Intermediate Party Debate
On PBCN
"Good evening I am Jack Howard of PBCN, welcome to the intermediate party debate. Joining us today are the candidates from each of the intermediate parties; please welcome
Lindsey Bennet of the Independent Pacifician Party,
Kimo Palakiko of the Environmentalist Pacifician Party, and
Jovita Guerrero of the Liberal Society Party. The candidates agree to follow a strict set of rules. Candidates agree to not speak over each other, interrupt each other, or stray from the subject matter. Candidates will have at most 60 seconds to answer a question, which after all candidates have answered the questions a brief 90 second period will be held of open discussion so long as none of the candidates break any of the rules. There are several other rules the candidates have agreed to, but without further ado let us begin.
Ever since independence our nation has seen a boom in the economy, what are your party's plans to maintain this high if your party believes it can even be maintained for long?"
"Our nation's strong suit is the tourism industry with the cruise industry being the crown jewel of it. Currently many of the cruise lines that operate in Boldonia seem afraid to take the risk of sending their big ships to Boldonia, instead sending some of their more medium and smaller ships. So far the only cruise line to really put anything on the line is Norwegian currently building Pride of Boldonia, however if we were to subsidize the other lines they might be willing to take the risk bringing in more foreign tourists. With the right price we could convince Royal Caribbean to bring in an Oasis-Class, or Norwegian to bring a Breakaway Plus which would make Boldonia more popular with the average tourist.""All of this economic expansion is good, it's just that the government needs to keep a good watch over it to make sure that no company breaks the rules. Our nation has a lot of beautiful parts, and if we want to use it to draw in foreigners we have to protect it.""This nation focuses too much on foreign companies and rarely ever cares for its local industry. Instead of focusing on appeasing the foreign business moguls we should look inward to furthering the quality of the average Boldonian worker and keeping foreigners from gaining control of Boldonia""Discussion begins."
"Why is this country so insistent on bowing down to these foreign corporations? Both of you and every other party for that matter always treats corporations like they're the savior of Boldonia.""Well what do we produce here, some plants, a few fish, not enough to sustain a theoretical autarky. The matter of the fact is Boldonia can not physically sustain itself without foreign support.""What's your proof, we haven't even tried to build a self sustaining economy.""Actually someone has, during World War II the Japanese tried just that. They failed, supplies had to be constantly shipped in from the rest of their occupied territory.""Well that was wartime, now it's different. If we put our minds together we can make it work.""You're an idealist, the real world doesn't work like that. You're so fixated on your ideal you lose sight of the current situation. The matter of the fact is it's more efficient, reliable, and easier to rely on the foreign market than sticking it out on our own. And we have no good reason to isolate ourselves, the only reason you can provide is 'capitalism bad' when clearly all of the evidence we have provided proves that in Boldonia's case it is the opposite.""Discussion over."
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"Government funding is always a contentious issue, at least in political spheres, where does your party think funds need to be directed?"
"Currently my party believes funding is in a good place. If we had to change something maybe some funds might be redirected from the funding behemoth that is the Interstate Highways towards investment in our nation's limited transportation. Other than that right now funds are pretty much directed where they need to be.""Funding right now is really heavily focused on transportation, but it's funding the wrong things. Our country's reliance on the Interstate Highway System makes it really the only viable way to get around especially the more north you go. What we should be investing in is public transport to reduce our carbon impact. But of course that is assuming people will use it, which is unlikely given how fixated Boldonia is on its freeways.""Our country as always draws funding from the local citizen to appease foreign interests. In a better Boldonia funding would be placed towards the citizens and not to the foreign corporations. Doing this would make foreign corporations not as welcome in Boldonia and making sure that the citizens can hold the power instead of foreigners.""Discuss."
"Again with ignoring the real problems are we?""Like we have been trying to say it, you are forcing this problem into existence. It does not exist unless you force it to.""Nowhere in our funds does it say corporations, so please enlighten me how are we finding corporations?""Everything that we spend on has been to appease corporations, all the Interstates, the military, everything.""I'm sorry, the Interstates don't benefit the population? Even though there are better alternatives I am not blind to not see the benefit they bring to our society.""They benefit the corporations more, the population only gets a sliver of the benefits.""Oh so you want to have your workers drive through poor mud and dirt roads to get to your factories? The matter of the fact is something can benefit both the people and business. Again, you fail to provide a good reason why benefiting business is bad.""Discussion is finished."
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"The Independent Republic of Boldonia's involvement in foreign affairs, including multiversal affairs, is always a controversial topic, how does your party belive they should be handled in the future?"
"Boldonia has many friends in the multiverse but never really any formal alliances. While most of the time this is out of a desire to keep Boldonia out of petty politics I think our nation could do with extending our horizons a little and getting more allies who we can trust and for them to trust us.""Our party is not really concerned with foreign policy. We feel that the leading parties already have it in an alright state.""I think Boldonia is involved too much in both foreign and multiversal politics. Boldonia whenever possible likes to pick off any nations that it deems 'unfriendly' or 'undemocratic' often to the detriment of the people they claim to support. Especially noteworthy is Boldonia's hatred of extremists and it seems to do all in its power to preserve status quo at all costs, again often at the detriment of the people.""Discussion begins now."
"Okay... I am going to put this in as simple English as possible. Extremism... is not good, extremism is violent, extremism is a threat to society. I struggle to understand how someone can willingly support violence when it is not wanted by the general populous.""Okay, but what if it is popular? What if they are correct?""Oh my... are you just disagreeing with society to disagree? Because you aren't as popular as you think you are. Seriously how popular do you think you are, forget your dreams of the population all unanimously rising up to dethrone the government, it's not going to happen. Not here and if you're thinking about somewhere as big as the United States, forget about it.""Okay we're getting off topic here, it's time to move on."
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"Okay final question, what are your party's goals if you get into office."
"Mostly just cooperate with the LDP and anyone else willing to. Build bridges where possible and overall continue to maintain this sharp improvement Boldonia is on.""You know... we don't really consider winning to be a possibility. Mostly we plan to do the same thing as you just said, cooperate.""We would work to dethrone our foreign overlords and work to better the life of the Boldonian people. Heavily discourage foreigners from stealing Boldonia with the end goal of kicking out all foreign influence and establishing a government run by the people.""... Okay... uh so discuss, I guess?"
Hey listen to me, alright, listen. You alright? Everything good, you okay?""Oh I'm just fine you corporate shill, just fine.""Please refrain from insulting each other."
"Okay... simple... English... you, are, wrong. Your entire party fails on all fronts, you fail to see the situation for what it is and rely on an impossible dream to guide you. The evidence is very clear... Boldonians do not want socialism. You are fighting a fight that has already been lost. Come back down to Earth, get with the times. The world doesn't work like in your dreams, everything you have said throughout this entire debate has been incorrect on all fronts. It's not a surprise you barely have a stable voter base and it's decreasing rapidly. So I ask you, why, just why?""It is you who is stuck in the past, you think you've won but you'll see, you'll se-""Okay we're just going to stop here.
This concludes the intermediate party debate. Stay tuned on BNBS and PBCN to watch the rest of the debates. This has been Jack Howard of PBCN, have a great evening."