Does the Jesus Christ Party have an effective monopoly over Atlasian politics?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

There simply are not enough center/right leaners to ever be able to defeat the JCP hegemony in its current form. Even when the right was unified, we were successful mainly because the left was not, not because we had such large numbers to compete. This realignment Hamilton dreams of is just smoke and mirrors. Even if it was implemented, the right would still not be able to win national elections. The whole site has a disproportionate number of leftists versus rightists. The RPP has also ushered in an era of rigid partisanship that may be more difficult to break than in the past.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The right doesn't need to win elections. I could care less about the success of a particular ideological faction I refuse to align with. Instead, I promote a coalition that will pose as a competitive alternative to the JCP. The right must be left to work out their own problems, and the center will gather to fix ours. I, for one, am open to all centrist/center-left/center-right persons willing to seriously consider a realignment, including you, Duke. Your problem has always been your attitude. You can not see past your elitism enough to do the right thing for your beliefs, and that will always come back to haunt you.

I think my problems are well-documented. It will come down to when I decide to rid myself of them, and then I'll be alright.

If the point is not to win elections, then what is the point? That is, at the end of the day, the whole point to this game. If we hold little or no offices, then we really cannot wield any power at all in the halls of the government. Sure, we can propose policies, and that's a start, but if the left holds overwhelming majorities in the Senate and occupies the White House, then we will get nothing done. We'll be the tea baggers of Atlasia, so to speak. A loud minority that really has no influence over policy. The current landscape was always on the horizon, a unified left, and it was only a matter of time before it came into light.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The right doesn't need to win elections. I could care less about the success of a particular ideological faction I refuse to align with. Instead, I promote a coalition that will pose as a competitive alternative to the JCP. The right must be left to work out their own problems, and the center will gather to fix ours. I, for one, am open to all centrist/center-left/center-right persons willing to seriously consider a realignment, including you, Duke. Your problem has always been your attitude. You can not see past your elitism enough to do the right thing for your beliefs, and that will always come back to haunt you.

I think my problems are well-documented. It will come down to when I decide to rid myself of them, and then I'll be alright.

If the point is not to win elections, then what is the point? That is, at the end of the day, the whole point to this game. If we hold little or no offices, then we really cannot wield any power at all in the halls of the government. Sure, we can propose policies, and that's a start, but if the left holds overwhelming majorities in the Senate and occupies the White House, then we will get nothing done. We'll be the tea baggers of Atlasia, so to speak. A loud minority that really has no influence over policy. The current landscape was always on the horizon, a unified left, and it was only a matter of time before it came into light.

And what attempts at competing has the RPP made?

The RPP, in its heyday, was the greatest hope the right had at winning the big one, which was the main reason why so many blue avatar types left the game in the past. We capitalized on a left wing in disarray and deals formed with the DA in order to win national and regional elections, leading to the peak in June, where we came within a point of capturing the White House. Since then, the JCP gained strength with the unification with the SDP, DWTL's personality became too much to handle for many, and the rest is history.

In many ways, we signed our own death certificate when we ushered in the era of partisanship, because there was always more leftists than rightists in the game, and it was only a matter of time they unified. We gave them an incentive to do that because we, at one point, held five Senate seats.

I will cede a point to you, though, in that we helped the JCP when we supported bgwah/meeker. I was never on board with that one because, ideologically, I fit in better with AndrewCT, was closer with him, and thought he and aflietch would've made a good team in the White House. I think my disagreement there was well documented.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The RPP almost won in June because the DA voted for PiT. Not because PiT led a good campaign or was a good candidate, since he epic fails in both those regards.

It is my belief that the right should suck it up and support the center, in order to stop the left. Until they do that, all we will ever see is social democrats.

See, that statement just throws your whole argument out the window. I think you're being serious, but then you say something like that. On one hand, you say you refuse to align yourself with a group that doesn't espouse your views, and then demand the right tosses out their views to unite with the center, in order to win elections. You've just contradicted yourself. The right can just say the center needs to abandon their beliefs and unite with them, and we're back where we started: divided.

Don't get me wrong, a party that is centrist in its beliefs is a novel idea, but there are not enough of us to win a national election, and we don't get along well enough anyway. Those aspects are our fault, no one else's. We have the ARC throwing mud at the RPP, the RPP attacking the ARC. Until the infighting stops, we'll never compete nationally. And, while you have these grand plans, you've contributed to this problem as much as DWTL. It will never get better as long as this is going on. This realignment will only work if everyone agrees to follow you, and surely you are not naive enough to believe that will occur.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Just curious, since you named fezzy as someone you'd vote for and he happens to be my best friend on the forum, and we are very similar politically, why would you vote for him and not me, besides the fact that it is me? You're essentially doing the same thing that we are by refusing to vote someone you don't like. Our politics are essentially the same on most issues. If it's personal, just admit it and don't chastise us for the same thing.