenda, know your time and the time of this party is on borrowed time, and delegate, delegate, delegate.
Thank you, sir, for putting your hat in the ring.
GV
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Post by Miestrâ Schivâ on Feb 8, 2021 1:59:25 GMT -6
Estimadăs és estimats Democrätsen Livereschti, amici, és oðreux:
I am tired. I am very, very tired. Talossan patriotism – ably described by King Robert I as the conviction that “Talossa must continue” – takes a lot out of you. It seems that three terms as Seneschál, and pushing forward some of the most far-reaching constitutional reforms in history, is about my limit. I think I need to take a break from governance, and hopefully recapture the joy I once felt in Talossanity.
A lot of what I want to say to you today I already said in my recent interview with La Sc’hintéiă. But I will repeat that I am stepping aside from the leadership of this Party for three reasons. The first is my own health, as mentioned above. The second and third are the health of Talossa, and the health of this Party. And the common factor between the three is this – I am doing too much, and others are doing too little.
This party has no future if it is to be Miestră’s fan club. That would require me to continue to lead, continue to perform, indefinitely. To do that, you would have to have literally no life outside Talossa. I am not King Robert I nor would I ever want to be.
But this party also has no future if we are only all about the constitutional issue – the idea of an elected head of state. Because, and I am very happy to say this, we are so very close to achieving this. The result of the Ranked Choice Referendum indicates that we have won the argument. The Leader of the monarchist Opposition has accepted the principle of our Compromiçù Þistoric, the Historic Compromise of an elected King with a 7 year term.
You Free Democrats have to ask yourselves this. What will you do without my leadership? And what will you do when the constitutional question is settled? Will we collapse, like the late lamented Moderate Radicals? Or will we become nothing but a “clique” which monopolises Government offices for its own sake, like the late unlamented RUMP?
I know that our Temporary Bogus Head of State, Sir A. Davinescù, is not the most popular person in this party for a whole buffet of reasons. And one of the reasons I personally find him uncomfortable is that he has an uncanny knack of homing in on people’s worst fears and vulnerabilities. In my case, this is his repeated accusations that the Free Democrat drive to a more democratic Talossa is actually killing the nation – driving monarchist citizens away and not attracting new ones.
Comrades and friends, I hope you understand that, to the extent that you don’t participate in Talossa regularly, not just voting in elections or in the Ziu, but building culture and community – you are proving him right. Do you want that on your conscience?
It would be a sick, sad Talossa indeed if we get our elected Head of State, and then Talossa just ceases to be because that’s all we wanted – to win the constitutional argument – and then we’ll drift into RUMP-like torpor. If I didn’t think that a truly Free and Democratic Talossa would be more active and more fun for everyone, I would have never started this political journey.
Our beloved Regent is infamous for saying that Talossa would improve if I “resigned and became inactive”. Well, I’m not going to become inactive. But I have come to the conclusion that I have to step aside from leadership because only that will be the test of whether this is a real political party, which can keep going independent of me – or whether everything the Regent has accused us of is correct.
I’m happy to say that – listening to the speech by my apparent successor, Senator Grischün – I have hope that this Party is in strong hands. Precisely because Eðo doesn’t particularly want to take political leadership is the best guarantee that he’ll be good at it. People who want to be the boss make very bad bosses. As many of faith could tell you, true leadership is service – service to this Party, service to the ideals for which it stands, and services to Talossa itself.
Much like Senator Grischün, I have changed. From being the most fire-breathing Republican, I have come to the conclusion that a Year Zero/French Revolution approach to Talossa would truly risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I believe that Talossa’s tradition of being a Kingdom is worth preserving – if combined with the elective principle.
For that reason, I 100% support Eðo’s gradualist, reformist instincts, and I believe this is the right direction to take this Party. By his own account, Eðo embodies the principle on which this Party was founded, clause XIV of our Constitution: “Free Democrats adhere to the notion of 'constitutional agnosticism' which can be understood as a commitment to bridging the gap between the existing debate versus monarchism and republicanism.” He is perhaps a better person to lead the Free Democrats into the future than myself, with my history on the Republican side of the National Schism.
Eðo’s suggested way forward of a unicameral, mixed-member proportional Ziu is an excellent one which I will also be happy to support. But in addition to this, we need a vision for administration, of how a continuing Free Democrat government will steward Talossa on a day-to-day, Clark-to-Clark basis. I suggest the following principles:
1. No-one should ever be irreplacable in Talossa, or in this Party. That has to be our bottom line. We can never again be in a position where the whole thing grinds to a halt if someone disappears. This goes for our IT infrastructure, for our structures of governance, and for our cultural endeavours.
You have seen the massive improvements in our online infrastructure that have taken place under Eðo as Minister of STUFF. More is yet to come, as the Chancery has requested that the Talossan Database created by Martì-Pair Furxhéir become integrated with the rest of the National Webspace. Taking that responsibility into the collective hands of the Kingdom is vital, not only for our security, but for MPF to be able to take a much-needed break. But conversely, MinSTUFF will have to create backup plans for the day in which Senator Grischün is no longer around to look after it.
2. Administration and politics should be separate. The best people should be chosen to do the administrative jobs, regardless of whether they’re Free Dems, Peculiarists, retrograde monarchists or yellow-bellies. The job of the political leadership should be to set policy, not to do everything ourselves. That way would lie a self-perpetuating “technocracy”, where you need to join the ruling party to do anything, and so the ruling party will always win because it has all the ambitious and talented people – that is, what the RUMP turned into. The Free Democrats took the initiative in creating our Royal Civil Service to separate administration and politics, and we should continue this tradition.
3. Simplify the law. Talossa’s law and justice should be as simple as humanly possible, written in plain language. A system where people with legal training outside Talossa are the only people who can argue a case in Cort, or even write legislation which does the job, is not a democratic one – another self-perpetuating oligarchy. We should keep up the tradition we started in this Ziu of going through El Lexhatx and just repealing anything which is unnecessary or over-complicated.
4. We need a vision for getting new citizens involved – not only involved in Talossa, but involved in the Free Democrats. Comrades and friends, ask yourself this – when was the last time a new person joined our party? Or a new citizen – and we do get quite a few of those – actually stuck around and became active in the community?
Without new blood, this party dies and Talossa dies. That’s the unavoidable truth. Certain unregenerate monarchists probably want the new Talossa, the free and democratic Talossa with an elective monarchy, to die, because it would prove them right that Talossa is only fun when they are running it. Do you want to prove them right? Or prove them wrong?
If it’s the latter, you have to be more active. Every single one of you. At least as active as Eðo is. Free Democrats have to lead by example in showing that we don’t want a democratic Talossa where nothing ever happens – but that more fun will happen in a democratic Talossa.
I’m sticking around as Party Secretary to be able to help the new President; but I aim to take a step backwards from administration in the next Ziu. I would like instead to make sure this Party continues to take on new blood; and to return to my first love in Talossa, el glheþ. We’ll see how that goes. But I have faith in Eðo, and I have faith in you.
¡Så vivadra Talossa! ¡Så vivadra Talossa livereschti és democrätic! ¡Så vivadra el Regeu Electat!
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gv
Party Member
Posts: 104
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Post by gv on Feb 10, 2021 18:39:23 GMT -6
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gv
Party Member
Posts: 104
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Post by gv on Feb 15, 2021 12:25:30 GMT -6
Per this convention's main page, "Deadline for voting on nominations and debate/voting on amendments: Sunday 14 February 2021 2359:59 Central".
With that, the election of Eðo Grischun as our new Party Leader and Miestrâ Schivâ as our returning Party Secretary are now official. Congratulations to both!
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