State of the Union XIV

**Written By:** Edward Stenbach, Major Executive

**Released:** July 17, 2014

Honorable dignitaries of the Executive Branch, mindful representatives of the Administrative Branch, formidable friends of the Union, and righteous citizens of the Triumvirate, it is with a heavy heart that I say that the State of our Union is poor. It is poor because we have been haunted by a government that attempted to hinder and attack businesses instead of create an environment to help them, that has targeted our foreign relations and weakened our status abroad, and that has allowed deception and deceit to permeate its domain. Though the times of prosperity, power, and expansion under Nathan Maine are distant, they are not distant in our memories or in our hearts.

In these past days we have endured misfortune in the form of corruption and deception within our own government, and though this may be a warning of our mistakes, it can also be a model for our future as we learn from what we have done wrong. Now is not the time to dwell on our faults, but a time to move past them and improve ourselves. It is for that reason that I will be proposing a full pardon for my predecessor, Ryan Bleitze, to the Executive Branch, and whether they decide to outcast me for it or work with me on it I will leave up to them. Our time right now is not best spent by prosecuting one of the few men who ever had the privilege to hold this great office, it is best spent by looking forward and guaranteeing that the future is more successful than the past. Why should we add pain to the departure of my predecessor instead of apply that effort towards bettering ourselves? If the Triumvirate finds me to be wrong for suggesting this, I cannot stress how wrong they would be. Now is not the time to punish, now is the time to ascend past this and bring this trimester to the strong end we need.

There is little over a month left in this trimester, I concede our advances may be weak as a result, but it does not mean we cannot repair the mistakes already made. We will repair our mistakes by opening our windows to the outside world by treating our allies as friends and not as threats, and by repealing the unreasonable fiscal impositions that exist on the Union’s businesses. The flames of progressive populism have been met with the cold icy reality of our government and its limitations, and I instead of attempt to melt that ice, I will shape it to our advantage, pursuing an era of a true intellectual government. If we put our trust into private business and let them be rather than give misdirected attempts to support them, we will see economic growth. If we put our trust into a wise government and let it compete within itself, we will see political prosperity.

As your Major Executive for the duration of this trimester, I will pursue using my office only in ways that puts us back on track to where we were, to the days of Neil and Maine. I will not use my power to dissuade diplomacy or harass business, and will only use it to pursue a government that acts as it should. Alongside me, the Executive Branch has elected Head of Commerce Vulpes Arenas as the Minor Executive for the rest of the trimester and I will be naming a Chief of Staff shortly.

Though the past week, rather the past trimester, has been rife with misfortune, it is time we correct those mistakes and shape ourselves up in time to end 2014 on a strong note. When I run for my first full term as Major Executive in a month, I hope you will critique me for doing so, because I promise I will put all of the effort I have into putting the Triumvirate back on track.

*-Edward Stenbach, Seventh Major Executive of the Universal Triumvirate*