Its a paradox. Not having this means that the tactics of people like TNF is not driving people off, but on the other hand Atlasia is more boring than it used to be.
Its more complex than that though. This implies that there weren't debates about issues during the TNF era, there were in fact plenty and it is hard to admit at times but even Duke acknowledged the role he played in the Senate in driving debates.
We need to find ways to make Atlasia more interesting without getting back to the kind of negativity that used to drive so many people away and was counterproductive in that sense.
The irony is that TNF would say his tactics were all about policy. And indeed he was one of the most policy oriented players in the game. The problem was it was rather extreme as you will recall and his only way of defending it was to paint opponents as being fascist or whatever.
Admittedly, I wasn't around for most of TNF's tenure in the Senate; I registered a month or so before he began his final term, and I didn't really become personally involved in national politics until July - by which point he had abandoned all pretense and embraced the July Anarchy with both arms. I
do remember interviewing him about his "militia" when I was still writing for the
Mideast Record-Courier, but other than that, we didn't really cross paths.
I've always felt wonkishness was a kind of elitism in this game - it seems a certain kind of a man is apt to confuse intelligence with value, and by extension to conclude that those they perceive as less intelligent are worthless. That's not to say that thoughtful, thorough legislating ought not to be the ideal towards which we strive, for of course it should be. It has nevertheless been my experience that some of the smartest posters in the game are also the nastiest, and that's true of both the right and the left.
