NationStates Jolt Archive

(This one have what consist perhaps in the largest roster of mavericks around, hope it's interesting)

It was perhaps the most polemic proposal to ever unravel in the Electronic Direct Democratic Network of Third Spanish States. The proposal was to delegate diplomatic powers to a head of State. Although that was done many times with countless different different representatives, some considered that a single foreign relations representative of the Confederacy would be more adequate, because there was an overall incoherence which created the false notion that Third Spanish States is an erratic nation. For sometimes a representative would be an anarcho-capitalist while in others a sent representative would instead stand for anarcho-communism to make everything a bit confusing for those not used to the highly decentralized social organization of the Confederacy.

Surprisingly, it was approved by a tight margin in yet another polemic referendum of the EDDNet, however it did not mean the people were actually giving in their power to a single person, on the contrary, this single representative would have to comply with the interests and will of the people, and not the contrary. What such representative would be trusted with would be his capability of standing internationally in the few foreign meetings the Confederacy participates of and defending its interests across foreign relations. However, it can be assured that even if a representative lacks the power to perform the policies he stand for, the fact most would agree with such representative to elect him in the first place means that whoever wins will also signal the primary ideological bent of the Confederacy, currently under the bent of a mixed economy of neo-mutualism, a new take on the old socialist free market idea based on cooperatives envisioned by Proudhon, which also operates under supply and offer like a capitalist market, but lacks four things: a central government to charge taxes, wage labor, which they consider as wage slavery, rent of unused properties, for an unused private property immediately becomes public, and interest rates, considered nothing but a tool of making money with no productive contribution to society. While the other part of such mixed economy is composed by communist communes.

It was certain that whoever won would carry some influence over Third Spanish States. The most significant runners were those who stood for the maintenance of the revolutionary "status quo" of a mixed mutualist and communist economy with no taxes or central government, and those who stood for the complete abolition of communism for a fully mutualist free market solution. The anarcho-communists came close and were also having significant chances of winning, intending to abolish what they considered "a system which will eventually regress back into capitalist exploitation" and getting the Confederacy closer to other libertarian communist nations. And finally, the anarcho-individualists perhaps present one of the most radical takes, not only they seek to abolish all traces of the "individuality-smashing communism", despite also disdaining equally capitalism, but they also want to elect a representative to immediately announce the dissolution of the EDDNet and abolition of all forms of government to achieve true anarchism, even of a decentralized direct democracy, which they consider a "disguised tyranny by the majority" and "burden to true freedom", making of the Confederacy an alliance of completely independent communes even more than it is actually is.

For the worry of many, however, a new, quite extremist ideology was growing quite fast in popularity for a long time and now became a solid force in Confederacy's political landscape. Not only they successfully convinced the people of implementing the draconian "Final Solution to the Crime Question", but following the discovery of illegal slavery practices, managed to give to special anti-slavery units free reign to ignore human rights of such criminals, for according to them, slavers are not human beings, but "subhuman scum". The anarcho-socialist eugenics believes that a primary source of all corruption and decadence of humanity lies in the "filth of the gene pool", and consider brutality, lack of compassion and inhuman greed features inherited genetically, and stand for what looks frighteningly as a form of mass murder, with the difference it is not exactly focused at an specific ethnic group, but at "criminal scum" regardless of ethnic origin, while on the other hand they endorse post-modern ideas like transhumanism and are major supporters of further research on artificial limbs, nanotechnology and genetic engineering. They might as well win such election in the coming months, for crime has brought much suffering to the population which has become less and less tolerant about it. Currently their ruthlessness is limited only against the most heinous criminals, although that might change soon.

Bravely attempting to compete for such position, despite being advised to instead have their own separate representative, the anarcho-capitalist minority, composed by shareholders and E-businessmen of the Internets(such wording being due the fact there are two Internets in Third Spanish States), seeks to lobby for a full free market policy, although they seen to ignore that there is technically no restriction for a multinational corporation to operate, or that their tax-less wet dream is a reality where they live, but for some reason they refuse to consider cooperatives as the logical evolution over the authoritarian corporations as the basis of the private sector. Their chances of getting a representative are slim, but the consequences in foreign relations would be immediate.

Despite having a powerful influence in the establishment of environmental standards, the green anarchists are only a majority in Gaia City, one of the few ecologically friendly metropolis of the world, which 600 thousands of inhabitants don't represent exactly the majority 300 millions living in continental Third Spanish States or in its floating cities. However they still have a chance, because following the worrisome situation of the world environment as a whole, the average Confederacy citizen, of the type that refuses to buy things because of brands, who throws molotov cocktails at certain fast-food chains infamous for exploiting labor or mistreating animals and who puts ideology ahead of price or fame when buying, have become more environmentally focused than they already were. However, ridicule from the typical "Let's listen Mother Earth!" types who permeate this ideology might be a major barrier for it to be taken even more seriously than it already is.

Now, on the contrary direction to the overall anti-religious feel of Third Spanish States, despite having possibly the support of more than a quarter of the entire population, considering that there are 80 millions of Christian anarchists in the Confederacy, there are very little chances for Christian anarchism to become the ideology of the elected head of State, because it is overtly too pacifist for the overall citizen of the Confederacy who loves their assault rifles, shotguns and pistols, and whatever unwritten law ensures them the right to bear arms. Not that such anarchists would ever accept organized, hierarchical forms of religion. Their beliefs are, particular.

And finally, as the possible underdog of this race, the anarcho-primitivists are perhaps the most radical of all, proposing the entire Third Spanish States to what critics cynically call as "going back to the Stone Age", "forming the anarchist version of the Amish" or "let's go back to the trees and hug them brothers!" depending on the cynicism level. It is very unlikely that they shall gain the election, because people who live in the middle of forests aren't exactly excellent diplomats.

Although the real underdog prize will definitively go to the neonazis, infamous for running the television channel "Triumph of the Will" in the Internets(which became the source of many local image macros and memes), who have dared to put their candidate on the run hoping that looks might win some teenagers over ideology. Winning such elections for them would be as easy as it would be for the Nazi Reich to turn the tide in the last month of the Second World War, or in other words, utterly impossible.

The symbolic role would probably the only role delegated to such Head of State, alone, such elected representative would have no power, for the "Head of Government" would continue being everyone interested enough in politics to participate from the "Virtual Agora" that is the EDDNet. It was certain international groups might express interest in supporting at least one of them. At least it served as a consolation for those teenage skinhead nazis, perhaps following such wicked ideology as a silly way to challenge the unique status quo of Third Spanish States, that they would have enough money to buy sports cars if some foolish fascist country decided to fund their campaign. Despite having similarities to the anarcho-socialist eugenicists, and that by replacing the word "criminal scum" by "Jew" you would have the same effect regarding both as specific hate-groups, they were nazis, despised everywhere and considered to promote "outdated, racist views of eugenics disproved by science almost a century ago". But one could judge those two extremist groups as similar, despite the fact the ASE does not blame mankind problems on an ethnic group, but on the "criminal and capitalist genes" which according to them, "have the same probability of running in the veins of a Jew as they have of running in the veins of a German". It is ironic that despite their similarities, one of them is incredibly popular despite endless accusations, always disproved, of being linked to nazism whereas the other is universally hated.

Their candidates are as followed below, keep in mind they won't have any power to change domestic policies and internal policies, but will influence significantly foreign relations, also each of them have different ways of treating foreign relations:

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Alcala-zamora.jpg/250px-Alcala-zamora.jpg) -
Name: Gabriel Garcia Maldonado
Age: 40
Group: "Conservatives"
Type: Anarchist, socialist
Economy: Kept as it is currently, mutualist or communist decentralized economic organization, no taxes.
Government: EDDNet preserved.
Trade: Free trade maintained
Military: Self-sufficient and independent from central government, capable of funding itself through arms cooperatives sponsorships, weapons sales and "consulting" services, as currently
Foreign Policy: Isolationist, partly aggressive, maintain approximation of libertarian socialist blocs, stay clear from authoritarian States.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Ideologist - With an excellent academical background on the already somewhat biased political sciences and a past of clear support of his ideology, can easily relate with nations which share similar ideological beliefs, having an easiness to make agreements with those, but tend to be reserved and somewhat unfriendly for those who don't. See the world as partly "Black and White" where he is in the "good" side.
Immigration: Mostly open, immediate political rights not granted to immigrants.
Domestic Policy: Civilian freedoms prioritized(no gun control, anti-abortion laws, etc.), draconian stance on crime kept.
Environment: An individual rather than collective responsibility, no laws enforced, but boycotting of polluters encouraged.

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Buenaventura_durruti.jpg) -
Name: Juán Carlos Vasquez
Age: 32
Group: Neo-Mutualists
Type: Anarchist, mutualist.
Economy: Abolition of public, collectively shared among all property and communist economics, with all belonging to either cooperatives or individuals. Backed by all cooperatives of the Confederacy
Government: EDDNet preserved.
Trade: Free trade maintained
Military: Encouraged to become even more self-sufficient.
Foreign Policy: Isolationist, neutral on war/peace scale, avoid deep relations with communist nations.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Listener Merchant: Tends to pay more attention to others than to speak, usually have an excellent situational awareness on geopolitics but lacks initiative in international meetings. Excels in forming trade agreements.
Immigration: Mostly open, immediate political rights not granted to immigrants.
Domestic Policy: Civilian freedoms further prioritized, does not recognize the legitimacy of restrictions from Christian communes which forbid homosexuals from living there, draconian stance on crime kept.
Environment: An individual rather than collective responsibility, no laws enforced.

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Fransisco_Ferrer_Guardia.jpg/150px-Fransisco_Ferrer_Guardia.jpg) -
Name: Manuel Sosa Azaña
Age: 50
Group: Anarcho-communists
Type: Anarchist, communist
Economy: Abolition of all forms of private property, including cooperatives and individual businesses.
Government: EDDNet preserved
Trade: Only with libertarian communist countries
Military: Converted into militia forces backed by voluntary service, boosted into capabilities by major investments of public efforts and furthered as an standing army rather than drafted army.
Foreign Policy: Interventionist, revolutionary, limited almost entirely to relations with other communist countries.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Revolutionary Brute - believes diplomacy is merely an extension of military might and that violence through military or revolutionary action is the only way to stop human rights violations against decent people.
Immigration: Open only to those who endorse communism.
Domestic Policy: Major restrictions on economic freedoms, draconian stance on crime furthered.
Environment: A collective responsibility.

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Woman_with_cntfai_flag.jpg/180px-Woman_with_cntfai_flag.jpg) -
Name: Claudia Frías
Age: 37
Group: Anarcho-individualists
Type: Anarchist, individualist, feminist
Economy: Abolition of all forms of public property and of coercive collective organizations.
Government: Complete abolition of the State and of the current government, shall possibly renounce just after being elected on principle.
Trade: Free trade
Military: Fully abolished together with the State, militias might remain.
Foreign Policy: No central foreign policy model.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Refuser of Power: Believes all power should be given to the individual and refuses to consider anyone capable of representing a people.
Immigration: Unrestricted.
Domestic Policy: All restrictions abolished, crime will "fight itself", patriarchal cultural vestiges entirely abolished.
Environment: Fully individual responsibility.

- Picture Available (http://images.uncyc.org/pt/a/a2/MulherComunista.jpg) -
Name: Cecily Lockhelm
Age: 21
Group: Anarcho-Socialist Eugenicists
Type: Anarchist, socialist, feminist, transhumanist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism), negative eugenics supporter, liberal eugenics supporter.
Economy: Kept as it is currently, mutualist or communist decentralized economic organization, no taxes, with communism encouraged over mutualism. Capitalist practices shall be even more restrained.
Government: EDDNet promoted as more united than before. Might possibly open space for "tyranny by the majority". Anarcho-capitalism, nazism, fascism, monarchism and other opposing ideologies or organized religions might possibly be unofficially ostracized, like what happened to Scientology.
Trade: Restricted to only socialist and democratic countries
Military: Cecily is the greatest advocate of increasing the support to the military and shall seek his best to make it the most prioritized institution of the Confederacy. Considers WMDs as necessary evils to maintain their freedom and shall lift any still existing restriction to their research, development and build. Will dismiss all orbital treaties.
Foreign Policy: Heavily Interventionist, aggressive, hostile or indifferent to all non-democratic countries.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Big Stick wielder/Brute: "Speaks softly and carry a big stick" at the same time. Believes both are equally important ways of engaging in foreign relations, and depending on the situation, one might be prioritized over the other. Tends to speak softly with ideological allies and show the "big stick" to the potential rivals, or not depending on the situation.
Immigration: Only people with an IQ of at least 130, equally high EQ, pristine morality and honesty, according to batteries of proposed tests, shall be accepted. For others might be opened exceptions, for cleaning sewers and alike.
Domestic Policy: Civil rights for honest people shall be entirely kept as currently and even expanded further, but use of torture against known heinous criminals like rapist, slavers or murderers shall be allowed and almost every crime according to the common law and beliefs of the Confederacy shall ensure death on the spot, if the criminal is caught red-handed or if there are irrefutable proofs he is the one responsible. Any practice of "capitalist exploitation" shall be met with lethal force. Shall lift even furthers barriers to researches like human cloning, genetic engineering and nanotechnology.
Environment: Partly individual, partly collective responsibility, environmental crimes which provoke indirectly deaths shall ensure death penalty.

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Murray_Rothbard.jpg) -
Name: Edmond "Rand" Tucker
Age: 34
Group: Anarcho-capitalists
Type: Anarchist, ultra-libertarian right
Economy: Abolition of all forms of public property, transition into a full-fledged Stateless capitalist economy, all public services shall be privatized, cooperatives might still dominate the market over corporations. No taxes.
Government: EDDNet preserved, sponsored by corporations and cooperatives rather than by taxes.
Trade: Free trade
Military: All military forces shall remain privatized and under partial control of arms manufacture cooperatives, and also now of corporations, to avoid need of taxes. Edmond considers the idea of "hostile corporate take-overs" as a "ridiculously far-fetched commie propaganda"
Foreign Policy: Interventionist, commerce-focused, pacifist.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Listener Merchant: Tends to pay more attention to others than to speak, usually have an excellent situational awareness on geopolitics but lacks initiative in international meetings. Excels in forming trade agreements.
Immigration: Open for economically beneficial individuals, mostly for menial labor.
Domestic Policy: Full lift of all restrictions on economic freedoms, draconian anti-crime measures and death penalty replaced by "indentured servitude" in corporations and civil rights extended.
Environment: A responsibility of corporations, cooperatives and consumers, not of governments.

- Picture Available (http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/images/BB/nenovasco2.jpg) -
Name: Francisco Camões
Age: 42
Group: Green Anarchists
Type: Anarchist, green socialist
Economy: Abolition of all forms of private property, including cooperatives and individual businesses. Promotion of a green economic model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_economy)
Government: EDDNet preserved, EcoNet shall have major improvements.
Trade: Only with ecologically-friendly communist and democratic countries
Military: All nuclear, biological and chemical weapons shall be dismantled, severe cuts into military capability, specially on power projection capabilities, and any military vehicle which still moves on petroleum derivatives shall be either sold or retrofitted for biofuels.
Foreign Policy: Interventionist, pacifist.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Consensus-maker: Tends to seek finding a common point among all, with a friendly stance which is kept even among the usually disliked sides of a diplomatic conversation due to her experience in the field. Is usually liked and well-received.
Immigration: Open for all those without a criminal past
Domestic Policy: Major restrictions on economic freedoms, draconian anti-crime measures and death penalty abolished and civil rights extended, neopagan Gaianism promoted as "official" religion. Marijuana shall be freely distributed for "medicinal" and "religious uses".
Environment: A collective responsibility, heavily prioritized to the point of worship.

- Picture Available (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Cleyere.jpg) -
Name: Tatiana Moura
Age: 38
Group: Christian Anarchists
Type: Anarchist, communist, non-organized religion Christian
Economy: Abolition of all forms of private property, including cooperatives and individual businesses.
Government: EDDNet preserved
Trade: Only with libertarian communist countries
Military: Fully abolished. Their will to perform nonviolent resistance for their freedom at all costs shall serve as a hopeful deterrent to imperialism.
Foreign Policy: Isolationist, fully pacifist, religious bias.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Consensus-maker: Tends to seek finding a common point among all, with a friendly stance which is kept even among the usually disliked sides of a diplomatic conversation due to his experience in the field. Is usually liked and well-received.
Immigration: Mostly open, except for criminals.
Domestic Policy: Major restrictions on economic freedoms, draconian stance on crime removed for a focus on rehabilitation of even the most heinous criminals through faith. Christian faith encouraged. Significant civil rights restrictions on what is considered excessive: Sex in public areas shall be banned, sex with people with less than 18 years old shall be classified as pedophilia, public nudism shall be forbidden and orgies frowned upon.
Environment: A collective responsibility.

- IR Picture Available (http://www.firaxis.com/smac/images/dierdrer.jpg) -
Name: Mary Two-paces
Age: 25
Group: Anarcho-primitivists,
Type: Anarchist, communist, primitivism
Economy: Pre-civilization economic organization, abolition of all forms of money and property.
Government: Pre-civilization social organization with no form of government
Trade: Only with libertarian socialist countries
Military: Fully abolished. Tribal militias might be established coupled with a nonviolent resistance doctrine.
Foreign Policy: No central foreign policy.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Ideologist - With an excellent academical background on the already somewhat biased political sciences and a past of clear support of her ideology, can easily relate with nations which share similar ideological beliefs, having an easiness to make agreements with those, but tend to be reserved and somewhat unfriendly for those who don't. See the world as partly "Black and White" where he is in the "good" side.
Immigration: Fully open.
Domestic Policy: Major restrictions on economic freedoms, draconian stance on crime removed, civil liberties extended to the fullest
Environment: Considered sacred.

- Picture Available(person to the left) (http://www.everythingtarantino.com/pics/2007-02-wwss1.jpg) -
Name: Brenda Schaufer
Age: 25
Group: Neonazists
Type: Nazist, moderate right, extremely authoritarian.
Economy: Heavily State-controlled capitalist market
Government: transition to a Fascist State
Trade: Heavily controlled, no trade with communist or Jewish countries
Military: Completely rebuilt and extensively expanded
Foreign Policy: Imperialist, Interventionist, heavily aggressive, xenophobic.
Personality/Diplomacy Style: Big Stick wielder/Brute: "Speaks softly and carry a big stick" at the same time. Believes both are equally important ways of engaging in foreign relations, and depending on the situation, one might be prioritized over the other. Tends to speak softly with ideological allies and show the "big stick" to the potential rivals, or not depending on the situation.
Immigration: Heavily restricted. Only for those who belong to the "Master Race"
Domestic Policy: Heavy restrictions on civil rights, policies to forbid currently commonplace interracial relationships which are "destroying racial purity", possibly genocidal practices might occur against the majority.
Environment: An instrument of the Reich.

(*HoI2 inspired, one of them is a "Cloak and Dagger Schemer" but I won't tell which. And when I mentioned some real Mavericks, I wasn't joking)

(Bump with preliminary poll)

Four days have passed since the position of Head of State was announced as available, and with only three days remaining before the voting happens, things were starting to shape, no much different from what expected, except for two major unexpected results, which came from international aid, or as shall be explained further, what was intended as political support was involuntarily a way to weaken two potential candidates.

First, the people of the Confederacy have lived for decades without any sort of unified representation system, if there is something that can be made sure of, is that what lies here is not a metaphorical case of "two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner", or more exactly of what tends to be " a wolf fooling two sheep on making the best decision for him on what to have for dinner", the average Third Spanish State citizen is politically active and very difficult to influence through traditional political propaganda. They won't pay attention to "I promise blah blah blah" speeches, but to the background of each candidate, and most important of all, to who are supporting them. The results of a preliminary poll point a somewhat disputed race, and considering that more than half of the entire population of Third Spanish States voted on it, there is little ways to doubt of its legitimacy and lack of bias, as even the source code of the tabulation software is available for auditing by those who cannot ever trust anything.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6945/electionspoll1dz2.png
Graph 1: 4th day Head of State Elections Preliminary Poll

Some results were quite predictable in this fourth day. As expected, Brenda Schaufer is the underdog of the campaign, with only an estimate of 1.13% of the votes, and foreign support has been anything but futile for now, although the previous estimative was that she would never managed to get past the 0.1% mark, so perhaps there are more of the "closet nazis" types in Third Spanish States than one would suspect. A major reason for such lack of chances is also the possibility that Cecily Lockhelm drew some votes away from the Neonazist candidate.

Only 1.29% of the entire population would feel at ease with the idea of returning to a primitive lifestyle with no defenses against potential invaders and imperialistic nations. The majority of the population had to at least once require the services of a modern age hospital, and letting everything away among medical technologies and the longevity allowed by modern era is at the vision of the sheer majority either insanity or suicide. Although that won't at any way forbid people from choosing such thing at free will, it's obvious that simply forcing it won't be welcome.

It is believed that many Christians have preferred to vote based on their ideology rather than faith. Despite having about 26% of its population of Christians, only 4.6% of the voters have claimed they would vote for the Christian Anarchist candidate Tatiana Moura. Perhaps the excess of idealism and pacifism permeating such campaign in an usually armed nation like Third Spanish States may explain such mild success. However, the real problem may be related to the fact she isn't exactly very charismatic or attention-catching, and many don't consider her properly ready for the responsibilities of such position. But she still has chances of competing, despite everything, as if she manages to draw the support of most or all of the 26% of Christians around the Confederacy, and if the dispute among the primary leaders remain as fragmented as it is now, she might still win.

Green Anarchism is definitively not the way the citizens of Third Spanish States, or at least most of them, want their nation to be perceived and related to internationally. With only 3.39% of the votes, and with the negative reputation of "weed-smoking peaceniks" his group has received, the chances victory would require a set of extraordinary incidents during the next days.

Edmond Tucker lost five percent of votes in the polls gradually in the last two days, since the nation of Questers announced their support to his campaign, which were at most gained by the mutualist candidate. with only 9% of the votes, and with a strain of reputation from the support which became instead a major drawback to his success, his chances are dim. Associated with "Imperialist Capitalism and the International Bourgeois interests" and even accused of seeking to turn the Confederacy into a "Corporate bordello for Questarian multinationals", his image is tainted to the point his chances are almost as low as the chances of victory for Schaufer, but he wasn't the major victim of a foreign nation viewed very negatively supporting a candidate. Others however were benefited.

With a growth from an estimate 15 to 19.35%, being now the second most voted in the poll, and benefited by the losses of the two unfortunate candidates associated with disdained foreign interests by most, Cecily Lockhelm is considered the most likely candidate and has took a heavily xenophobic stance even further, affirming with written strategic plans for such decision, that she'll close all relations with all dictatorial governments instantly and immediately give to the people a referendum asking them to block the installation of any multinational corporation in Confederacy territory, through violence if necessary. The rampant criminality is perhaps the primary motor for the popularity of such extremist and somewhat erratic candidate, a definition more known as "maverick", of the Anarcho-socialist Eugenics movement.

Claudia Frías idea of abolishing the EDDNet, although idealistically compatible with the anarchist ideals, is something which shocks with a certain degree of realpolitik that the people of the Confederacy have develop after governing directly their lands for decades. If with a certain degree of coordination among communes to perform things like public works or crime fighting things weren't as optimal as they could be, nobody wanted to envision how a fully individualistic, isolated Third Spanish States with no communications among distant people would work. However she still has some significant supporters and might still win, for she is not too far from the major leads, with 12.26% of the votes and the fourth place in the race.

Suffering a worser backfire than the anarcho-capitalist candidate, according to the reports Manuel Azaña reaction when he was informed of Volzgrad, a nation not different from the pseudo-communist People's Republic of Spain, and its support to his campaign, was a combination of revulsion, anger, disappointment followed by supposedly used offensive words towards Volzgrad government, among them old things like "tyrant pigs!" and "Totalitarian Hypocrite Scum!" during a nervous breakdown, not too different from what happened to his image after a false communist country ran by a totalitarian Police State announced its support to him, in what actually ended as a massive blow against his chances of winning. Now with little less than the Anarcho-capitalist candidate, at 9.68%, only a major attitude, possibly a personal condemnation from Volzgrad and refusal to "accept funds extracted from the oppressed proletariat in the Gulags by you, vagabonds of this hypocritically called 'Communist Party' who thrive at the misery of the people as tyrants and capitalist pigs in State capitalism!", or a similarly daring and aggressive anti-Stalinist statement from him could change his ultimate defeat. However, it is a known fact that only the communist city of New Madrid did not stagnate economically in comparison to the cities which embraced a neo-mutualist free market, and such fact might pretty much detain any chance he might still have.

Gaining many voters who would otherwise vote in the anarcho-capitalist Edmond Tucker, and being supported by almost all the cooperatives in Third Spanish States, Juán Carlos Vasquez is one of the three candidates with most votes and also with greatest chances of winning. At third place with a major quantity of 18.35% of votes, the stagnation of most communist communes compared to the much more developed mutualist free market economies, which have not been accompanied by poverty and social injustice, is a strong factual evidence to his ideas, and as scientifically demonstrated facts have much more weight than pretty political propaganda, and this, coupled with the fact he is an excellent negotiator for foreign trade, led some analysts to claim he is definitively going to win, although, despite being a much faster election than the usual in Republics, it's still too soon to be sure and more things might happen during the next days.

If there is something that can be demonstrated from such poll, is that a significant majority of the Confederacy is looking for changes of primarily economic nature. Although in paper a good idea and an way to ensure excellent degrees of freedom, the mixed economy model has met partial success, with the mutualist free market cities practically producing about 80% of the entire GDP of Third Spanish States, it's that the current status quo will not eventually create a "rich-poor" gap not among people, but among cities, and that will lead to some serious demographic problems in the future. With this fact alone, only 21.03% of the entire population wishes to keep things as they are and supports the "Conservative" candidate, however due to the fragmented opinions of the 78,97% majority who seeks changes regarding what changes must be done, this "minority" has put Gabriel Garcia Maldonado into the lead as the most voted candidate in the polls, and he is also, obviously, one of the three candidates which have significant chances of victory.

However, in something really new regarding such elections, yesterday, a group of citizens of the Confederacy have put a proposal to immediately cancel and abort such elections which are, according to them, "a stray from the direct democratic principles we stand for and a dangerous step in the road to the false democracy of 'representation'". It is a proposal which seems to be gaining more popularity than any of the mentioned candidates. It might also be considered the equivalent of the "None of the Above" option, and perhaps idealism might overcome the realpolitik of recognizing the need of a coherent diplomatic staff.

---------------

Manuel Sosa Azaña, in response to Volzgrad support, have been aggressive in tone of his reply, broadcasting his message to all Third Spanish States channels, while by his request, some local hackers and his friends we attempting to bypass Volzgrad security, to broadcast such message through hijacked government sites and Volzgrad sites as a subversive call for a revolution against Volzgrad Communist Party. Perhaps it was foolish or suicidal, but Azaña was an idealist who romanticized revolutions, and it was expectable that just as their "support" have been prejudicial to him and his both personal and political reputation, his reply would not be very friendly, if Volzgrad knew what anarcho-communism meant and how it opposed fully to their government and economy, then perhaps they would never have done such support in the first place, but now it was too late, and as the stakes were high during such election:

"As a follower of Kropotkin and Bakunin, who warned about the inevitable failure of the idea of a 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' and transformation of it into a brutal form of tyranny which is in many ways worser than capitalism, I refuse to accept or recognize the support of Volzgrad to my hopes of bring Third Spanish States to true communism, and not to the Stalinist or Leninist fraud and genocidal machine that has again and again proved to be nothing but a despicable abomination, leading dozens or even hundreds of millions to death by the hands of those who claimed to be "People's governments". Not only that, but I fear that you have gathered the resources you offered to support me by the slavery of the oppression victims in your Gulags, and thus I again refuse to comply with your hypocrisy, for how can communism exist when most live in near misery while the "Communist" Party thrives in luxury? Communism without freedom is slavery and brutality. Not only that, but I am officially refusing to recognize Volzgrad as a communist country, and I honestly consider your economy to be nothing but capitalism controlled by the government, where your "comrades" are nothing but the substitutes of the bourgeoisie as the ruling and wealthy class. I do not fear if you decide to send your secret police goons to hunt me for my phrases of truth, and I do not hide like a coward behind hundreds of guards like what I expect you to do, considering that in truth the people secretly hate you for your atrocities against them, and I'll defend me with my own hands, if needed to. Neither I do represent any official statement, for this is a personal opinion I have no fear of expressing to its fullest, and this shall be the last message I shall send to you. I hope that one day your people will awaken, overthrow your corrupt throne and create true communism through a true democracy. I become saddened every day I remember that this corruption of the true communist ideal persists through the 21st century just as the worst forms of capitalism do, but one day your time will end, and abominations like your government will only exist in fictional books... one day the people of Volzgrad shall awaken, and I wait forward for such day, for you cannot defeat an entire people."

Although there was no way to be sure of its influence on votes for now, it was expected that such a daring and risky statement, followed by attempts of using it as a personal tool to incite revolution against Volzgrad government, would make the Third Spanish States people proud of having such man as their Head of State, and probably make their disdain they had for authoritarian forms of what was in theory socialism, even greater. Perhaps this could draw countless to support his campaign, for the "revolutionary flame" which existed before of the daring early citizens was dying, and an old man challenging alone an entire government was something which was considered an example among them. On the other hand, there was no way to be sure whether his friends would manage to bypass Volzgrad network security or not to perform their "revolutionary attacks" from their basement.

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Edmond Tucker reply to Questarian government was much more friendly, as he sought to explain to them that they were not seen with good eyes by most in Third Spanish States, however he also pointed his fears about Cecily Lockhelm and her extremist ideological views:

From: Edmond Tucker, Anarcho-capitalist candidate in Third Spanish States
To: Questarian Government

Greetings, first I would like, despite the consequences not being good, to thank you for your support for I am sure your intentions were to actually help me to put the Confederacy away from such utopian delusions they currently continue to dream with. However, I have the unfortunate need to inform that, although your intention was to help me, your support has actually weakened my campaign, because, with all due respect, Questers is not very liked or well-seen by most of Third Spanish States people. I won't go into details, but suffice to say, some radicals are accusing me of being a puppet for Questarian corporations to take over Third Spanish States market. However, I still have chances of winning despite this problem which was something I see that you probably didn't expect, and I wouldn't trust that much on polls, because the public opinion here is not very uniform to allow efficient sampling, and with less than 80% of the population participating in a poll, there are significant chances of it not fitting with the actual opinion of everyone. I would like to ask you to send, with empirical evidences if possible, a statement confirming the fact that those accusations claiming I am being bribed by Questarian corporate interests are nothing but another mud-slinging game which sadly always happen during the electoral process. Also, on another, more distant subject, I would like to ask for political refuge for me and for all free market proponents in the Confederacy if that extremist Cecily Lockhelm wins, because I fear that my life and also their lives might be endangered should that happen. I hope you will understand.

(OOC: Volzgrad, it's up to you whether the hackers will manage to hack government sites and fill them with "Down with the tyranny! Embrace true communism! -facts on how life is much better under anarchist communism including photos -" sort of messages and whether, if successful, they will have any impact on inciting dissidence against the government or not.)

OOC+bump: Gee, do you think you wrote enough? Remind's me of the Nakil write up.

OOC+bump: Gee, do you think you wrote enough? Remind's me of the Nakil write up.

(OOC: If "OMG redding is teh hard!" then just look at the graph, it's self-explaining :P. Sorry I don't do statblocks on elections.)

It seems that after the election week, the number of involuntary Trojan horses sent to some of the candidates have been unusual. The most disastrous being the epic failure of Edmond Tucker's campaign following Faxanavia's public support for it. With everyone well aware of the death of a Confederacy citizen by the police State and "fascist pigs" who reside in such nation, the natural hatred every citizen had of Faxanavia for different reasons made a very unusual outcome. Nobody voted on Edmond Tucker, after the dominoes effect of several unpopular foreign powers giving support to his campaign, where Faxanavia has given the final blow in his long winding failure. However he wasn't the only victim of a foreign nation which thought they would help him to win the elections ultimately leading him to his demise. Manuel Sosa Azaña, who despite his aggressive condemnation letter of Volzgradian government, back when it was a Stalinist rather than fascist police State, have not managed to regain the trust of the people, had to endure a punch in the face with the Stoklomolvi declaration of supporting his campaign, probably unaware of the fact that he was in the opposite of the political spectrum regarding political and civil freedoms in comparison to all the still-present pseudo-communist Stalinist, Maoist, Leninist and all sorts of -insert genocidal tyrant here-ists governments which hypocritically claim to support socialism and the worker class. Seeing the futility of sending a letter condemning the Stoklomolvi's government to try regaining his popularity, and claiming he just was informed of some family issues that recently happened, he simply stopped his campaign during Friday and vanished from most public events for a while, ending with only 2.20% of the votes due to the combined negative impact of Volzgrad and Stoklomolvi's support over his image, but it has been far from the massive loss Tucker suffered after Faxanavia declared support.

However, the most notable change in the results compared to polls was the massive support given to the idea of not having any Head of State at all. Votes given to entities like "Anonymous", "Xenu", "4chan", "Nobody", "LULZ", "Gavin Sparks", "Chuck Norris" and alike summed a total of 21.01%, basically outperforming all other candidates as the second most voted option. There are some concerned claims that such new move might open the hole for the regress into a corrupt, not really democratic at all due to bribes and campaign funds, government known as representative democracy, despite being pejoratively called, depending on the specific nation referred to, by Third Spanish States people, as kleptocracy, fececracy, or more roughly as just "government of crap", capitalist pseudo-democratic oligarchy, bananas republic or simply the more common term of elective demagoguery. However, the chance of an election for a head of government in Third Spanish States is as large as the chance of a Nazi, a Jew, a Taleban Muslim, an Atheist and a Jeovah Witness becoming best friends of each other. With this in mind, the results of the election are given as in the following graphic:

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3875/electionspoll2iy6.png
Graph 1: Head of State Elections Result

Rankings


Cecily Lockhelm(Anarcho-Socialist Eugenicists): 26.00%
Nobody/LULZ: 21.01%
Juán Carlos Vasquez(Neo-Mutualists): 20.35%
Gabriel Maldonado("Conservatives"): 15.03%
Claudia Frías(Anarcho-Individualists): 11.00%
Azaña(Communists) and Camões(Greens): 2.20%
Tatiana Moura(Christian Anarchists): 1.60%
Mary Two-Paces(Anarcho-Primitivists): 0.50%
Brenda Schaufer(Neonazists): 0.10%
Edmond Tucker(Anarcho-Capitalists): 0%


Benefiting indirectly from the harmful foreign supports of the campaigns of some of her competitors, and with an incomparable charisma and strength of personality, Cecily Lockhelm have managed to gain the votes of many of the supporters of the Anarcho-communist candidate, of Gabriel Maldonado due to her ideas not including any significant change in the current economical system and also apparently of, despite her refusal to acknowledge such possibility, many who would before vote on the neonazist candidate Brenda, for according to rumors, the Anarcho-socialist eugenicists were apparently trying to convert some national-socialists to their own flavor of extremist ideology, with apparently a limited extent of success. On the other hand, the fact many voters decided to choose the "Nobody" option has benefited her much more than other candidates, and have been decisive for her victory, even having only the direct support of little less than a quarter of the entire Third Spanish States voting population, with 26% of the votes. It is considered very unlikely that she'll have enough supporters to push forward her radical ideas through referenda, and due to the fact her position gives her no power, maybe in the end, it won't make any difference at all such elections for Third Spanish States other than the fact of not having to waste time voting on which diplomat to send to an specific international event, now that apparently there was a single one for all those events, allowing the population to invest their time better in more relevant political decisions instead of choosing the lucky bastard who'll join other snobs in a five-stars party with the funding of sponsors, or of the own pockets of this not so lucky bastard, taking into account the fact there are no taxes in the Confederacy.

If all anarcho-capitalists have seen neo-mutualist free market supporter Juán Carlos Vasquez as at least an option to have a free market, albeit an non-capitalist one, and following the epic failure of Tucker's campaign, there is no doubt he would have won the election with such support. However politics are not that simple, and many, seeing no better options, decided to just choose Nobody instead, because for most of them, like for Stalinists and others who foolishly think socialism is achieved through coercion and tyranny, the idea of a socialist free market is very difficult to think on ever agreeing with, and that was the unfortunate fate of he who trusted too much on the possibility of the anarcho-capitalists supporting him. Being with 20.35% of the preference of the people, almost evening with the "Nobody" choice, Juán has proved that if there is another election for the head of State, something which will only happen if for some reason the people decided to fire Cecily from her position, for mandate was defined to last "as long as the people want to" rather than in fixed periods, he would definitively win. Now the fact he has more support than the "Conservatives" and Anarcho-communists might mean that perhaps the possibility of a referendum seeking to motivate the abolition of all still existing communist economies inside the Confederacy isn't a far-fetched possibility and perhaps, in a superficially dumb manner, signify a slight shift to the "right-wing" on politics such refusal to consider communism itself, as of fully collective and centralized ownership of the means of production, as a viable choice. It's not certain how this growth of Neo-mutualism will affect Third Spanish States relations with nations like Beth Gellert, or how the new head of State will influence positively or negatively future and current diplomatic relationships, truth be told, if Cecily makes any serious mistake, she won't be tolerated and immediately dismissed by the same people who "hired" her, and considering her extremism, there is a good chance of a mistake happening, so in a certain way, it might be possible that in the long term, Vasquez will be the actual winner of this election.

There is however a secondary "What if" that would have granted the victory of Juán Vasquez. The loyal voters of the individualist anarchist Claudia Frías aren't exactly very fond of heavily collectivized economical solutions to the Confederacy, and neither they agree with the exploitation and injustices inherent to capitalism, making of them potential supporters of the Neo-mutualist campaign, if Claudia Frías have publicly resigned her application and given support to him. However, she was quite resolute on the idea of abolishing the EDDNet, which according to her views is "a sham for tyranny by the majority", and remained competing, ending in fourth place, or fifth counting Nobody. The idea of having no coordination among the people of distance territories across the Confederacy is simply too radical and dangerous for most, while the idea of making something which is just a few inches away from disbanding any self-defense capabilities because of strict anti-militarism, despite all the major differences in how Third Spanish States military works compared to traditional military forces, doesn't sound very wise for most, although her 11% of supporters think otherwise. Maybe if there was more coordination among both, somewhat similar branches of Anarchism which are the individualist anarchism and neo-mutualism, then perhaps these votes would have been more useful than in this reality.

Keeping things as they are is definitively not something the people of Third Spanish States are looking for, and the fact only 15.03% ended voting for Gabriel Maldonado, despite the support from close-by nations like Yanitaria and Lamoni, is the most evident fact explaining how that conservatism, even when being the conservatism of an already revolutionary status quo, isn't well-accepted among the majority of the socially progressive Third Spanish States, because of a very peculiar belief that the closest thing to an anarchist society is a living being in continual evolution. And like with evolutionary theory, evolution cannot happen when the same features are repeated over and over in an entity or when the environment never changes. With the association of the word Conservative with reactionary thought and stagnation, perhaps their choice of attributing such a title to themselves might have had a minor influence in their defeat in these elections. Supposedly, Maldonado was the candidate most harmed by the growth of the nobody option, and from it, lost a significant percentage of votes compared to the statistics of a poll done in the fourth day of the election process, ending with 15.03% of the votes despite having started leading the race.

Other candidates have had too insignificant results to be worth further mention, for more details, consulting the analysis existing with the 4th day elections poll will point again why ideas like Christian Anarchism, Green Anarchism and Anarcho-primitivism lack the edge to have a chance of pushing a head of State candidate, while it's considered by the consensus opinion of the EDDNet Independent Journalists that world peace is easier to achieve than the victory of Brenda Schaufer in these or any future head of State elections in Third Spanish States. Nevertheless, the neonazists have thrived from the foreign funds, using them to fund some barbecues and parties among themselves in a way to forget their almost completely shameful defeat at 0.10% of the votes, only not becoming worser due to the 0% votes of Edmond Tucker already previously explained and mentioned.

As of now, there is no way to be sure whether Cecily will bring any changes to the way Third Spanish States handle foreign relations, and like mentioned before, there is a good chance her presence as head of State will be irrelevant due to the lack of any actual political power and being a role strictly representative in diplomatic terms, and strictly supervised by concerned citizens most of the time. Due to budget restrictions, or more exactly lack of taxes to throw away irresponsibly, and due to the overall dislike and public ignore over formalities, no ceremony or party is going to accompany her take on such small, but very important responsibility, that the people have delegated to her, for as long as she satisfies them. With this, a last note of warning for future elections, mostly towards our international readers, is that a nation must be very careful and research first what Third Spanish States people think of it before sending support to a candidate. In certain ways, the capitalist countries who had the intention of supporting Tucker ended actually supporting his rival and a socialist candidate, because of some of them particularly Faxanavia, not being seen with good eyes by the population, and when someone's name is associated with a police State, it can only be expected to come failure.

(OOC: This thread isn't over yet, if you have any statement about the first head of State of Third Spanish States, you can make it as long as it's not "I hate U I want War!!!!11one" or something equally idiotic. Also, the poll was more of a way of seeing which nations would become closer from Third Spanish States in diplomacy if candidate x wins rather than for defining who would actually win in the end, although it actually influenced, because I was initially going to "make" Vasquez win it, but the supports shifted things, but not in the expected way. And yes, in a certain way not much will change despite the fact there'll be a single CTSS character now to RP in diplomacy)