Independence Day thoughts from GV - lots of thoughts!

[GV]

It is no secret during the days of the 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa, there was no-one 'down south' more monarchist and pro-reunification than I.  Even today as much as I dislike the way John has never held any real affection for Talossan 'liberals', I too cannot help but remember the times when his leadership has been critical to Talossa's continued existence: spring-summer 2005, the potential PR crisis resulting from the actions of I. Canun, and Ben Madison's snuffed-out attempt at making a Talossan comeback.

And from everything I've ever seen, heard, or read, John outside of this community is a stellar individual.  Often, I have wished I had known him outside Talossa.

John genuinely pines for 2005-2011 Talossa: the pomp, the ceremony, and the brilliant cultural renaissance the Kingdom went through after Ben's exit.  While we down south were wallowing in the real grief Ben caused so many, the Kingdom was having genuine fun for the first time since 1996 when Cybercit Talossa was still new and the people who would be such an abrasion for Ben Madison had not yet come on the scene.

And I think I can speak safely for him in saying the fact we in the 2004-2012 Republic did not return on 15 August 2005 is beyond the scope of logic or common sense.  Moreover, his abiding devotion to law and order could not fathom the inorganicity of the Republic.  He's not wrong.

I've said this before, and I will say it again: monarchial reform is not the root of the issue.  The root of the issue began on 1 June 2004 when Ben Madison began fostering and encouraging a societal culture in the Kingdom that discouraged any 'slack' given to the 'traitors'.  The fact we wrongly commandeered Wittenberg and talossa.com blinded the vast majority of the Kingdom who rightly reeled at those two actions without remembering the real-life provocation: Ben Madison falsely accusing fellow citizen Kane dal Nava of domestic violence in order to drive him out of the country.

Everything that came after Ben began this vendetta is ancillary - even the Republic itself.  Everything in Talossan history since is rooted in this moment: When Ben Madison began falsely accusing - on Wittenberg - in public - Kane Gruber of domestic violence, he broke Talossa.  Reunision aside, this Breaking of Talossa is still with us.

In spring 2005, John and Fritz (of blessed memory) began to see Ben's vindictiveness for the farce it really was.  That summer, they began calling Ben out in public, and made things so hot for Ben, the Mad King Ben did something very unexpected: he took his toys and left.

I cannot imagine John or anyone else would have been brilliant enough to know how to drive Ben off, and frankly, I never saw anyone in the Kingdom at that time call for Ben's expulsion, as we in the Republic so wanted to have happen.  Had Ben simply let the matter with Kane be and allowed the Talossan language to go out into the world, he would still be king and the Republic might have died of stagnation by now.

Ben's charisma and spin-mastery might have even driven John away, too, but too little did Mad King Ben reckon with 'Diplomacy John' who had something Ben lacked: a lack of vindictiveness.  That lack of vindictiveness on John's part gave him a clear head to fight whatever battles with Ben he cared to fight - and probably win! 

Could it be, then, Talossa has only ever been a game of Diplomacy for King John of Talossa?  In part, it would seem that is the case, but I think John is too much of a person for me to accurately paint him with such a narrow brush.

Clearly however, when Ben left the Kingdom, John saw an opportunity to remake Talossa in his own image.  Doubtless, he and others traded many emails and pints.  When the Conservative Loyalist Party saw its own raison d'etre go the way of Ben's reign, it folded, leaving a power vacuum.

Enter the RUMP. 

Clearly, John and company had been busy, and in retrospect, it can be well argued placing John on the Throne and keeping him there was their goal.

However, John also saw the clear anti-monarchist sentiment in the Republic.  I believe he felt this was a direct threat to the way he wanted to do Talossa (he was right), and he saw to it he was as aloof with the Republic as much as humanly possible.  The last thing John wanted was Kingdom affection for We Who Left.

And to be fair, We Who Left had no desire to make a return any time soon.  The mantra of 'Betrayed, Stolen, Kept' was true (at least in the last two instances), but was designed to throw off the Kingdom public on the possibility of saying, "Yeah, what they did was bad.  But what Ben did was way worse.  We want them home.".

By April 2005, the Republic had enshrined and ratified its Constitution - the result of months of blood, sweat, and tears.  Governance and governance done well was everything to us.  Moreover, Ben Madison had burned us utterly on the concept of Talossan monarchy, an institution we all saw as inherently corrupt.

I believe John knew all of this and wanted to keep us at-bay and out of the Kingdom.  This is why my pleas to him and Hooligan (Hooligan mostly) in the 2005-2008 period to genuinely reach out to us resulted only in crickets.

And to be fair, when A. Davinescu tried to get a Republic Wittenberg account in 2008, he was duly - and wrongly - rebuffed.  We saw him from the off as an intelligent and enthusiastic Talossan who rightly saw John as his key to Talossan power and influence.  John found in AD a willing and effective frontman, and a symbiosis was born.

I will always regret the complicit, though small, part I played in AD's not getting on our forum.  How much of an effect it had on pan-Talossan relations only he knows.

And to be fair, I've personally always gotten along very well with AD.  Even if after Reunision, the former Republicans should have insisted on a greater level of input with El Lex, the fact El Lex exists is due to AD's work - a project that was long overdue.  His work on the recent Living Cosa is a thing of beauty and a consummate example of how to run such a proceeding.  AD's dedication to Talossa is beyond dispute.  It's only with his treatment of the 'down south' culture and people that I take issue.

All of this has a point: in 2005, we didn't return to the Kingdom for one reason only: rightly or wrongly and even if we immediately 'returned' talossa.com and Wittenberg X, we felt we would have entered/returned-to a kingdom-community that hated us and would behind closed doors continue to hate us.  Who wants to be a part of a group that dislikes them?

Thus, the 2004-2012 Republic did not end until 20 April 2012, and at least de jure, Reunision was the last bit of business regarding the legacy of Ben Madison.  The return of Kane Gruber to the Kingdom of Talossa was a right slap in the face of Mad King Ben and was a true miracle.

That miracle was facilitated in part by John, though I'm quite sure it was as much for pragmatic reasons as anything else.  By the time Miestrâ initiated everything (because John and the RUMP never would have) in December 2011, the great momentum in the Kingdom surrounding John's accession was long over and both Kingdom and Republic were stagnant.  They needed each other, and to be frank, the Republic was on its last legs, anyway.  Something had to give.

Fast forward to August 2020.  The ratification via referendum of 54RZ28 (no more hereditary monarchy) had to have ticked off King John to no end.  Yes, he may have been real-life working non-stop, but to be completely incommunicado for two months thereafter and knowing his skills at organization, nothing else can explain his complete absence than that he was having a temper-tantrum.

Finally in October, I gave him a phone call which was clearly not wanted - lol!  "Are you well, John?"  "Yes, I'm well.", he replied.  This phone call of mine was a sincere welfare-check, but I think the last thing he wanted was for GV phoning him and finding him healthy and sullen.

Soon thereafter, he does the one thing he can think of that would piss off the Talossan left more than anything else he could or would do: appoint Alexandreu Davinescu as Regent.  AD was perfectly competent in the role, but when John finally came back a few months later, he made AD a peer for doing the sort of work with the level of competence most anyone in Talossa could have accomplished.

That and his veto of multiple attempts at reforming the way monarchs in Talossa are chosen clearly points to someone not recognizing the clear will of the people through their legislature, but rather an individual keen on preserving his exalted position.

In the end, however, with me, it goes deeper than vetoed legislation, proclamation crises, or ill-awarded baronies.

John has had nigh-on-eighteen years to truly reach out in genuine fraternity and friendship to the Talossan Left.  A single Wittenberg post from him made on our forum back in 2005-2006 could have derailed the Talossan Cold War right then and there.

John knew this.  Yet time and time again, he made the decision the way he wanted to do Talossa was more important than mending fences and offering a bit of slack and grace to We Who Provoked and Commandeered Wittenberg X.

For to offer that slack and grace would in Talossa destroy him politically, and his politics in Talossa matters more than friendship.  For he is a political king.

Thus, this king has to be put into retirement, and with much personal regret, I associate myself with the Free Democrats' wish to see him democratically dethroned within all bounds of propriety, decency, and Talossan law. 

He has had long enough to come 'round.

I will bring up to the Free Democrats of Talossa a proposal whereby this dethrone can be facilitated in a full-blown democratic referendum, the result of which to which I will gladly abide. 

And I pray I am wrong on all of this. 

Believe it or not, John and Hooligan, I *want* to be wrong.

GV, Senator from Fiova