Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) (14 page)

THIRTY
TWO

Phoenix,
Arizona – State House

Arizona Governor Mike
McManus was a hunter, a collector of antique firearms, a member of the NRA, Gun
Owners of America and the Arizona state gun owners association. He was,
therefore, an unlikely public official for the President to threaten, at least
on gun ownership issues. Nevertheless, the President, in his telephone call to
the Governor, made clear what he thought of the Governor’s plan to gut the
McAlister Bill, should it become law.

“Governor, we don’t
know each other all that well, I think we’ve met twice at the Governors’
Conferences, but I feel like I can just be real candid with you. I can level
with you, you know.”

“Mr. President, in
Arizona that’s what we expect. Straight talk. People out here don’t usually
say, ‘well, to be honest with you’, because that’s just expected. So let’s talk
turkey, which is something we
do
say.”

“Good, Governor,
here’s the deal. We can’t allow your State to get away with adopting your
militia bill. It’s not gonna’ happen, not while I’m the President.”

Governor McManus, as
a skilled hunter, knew that sometimes the best thing to do was keep quiet, so
as not to scare away the game. So, he said nothing. Seconds passed….still
nothing….”

The President was the
first to give in, to break the heavy silence.

“Governor. Are you
still there? Phyllis, I think we’ve been dis-conn….”

“No, Mr. President,
I’m still here, but you’re right that the two of us
are
dis-connected.
We’ll pass whatever laws we want to in Arizona. Do you recall the immigration
enforcement law fight under Governor Brewer. We don’t much care out here in the
desert what you all think about our State’s laws back on the Potomac.”  

“Un-huh….Well, they
told me you didn’t have much respect for authority.”

“Got that one right,
sir. I repeat.
We don’t care
what you think out in Washington about our
militia bill. We are basing the bill on the most American of ideas, that every
able-bodied man should be a member of our State’s militia. Check your history,
the Massachusetts Bay Colony required every man from 16 to 60 to be a militia
member, and of course, to bear arms to defend their State. Our militia bill
only applies to Arizonans from 18 to 50, and what we are….”

“Look. We
don’t
give a rip
about who you conscript for your militia, or don’t. Governor,
you are quite well aware that this is all about your planning to buy up the
guns in your State from their owners, and then handing those same guns back to
the
same people
you just bought them from, except you’ll call them
militia
armaments
. All this is a not very clever way to try and avoid the McAlister
Bill, when it passes, from applying to Arizona. That’s a bunch of horse puckey,
Governor, and we’re not gonna’ allow it.
Are you hearing me
?”

Governor McManus
started to give the President the silent treatment response again, but he couldn’t
restrain himself. In college he had been a wrestler, competing in national
tournaments. Now he felt like his arms were being pinned behind him. It was
time to make a reverse move on his opponent.

“Well,
we’re
gonna’ pass the bill into law
, and you can
just get used
to the
idea. And you might as well know, since it’s been rumored in the news, that
I’ve been in touch with a number of other Governors who are giving very serious
thought to following Arizona’s lead. You got ya’self a good old American
rebellion
on your hands.”

“No, Governor, I’m
well aware that Arizona is leading this….this….rebellion….as you call it. I
would call it by another word, maybe….insurrection….maybe trea….well, let’s
just say we’re not going to let you get away with gutting the McAlister Bill
when it’s a law.”

“With all due
respect, Mr. President, which I am quickly losing, how do you plan to stop us?
Invasion? Throw us out of Union? Go on and throw us in that briar patch.”

“I instructed the
Attorney General about an hour ago, once I confirmed that there may be other states
willing to jump off the cliff along with Arizona, to prepare suit to ask the
Courts to….”

“Ha! That’s some
threat. So if we pass a militia bill and arm our militia, you’re gonna’ get
some liberal federal District Court Judge, probably appointed by Carter or
Clinton, to tell us we can’t do it? Fine…that’s just fine. Do you remember Mr.
President, that a Pope once famously ordered a British King to take a certain
action? And the King’s response was to tell the Pope to enforce his order with
his non-existent armies, or something like that? Our response to the Judge will
be very similar – if you want to prohibit our militia from bearing arms, which
is the ultimate purpose of a militia, of course, then Mister Judge, Your Honor,
sir, you just come out here to Arizona and pick up those guns yourself, one at
a time. Good luck with that.”

“Two problems with
your little story, Governor. Unlike the Pope, I
do have
armies, and I
will use them, as I have under my order declaring martial law. Second problem,
it won’t be one singular judge picking up your guns. Now follow this, because I
don’t want you later on to say you didn’t know what was coming….I have the
Constitutional right as President to nationalize the National Guard of any
State. Remember President Eisenhower and Little Rock in the 50’s? He
federalized the Arkansas National Guard and then sent in 1,000 Army
paratroopers from the 101
^st
Airborne Division. I can nationalize state
militias. I will nationalize your state’s newly created militia. All several
hundred thousand of them. And, listen carefully, Governor, I will require each
member of the newly nationalized militia to turn in their guns, to comply with
McAlister, and to comply with my order, as their Commander in Chief. For those
who may try and be brave and dis-obey my direct Presidential order, we will
arrest them, we will try them in a military court of justice, you probably know
what that means, and then we will either imprison them or we may execute some.”

“
What
?
Are
you completely insa…
.”

“I’m
perfectly
sane, Governor. President Lincoln strung up deserters on the White House lawn.
If we have to
make an example
of a few of your Arizona rebels, in order
to enforce the law, and rid this nation of hate weapons, then so be it. That
would be
a small price to pay
to save the nation from continued
widespread gun violence. I didn’t run for a second term in order to sit back
for four years and watch the haters continue to spew their hate speech and fire
their hate weapons. So forget your little plan to avoid complying with what
will almost certainly become the law of the land. Have I made myself
sufficiently
clear
, Governor McManus?”

This time the
Governor’s silence wasn’t calculated, he was genuinely unable to speak. He wanted
to throw back a clever counter-argument, but he knew he had none. He was pinned
to the mat. He had just been threatened with a highly credible threat by a
President who would undoubtedly do precisely what he had just told the Governor
he would do, if Arizona adopted its militia law. Game. Set. Match point. Match
over.

Arizona State House
reporters that afternoon noticed the Governor huddling in his office with
Arizona Legislative leaders, although the official schedule instead showed a
ribbon cutting in Flagstaff. Early the next day, the Governor’s Press Secretary
issued a terse written media statement.

TO: ARIZONA MEDIA

SUBJECT: MILITIA BILL
(HCR-13-927)

After discussions
with the Governor, sponsors of HCR-13-927, (Establishing and Arming the State
Militia), have agreed to withdraw the bill from further consideration. The
Governor’s Office will have no further        comment on the Bill, nor on its
withdrawal. Likewise, neither the House or Senate leadership, nor Bill Sponsors,
will have any further comment.   

The next day Governor
McManus convened a behind closed doors meeting in his office with the Director
of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the State’s Attorney General. He
divulged the details of the President’s threat and asked the Attorney General
to draft for his signature an Executive Order. Under the Executive Order, which
he said he would not sign until or unless the McAlister bill passed, every
adult male resident of the State was to be drafted into the Arizona Militia.
Each would be instructed to arm himself in order to protect the State and its
residents from “any enemy foreign or domestic”. The Governor concluded the
meeting by saying, “you gentlemen are warned, and as will be our citizens once
I announce this Order, if it comes to that, Arizona will not be a friendly
place to send armed federal troops. We’ll defend our right to bear arms, even
if Congress and the President try to take away our firearms. They don’t have
enough troops to fight every armed adult male in this State.”

THIRTY
THREE

New
York City, NY – Fox News Studios

Fox News, which the
White House had once suggested was not a legitimate news organization, stepped
forward as the only national news service willing to air a debate in prime time
on the McAlister Bill. Other broadcast and cable networks who favored passage
of the bill, and who didn’t attempt to hide their support for the bill,
declined to give any significant air time to its opponents. Their thinking was
not complex. Why stir up the right wing about over-blown threats to their free
speech and worship rights? Why give a platform to the Neanderthals fighting the
eradication of hate weapons? The average American occasionally watching
television news would have to conclude that there really wasn’t much of a
debate taking place on the bill, as almost everyone they saw on their home
screen was in favor of its adoption into law. That may not be what they heard
at work, or at the local bar or even at some churches, but it certainly
appeared from news coverage of the issue that America wanted Congress to pass
the bill.

Fox had promoted the
prime time debate for several days, scheduling it on March 5th, knowing that
the final votes in the two chambers of the U.S. Congress were likely by the end
of March. The proponent of the bill in the Fox debate was none other than South
Carolina Senator Jim Blevins, the choice by the White House, as the person who
would gain the most sympathy from viewers. The Senator was a little
rough-spoken, at times, the White House was willing to admit, but he had been
shot, so he conveyed a strong message before he even opened his mouth in the
debate.

Senator Blevins’
opponent in the debate was Representative Melinda Batchelder from Minnesota, an
effective Member of Congress, who had impressed many in her earlier quest for
the Republican nomination for President. She had been supported by
conservatives, but she was unable to gain traction in the early days of the
selection process, withdrawing from the race, many observers believed, with
dignity and style. Congresswoman Batchelder was an impressive debater, and thus
the Blevins versus Batchelder Debate was an event that was expected to attract
significant viewership. The Debate was hosted by Fox’s talk show host Grenda Sandora.

“Welcome to the Fox
News Debate on the McAlister Bill now pending in Congress, featuring Senator
Blevins and Congresswoman Batchelder. The rules of the debate tonight have been
agreed to by both debaters. Each will be limited to thirty seconds for a
response to a question. All questions have been submitted in advance by Fox
News viewers. If you are both ready, Senator Blevins and Representative
Batchelder, let’s commence this clash of ideas. The first question is from
Iowa, a State with which you are well acquainted, Congresswoman. The viewer
wants to know from the two of you simply why you favor, or oppose, the
McAlister Bill. Senator? You go first.”

“Well, Grenda, that’s
a mighty easy first question, I expected a real hardball first pitch with me
comin’ on to Fox, I really did. Not exactly friendly territory for a
progressive Democrat, ya know. But, let me first just thank all the tens of thousands
of Americans who have reached out to me expressin’ their prayers and their
hopes for my recovery after my shootin’. Miriam and I really do appreciate all
those kind…”

“Senator, you have
only thirty seconds, remember.”

“Uh, yes, uh….of
course, sorry. Where was I? Why am I for this bill? Simple question. Simple
answer. No person in government should ever have to fear that they will be shot,
maybe even killed, just because they are in public service. That’s why I’m
supportin’ this bill. And, oh yeah, Grenda, don’t ya forget how many guns were
used to commit violent acts, and kill folks, in and after tha’ recent campaign.
Even forced my President to declare martial law. Yes, ma’am, don’t let us
forget all that.”

“Congresswoman. Why
do you oppose the Senator’s bill?

“Let me make my
answer equally simple, and easy to understand. Our Constitution grants the
unequivocal right to Americans to free speech and also the right to keep and
bear arms. If Senator Blevins, and his friends in the White House, want to
abolish gun ownership or change the First Amendment, let them do it the legal
way. They should amend the Constitution by having two thirds of Congress and
then three-fourths of the states make the changes they want. It’s been done
before – when the nation repealed the 18th Amendment, which had prohibited the
sale of alcoholic beverages. But, let’s not hide what they are doing by calling
‘re-interpretation’, because it’s not, it’s tyranny, tyranny by the Congress
and the White House, to deny us our God-given rights found in the Constitution
of the United States of America.”

“OK, well the next
question comes to us from New…”

“Whoa, hold on a minute,
Grenda, I can’t let that one go without a response…

“Senator, the rules…”

“I frankly don’t care
about…my debate opponent here has just called me a name – a mighty serious
name, and I will respond, rules or not….Uh….she says that God gave her the
right to own a gun? Really? Where’s it say that? My pastor is in favor of my
bill, and he would know if God said anything about guns, come on. Now, Grenda,
I’m getting’ mighty tired of hearin’ about how we all gonna’ take away free
speech and the right to worship and such. My bill won’t take away anyone’s
right to speak, they all just can’t say things that are
against
the law.
No more of ya nasty, mean, hateful words attacking public officials,
don’t
ya see
?”

Congresswoman
Batchelder quickly responded, “Senator, now you come on. The history of our
nation confirms that the men who founded this nation were, for the most part,
Christians who believed that God had granted them a special opportunity to
create a free nation, not ruled by kings and tyrants, as they had experienced
in European nations. Before the Constitution could be ratified, the Bill of
Rights was written and included, and the First and Second Amendments in the
Bill of Rights were the first two included for a very good reason – they didn’t
want this nation ending up like Europe. What you, and your friends in the White
House, are doing is tyrannical, straight up, a tyrannical effort to take away
our Constitutional rights, but without doing it the legal way, by repealing the
amendments which you don’t like. A tyrant despotically misuses his authority.
Senator, you sir, are misusing your authority, and you know it. Oh, yes, you
certainly
know what you are doing.”

Camera three, which
was focused on Senator Blevins, caught a well-known governmental leader appearing
to be weighing his options. His first response to his opponent’s words was to
say nothing. He seemed to be gritting his teeth, then he narrowed his eyes as
he stared hard at the Congresswoman. With an almost imperceptible nod of his
head, it appeared to those who would later spin the debate, he seemed to make
up his mind, but only after visible internal wrestling.

“Ma’am, I was raised
to respect women. In ya case, though, based on ya cutting words and ya false
accusations, I’m gonna have to make an exception to how I was raised. Ya no
woman deserving respect, no, ma’am, ya are a highly-paid attack machine,
working for the wealthy gun makers and ya supporters in the NRA and such. I am
not
goin’ to allow myself to be subjected to any more of ya scurrilous attacks. Ya
can just debate ya’self, cause I’m stoppin’ this sham debate. I’m leavin’ this here
Fox News organized ambush.”

With that burst of
agitated words, the Senator pulled off the lapel mike clipped to this tie, spun
his wheelchair backwards and out of the studio, leaving Grenda open-mouthed,
along with a perplexed Congresswoman, wondering what she should say next, if
anything.

The studio floor
manager signaled Grenda to go to a break, which she promptly did. After two
minutes of commercials, Grenda informed viewers that with the Senator’s
departure from the studio, the Blevins-Batchelder Debate was concluded. Most of
the mainstream media who commented on the debate, and its abrupt termination,
blamed Batchelder, many (not coincidentally) using the same description of her,
i.e., ‘a right wing pit bully’. The White House Press Secretary in his daily
briefing suggested that “no self-respecting Democrat, liberal or progressive,
should ever again appear on Fox News”. One unnamed, undisclosed Democrat Senator
who opposed Blevin’s bill, leaked to a Fox correspondent who covers the Senate,
that he had understood before the debate even started that Senator Blevins
would look for an excuse to terminate the debate, and would leave the studio
before it was concluded. Blevins’ press spokesman called the report ‘another
radical right wing attempt to smear a fine public servant.’