A More Perfect Administration - Game Thread

[OrangeP47]

Prologue - The 1788 Presidential Election

The nation celebrates a new Constitution.  The old Articles of Confederation had flaws, and the flaws were becoming readily apparent, at least to a majority, henceforth they have been cast aside and something new put in place between the states.  It is still a chaotic time.  There are many competing visions for the future, and no one single unifying voice to lead the way forward.  Many are willing to come together with both friends and rivals in the spirit of cooperation and work for the best, however.  Thus was the national mood on the eve of the nation's first set of elections.

91 Electors, 182 votes, 46 to win

Results:

Benjamin Gold (I-CT) – 70 electors

Alexander Clark (I-MD) – 40 electors

Timothy Stone (I-GA) (NPC) – 21 electors

Other Candidates – 45 electors

In this time of uncertainty, the electors have put their faith in Governor Benjamin Gold of Connecticut.  He is a good candidate, a proven, capable leader that knows how to get things done with a plan to strengthen America after the Revolution.  His plan is not the only plan, but he's had success in Connecticut, enough so a majority are willing to give him the reigns.  Though his margin of victory may seem commanding, the Electoral College is designed to make victories appear more impressive, so while there will no doubt be a "honeymoon" period of goodwill, it will remain to be seen how much backing he truly has.

Gold's Vice President-elect is a military man, Alexander Clark.  Clark enjoys much the same support base as Gold, but the electors were more in favor of a politician than a general.  Such is the way the wind blows.  Still, Clark is personally popular in the Mid-Atlantic, and has more prestige there than the President-elect in some regards.

Coming in a distant third was Timothy Stone (an NPC, but you'll be seeing more of him), the wealthiest man in Georgia.  Stone was a staunch opponent of of the Constitution, at least in its current form, but that did not stop him from accepting support towards becoming the first President under this new system.  Though heavily outvoted at present time, there are many that either think like Stone or might have such sympathies, especially in the South.  There are surprisingly strong voices of this chorus in other places, too, such as Pennsylvania.  Time will tell if they can coalesce into strong opponents, loyal opposition, or fade into obscurity.

At the same time as the Presidency was being decided, so was Congress.  In the House, there's a roughly 45-20 split between supporters and detractors of Gold, though the terms should be considered loosely.  In the young nation, no Politician has dared yet truly start the fires of factionalism, but it's only a matter of time.  The Senate is similarly split, 19-7.  Only one thing is certain as March turns to April... all who will be in attendance at Federal Hall have a lot to reflect on.

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Note:  Gray states are states in which either Gold and Clark split 50/50 or nobody got 50%.  Some colored states also have "toss up electors".  "Toss up electors" are the way of representing minor candidates who got a handful of EVs but didn't really matter, but theoretically you could claim to have won 1 or 2 electors if you really want to and nobody could dispute your claim.

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@Imperator Taco Cat @Hestia @Euri @Cal @Bushwa777 @Murrman104 @Blockmon @ShortKing @10centjimmy @matthewyoung123 @The Blood @Rezi @WVProgressive @Pringles @Dobs @Ich_bin_Tyler

I'll post the "April 1789" Status Post tomorrow where real governing can begin.  For now, this is the Eve of the 1st Congress assembling in NYC.

 

[OrangeP47]

There may or may not be a math error above but it's okay because unless you guys are the most incompetent people to walk the planet these EVs won't be used for 1792.

[Murrman104]

2 minutes ago, OrangeP47 said:

There may or may not be a math error above but it's okay because unless you guys are the most incompetent people to walk the planet these EVs won't be used for 1792.

you underestimate us 

[Imperator Taco Cat]

Just now, OrangeP47 said:

 unless you guys are the most incompetent people to walk the planet 

In other words: all bets are off.

[OrangeP47]

To be fair, fun historical fact:  The very first veto in US history was George Washington vetoing the first attempt at reapportionment following the 1790 census because he thought they did such a bad job.

[Bushwa777]

Edward Kent is angry that Stone got 21 votes.  The men know each other as they are neighbors and despise each other

[OrangeP47]

Imagine Stone as kind of Thomas Jefferson crossed with Pierce Butler.

[Euri]

2 minutes ago, OrangeP47 said:

Imagine Stone as kind of Thomas Jefferson crossed with Pierce Butler.

I’m sure he’ll be a fan favorite

[OrangeP47]

A More Perfect Administration – April 1789

Monthly Report

Political

President: Benjamin Gold (I-CT) (Estimated Approval: 85-80%)

House: 45-20 (Pro/Anti Administration Split) (65 total)

Speaker: Thomas J. Wilson (I-MA)

Senate: 19-7 (Pro/Anti Administration Split) (26 total)

PPT: Henry Allison (I-VA)

-

Economy

Inflation: -1%

Unemployment: Negligible

Tarriff: 50 cents per ton – foreign, 6 cents per ton – American

-

Military

Standing Army: 1,000

Standing Navy: 6 frigates

-

News

(Informational) Congress is assembling for the first time here in New York. The Governor might have some undue influence over the goings ons, a quite envyable position....

(Informational)The economy is a bit sluggish, especially in the North where states are tied down with debt from the Revolution.

(647) Runner up Timothy Stone is at his plantation in Georgia, but sends warm well wishes to the new President. He does not seem bitter about the loss, but it is doubtful this is the last anyone's heard of him.

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Upcoming Important Legislation

Congress is performing many of the foundational tasks needed to establish a working federal government, such as regulating its own rules, rules of order, etc. Input and influence over this process can now be weilded. A finalized slate will be ready shortly.

Procurement of resources for each cabinet member is being debated in Congress. This is strictly tied to the budget process, and will need to be considered in ballance with any federal tarriff policy. This debate might take some time.

Related, but also somewhat separate, many in Congress are gently reminding others that the Constitution provides for the establishment of a Federal Judiciary. This is looking like a long, drawn out debate.

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State News

Pennsylvania (153) – Word on the street has it anti-Constitution sentiment in the state is actually a lot higher than many people suspect. At the very least, there seems to be some rivarly between Philadelphia and New York City.

South Carolina (587) – Good weather so far this year... might be able to take some advantage of it with the planting...

Virginia (905) – A representative from the District of Kentucky arrives at the Governor's office, one Mr. Raymond Earl (NPC). He intends to discuss Virginia's consent to the District becoming a State in it's own right, which as you know was given under the Articles, but a decision was made to postpone any action until once the new system of government was in place. He's here to hammer out any finer details of whatever arrangement is to be made, and seems to be a quite agreeable fellow.

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Imperator Taco Cat @Hestia @Euri @Cal @Bushwa777 @Murrman104 @Blockmon @ShortKing @10centjimmy @matthewyoung123 @The Blood @Rezi @WVProgressive @Pringles @Dobs @Ich_bin_Tyler

[OrangeP47]

How this works:  You'll have a few days to discuss this post and decide on individual and collective actions.  You can generally take as many actions as you want, and respond to anything you want, and I'll just judge if it's reasonable for you to do it.  Some events, such as "upcoming legislation" will hit multiple turns, so you have multiple chances to influence it.  You can basically do whatever.  I only ask that, if you are taking an action instead of just talking, please post "ACTION:" so I know what to look for when processing.

You can also ask me any questions about the ongoing state of the country, but I may not be a reliable narrator 😉

[OrangeP47]

Also to be clear too, you can just do things of your own initiative, too.  I've mentioned what's on the Congressional docket... but if you'd like to add something (and you're a Congresscritter), you can try, just for example.

[Blockmon]

1 hour ago, OrangeP47 said:

A More Perfect Administration – April 1789

Monthly Report

Political

President: Benjamin Gold (I-CT) (Estimated Approval: 85-80%)

House: 45-20 (Pro/Anti Administration Split) (65 total)

Speaker: Thomas J. Wilson (I-MA)

Senate: 19-7 (Pro/Anti Administration Split) (26 total)

PPT: Henry Allison (I-VA)

-

Economy

Inflation: -1%

Unemployment: Negligible

Tarriff: 50 cents per ton – foreign, 6 cents per ton – American

-

Military

Standing Army: 1,000

Standing Navy: 6 frigates

-

News

(Informational) Congress is assembling for the first time here in New York. The Governor might have some undue influence over the goings ons, a quite envyable position....

(Informational)The economy is a bit sluggish, especially in the North where states are tied down with debt from the Revolution.

(647) Runner up Timothy Stone is at his plantation in Georgia, but sends warm well wishes to the new President. He does not seem bitter about the loss, but it is doubtful this is the last anyone's heard of him.

-

Upcoming Important Legislation

Congress is performing many of the foundational tasks needed to establish a working federal government, such as regulating its own rules, rules of order, etc. Input and influence over this process can now be weilded. A finalized slate will be ready shortly.

Procurement of resources for each cabinet member is being debated in Congress. This is strictly tied to the budget process, and will need to be considered in ballance with any federal tarriff policy. This debate might take some time.

Related, but also somewhat separate, many in Congress are gently reminding others that the Constitution provides for the establishment of a Federal Judiciary. This is looking like a long, drawn out debate.

-

State News

Pennsylvania (153) – Word on the street has it anti-Constitution sentiment in the state is actually a lot higher than many people suspect. At the very least, there seems to be some rivarly between Philadelphia and New York City.

South Carolina (587) – Good weather so far this year... might be able to take some advantage of it with the planting...

Virginia (905) – A representative from the District of Kentucky arrives at the Governor's office, one Mr. Raymond Earl (NPC). He intends to discuss Virginia's consent to the District becoming a State in it's own right, which as you know was given under the Articles, but a decision was made to postpone any action until once the new system of government was in place. He's here to hammer out any finer details of whatever arrangement is to be made, and seems to be a quite agreeable fellow.

-

Imperator Taco Cat @Hestia @Euri @Cal @Bushwa777 @Murrman104 @Blockmon @ShortKing @10centjimmy @matthewyoung123 @The Blood @Rezi @WVProgressive @Pringles @Dobs @Ich_bin_Tyler

so just the question, what is the current state of the economy and domestic stability in a short paragraph?

[OrangeP47]

2 minutes ago, Blockmon said:

so just the question, what is the current state of the economy and domestic stability in a short paragraph?

Yeah, for the record you guys can think of me as "Key Advisor" in addition to GM and that position isn't playable, but also everyone has a key advisor.  I can make a report on nearly anything you ask for, but there's also sometimes a "fog of war" so to speak.

Domestic stability is okay, borderline good.  There is a lot of complain about, in short, but the people and politicians have a sense of optimism.  You have a tall task ahead of you guys, but as long as you handle everything competently, people will probably be satisfied and give you leeway.  If you guys start to make questionable decisions, well, the cracks will start to show, and there are cracks to be hand, both political and sectional.  It's also said you can't please everyone, too, so eventually you might have to "break some eggs" so to speak, just be smart about when you have to do it to avoid pissing off too many people too fast.

In terms of the economy, the country is really suffering from a lack of unified policy and Northern states have a large amount of debt from the war which is burdening them.  Some might argue doing ANYTHING could help, as long as you take a unified front, but that still has the challenge of getting everyone to agree on what specific plan to use.  There's also, and this goes for many issues, reluctance of some states to help other states, because while we have the Constitution now, what does it actually mean?  The South is doing okay economically, for instance, but that in large part has to do not only with "free" labor but also their in general smaller population size making them easier to manage.  They also didn't need to finance as much to fight the war.

This may be getting longwinded, but President Gold's economic policies are generally sound and do help the economy, but they are expensive.  They have not helped the North's debt situation, even if internal improvements do improve the economy.  His election would seem to signal that there is support for trying this path at a national scale, but be warned that if roadblocks are encountered there *will* be detractors for the above mentioned reasons.

[Bushwa777]

ACTION: Secretary of the Treasury Kent proposes a national bank and tariffs to be raised to 5% to help pay down debt

[OrangeP47]

2 minutes ago, Bushwa777 said:

ACTION: Secretary of the Treasury Kent proposes a national bank and tariffs to be raised to 5% to help pay down debt

Technically the federal government has no debt, it's all state debt.  You'd have to get the debt from the states first.  (See:  Hamilton vs Jefferson rap battle).  You can propose a national bank, though, do you want to find someone specific in Congress to work with?

[OrangeP47]

3 minutes ago, OrangeP47 said:

Technically the federal government has no debt, it's all state debt.  You'd have to get the debt from the states first.  (See:  Hamilton vs Jefferson rap battle).  You can propose a national bank, though, do you want to find someone specific in Congress to work with?

 

[Bushwa777]

Speaker Wilson @Blockmon can you help support a national bank?

[OrangeP47]

Also to be clear, as I said, you can basically do as many things as you want within reason.  You can work with Congress on a national bank AND try to assume state debts.  Furthermore, a tariff will indeed need to be discussed at some point (it's in the agenda) so I can factor in your input into the debate on that.

[ShortKing]

How long would the process be to pass major legislation? Are we going to have committee votes and such? Does Congress have committees right now or is that also something we'll need to decide in game?

[Blockmon]

11 minutes ago, Bushwa777 said:

Speaker Wilson @Blockmon can you help support a national bank?

speak with me on pms, I am heavily interested.

[Blockmon]

5 minutes ago, ShortKing said:

How long would the process be to pass major legislation? Are we going to have committee votes and such? Does Congress have committees right now or is that also something we'll need to decide in game?

I also want to know how congress works. do you have simulated NPCs? or is it generalized to states or parties?

[OrangeP47]

1 minute ago, ShortKing said:

How long would the process be to pass major legislation? Are we going to have committee votes and such? Does Congress have committees right now or is that also something we'll need to decide in game?

Committee assignments and votes etc are generally abstracted and dependent on relevant player support and dice rolls.  If a lot of players support something, it'll surely pass, and a bad dice roll will be more about bad PR or unintended consequences of your actions.  If it's more close, a bad dice roll might mean the bill fails.  Now that said, if you want to take actions to stack specific committees and use dirty tricks, sure, you can do that, and it'll give you an advantage.  It'll still be abstracted, but it'll be something I take into account when processing outcomes.  If you spend a few turns getting your close allies on the rules committee, etc, then everybody else better watch out, cause you're bringing receipts.  I'm not gonna do a roll call vote of your shenanigans though generally, it'll be more about the flavor.

As for how long it takes a bill to pass, it depends on many things.  An important bill probably takes longer than a less important bill, as a rule of thumb, but generally I'm going to have things at least have an "announcement" and then "outcome" turn, so everyone gets a chance to influence it once.  If it's taking awhile, that's just more turns for people to throw influence around.  If you want to railroad something, you could perhaps try to expedite a bill, or, conversely, slow it down, so in fact how many turns something is being debated can be influenced by the players too.

Just for reference, the first agenda item, the "rules/Congressional foundational" package I expect to take this turn, next turn, and then final outcome the turn after that, unless someone really decides they want to mess with it hardcore.

[OrangeP47]

1 minute ago, Blockmon said:

I also want to know how congress works. do you have simulated NPCs? or is it generalized to states or parties?

Sometimes there will be NPCs, but generally I abstract it to the party/faction level.  It's kind of nebulous at the moment since parties/factions haven't really developed, but knowing how you lot are, I'm sure that will be remedied quite quickly.  I do have every state's Congressional delegation listed by pro/anti administration right now, with humans not included in pro/anti, but it's more of a quick reference that can be changed and retconned without any of you ever being any the wiser that I changed anything depending on how the plot developed, but it'll assist me if I ever need to quickly pull an NPC out of my ass.

[10centjimmy]

 

Representative Bull, having experienced the power of the French navy firsthand at the battle of Yorktown, ACTION calls for an increased investment in river/coastal fefenses and ships to protect trade and settlers from piracy, Native incursions, and foreign threats. 

He ACTION proposes an increase in domestic tariffs to 8 cents per ton for this investment, and to secure funding for the Federal Departments of the Navy and War to maintain the fleet/Defenses.  

He ACTION calls for ship/Defense contracts to be shared between maritime industries across the country. 

Finally, Rep Bull ACTION calls for the establishment of a US Naval Academy, to train officers for this expanded fleet in modern tactics, maintenance, and seamanship. The Academy location will be determined after passage of this proposal. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by 10centjimmy

[OrangeP47]

7 minutes ago, 10centjimmy said:

 

Representative Bull, having experienced the power of the French navy firsthand at the battle of Yorktown, calls for an increased investment in river/coastal fefenses and ships to protect trade and settlers from piracy, Native incursions, and foreign threats. 

He proposes an increase in domestic tariffs to 8 cents per ton for this investment, and to secure funding for the Federal Departments of the Navy and War to maintain the fleet/Defenses.  

He calls for ship/Defense contracts to be shared between maritime industries across the country. 

Finally, Rep Bull calls for the establishment of a US Naval Academy, to train officers for this expanded fleet in modern tactics, maintenance, and seamanship. The Academy location will be determined after passage of this proposal. 

Can I assume these are all actions?  Even if they are obviously ya'll can discuss them, we're not robots, but I just want to be clear.