how does the ldp work?

In current SimDem politics, there are two major political parties: MMTM and the LDP. This first article will be about the LDP, how it's organized, and how it works. The next article will be on MMTM.

The LDP, or Liberal Democratic Party, is one of two dominant political parties on SimDem, with its current party leader being Kelvin. First, let's talk about the leadership. By all accounts, Kelvin takes a hands-off approach to leadership, only concerning himself with matters necessary to further the goals of his party members. Having rarely used his powers as party leader, Kelvin has remained the leader of the LDP without contention for some time, mainly due to everyone within the party enjoying the freedom granted by Kelvin's style of leadership. Below the Party Leader (Kelvin), we have the Senate Leader, Bill 'Rocky' Moor. Being in charge of the LDP senate caucus, it is Speaker Moor's job to ensure that the caucus, its conference, and all members of the party and its allies are on the same page and act accordingly. Below the Senate Leader (Speaker Moor), we have the Party Whip, Stalin. The job of the Party Whip is largely the same as the Senate Leader, except the PW only works within the bounds of the party. Finally, we have the LDP council, which is the major decision making body of the LDP. In the party, the Party Leader and Council are elected, with the rest being appointed by the party leader.

Despite the wide cast of seemingly chaotic characters within the party, such as the scandal-ridden NotCom, the controversial Kelvin, and more the members of the party are almost always in lock step when it comes to public action. Why? Discipline. The primary doctrine of the LDP seems to be simple; argue in private until you have a unified message to provide to the public. According to reports from within the party, disagreements and debates are common and even daily, but when push comes to shove, they come to an agreement on what the platform of the party will be.

Overall, the party runs on unity and discipline. Without public contradictions and well defined beliefs, current and new members know exactly what to expect and when. Despite constant controversy in the public eye, the LDP consistently gets a plurality within the senate. How is this? Whipping. Everything goes back to discipline. According to internal reporting, each party member is responsible for forming their own consituency independent of that of the party's. Then, it is the role of the party leader to ensure that every member is pushed over the line to victory with the help of the more general LDP constituency. After gaining a plurality in the senate, the LDP isn't done using it's top strategy. A unified message within the party's caucus allows for their leadership to whip votes within the senate and argue their case before the public whilst never contradicting themselves, and being able to hone their message as they debate; because each member is using the same message, when one of them gets into a debate, they can communicate the weaknesses of their points to the rest of the party who can then adapt.

The LDP, however, is not without its weaknesses. Firstly, they are almost always outnumbered. Despite consistently obtaining pluralities in the senate, they are usually outnumbers in public discourse, often finding themselves in 3-on-1 debates. To address this, the LDP uses two things: organization and extremely thought out platforms. Behind the scenes, LDP leadership often speaks amongst themselves to determine how best to address a certain issue. It is thought that "Rocky-nomics" (shown below) was a product of this doctrine, where the party leadership spends days debating a certain topic, usually letting one member take the lead due to a certain expertise (in this case, that was Speaker Moor), and coming to a consensus on the party's stance on that matter, having taken into account the opinion of all active members. Second, after internal discussions cease and a vote on policy concludes, the result is the result. Nobody from the Party Leader to a caucus member can change the consensus. According to internal reports (and very public incidents), the seeming lack of flexibility from officially adopted policies can be difficult for some to swallow, causing breaks in the party line. However, since the party platform is made to take the best from all members, there are few known occasions of this problem arising.