On the Origin of Parties

[garentoft 9265]

@Piov @Xarkly

 

Three letters are sent by Lauritz Christiansen, one to Sir Terrence May, another to Sir Konstantin Wick, and the third to the print at Christiansen Publishing.

 

“To my friends, Terrence and Konstantin,

 

I hope that you are both doing well, and that your households prosper. I have not spoken to you in many years, Terrence, perhaps even a decade. I hope that your return to your familial career of fishing has gone well up in Valwyck, and that you receive this letter in due time. And while I did see you just the other day, Konstantin, I must once more congratulate you on engagement and soon to be wedding. Of course, I do intend to attend it myself, as both you and HRH are good friends of mine.

 

Nevertheless, I must endure into the content of this letter! I assume that we have all had our issues with the Diet, yet I have always found the most pressing and most concerning to be our two parties, or factions, the Josephites and the Everardines. This is not because I am against the idea of parties altogether, no, but it rather has to do with the title of this letter, their origin. 

 

The Josephites and Everardines are artificial concepts, produced for the Edict of Reform of 1763. The ideas of these here Josephites and Everardines did not exist until then, and likely would have not come into existence in the first place, had it not been for their artificial creation. This striking lack of natural progression into the development of these parties has created an environment in which neither party truly prospers.

 

While it is true, in my opinion, that what would now be described as Josephite thought dominated the Senate of yesteryear, there was still plenty of room for disagreement amongst ourselves, and there was certainly no party leader to tell us what was to be and what wasn’t to be. I do find the lesser of the two evils to be these Josephites, and the Everardines to be the true abomination. The ideas of the Everardines were never much present in political establishments prior to the Edict of Reform, and the three elections since have come to show that Everardine ideology is nothing more than a propped up scarecrow for the Josephites to beat in elections and proclaim victory over.

 

Where one party can barely hang onto what few seats it has in the Commons, due to the lack of ideological precedence among politicians and the general population. The other party, however, has an ideology so varied among established politicians and the populace, that it could easily be split into a parade of other parties. I know that you, Terrence, fundamentally disagree with many of the beliefs of Arthur Callahan, but are you both not Josephites in our current system?

 

This once more brings me back to the natural development and progression of parties. For I firmly believe that had the Edict of Reform not mandated the creation of these two arbitrary factions, such factions could have formed in their own time. If such had been let happen, we could have a truly competitive system in which the control of the Diet can actually vary election to election, unlike the Josephite dominance shown in the present day.

 

Alas, I can only dream to see what the Diet would’ve been like without the artificial and arbitrary creation of the Josephites and the Everardines, though I suspect that a mirage of different ideologies could have flourished there. Yet, it is my desire to work towards the disestablishment of these creations that plague the House of Commons, so that we may truly reach another golden age of the legislature and the Diet.

 

The Amendments to the Edict of Reform were a step in the right direction, allowing people like myself to run independently of either party. The Josephites and Everardines must become a thing of the past, the failed experiment that they are, and we must move on to achieve greater things by allowing the natural development of parties and ideologies within the Diet. And I do so earnestly hope that the two of you, one which I view as a mentor to myself, and the other that I view as my protege, can help me achieve this goal.

 

With earnest love,

Lauritz.”

[Angmarzku 1251]

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