Guest Speaker - Munditenens Tresplet

[Ian Plätschisch]

Now, please welcome our second guest speaker; former leader of the Free Democrats of Talossa and Senator for Maricopa, Munditenens Tresplet!  

*Roaring Applause*

[Munditenens Tresplet]

My apologies for waiting until mere hours before voting begins to post this speech. As everyone is no doubt aware, I resigned my position as President of the Free Democrats a couple months ago due to a situation that is consuming much of my time. Indeed, I wish I could have more time to devote to Talossa, and hopefully after the next government takes office (meaning I am no longer the Interior Minister), I will be able to devote more time to both journalism and my passion for the frozen land to the south.

In any event, I've come to speak without any particular agenda in mind. Though I have considered trying to stick to a certain thought or focal point to the speech, and some have suggested to me that I speak on a certain topic, I figured I'd do what I do best and wing it. 

Tensions between our parties are greater than they ever have been. When you enter university, one often given piece of advice is never to choose to room with your best friend, as the two of you will inevitably have disagreements that could leave your relationship in shambles. Indeed, something similar seems to have happened to our two parties. What was once a strong alliance between the former opposition parties under RUMP rule, one that was built before I even joined the Liberal Congress, has now turned into some sort of juvenile game of pointing fingers, with neither of our parties really taking responsibility for what may have went wrong during this last administration. The more one party is accused, the stronger that party returns the favor, and both parties wind up losing in the end as a result.

I campaigned for President of the Free Democrats on a promise to lead a government that welcomed individuals from any party who were well qualified to do their job, and not just appointed as part of the typical coalition process. We're all well aware how it has worked in the past, Party A is getting this cabinet position and that cabinet position, so Party B has to get their fair share of the cabinet as well. Why is that? Why must we horse trade for cabinet positions, as if some positions carry more weight than the other? 

The fact is, a government works best when everyone is eager and able to do the job that they are appointed to do, and most of the time politics need not play a role. When a government has individuals who are not able to do their job, the rest of the cabinet may not be able to fulfill their job descriptions either. As I've learned in my only term serving as a Cabinet member (thus far), it is truly a team effort that requires everyone's attention and participation. 

I'll be the first to admit that I dropped the ball on a few things. One thing in particular that I wasn't able to completely accomplish was setting everything up for a potential TalossaFest in the next six months; between other Talossan duties I was taking on, and some Immigration related problems, I wasn't able to get done what I had planned to. While I'm leaving the Interior Ministry in good shape for whomever takes the office after me, I regret that I wasn't able to give my successor the tools he or she would need to easily and quickly implement a plan for a TalossaFest during their term. I could easily blame me dropping the ball on someone else, whether that be another minister or one of my subordinates, but as the Interior Minister, the responsibility ultimately lies on my shoulders.

At the risk of this becoming me going off on several different tangents, I'll try to steer the speech back onto some kind of track. My cabinet of talents promise was one that was similarly shared by both of my opponents, and one that I'm happy to say was continued by my successor. Unfortunately it seems that the cabinet of talents became a controversial issue, as if it wasn't the idea so much as it was the person who was advertising it.

There may be valid concerns about the cabinet of talents idea; for instance, some may not feel as though the Free Democrats can judge a individual's ability to do their job, which is just one possible concern that I thought of off the top of my head right now. Instead the main concern was regarding the Vote of Confidence, something that was initially required of those joining the cabinet of talents to always vote in the affirmative on...which, honestly, isn't much of a concern at all. First and foremost, this concern assumes the worst of the cabinet, in that from the outset, it assumes the government (like always) will ultimately fail. The concern should be a nonstarter on that point alone, as the cabinet of talents is designed specifically not to fail--everyone does their job or gets replaced, period. Second, voting in the affirmative on the VoC is something that has been required as either a stated or unstated rule of every coalition that has been put together thus far--but for some reason, we shouldn't stipulate a vote in the affirmative on the VoC by members of our own cabinet? I just don't get it.

My point of bringing up the cabinet of talents is thus: we need to start thinking about a Talossa that has risen past partisan politics. Now I get that, for a lot of people, legislating in Talossa is one of the main draws to becoming a citizen. I'll be the first to admit that, yes, having some outlet for my political interests was the main reason I joined. It isn't as if I'm advocating for an abandonment of politics or for completely non-partisan elections, but I hope that we can all be in agreement that the current system of campaigning on the failures of other parties isn't ideal. Obviously this type of campaign strategy is a healthy part of politics, and it's necessary to point out the flaws in other parties' past histories. But in Talossa, this is all we do. 

Our entire political landscape thrives on the next big scandal, on the next big faux pas, and it has become such an engrained part of our entire country that we just act is if there is no other alternative. Honestly, in some ways, it's great that the King decided to not proclaim the now infamous amendment, because otherwise we'd be scrambling to figure out something else to talk about and rehash for the next few months. (Though no doubt we'd figure out something to argue about pretty quickly.) 

There can be an alternative, if we accept that the alternative being presented is not one presented to bolster any kind of partisan interests. Rather than point out failures, we could introduce new ideas into the political spectrum. Maybe we've taken the coins idea as far as we can over the last decade or so that Talossan citizens have been looking forward to them, and it's time now to stop campaigning on the notion that "Our party will mint coins, guaranteed--Not like those other guys, who had less than six months of a term to do it!" I personally feel that a cabinet of talents would be a first step towards moving past failures in government. I'd like to see all of the parties have similar ideas, so that the voters aren't choosing a party based on which party they think will put together a somewhat functioning government (that will abide by its statutory duties), or choosing a party based on the prior actions of another party, but rather, choosing on policy, on new ideas, on what they are passionate about, as they should be. The voter can rest easy knowing that whatever party they choose, the government that comes into power following an election will be made up of those who will do the jobs that are required of them best. 

Maybe this is just another pipe dream, another rant from someone who claims to be fed up with Talossan politics yet willfully continues to participate in the process. Feel free to throw tomatoes if you'd like. But, if you can take away anything from my speech, take away this: at the end of the day, we are all citizens of Talossa no matter which party we are affiliated with, and we should all expect something more from our government, regardless of who leads it.