Candidates: where do you stand on these questions?

This election campaign seems to be all innuendo and personality with no substance. I’m having a hard time figuring out who to support (though am leaning Contrarion). I propose we collect a list of questions to be submitted to each candidate, and deny our votes to any candidate who refuses to publicly declare their positions. Here are some of the questions that keep me up at night:

  1. Would you support an Overgoat Excise Tax? This would be a weekly tax on overgoat owners to help redistribute wealth from the more fortunate to those in need.

  2. Would you support nationalizing all Hespirion Cider production and access? We need regulation to ensure everyone in this fair, fallen city has equal access. And one hears there has been an upsurge in adulterated and imitation cider. Will you protect the public health?

  3. Do you support in principle the separation of church and state?

  4. Do you support mandatory conscription for any wars you may be contemplating, infernal or otherwise?

I would suppose Jenny would vote yes on 1 and 2, no on 3 and 4. The Bishop: yes on 1 (but with proceeds to fund a certain venture), no on 2 and 3, and yes on 4, The Contrarion, no on 1, 2, and 4, and yes on 3. But that is just speculation: we need answers! Anyone else have any questions to add to the list?

The Jovial Contrarian would answer yes and no to all questions, in the same breath.

And that’s why we love him! :)

Hah, that’s of course true! But it’d still be helpful – I’d like to see the best defence he can muster for both sides of each issue.

[quote=Shaerys]

  1. Would you support an Overgoat Excise Tax? This would be a weekly tax on overgoat owners to help redistribute wealth from the more fortunate to those in need.

  2. Would you support nationalizing all Hespirion Cider production and access? We need regulation to ensure everyone in this fair, fallen city has equal access. And one hears there has been an upsurge in adulterated and imitation cider. Will you protect the public health?

  3. Do you support in principle the separation of church and state?

  4. Do you support mandatory conscription for any wars you may be contemplating, infernal or otherwise?

I would suppose Jenny would vote yes on 1 and 2, no on 3 and 4. [/quote]
I have to disagree with number 3. Sinning Jenny is flexible to traditional Christian beliefs, and the Abbey aren’t even originally a Christian sect, though I’m not familiar enough with them to know if their church status is honest or merely a cover. Whether her position as a nun is backed by her faith or is simply a position of power within an organization (though I personally believe her to simply be a devout woman with more liberal ideals and beliefs), I can’t see the prostitute nun who practically embodies the contradictory nature of a scarlet saint demand the influence of the church on people who would wish to see otherwise.

approximations from headcannons, assumes jenny is reasonably skilled at estimating her limits. All debates removed from jovial contrarian.

Sinning jenny:
Yes. If I can’t get the law through, i’ll make them volunteer anyways through blackmail, poison, seduction, and letting it slip that they’re well-informed about the vake to particularly ruthless hunters.

The Jovial Contrarian:
No, weekly taxes are highly impractical. I’d consider making ownership of overgoats require an expensive permit, which will suffice to redistribute the wealth. How often do you think the permit should need renewing, is the question. Well, that and &quotwill it actually make a difference, given the numbers of overgoat owners.&quot Care to debate me on that

The bishop:
I will ban overgoats, ubergoats, and all other hell-goats.

Sinning Jenny:
No. While it would be possible to do this, there really isn’t enough to go around, and more-than-half of it would promptly vanish into the black markets if we did that. Even taxing it will be hard, though i’ll try to do that. Maybe making it so any citizen can seize hesperian cider if it’s unregistered? that would work well.

Jovial Contrarian:
We will provide medical care, but hesperian cider is absurdly hard to get, and harder to regulate. i propose an alternative, though not a permanant one- we offer a verification service at a hefty price. any government verified cider is the real deal, while black market stuff may be too expensive.

Perhaps we will get some for the hospital, though. you need regular cider consumption to become immortal, but a small dose can postpone even permanant death, or even cure diseases that otherwise inevitably make you forever gone.

The bishop:
What is the immortallity of apples when devils are stealing the immortality of the soul. how messed up are your priorities, man!

Sinning Jenny:
Yes-but-no.the church is a potent and powerful institution, but it should not rule over london on its own. the church has failed the downtrodden, and giving them another try is not fair to the poor victims. But neither should being a member of the clergy prevent you from holding office.

Jovial Contrarian:
[depending on which way you asked it, whether it sounded like you supported or opposed it, he’d go with the other, but his actual opinions are more like this]:
Seperating the church from state is impossible. the traitor empress is our queen, however little power she excercises, and she also officially rules the church. however, this is a tenuous, weak tie, and it should not be made stronger for any reason. she is the reason we are bound to the bazaar, why we must bow to the masters, and the church is the primary reason for the catastrophe that was a war with hell. if one falters, the other must not follow suit.

The bishop:
No. if we weren’t seperated, we could cast out those damned devils.

sinning jenny:
no. the poor get the worst of a conscription, while often the wealthy slip out of it. I am not so powerful or delusional to think i can truly prevent that.

the jovial contarian:
[two speeches on the matter that boil down to this]:
Conscription will only be used in the most dire of circumstances. otherwise, wars will be fought by volunteers, or, ideally, not at all.

the bishop:
yes.