Contoversy Without Contention

Controversy without contention: How counting saved a nomination.

Shortly after getting elected, Zepz made two appointments that required the confirmation of the senate: Delulu for AG, and MedMouse for SoEx. Both of these appointments were met with immediate conflict, with Delulu withdrawing herself from consideration due to the stress and pressure applied to her during the confirmation process. The confirmation process, however, was not nearly as simple for MedMouse, who stuck through the entirety of the confirmation process despite the immediate and aggressive controversy and won. Here's how MedMouse cruised his way to the DoEx.

Many people in SimDem (including some of those who run it) often get confused about who decides wether or not a nominee gets confirmed. Often times, when a group of people dislike a nominee, they take the battle to the public and attempt to sway public opinion against the nominee's favor. This is exactly what happened in MedMouse's case. Former SoEx Muggy and DoEx employee took the battle to the public through an extravagant senate hearing, and by taking the debate to general chat and across the server. Despite heavy support for their cause, however, there was one key constituency whom they failed to sway: the senate. No matter the opinion of the general public, it is the senate and the senate alone who decides wether or not a nominee get's confirmed. We saw this in the failed confirmation process of Sec. Treas. Nominee Lyoko, when the senate decided he shouldn't be confirmed because he couldn't answer their questions to their satisfaction. In Lyoko's case, the power of the senate was clear; it had nothing to do with public opinion, nor with the nominee's popularity - the senate didn't want him, and so he wasn't confirmed.

Going back to MedMouse's confirmation, we can see this principle play out first hand. The majority of vocal onlookers sided with Muggy and Birdish, claiming that either MedMouse was unqualified, or that Muggy should have been nominated instead. However, the senate is never convinced by argumentation alone. In fact, MedMouse's hearing went terribly for MedMouse, with several tactical mistakes on the part of the nominee, as well as factual errors. However, in the end, the vote was called with 7 in favor, 2 absentions, and zero against. How does MedMouse, a lower level employee who was almost fired for inactivity become the SoEx with zero votes in opposition? Simple. MedMouse's supporters can count. I'm not talking about "1, 2, 3" and so on, I'm talking about counting votes. The single most important skill in SimDem politics is learning how to count. What does that mean? Well, being able to count means that you know who's with you, who's against you, and who you can sway in between. It means that you know the threshold of support you need to meet, and you know how to reliably meet it. It means you can whip votes. Who counted the votes on MedMouse's confirmation? Bill 'Rocky' Moor. 

MedMouse underperformed in the hearing, and underperformed in public opinion, but he overperformed by miles in the senate. The best part? MedMouse was never at risk of his confirmation being blocked. In that long and grueling senate hearing, and after being beaten and battered for hours on end, MedMouse held the majority. In didn't matter what he said. It didn't matter who else supported him. As long as he was a viable candidate who could be reasonably believed to be good at the job (which his supporters did genuinely believe), then it was impossible for anyone to stop the confirmation without whipping each and every senator.

Ok, sure. MedMouse had a majority in the senate, but how would his supporters have known that before the hearing ended? It was such a close call and nobody knew wether or not he'd be cofirmed. Well here's how. Before the hearing began, MedMouse already had 4 guarunteed votes: 3 LDP and 1 SPQR. As the hearing went on, the LDP's main whip, Speaker Moor immediately got counting. Once he realized the safe count (the votes that were unlikely to flip against him), he moved on to the swing count. This included 5 senators, Democracyforyou, Rein, Tripod, CoolKaonz, and Starlight. Of these 5 senators, the MedMouse only needed two. MedMouse got 3. DFY, Rein, and Starlight. In order to achieve a succesful confirmation, MedMouse needed 6/10 votes, due to 2 recent resignations  (Literal and Delulu). At this point, the count was 7/10.  However, when the vote came, one LDP senator was not present  (NotCom), and so the count was brought down to 6/10 with zero margin of error. However, when counting a count, one must never forget the oppisition vote. For the LDP/SPQR coalition, the opposition count consists of Sunbear and Nf_19. However, in this case, there was an unexpected flip when Nf_19 voted in favor of confirmation, returning the count to a comfortable 7/10.

Whilst Muggy was deploying passionate rhetoric suggesting herself for the job, and whilst Birdish threatened to resign if the confirmation went through, MedMouse's supporters simple counted the vote. At the end of the day, when the tally was drawn, MedMouse and his supporters knew that no matter what happened, the count was in their favor. Some say Muggy and Birdish politicized the hearing. They didn't. They just politicized the conversation. Real, government changing politics can be kept track of with fingers and tallies. Once MedMouse's supporters utilized that fact and Muggy's supporters didn't, the fight for the DoEx was over.

Disclaimer: MedMouse had no involvement in the process of vote counting or whipping votes. All suporters of MedMouse believed that MedMouse was a great candidate for SoEx, and this article simply covers the politics behind realizing someone's beliefs and preferences into government action.