Kalistan

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Empress Tries again at Eshar Democracy Forum
Crowd seemed willing to forgive Empress for her failure at Sulari
Eshar, Duchy of Odufaray
March 19, 5652


Take Two: Empress meets with Public in Eshar, also pictured, Lady Jennifer Alvarez-Miller and Eshar Democracy Club President Shelia Nelson

Her Imperial Majesty seemed willing to stand by her stated commitment to continue to speak with the Democratic Clubs across Kalistan, and open to take direct questions from the audience, as she attended the March Democracy Forum in Eshar. Her mission was simply to not have as horrible a showing as she did last fall in Sulari. Eshar tends to be somewhat more supportive of the Empress than Suldanor has been recently, and it showed in the crowd who, despite asking pointed and direct questions, also seemed to show the Empress a bit more grace.

"I personally think she was more at ease talking with us tonight than the videos I saw of her forum in Sulari," said Forum attendee Corine Broward, of Eshar. "She answered the questions with as much honesty I think, but seemed less hostile to us than what she appeared to be in Sulari." Indeed, Broward said her question about the multi party law was answered with an explanation rather than a lecture about order and stability. "I appreciated her perspective, and more that it seemed like she has thought about it, could be moved on the issue, and that she was willing to engage in a discussion about whether it was time to reform the law."

Missing was the acrimonious personal impugnation that Sulari Forum goers brought. When Her Imperial Majesty was asked about House Ananto finances, the questioner asked her to talk about what social good she was doing with her family's money, rather than simply demanding an accounting for her apparently profligate cosmetic spending. "We are proud to report that more than 85% of House Ananto's expenditures last year went to charities and social welfare organizations, and this amount doesn't typically change," said Her Imperial Majesty. "There are somethings that we purchase for ourselves, but first our Aunt, and now our Cousin, manage to keep meticulous books which we make available to public scrutiny, and We will be happy to tell you where you can obtain that information about our spending, so you can see for yourself just who we donate to, who Miramar invests in, and whether you think that the purchase of a house or several millions of Rubles of raw gemstones from a foreign nation affects our charitable and social donations in any way. It is our hope that you find that we are very socially conscious with how we spend our money."

It is clear that Her Imperial Majesty has adopted a far different strategy of interaction for her second appearance at Democracy Forum than she had going into her first appearance. "She had good answers for every question that we posed to her," said Chris Yarway, from Senvias, who crossed the Bay for the Forum. "She obviously had practice and perhaps even a PR coach, but she was also sincere and seemed able to adapt on her feet and answer follow up questions thoughtfully. I really liked it."

Indeed, most people came away with a more positive impression of the Empress than they had going in, a fact that was born out by an impromptu poll conducted by the Eshar Democratic Club following Her Imperial Majesty's forum of its members and other attendees. More than 30% said hearing Her Imperial Majesty had significantly changed their minds for the better toward the Empress, while 42 percent said it had slightly improved their opinion about the Empress. Only 8 percent said they had a worse opinion of her after hearing her.

"Well, I think we saw the real Empress in Sulari," said Melissa Rohrbach of Eshar, who reported that she had a worse opinion of the Empress after the forum. "This one seems far too slick and practiced, almost like a politician. I wanted candidness, but she maybe seemed like she prepared too much for this to be real." Rohrbach said that this is what she expected of a politician seeking votes, not of an Empress. "In Sulari, she said there is no equality in Kalistan. That's what she really believes. Here she told us that while she does hold that the highest equality is equality under the law, she completely sidestepped the fact that she herself is not under the law, but entirely above it. She said some other nonsense like she values the inherent value of all people equally, but I was like 'Bro, that was not the question that was asked.'" Rohrbach said she knew that all politicians lie, but when they do it in a democracy its just to show how much they want to be elected, so she is reportedly "fine with them doing what they have to do to get elected," but there's no reason to lie in an autocracy.

Some noted that the Empress used terms that one may regularly hear within a Brethernist Meeting, and that could be seen as pandering. "We all know that Her Imperial Majesty is not a Brethrenist," said one Attendee, Yolanda White, of Gendaris, "and as a matter of fact, I've never heard her call anyone at all Friend, or talk about testimonies. It certainly seems like she was coached. And if you are like me, and take your Brethrenist Faith seriously, you know that a person should be genuine, but there is something off about her talking about a Peace testimony like she's ever spent a minute inside a Meeting House."

Most people, however found Her Imperial Majesty to be warm and encouraging, taking them seriously when they spoke about their needs and aspirations. "She tried to seem relatable," said Thomas McInnis, single father of three children and widower, who lives in Eshar. "It really was night and day. She spoke with me, talked directly with my children, and though I am not really convinced that she knows what its like to work 10 hours a day to keep food in your house, she did promise that she will work with the National Assembly and the Duchy Government to address food insecurity in our Duchy. There is mountains of free food all over the place, but a lot of places are food deserts still and that's our case. I can have a ton of money, but have no time to get to the food bank or store, and don't have anyone I can turn to. She said that must be very difficult for me, and she committed to me personally that she would try to do something about that. If she's lying, it was the kindest lie anyone has ever told me."

"Why couldn't this Empress have done this in Sulari," said Nate Herrera who took the train up from Sulari to attend this forum. "I think she knows she blew it in Sulari, but there's a number of reasons why that happened. Nobody is born knowing how to handle an angry crowd. Me and my brother both came up to try to give her another chance, and let me tell you, its the best 15 Rubles I ever spent. I am glad she handled herself better her, and I think we're both ready to give her another chance."

At the Forum, the Empress promised to work with the Chancellor to propose another referendum on the Single Party Law, and even if the referendum doesn't pass, she certainly would like to convene a plebiscite to discuss how the law can be reformed to include a greater diversity of opinion and ideology. "The one thing we will not be able to countenance is the existence of fascist or communist political formations within this nation," said Her Imperial Majesty. "Both ideologies are poisonous and should be crushed like a deadly snake: We will not permit that two headed serpent to crawl into our house while we sleep, to sink its teeth into us and kill us before we have the opportunity to wake and defend ourselves. More moderate ideas however may find some success if we reform the law properly."

Many other reforms that the Empress suggested could be in the pipeline would be designed to give the people a more direct say in the operations of the Government, "... up to and including the elimination of the complete fiat in most non-critical decisions. We would need to reserve the power, but in day to day affairs, it could theoretically be wiser to push most of that responsibility off onto the elected officials. Seeing an formal audience can be very difficult, and protocol will be maintained, but there is no reason citizens should not have access to lawmakers who actually have the power to try to solve problems for their constituents without having to require a decision from us." Several other potential reforms that Her Imperial Majesty could be willing to consider would be requiring some aspects of the Duchy Governments to become more popular, permitting local school boards a little more latitude in what they instruct in schools, and opening trade to allow more foreign goods in Kalistani markets.

"We have become convinced that it is possible to maintain many aspects of our order while also increasing a citizens powers over their government as well as their responsibility for Self Government in some, limited, instances," said Her Imperial Majesty. "We wish to work with you, our Citizens, to find solutions that take both of our interests into account and ensures that we both get something out of any negotiations." The suggested reform potentials, though extremely modest, were not in fact seen to be superficial: Many were aims at improving access to state services, and others proposed seemingly small changes, but implications of changes in some of those areas are taken into account, they will result in fairly major and long term alteration of the social order in some ways.

The Eshar Democracy Forum lasted more than 90 minutes, and throughout the examination, Her Imperial Majesty seemed tired, but still in very good spirits, and as she said good bye following her answer to the last question, she received a standing ovation, which itself violated the prohibition of frivolity as the Empress Leaves the room. Her Imperial Majesty didn't seem to mind, and waved as she and the Chancellor left the stage. Most believe that this forum undid some of the damage of the non-forced errors of the Sulari Forum, with most members of the Eshar Democratic Club holding either favorable or very favorable views of Her Imperial Majesty, compared to most members of the Sulari Democratic Club holding solidly negative views of Her Imperial Majesty.

After Sulari, we predicted Her Imperial Majesty would likely never return to a Democracy Forum. It would appear that in just three months, Her Imperial Majesty has proved us wrong, and done so leaving a very favorable impression on most of those who went to hear her.

@TheRepublic