As we all know, Atlasia has been ravaged by COVID-19, and thousands of Atlasians have perished to this virus. As the end of the pandemic appears near, how would you support transitioning back to normal life? What safety measures do you believe are still justified? What role do you believe the Atlasian government has in continuing to fight against the social and economic effects of COVID-19?
I am in broad agreement with my opponents on the response to Covid - our vaccination programme has been a success and provided a path - the only path - back to normal life. Likewise I am supportive of the federal government stepping in an emergency situation to provide the necessary financial firepower to address the worst impacts of the pandemic on our people. When our vaccination targets have been met it is similarly in our best interest to share our surplus supplies with other countries.
I am not in favor of any federally mandated public health measures when our vaccination program is complete, but would view this as fundamentally a responsibility of the regions.
There are two points I would highlight as central to our response as we emerge from the pandemic period: first, I am in agreement on the urgent necessity of keeping schools and, to a lesser extent, universities open by whatever means necessary, and, second, over the longer term, the need to restore the Atlasian public finances to a credible position. There is a role for the state in any economy, but if we want to enter into a new era of unprecedented public expenditure as the new normal then this will, inevitably, have to be funded. I would be wary of the implications for this on our tax burden: too often in Atlasia we have viewed businesses and the very wealthy as a limitless source of free dollars from whom extracting funds has zero negative consequences.
While a broad-based economic recovery, when we have brought this crisis to an end, will, yes, do much in restoring the public coffers to health, we will need to take a cold, hard look at where efficiencies and, indeed, privatizations can be implemented to shore up our fiscal buffers for the next black swan event.
Recently in Lincoln, two controversial legislative initiatives - one introducing further restriction on late-term abortions, and one regulating 'diversity training' - both passed in a relatively low-turnout election. In your opinion, did the people of Lincoln make the right decision? How will you address these issues as a Senator?
I voted against both these initiatives and would rather they had not passed.
I was sympathetic to the aims of the regulations on 'diversity training' - I have little patience for the cult of hyper-woke race science nonsense that has become fashionable in HR circles in recent years. But the bill included what seemed to be an excessive reward for 'whistleblowing' that would have, ironically, awarded money to people who claimed their feelings were hurt. What could be more in tune with today's HRification of society than that? Had this clause not been present I would likely have supported the legislation.
People can disagree on the abortion issue in good faith. My own view was that the legislation was ill-conceived and would have little practical impact - a case of signalling. I would note that my own personal views on this matter have not prevented me from, in
Roe v. ZuWo, ruling that the federal government has no jurisdiction in abortion (a decision that has been to an extent reversed, in my view, erroneously).
With a recent bill recognizing Taiwan passing Congress, tensions with China appear to be once more increasing. What is your take on the China issue? How do you believe Congress, and Atlasia as a whole, should handle China? Are you concerned about further animosity between the governments of the two nations potentially encouraging anti-Chinese-American xenophobia?
China is the single most significant bad actor on the world stage, and an opponent of basic Atlasian values. Our predecessor state fought Soviet communism for decades and was a shining light of freedom and opportunity for oppressed peoples throughout the world. Our moral imperative is to do the same today. Of course, the economic power of the Chinese Communist Party is vast. Its tendrils are intertwined with many of our businesses. We have all witnessed the dismal displays of professional athletes and Hollywood producers bowing to Beijing.
This is to say nothing of the criminal act that China committed in its willful misleading of the world on the current pandemic. It is not exaggeration to say that the present misery we have found ourselves in is the fault of the Chinese state. I fully support the Congress' actions in recognizing Taiwan and condemning human rights violations, most notably the ongoing holocaust against the Uighur people. I am confident that, in the unlikely event that I were to prevail in this election, I would find allies in the Senate on further sanctions against the Chinese state and businesses who deal with our geopolitical enemy.
To be as clear as possible: any decent person is repulsed and horrified by xenophobic discrimination against Asian Atlasians. But we cannot let this frankly tenuous correlation, which is promoted by the Chinese disinformation media, to prevent us from taking action. I would finally note as an addendum that I am skeptical of the utility of Senator Blair's suggestion of a federal task force on this issue. This should be dealt with on a local, regional level, as with any local crime.
Many in the center and right have accused Labor dominance of perpetuating legislative stagnation. Do you believe this take is correct? Is there a dearth of meaningful legislative activity? How will you, as Senator, address this issue, if it even exists?
This is correct,
objectively correct. But, to be fair to Labor, this would happen - indeed, has happened - regardless of the specific ideological hue - any time one party drains the life out of the game like some blood-sucking wraith by - if you will - gaming the system to ensure total systemic dominance. There is simply little incentive for people to participate when the natural party of government, inevitably, runs the country like a low rent mafia family.
I am optimistic that the plan proposed by the President et al. will provide a framework for discussing how to address this issue.
As for how I would address this issue were I to be elected to the Senate: people have accused me of many things - some of them true - over my long career in Atlasia. One thing I don't think anyone can accuse me of is being a party line man. The activity question, the "economy of Atlasia", as I have called it before, has been the issue most important to me for many years.
To quote myself, I have said on many occasions that the problem with our concept of 'activity' is that we as citizens tend to see it as a moral, individual failing, rather than what it really is - which is a fundamental structural flaw in our system of incentives, not character defects on the part of anyone who lapses into inaction and sloth. The dominance of one party is a structural problem that needs to be addressed. I hope we can make some progress in doing so as we debate the current reform proposal.
Recently, there have been significant concerns regarding the onset of offsite recruiting. What's your take on this issue, and do you believe that offsite recruiting's increasing prevalence is a threat to the game's survival? Do you believe regulations on new registers should be passed, to combat this?
I have been thinking about this a lot in recent weeks. We have entered into a grotesque situation whereby the electorate has been massively inflated by brutal mathematics, on both sides, yet the proportion of 'active players' has remained largely stagnant.
In most countries, the 'active players' and the 'electorate' are one and the same. This is not the case in Atlasia. Let us refer to the electorate - the voter rolls - and the citizenry - those who are at least somewhat involved with Atlasia and are aware of the issues and personalities of the day etc.
This perverse development means that the electorate has been detached from citizenry. It was ever thus, and this has been a fundamental structural problem that Atlasia has struggled with since its inception. "Campaigning" in Atlasia, in the sense of making lapel-clutching speeches or participating in debates such as this, has never mattered so much as the ability to send dozens of PMs to your legion of wiling zombies. This has meant that bad, inactive people get elected while credible and talented people are consigned to electoral irrelevancy.
But the shameful activities of those who recruited masses of meaningless, empty vessels to our voter rolls has made the problem spiral out of control. The size of the "zombie" electorate is now, quite simply, a danger to the sustainability of Atlasia as a meaningful and worthwhile democracy.
Win or lose this race, I will not stop fighting this problem. We must analyse our response with the urgency that it merits, and we
must respond. If we don't, this will be how things work from here on out. People will win elections by recruiting five hundred gomers off Stormfront and shipping them to Lincoln. And our debates and policy discussions will mean precisely nothing.
What is your proudest achievement in Atlasia?
Some of the decisions I had the opportunity to author while I was on the Supreme Court had profound ramifications and were based in a fair and objective understanding of the Constitution - which resulted in many of them being unanimous rulings despite an ideologically diverse Court. So I would have to say that part of my career is my proudest accomplishment.
