Matt

@VoiceOfThePeople is the official Twitter account of Voice of the People. Also featuring tweets from Voice of the People contributors @TylerJacobsVOTP, @AshleyJacobsVOTP, and @MattKimVOTP. 

Voice of the People

By Tyler Jacobs, Ashley Jacobs, and Matt Kim

Voice of the People is an online media publication founded by siblings Tyler and Ashley Jacobs along with Matt Kim, aiming to present a variety of mainstream, common-sense voices on political issues of the day. Voice of the People publishes regular analysis and opinion pieces on topics relevant to national politics, and welcomes guest contributions. 

People

Tyler Jacobs, founder

Tyler Jacobs was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, and holds a bachelor's degree in economics and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. Following graduation, Jacobs joined his mother's law firm in Traverse City where his practice focuses on helping small business owners navigate government regulations. Jacobs describes himself as a "common-sense conservative" and supported Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He believes that government has become overrun by complex special interests that disadvantage the working class and benefit large, anticompetitive companies like Facebook and Amazon. Jacobs lives near Traverse City with his husband and fellow Voice of the People founder Matt Kim and their golden retriever, Ruby.

Ashley Jacobs, founder

Ashley Jacobs was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, and is the older sister of co-founder Tyler Jacobs. Prior to founding Voice of the People, she attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served in the Navy before retiring after reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In addition to her work with Voice of the People, she is an instructor at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City. She describes herself as a progressive, pushing to give all Americans the same sort of opportunities that she had growing up in a White, relatively affluent family. She voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, though she supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary. Jacobs lives near Traverse City with her husband Kevin and their two children.

Matt Kim, founder

Matt Kim was born near Los Angeles, California, to parents who immigrated to the United States from South Korea. He lived there until attending college at the University of Michigan, where he studied in the Ross School of Business. While at the University of Michigan he met Tyler Jacobs, now his husband and cofounder of Voice of the People. After graduating college, Kim worked for several years at the Detroit Free Press as a business reporter. Kim describes himself as a centrist who believes the government should focus on achieving productive, practical results rather than being bound by dogma, though his work at Voice of the People focuses on reporting rather than opinion. 

Voice of the People

By Tyler Jacobs, Ashley Jacobs, and Matt Kim

Voice of the People is an online media publication founded by siblings Tyler and Ashley Jacobs along with Matt Kim, aiming to present a variety of mainstream, common-sense voices on political issues of the day. Voice of the People publishes regular analysis and opinion pieces on topics relevant to national politics, and welcomes guest contributions. 

People

Tyler Jacobs, founder

Tyler Jacobs was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, and holds a bachelor's degree in economics and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. Following graduation, Jacobs joined his mother's law firm in Traverse City where his practice focuses on helping small business owners navigate government regulations. Jacobs describes himself as a "common-sense conservative" and supported Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He believes that government has become overrun by complex special interests that disadvantage the working class and benefit large, anticompetitive companies like Facebook and Amazon. Jacobs lives near Traverse City with his husband and fellow Voice of the People founder Matt Kim and their golden retriever, Ruby.

Ashley Jacobs, founder

Ashley Jacobs was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, and is the older sister of co-founder Tyler Jacobs. Prior to founding Voice of the People, she attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served in the Navy before retiring after reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In addition to her work with Voice of the People, she is an instructor at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City. She describes herself as a progressive, pushing to give all Americans the same sort of opportunities that she had growing up in a White, relatively affluent family. She voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, though she supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary. Jacobs lives near Traverse City with her husband Kevin and their two children.

Matt Kim, founder

Matt Kim was born near Los Angeles, California, to parents who immigrated to the United States from South Korea. He lived there until attending college at the University of Michigan, where he studied in the Ross School of Business. While at the University of Michigan he met Tyler Jacobs, now his husband and cofounder of Voice of the People. After graduating college, Kim worked for several years at the Detroit Free Press as a business reporter. Kim describes himself as a centrist who believes the government should focus on achieving productive, practical results rather than being bound by dogma, though his work at Voice of the People focuses on reporting rather than opinion. 

I’m generally in favor of signing in wherever, but it would need to have a way of addressing the problems that come along with it:

* How do we make sure that elections are meaningful?

* How do we allow people like Jefferson to sign in a CA Republican and vote realistically without throwing off proportionally calculated Senate votes? 
* What consequences are there for people who sign into a particular seat and represent it unrealistically?

As someone who hasn’t played in a while, I’ll offer a few thoughts about what I’ve seen work before. How applicable these thoughts are to VGS I don’t really know apart from reading through this thread, so feel free to ignore them. 
 

1. Elections are best when they allow ambitious characters to improve their characters’ standing. For example, starting as a congressman and getting elected to the Senate in the original VP game. People are far less likely to care about elections when the only effect is to help the party rather than helping them personally, and when that happens party chairs end up playing an endless game of trying to motivate people to participate even though they don’t want to. 
 

2. Elections are best when they are relatively simple. Even the proposal in this thread seems a bit complicated. Warchest/fundraising/campaigning should all be in a single thread for both candidates in a race. Defining the amount of spending and general target audience and themes for advertising, stump speeches, etc. is far more important than defining the exact content or type of advertising. Elections are best when players have to think strategically about whether to invest in campaigning, fundraisers, advertising, org, etc. and where those efforts are focused. 
 

3. Some of the most fun I’ve had in sims like this has been participating in the executive and judicial branches in ways that sims don’t usually allow over the past few years (e.g. with a cabinet member multi or arguing cases in front of the Supreme Court). It is incredibly important to have a player President and Vice President as soon as possible, and to enable players to fill other roles in the executive branch. 
 

4. It should be possible to move legislation through both houses of Congress quickly, even if it comes at the expense of realism. People want to pass bills that do great things, and when the legislative process slows down the whole game slows down. This has been another negative trend in recent years. 

when u were the mayor of compton