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From The Ashes of the Old: A Post-American Collapse Quest

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[X] Plan Defending and Realizing the Revolution
- [X] Draft the New Family Code: As we have smashed the Old Guard, let us smash the patriarchal family to smithereens! A new world is dawning, and that means a new understanding of the family.
- [X] Investigate accusations of anti-Mexican American bias: You trust Kendra. You really do. At the same time, it doesn't mean her subordinates have been behaving properly. It would be good to do an investigation of the status of Mexican-Americans in the CPU in general, just to set your mind at rest.
- [X] Retake Lost Towns: We must liberate the towns that have fallen to the fascists with a fresh infusion of troops. If we can re-establish a perimeter perhaps we can crush this rebellion.
 
[X] Plan: Contain the Youth
-[X] Rein in the Youth: The youth are with us, but they need to be reminded that their loyalty should be to the revolutionary party, and that a good Communist is a disciplined Communist. Perhaps greater structure will benefit them, and they will remember to keep their eye on long term goals.
-[X] Begin The Abolition of Prisons: As much as you would like to sweep away the prisons in one burst of revolutionary energy, such a step must be approached gradually for the sake of preserving the revolution. We can at least start such an affair now.
-[X] Retake Lost Towns: We must liberate the towns that have fallen to the fascists with a fresh infusion of troops. If we can re-establish a perimeter perhaps we can crush this rebellion.
 
Dear god the tally is a mess. Please remember you're supposed to put Plan: in front of your plans ?
 
Personally I'm not a huge fan of any of the current plans, so I'm going to make my own.

Right now there are at least three or four looming crises - the military threats nipping at our heels like jackals, the teetering of our own civil administration and economy, unrest within our own party, and potential unrest within the YCL that things are not exciting enough - any one of which could destroy us. That is decidedly non-optimal to say the least, but it's the path we've chosen, the alternatives were all equally unappealing in different ways, and now we simply have to deal with it.

[X] Not One Step Back
-[X] Purge Right-Deviationists from the Party: Some of our comrades have weak stomachs, and claim we are pursuing a course of bloody Stalinism in the guise of reform. The NRC needs to take care of this post-haste.
-[X] Re-staff the Ministries: As much as one might wish it to, revolutionary zeal does not replace experience. The loss of an incredible number of bureaucrats, specialists, etc, is a great blow to the UAPR, and you need to address this post-haste. Time to begin hiring, giving rewards to loyal specialists, and begin training new cadres to fulfill these duties.
-[X] Retake Lost Towns: We must liberate the towns that have fallen to the fascists with a fresh infusion of troops. If we can re-establish a perimeter perhaps we can crush this rebellion.


Rationale
- We need to address either the Cascadian or the Mormon threats this turn. Of the two, the Cascadian rebels are ones who we are already engaged in fighting and thus make the most logical sense to continue dealing with. Leaving a job half-done has never once in the history of counter-insurgency or civil war lead to good results. Stabilising the situation in Cascadia will allow us to turn fully towards the west without having one hand occupied. For now, at least our enemies are fighting one another.
- The fight with Cascadia and purging the more recalcitrant members of our own party should hopefully give the YCL an outlet for their revolutionary zeal which is not us. Longer term we'll need to give them something more substantive in terms of reform and probably reign them in, but we can last a turn on this.
- Dealing with potential rivals and conspiracies in our own party is an unfortunate necessity. A coup from within using disaffected members of the security services or elements of the YCL who've been dangled an especially shiny carrot to provide muscle is a real risk.
- If we don't fix our basic ability to fulfil the capacities of government and the economy soon, then other forces will step in to fill those cracks, and we will really not like what that looks like.

mothematics said:
There is pretty much no point to accelerating the revolution if the state falls entirely apart from the inside, I should note, if the goal is to try and preserve a baseline of stability. Which it doesn't have to be, but, still.
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mothematics said:
I think we have more important things to handle right now than prison abolition, honestly?
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It is admittedly hilarious and somehow very on-brand for SV to undertake sweeping political purges and install a permanent youth cadre to guard the revolution, then immediately turn around and try to abolish prisons. Unless we want to make firing squad the punishment for all political crimes, realistically this will have to lead to us re-inventing struggle sessions and starting to send intellectuals to the fields. Honestly I almost want to see it happen for that reason, but I felt it would be better to present a plan that I think has a chance of delivering results most voters want.

EDIT:
[X] Plan War on All Fronts
 
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Skippy said:
It is admittedly hilarious and somehow very on-brand for SV to undertake sweeping political purges and install a permanent youth cadre to guard the revolution, then immediately turn around and try to abolish prisons. Unless we want to make firing squad the punishment for all political crimes, realistically this will have to lead to us re-inventing struggle sessions and starting to send intellectuals to the fields.
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Likely because some of us tried to direct the energy of the social revolution against mass executions in the third turn vote but failed, and is mostly trying to salvage the mess.

Also unironically struggle sessions would be better than the execution happy spree we've been doing, which is also guaranteed to be continued by your plan.

edit: Straight up purging "right-deviationists" would be the dumbest move, shooting ourselves in the foot while not even sating the YCL nor the junior officers
 
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Lets be honest this is basically just gen x taking out their frustrations and childhood trauma on their parents. Which is entirely justified.

[Plan] The future is now, old man
[X] Draft the New Family Code: As we have smashed the Old Guard, let us smash the patriarchal family to smithereens! A new world is dawning, and that means a new understanding of the family.

[X] Begin The Abolition of Prisons: As much as you would like to sweep away the prisons in one burst of revolutionary energy, such a step must be approached gradually for the sake of preserving the revolution. We can at least start such an affair now.

[X] Negotiate with Moderate Rebels: Maybe we can peel off some of the more moderate insurgents with limited concessions and weaken the strength of the insurgency?

Let them get all that frustration out. However there are some on the other side who are merely misguided. Lets bring them home and show them that we aren't a bunch of crazed stalinists.
 
The Laurent said:
The YCL wants a major reform, and there's really only two options: Prison Reform or Family Reform. We could try to rein them in, which is mechanically valid, or we could ignore them turning against us and have it end very badly, which is not, but not doing anything seems ill-advised.
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I think we need, like, somewhere to put dissidents that isn't graves, generally, so on the grounds that prisons are actually eminently useful for us and more humane than murder for handling them, I don't think prison abolition is the move. I know that it wouldn't be complete this turn but I'm skeptical there wouldn't be pressure to completely follow through as we go.
 
Potato Anarchy said:
I don't understand why the anti-Mexican-American bias investigation is such a priority for so many people while the country is on fire.
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A numerous and oppressed Chicano underclass seems like the kind of thing that would be an unnecessary weight on a society attempting to mobilize the people for self-defense and counteroffensive. We could, instead, not have such a thing.
 
But it's a political investigation of one person and organization over three months, not the uprooting of an entire system bias overnight. There's a lot of pressing issues! I understand focusing on different ones than me but this one seems questionably short term.
 
Potato Anarchy said:
But it's a political investigation of one person and organization over three months, not the uprooting of an entire system bias overnight. There's a lot of pressing issues! I understand focusing on different ones than me but this one seems questionably short term.
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Is it over three months? Actually, @Lazer Raptor , how long is each turn? At the moment, it feels more like a month or two at most?
 
Regency said:
Likely because some of us tried to direct the energy of the social revolution against mass executions in the third turn vote but failed, and is mostly trying to salvage the mess.
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The issue is that we can't get the toothpaste back in the tube. To quote a great philosopher, we exist in the context of all in which we live and what came before us.

As tempting as it can be to relitigate the last vote with the current one - and I've fallen prey to this myself more than once - the unavoidable reality is that we are a revolutionary state that has engaged in political violence, and will have a lot of political violence in its future, before we can get to any sort of future not involving political violence. We have to make choices based on that reality, and not simple anger at the last vote - not that there were any perfect alternative options at the time.

I'll admit that I am voting for flavour a bit on this one, but I think that our internal opposition isn't something to simply dismiss. They represent one of the most realistic prospects of a counter-coup.

Regency said:
Also unironically struggle sessions would be better than the execution happy spree we've been doing, which is also guaranteed to be continued by your plan.
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That was partly a joke, but also let's be real here: we are a revolutionary state committed to a fairly absolutist political vision with no civil society or commons that can absorb a lot of dissent or disagreement. Already, we have fought a revolution, had two or three different rounds of internal political purges, we are engaged in multiple civil wars/counter-insurgencies, and oh, we also have a highly aggressive youth cadre committed to rooting out. Even if we assume that the leaders were shot in the latest purges, and this reduces the numbers somewhat, our current population of political prisoners has to be in the thousands or even tens of thousands already. Where do these people go?

Then reabsorbing our lost territories and then needing to deal with insurgencies etc., reigning in the most firebrand elements of the YCL, and the ongoing efforts of the YCL to purge crypto-counter-revolutionary thought will realistically add some more thousands or tens of thousands. Are we supposed to simply dig ditches for all of these people? A good talking to is not realistically going to deal with our inveterate ideological enemies and the idea that it will is so absurd that I am not going to dignify it further. This is not a problem we simply get to banish because it's unfortunate to think about, it's an inconvenient truth we must face.

@Lazer Raptor has shown they're committed to showing the reality of a revolutionary state formed in a civil war. The problem of what we do with political prisoners and former rebels will either bite us in the foot like a rattlesnake, lead to a lot more shooting, or we will be stuck creating some utterly hypocritical system of prisons-but-in-name-only, etc.. Certainly if we try to attempt it in a hurry to appease internal political sentiments, with all the other crises we have to deal with.


If purging Right-Deviationists is not people's speed then fair enough, but I think Prison Abolition this turn is going to turn into either some kind of disaster, or lead to immense amounts of mental gymnastics and hypocrisy - either of which might be entertaining, but not great if we seriously want the UAPR to succeed. I think a combination of other options could still mollify the YCL for a turn, but if not, why not go for the New Family Initiative? At least that does not conflict on a basic level with everything else we need to do to remain in power, pursue our political vision and wage multiple brutal counter-insurgencies.
 
I went with prison abolition over family reform because it seemed less politically disruptive to the general population and we are already using alternatives (purges). I don't have super strong feelings about the difference.
 
None of the leading plans address the threat of Deseret holding the Colorado (and therefore our water supply). I hate to split our forces, but I think we have to—either one of these rebellions left alone is an existential threat to the revolution. The Family Code is to appease the YCL; we must keep them loyal at this moment. Racism and understaffed ministries are medium-term problems that we unfortunately don't have the resources to address right now.

[X]Plan War on All Fronts
-[X] Crush the Rebels in the West: Nevada's so-called Communists have betrayed the revolution. It is time to revolutionize their stagnant leadership and liberate Nevada. The American People's Army and YCL are ready to fight, all they need is your order.
-[X] Retake Lost Towns: We must liberate the towns that have fallen to the fascists with a fresh infusion of troops. If we can re-establish a perimeter perhaps we can crush this rebellion.
-[X] Draft the New Family Code: As we have smashed the Old Guard, let us smash the patriarchal family to smithereens! A new world is dawning, and that means a new understanding of the family.

[X] Putting Out Fires
 
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Potato Anarchy said:
I went with prison abolition over family reform because it seemed less politically disruptive to the general population and we are already using alternatives (purges). I don't have super strong feelings about the difference.
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It may be too late in the vote to change course but I would urge a rethink - if nothing else, whilst they both present pitfalls, the New Family Code at least does not force us into becoming hypocrites or mass-murderers.

Boss Tweed said:
None of the leading plans address the threat of Deseret holding the Colorado (and therefore our water supply). I hate to split our forces, but I think we have to—either one of these rebellions left alone is an existential threat to the revolution. The Family Code is to appease the YCL; we must keep them loyal at this moment. Racism and understaffed ministries are medium-term problems that we unfortunately don't have the resources to address right now.

[X]Plan War on All Fronts
-[X] Crush the Rebels in the West: Nevada's so-called Communists have betrayed the revolution. It is time to revolutionize their stagnant leadership and liberate Nevada. The American People's Army and YCL are ready to fight, all they need is your order.
-[X] Retake Lost Towns: We must liberate the towns that have fallen to the fascists with a fresh infusion of troops. If we can re-establish a perimeter perhaps we can crush this rebellion.
-[X] Draft the New Family Code: As we have smashed the Old Guard, let us smash the patriarchal family to smithereens! A new world is dawning, and that means a new understanding of the family.
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I think we would be better leaving the West be for now, but I will put my money where my mouth is and edit in an approval vote for this.
 
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