VIEWPOINT II The Executive

The Executive Branch is composed of the President and their Cabinet. The President, being the head of the Executive, wields executive authority, as well as having primary authority over foreign affairs. The President, having veto power, also decides which laws are signed or vetoed. The Cabinet is composed of various Secretaries and the Attorney General, who all have their own respective duties that have various levels of importance, but all of them derive their executive authority from the President. A fairly simple analogy is that the President and their Cabinet are the ‘faces’ of SimDem, so to speak.

The President, being the leader and source of authority in the Executive Branch, embodies the branch and therefore is the person I interviewed for this article. My interview with President Zepz and my comments are outlined.

1. How do you feel about your time as President so far?

“So far I think it's been good and mostly peaceful. There were a few bumps on the road on the first day, but outside of that it's been good. The budget was kinda stressful to finish, as I always felt like I wouldn't present it on time, but unfortunately that didn't happen and it was presented 16 or so hours ago to the Senate.”

Perceivably, President Zepz's time in office has been largely peaceful and uneventful, barring the bumpy first few days and possibly the drafting of the budget. 

2. What do you think of the state of the Executive as a whole? Are there any major improvements you think could be made?

“I think the executive is in an overall decent state. Literal did a great job the first few days cleaning the DoJ, archiving useless operation channels, etc. Olive is also restructuring the Treasury which I also like a lot. Outside of that, most departments have continued work as normal and there isn't really any need to fix them. I think that we could always make improvements tho, and I'll strive for that.”

The President accurately recognizes that the Executive as a whole is in a good state but that there is always more room in some areas for improvement. The Prime Minister of Israel, my beloved Benjamin Netanyahu, also thinks this, but he is incorrect. Time will tell if Zepz is also incorrect, but it is evident that Zepz is not as incorrect as our beloved BB.

3. What plans do you have for the rest of this term?

“Now that the budget is done and Olive is back from his vacation I really wanna work more on the State Bank with him. SDSE should also be in the works. Thommy has already started with SimNATO framework, and while that'll take some time, it's an exciting project which I plan to work on with him. I also wanna issue a few EOs archiving some channels and deleting some roles, and some EOs which create a few channels lol but I think they'll be used.”

In the time between this interview and the release of this article, seemingly no work has been done on the State Bank and SDSE. Olive was fired and Rocky was hired, but he is more focused on the understaffing issues in the SoT than the SDSE and State Bank. Zepz has issued the EOs repealing old EOs, but has not really archived or disposed of seemingly any channels and roles, aside from those made via repealed EOs. Overall, he still has some plans to execute, which is good, considering he still has a good amount of time in his term.

4. Speaking of EOs, your first three(ish) days in office have resulted in a surprisingly small number of EOs. How many EOs do you have planned for the rest of the term, what are they and what are you hoping to achieve with said EOs?

“My goal is to have around 10 EOs by the end of the term, which is a relatively small amount compared to past presidents. While there may not be many of them, I want them to be higher quality. Lots of EOs which I wanted to do have been scrapped due to me thinking about it more and realizing it isn't really a good idea. Now on to what I'm hoping to achieve with them, I hope to clean up the server a lil bit(archive a few channels and delete roles) and generate more activity (make a couple of channels). I also wanna bring back some fun gimmicks like Fake President but i'd need to balance that with the role count of the server. “

At the time of writing, Zepz currently has 7 EOs. The majority of them are relatively short or cleanup EOs. The repeal EO is impressive (especially in its repealing of old EOs that were effectively legislation). However, he has not really authored or issued any EOs that generate activity. Overall, I am somewhat underwhelmed by his EOs, and would like to see, as Zepz says, ‘higher quality’ EOs.

5. Your first day was riddled with controversy which has led to your approval to be not as good as it could be with many members of the server. What are you going to do to improve your reputation and public image?

“I'm gonna try and show that this administration is effective and capable, not much more.”

Short yet sweet answer. No comments.

6. What progress have you made on your campaign promises? (Specifically the ones in your cfc)

“Well as i said i'll start with the promotion of State Bank today as Olive has just returned from his vacation, on the events we have Among Us game night planned for Saturday and Medmouse already started one more event plus as i said i have EOs planned for some channels which i think will be pretty active, framework for our own international org is underway, Thommy is working hard on it, i have a list of EOs i wanna repeal but i wanna add more, that EO is coming soon, on the government efficiency Olive is restructuring the Treasury and Literal got rid of the bloat in the DoJ. So far so good in my opinion.”

I will give Zepz the benefit of the doubt regarding the international framework and DoJ bloat as that is largely behind the scenes happenings. However, he has not introduced any new channels yet and there has been no progress on the State Bank (seems like Olive was still inactive, despite being back). The Among Us event was moderately successful, though the other events this term were largely uneventful and kind of bland. In conclusion: meh.

I asked Zepz a seventh question, but that question (and his response to it) will be saved for the final article of the series, VIEWPOINT TERMINUS. The next article shall focus on the Judiciary and will hopefully be released soon.