Libertarian Party

From eRepublik Official Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Libertarian Party

Party-Libertarian Party.jpg
General Information
Country Flag-USA.png USA
Abbreviation Libs
USLP
Founded November 2007
Dissolved 16 January 2012
Political
Congress Occupancy 0 /62 seats, 0%
Succeeded By U.S. Marijuana Party
Orientation Center-Right
Ideology Anarchist

The Libertarian Party was an American political party in existence since around the beginning of eRepublik. With more than 200 registered members, the Libertarian Party was the fifth largest in the United States and the forty-nine largest in the [New World]]. One of the most historically influential parties in American politics, the party had regular representation in Congress and has propelled both Nave Saikiliah, Immunogenic and Emerick to the United States presidency. It has gone through several name changes but returned to the original name in November 2010.


Social Policies

The Libertarian Party is a strong proponent of injecting fun into the social atmosphere of this game. Those who hardcore role-play or fail to engage with others are often the ones who end up burnt out or inactive. As such, the Libertarian Party promotes a middle way. The party indeed houses members with genuine political ambitions—and it has the ability to promote the success of these individuals—but as an entity, it prefers lightheartedness to hardcore politicking.

In contrast to most other parties, the Libertarians don't view party membership as belonging to an exclusive club. Rather than file people according to political affiliation and by doing so narrow the interpersonal interactions, members are encouraged to think of themselves as members of the larger community first.

Previously, the party didn't believe in party-based forums, choosing instead to congregate on the main US forum, as opposed to most other parties. However, when Claire Littleton took leadership of the party in June 2009, new forums were created in an effort to streamline the party. This was in response to a poor showing in the May 2009 congressional elections and the belief that the party had lost its vigor.

The forums were rehabilitated by Jude Connors in October 2011 under the s0beit leadership.

The Constitution of 2009

The Libertarian Party established the party's official board of directors as the LP Steering Committee with the enactment of a constitution in October 2009. LPSC members were elected to office and from within elected a chairman to oversee meetings and official constitutional updates. The LPSC met at least twice a month to deal with nominations for the party presidency and presidential elections, in addition to any scheduled agenda business.

It is unclear exactly when the LPSC dissolved, but the accepted theory is that it died with the merger of the Libertarian Party with the Trade and Military Alliance.

The Constitution of 2011

The time between the 2009 and 2011 constitutions was rough and the old constitution was completely thrown out the window and is in the process of being drafted.

History

Beginnings

The Libertarian Party was originally founded by Jes Maximus, in hopes of creating a true Libertarian Society within the United States. She competed with United States Workers Party heavily for members, although with the Democrats being more well known, their numbers dwarfed the Libs very quickly. It was around mid-January when she stopped showing action, and the Libertarian Party began to fade. It would stay that way until Nave Saikiliah became party president in February 2008.

The Rise of The Liberty Party

In February 2008, Nave Saikiliah became president of the Libertarian Party. He believed that real politics didn't hold much sway in eRepublik and changed the name of the party to the Liberty Party. Under the Liberty moniker, he became president of the USA. Some of his credits for bringing the Liberty Party to the forefront were the success of his training companies, offering jobs to anyone. Up until then, the US had a closely guarded economic policy, which would change as Saikiliah took the Presidency. His methods included constant communication through the media and press releases and private messaging each and every member.

A Period of Inactivity

During Nave Saikiliah's last term as president in May 2008, he didn't run for party president. This left the spot open for many people to take the top seat in the party. With little campaigning, the spot was awarded to Diarmuid Trelsman. Soon after being elected, he went inactive. At the end of May, Diarmuid signed on one last time to announce that he was quitting the game. He resigned his seat to Vos and never signed on again. This caused many members, including Emerick to feel like their party wasn't accomplishing anything they, the members, wanted.

Emerick Takes the Initiative

Only one person announced their candidacy for party president in June of 2008: Josh Granger. Most onlookers believed that he would easily win the election. However, on June 10., when Emerick signed on, he found that Vos was winning the election by a large margin and that Josh Granger had only 2 votes. Upset with the stagnation of the party, he decided to try to win the party presidency and began private messaging party members who hadn't voted yet. After a long day of private message discussions, he had won the party presidency by one vote. Emerick immediately changed the name of the party back to the Libertarian Party and implemented a few mechanics, such as giving the party members a voice on who should be in Congress (in beta, Congress members were appointed by the party president).

Immunogenic Continues its Growth

The July 2008 party elections were a controversial one for the Libertarians. Despite an unannounced candidacy, Riza98 quickly took the lead. This led to confusion amongst many Americans. Many people began to suspect him of multi-accounting to win the seat and even more so when his votes would rise by a few votes whenever Immunogenic would receive some, seemingly mirroring his. Late that night, Emerick teamed up with an Englishman, Skinny Bones Jones to invite new users to vote for Immunogenic in an effort to combat Riza98's multis.

In the end, Immunogenic was elected as party president. During July, he continued Emerick's trend of voting for congressional seats.

Immunogenic Elected President

In the September 2008 presidential elections, Immunogenic was elected as the President of the USA. This caused a lot of criticism, as many Americans with a popular media voice thought that Justinious McWalburgson III should have been elected.

Immunogenic Steps Down

Shortly after being elected as the President of the USA, Immunogenic announced that he wouldn't seek re-election as Libertarian Party president. This caused a massive shock in the party. Many promising candidates announced their candidacy.

The Martin Sunter Term

On September 10, 2008, Martin Sunter was elected as the new Party president of the Libertarian Party. The election caused a lot of disagreements between the party members and other candidates. Many, not only in the Libertarian Party, but all over America, felt that Sunter was not the right choice and decided to run a campaign against him.

Sunter Scandal

Just after Martin Sunter's election, a scandal broke out. Several members of the party sold the secret military plan Operation Eagle Strike to Benn Dover, who revealed the plan to the public. After this, Sunter felt forced to resign and Ikenstein took his place. It was later proven that Ikenstein was also part of the original scandal and the public turned against him. Ikenstein decided to hold a poll for his successor to be decided and then he resigned, leaving GeekyGator as the interim party president.

Time Becomes President

In October 2008, Time was the first party president to be elected after the Sunter scandal.

Time's First Term

The official forum was shut down due to the investigation of Martin Sunter and Operation Eagle Strike (to preserve evidence from deletion). A notable move made by Time was to nominate Benn Dover, a major figure in the Sunter scandal, for the presidential election of November 2008.

Time's Second Term

In his second term, Time turned the Libertarian Party forums back on and appointed Issac Newton as his vice-party president. Time created The Libertarian Bulletin with Emerick, with the intention of sending out press releases for it. However, rather than taking control of it himself, he promised to let his successor as party president have ownership over it.

Emerick Steps Up Again

In December of 2008, Emerick became the first person in Libertarian Party history to be elected to the party presidency for two nonconsecutive terms. He won over the incumbent party president Time.

One major accomplishment Emerick made was to begin The Libertarian Bulletin. In his inaugural address, he stated its official purpose: to be a replacement for press releases, which were used as a party medium of communication to its members during eRepublik Beta. Emerick felt that members would find a common newspaper for all party presidents more helpful and convenient than the president's personal newspaper, especially for longtime members. Emerick only used the paper four times: once to announce the paper, the next to address the party on a few issues, another to announce hisCongressional Competency Test and the last to post the results.

Also of note is that Emerick decided not to utilize the party forums that were created in the summer, during Immunogenic's presidency. On the subject, he said:

 I believe that a party forum breeds a certain connection with the party and disconnects from the country as a whole. 
([1])

He changed the discussion area at the top of the party's page from a link to the forums to a link to the Libertarian Bulletin. Finally, he nominated Justinious McWalburgson III for the national presidential election.

Publius Reigns Over Party

Emerick left the United States[2] in the middle of his presidency, leaving Publius as the interim party president. He continued Emerick's precedent with the Congressional Questionnaire and kept the party stable for two and a half terms, winning two elections in early 2009. On the new US forums, Publius started the drafting of a party manifesto and called on all active party members to give their input. There was some opposition to the manifesto however, some said "trying to define a [L]ibertarian is like trying to define the borders of a cloud".

Hurling Wins the Election

Hurling won the party presidential election in March 2009 and continued the process of writing a manifesto for the party and was a huge contributor toward it. He revitalized the party soon after taking office (seeing as the party had fallen upon a recent major loss of membership) and led the party to a good showing in the Congressional elections. Unfortunately, Hurling went missing during his term just before the presidential elections, leaving the Libertarian Party unable to officially endorse any candidate; thus, his work, for the most part, was abandoned.

HeadmistressTalia Vows to Increase Activity

During Hurling's absence, HeadmistressTalia ran an election to unofficially endorse a presidential candidate[3]. After the Hurling term expired in April 2009 she ran for party president herself and won, running on the promise of increased member activity.

HeadmistressTalia's First and Second Terms

During the first term of her presidency, HeadmistressTalia created the Oligarchy, a former structure of the party.

She won a second election in May 2009. Unfortunately, by the end of her second term, she also went missing. On June 1, 2009, Claire Littleton, Daphne Lilac and Tom McDougal decided to unofficially take charge of the leaderless party and created the Libertarian Ledger to address the party. In the introductory article, Littleton announced HeadmistressTalia's absence, as well as her intention to run the party through an organization she created; she also held a poll to unofficially endorse a party presidential candidate, much like HeadmistressTalia's election before her. This article was met with a strong backlash from members and non-members alike, who accused the trio of implementing a coup of Libertarian power. The day after the article was published, HeadmistressTalia published an article announcing her retirement from politics and naming Littleton as the interim party president[4].

Claire Littleton Serves Admirably

During her time as interim party president, Claire Littleton created a new forum for the party. Though she continued using the Libertarian Ledger for a short time, she later decided to use the Libertarian Bulletin as the official voice of the party. As well, she chose to use Libertarian Ledger as the voice of the members. [5] She also threw out the oligarchical system implemented by HeadmistressTalia, her predecessor as party president, and created new positions[6].

Iasov Re-Creates Libertarian Party

In July, the Libertarian Party merged with the independent Trade and Military Alliance (TAMA) organization, forming US TAMA. In August, it merged again with several small parties, most notably the American Defense Party; the result was the American Defense and Trade Party. However, no name change was working in terms of boosting party membership. During the November 2010 election cycle, Iasov ran for party president on a platform of reforming the Libertarian Party and restoring it to the glory it once had. He was elected easily on November 15, beginning the re-creation of the party under its original name.

The Revolution and the Counter-Revolution

After Josh Frost was elected as United States President on December 5, he began an inquisition against the Libertarian Party, notably CRoy and Claire Littleton. His election marked the beginning of the Revolution. Through the Libertarian Bulletin, CRoy responded by initiating the Counter-Revolution, an attempt at recruiting new Libertarians.

The roleplay continued for approximately for a week, which included the "deaths" of CRoy and Claire Littleton. The entire thing served as a good membership and activity opportunity for the Libertarian Party.

A full history in the form of a documented list of articles released during a six-day period after the beginning of the Revolution can be found [7].

The Dark Times

On January Congressional Election night, Party President Iasov was banned for multiple account usage. This was the first in a series of unfortunate events that would unfold this night. Next, head election coordinator Claire Littleton went missing for the entire night. Both party members and other party election coordinators were left in the dark. There was no vote sniping team. Considerable seats were lost compared to the previous month.

For the next two weeks, the party essentially lacked a president. When Iasov was banned, CIA Director Rod Damon was the senior-most member in the party and assumed the Party Presidency. He was a caretaker president, he was not part of the leadership group. Oddly, when Iasov was banned, the gold funds in the party jumped by about 600. No one has any idea why.

A New Era

On February 15th, former party president DanielCD won a tight race for the party presidency against Jamarcus, 53-48. Immediately after ascending to the position, DanielCD began to work furiously to install some basic party structure to a party that was for all intents and purposes a complete mess since the loss of Iasov. A new leadership channel was created on IRC with much more open access to encourage participation from younger citizens and collaboration amongst party leaders.

Paul Proteus and the Military Scandal

After a few short months in the United States and in the Libs, Paul Proteus, longtime citizen and two-time president of Switzerland, was elected as Party President on March 15, 2011. The first days of his term were spent preparing for the Congressional elections, headed up primarily by then-Vice-Party President Marxus. At the time, Turkish exiles iNCi were in the United States for a second month and they made an agreement with American leadership to divide Congressional seats among all the top five parties to combat iNCi's vast membership.

A few days later, Lib Congressman John Marsten resigned from Congress, shortly followed by Project Psion, both Training Corps officers in the U.S. military. Further inquiry disclosed that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former United States president Bradley Reala had begun strictly enforcing a rule requiring soldiers seeking a political career to resign their commission and join the National Guard. Many Congressmen viewed this as unnecessary under current game mechanics and drastically moved to abolish the JCS. This led to legislation (championed in part by Congressman and former Lib party president CRoy) that created our current military structure.

The remainder of Paul Proteus' term was dedicated to creating programs to stimulate activity, such as the Libertarian Zeppelin Brigade, a party messaging team.

Downtime

The period between Paul Proteus' party presidency and October 2011 was pretty bleak, not much activity took place during this time. Party presidents such as N_I_K_A_N and Jelly9473 had proven themselves unsatisfactory and party activity died down. Jelly9473 had computer problems, and N_I_K_A_N was several times accused of attempting to control the party even by the internal leadership. N_I_K_A_N was accused of tampering with the Party President's primary results.

s0beit's first term

After the lackluster performance of previous Party Presidents, s0beit took it upon himself to revitalize the party and bring new people into party leadership positions. Jude_Connors was his vice president. Other people joined the top-tier such as Ariovistus, FransicoMiranda, Macros the "Black" (and more). Under his administration, he accomplished all the goals he set forth and exceeded some others. This period is famous for swelling the membership count from 221 when s0beit took office to 328 at its peak in a period of 5 days.

Party Presidents

#1 Avatar Party president Took Office Left Office Term Party Name
1 Citizen338.jpg Jes Maximus November 2007 10 February 2008 1 Libertarian Party
2
3
2 Citizen52381.jpg Nave Saikiliah 11 February 2008 10 May 2008 4
5
6
3 Citizen45352.jpg Diarmuid Trelsman 11 May 2008 May 2008 7
4 Citizen7559.jpg Vos May 2008 10 June 2008
5 Citizen77851 v2.jpg Emerick 11 June 2008 10 July 2008 8
6 Citizen489321.jpg Immunogenic 11 July 2008 10 September 2008 9
10
7 Citizen506321.jpg Martin Sunter 11 September 2008 13 September 2008 11
8 Citizen558311.jpg Ikenstein 13 September 2008 15 September 2008
9 Citizen713861.jpg GeekyGator 15 September 2008 15 October 2008
10 Citizen489952.jpg Time 16 October 2008 15 December 2008 12
13
11 Citizen77851 v2.jpg Emerick 16 December 2008 10 January 2009 14
12 Citizen837661.jpg Publius 10 January 2009 15 March 2009
15
16
13 Citizen1223566.jpg Hurling 16 March 2009 15 April 2009 17
14 Citizen1231379.jpg HeadmistressTalia 16 April 2009 15 June 2009 18
19
15 Citizen1321964.jpg Claire Littleton 16 June 2009 15 August 2009 20
21
16 Citizen189482.jpg Daphne Lilac 16 August 2009 15 October 2009 22
23
17 Citizen1485476.jpg DanielCD 16 October 2009 15 January 2010 24
25
26
18 Citizen1677941.jpg Devoid 16 January 2010 15 February 2010 27
19 Citizen1906879.jpg LifesaverM 16 February 2010 15 March 2010 28
20 Citizen1321964.jpg Claire Littleton 16 March 2010 15 April 2010 29
21 Citizen1914402.jpg KrissyKat 16 April 2010 15 May 2010 30
22 Unknown Person.jpg Dennis McVicker 16 May 2010 15 June 2010 31 US TAMA
23 Citizen1288443.jpg mjdiv 16 June 2010 15 July 2010 32
24 Unknown Person.jpg Dennis McVicker 16 July 2010 15 August 2010 33
25 Citizen1722416.jpg Indrae 16 August 2010 15 October 2010 35 American Defense and Trade Party
36
26 Citizen3549100.jpg HobbitTon 16 October 2010 15 November 2010 37
27 Citizen1354435.jpg Iasov 16 November 2010 25 January 2011 38 Libertarian Party
39
40
28 Citizen1525659.jpg Rod Damon 25 January 2011 14 February 2011
29 Citizen3457808.jpg CRoy 14 February 2011 15 February 2011
30 Citizen1485476.jpg DanielCD 16 February 2011 15 March 2011 41
31 Citizen2677292 v2.jpg Paul Proteus 16 March 2011 15 April 2011 42
32 Citizen3088673 v2.jpg Marxus 16 April 2011 15 May 2011 43
33 Citizen4721383.jpg Stanleyman 16 May 2011 15 June 2011 44
34 Citizen3088673 v2.jpg Marxus 16 June 2011 15 July 2011 45
35 ZDRUG v2.jpg N_I_K_A_N 16 July 2011 16 August 2011 46
36 Citizen1479403.jpg Jelly9473 16 August 2011 16 September 2011 47
37 Citizen1869832.jpg s0beit 16 October 2011 16 November 2011 48
38 Citizen1161482.jpg Jamarcus 16 November 2011 16 January 2012 49
50

Notes

  • The numbers indicate the consecutive time in office served by a single person. For example, Jes Maximus served three consecutive terms and is counted as the first president (not the first, second, and third). Under this way of counting, Emerick is counted twice, having served non-consecutive terms.

External links