Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) (3 page)

FIVE

White
House Oval Office

The President was
livid, “Does this
leaky
White House have
any control at all
over
what it tells the media?”

The Vice President
was likewise enraged.

Hilde Calhoun was
smiling.

Every major media
outlet had reported that morning that the nation’s two highest elected
officials were to meet in the afternoon at the White House with former First
Lady Hilde Ramona Calhoun. The reports also suggested that the purpose of the
three way meeting was to discuss Hilde replacing the Vice President on the
ticket for the fall Presidential election. Thus, of the three persons in the
Oval Office, only one had a reason to smile.

Before going to the
White House, Hilde met with Wilbur in his hospital suite. His doctors had given
him a clean bill of health the day before, which the media dutifully reported,
telling readers and listeners that his medical issue had only been a digestive
issue. Upon hearing the news that Wilbur was healthy, and was…well….Wilbur
again, The Wife had demanded an immediate meeting with Vivian and the
President. To say that The Wife was insistent at the heated meeting that Hilde
not
be offered the nation’s second highest job would be to state the quite obvious.
The President’s somewhat mumbled response was that he had already hinted to
Hilde that she was about to be offered the nod when he had called her to invite
her to the three way meeting. Neither Vivian nor the First Lady thought that
meant anything. The President, they both loudly argued, was still the
President, he could change his mind and, lest you forget, they said, Wilbur
would be right down the hall, steps from this office. Forget it. Keep Goofy the
Veep. The President started to raise the polls. You can win without Hilde, they
snapped back. Just send more money to Davey to buy, create and/or steal votes.
The President knew he was done, but he was none too happy about it.

Seeing Hilde
Calhoun’s insulting smirk the Vice President could contain himself no longer.
He jumped up from his seat on the curved couch, his face red and his right
index finger pointed directly at his boss. “I only want to know what ever
happened to loyalty? Hunh, ol’ buddy? You know….basic ol’ loyalty to your
friend? I’ve done everything you ever asked….everything. And now, just to be
dumped, without even a….”

“Stop….Stop….You
don’t know what I’ve decid….”

Yeah? Don’t try that
one on me. I heard it on NPR first thing this morning. On NPR….
NPR
. Not
so much as a phone call from you….
NPR
.”

“I just tried to tell
you that I haven’t decided yet.” Hilde said nothing, but she did lean back a
little further on the couch, taking it all in, savoring the moment that would
lead to her return to the building she had come to occupy and adore when Wilbur
was President. She casually glanced at the gold embroidered curtains in the
office, thinking those ugly drapes will be the first thing to go when I finally
succeed this man as President.

“Really? Why is Hilde
here? Why are there only three of us? I know an
et Brute
meeting when I
attend one. Why didn’t you just….”

“Look. I called Hilde
yesterday just to suggest this meeting so we could talk about the number two
job. Like a strategy session. You know. No decisions yet. We need polls, we
need….”. For the first time, the Vice President’s face began to reveal a slowly
spreading smile, as he sat back down, withdrawing his accusatory finger.

Hilde’s head snapped
up as she quickly turned from her Oval Office re-decorating mode. Had she heard
correctly? “Say what? Wait a minute….We’re just here to have a….What did you
call it Mr. President? A strategy session? Hunh? The Vice President has a right
to be upset….and so do I, for that matter. You’re either going to keep him on
the ticket….or you’re not. I thought you told me yesterday, or at least implied
it, that I would get the nod. Polls? You haven’t already polled this?
Polls
?”

The President was
decidedly uncomfortable. He didn’t like what Vivian and The Wife had done to
him. He didn’t like being forced to change a decision. He didn’t like anything
that reflected on his competency to do the job of running the country, a job he
knew inside of himself he didn’t deserve, and that he never should have
obtained under normal circumstances. He especially didn’t like being
embarrassed in front of Hilde Calhoun, as he knew everything that was said in
this meeting would be reported to Wilbur, who would call his twenty best
friends in the media, if Wilbur thought it would help Hilde. The President had
early on concluded that Wilbur could care less if the leaked reports hurt the
occupant of the White House. Wilbur’s public comments implied that the
President was a man he looked down on, evidently not thinking he measured up to
Wilbur’s performance as President.

“Look, Hilde. I’m
under a lot of pressure here….on this….on the campaign….you know….on a lot of
election issues….I just can’t snap my fingers and decide….”

“Mr. President, with
all due respect.” The President flinched inwardly, knowing that he was about to
be shown no respect, as Hilde used the traditional phrase that precedes an
attack. The Vice President couldn’t decide if he should be angry or not, as he
could tell that Hilde was about to unload on the President, but she might not
say things that would be complimentary of either man.

“You are still the
President. You get to make the decisions. This place is a sieve as we all know,
so the three of us know that the First Lady and her friend down the hall have
pounded you to keep the Veep on the ticket, and me off the ticket. That’s fine.
He’s your Veep. You picked him. You’re now apparently
stuck
with
him….Sorry, Mr. Vice President….I could have helped the ticket, of course, but
if you can’t get it past the palace guard, then you can’t. Too bad. As they
say, no sadder words of tongue or pen than the words
what might have been
.
You can undoubtedly win
without
me on the ticket. Wilbur told me this
morning this would probably happen, so I’m not totally surprised, though I am
obviously disappointed. We’ll still help you in the campaign this fall. Wilbur
wants to give speeches for you, though if I were you I wouldn’t contact him
about that for a few days. Let him cool off first….I think it’s time for me to
go, and let you two work out your own issues. I appreciate being considered,
Mr. President, even if only briefly.” Hilde stood to leave the Oval Office. As
she did she gave an over the shoulder glance at the office’s offending
curtains. I’ll be back, she thought, just give me some time. Wilbur’ll have a
plan.

SIX

September
4th

St.
Louis – Jefferson Memorial Plaza

“When the Americans will think that it
is peace and safety – from the middle of the country, some of the people will
start fighting against the government. The government will be busy with
internal problems.”
(Pastor
Duduman)

A FREE MIKE RALLY was
announced by local supporters of Mike Chapel at the City’s election offices on
Tucker Boulevard for a week from Saturday. Based on the spontaneous reaction
received from sympathetic organizers around the country, the location for the
rally was moved to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the location of
the Gateway Arch. Local rally planners made it known that they had not, and
would not, apply for a parade permit, and dared St. Louis city officials to try
and stop anyone from attending the rally.

The St. Louis rally
plans also went viral, as thousands of angry Americans decided that the line
would have be drawn in St. Louis, and that they would attend the rally to
protest the arrest of an obviously innocent man, as well as to forcefully
object to clumsily-hidden voter fraud, apparently calculated to force back into
office a President they could not stand. At the same time a composite
undercover video e-flashed across the country showing election officials in eight
states facilitating voter fraud. Cameras hidden in baseball caps captured
election workers in the various offices handing out stacks of blank voter
registration forms, confirming that “no ID is necessary” to register, nor do
the “voters even need to show up at the offices” when the forms are returned,
either by mail or just dropped off.

Once it became known
that a significant throng of objectors were coming to St. Louis, the
President’s supporters issued a national call for public employee union
members, Occupation America supporters and others, who had trashed the Wisconsin
State House in a fight over union rights, to come to St. Louis in order to
overwhelm, or at least match, the “right wingers opposed to the re-election of
our President and who are spreading lies about voter fraud.”

Organizers kicked off
the rally held in the large open area near the Gateway Arch with the Pledge of
Allegiance and the robust singing by many of the National Anthem. At about the
time the words “the bombs bursting in air” were sung a loud WOOMPH sound was
heard west of Jefferson Plaza. Cell phone owners texted relatives asking if
there was anything on the news about what sounded like an explosion in downtown
St. Louis. Within minutes a St. Louis radio station posted a news flash on their
website reporting that the explosion might have been a bombing of the Election
Commissioners building a few blocks west of the Plaza on Tucker Boulevard. Word
quickly spread through the assembled partisans. Some were pleased, high-fiving others
at the rally. Just as many, upon hearing the news, were angered, threatening
those near them who were celebrating the bombing with violence and mayhem. Later
investigation arrived at no official explanation for what appeared to be the
loud sound of an explosion. Neither the St. Louis election offices nor any
other downtown building suffered bomb damage.

What would later become
known as the “St. Louis Riot” started within minutes of the spreading knowledge
of the bombing that wasn’t. Unknown was what happened in the crowd to trigger
the actual start of violence, but later video footage showed that it appeared
to begin in the middle of the crowd and spread outward, with many of the
uniformed police officers who were present either being struck, shot by
firearms, or, in one case, stomped to death. Supporters of Mike Chapel later claimed
that the riot was started by several men wearing black armbands or head
bandanas, throwing the first punches and firing the first shots. They were labeled
‘Presidential Provocateurs’. Supporters of the President denied those claims
and charged Chapel’s backers with spoiling for a fight, and beginning the riot.

Video revealed
thousands of supporters and opponents of the President, based on their signs
and badges, indiscriminately striking and assailing each other, punching and then
shooting each other at close range. The final fatality count was so high
neither side initially wanted to release the figures. St. Louis hospitals were
overwhelmed with patients suffering injuries in the ensuing panic, as attendees
fled the Plaza in all directions.

Both opponents of the
President and his supporters across the nation hardened their positions as a
result of what started at St. Louis. News stories analyzing what happened at
the Gateway Arch also included local reports on voter registration abuses
coming to light in every State. Since voter registration documents are
generally accessible as public records, private individuals across the country
began to comb through voter registration records, easily discovering widespread
fraud and abuse. They soon found many instances where ten to twenty voters were
registered at the same residence, which was usually an abandoned foreclosed
house. Feeling the heat from local media and enraged voters, concerned public
officials promised to investigate and correct what appeared to be a
well-organized national effort to steal the election for the incumbent
President. The fact that the dates on most of the fraudulent registrations
started at about the time of his first election, and increased over time,
reinforced suspicions that these were orchestrated moves from the highest
levels to retain power.

Within days of these
revelations, several public political events, Tea Party, Democrat or Republican,
eventually ended in some level of violence. Some were limited to blows being
exchanged, but then were broken up when cooler heads ultimately prevailed. Numerous
outbreaks, though eventually led to bloodshed, and then frequently to the
burning of automobiles and retail businesses. The President’s opponents loudly
charged that the White House and its “radical shock troops” were actively
engaged in “trying to steal the election that they know they can’t win if it’s
a fair count.” At the same time the President’s supporters claimed that “the
radical right is trying to besmirch our President because they know they don’t
have the votes to win, so they are pushing their armed thugs into violence.
They are racists who want to keep minorities from voting.”

Many tea party
leaders and Republican officials were not content with public claims by
election officials of Democrat Party-controlled cities that there was no reason
to believe that voter fraud could occur in their communities. Several in
Congress called for a thorough public examination of voting machines, including
electronic devices, and ballot boxes. At least six separate Congressional
committees called hearings to investigate voter fraud. None expected to be able
to conduct hearings, arrive at findings, draft legislation and enact statutes
before the upcoming election, which was mere weeks away.

Public skepticism
that the election would be untainted increased dramatically when several unidentified
persons broke into a regional office of the Cook County Clerk’s Office on the
south side of Chicago. They found and pried open several locked ballot boxes
stacked in the basement. All were stuffed with pre-cast ballots, heavily
favoring the President by ten to one, or larger, margins. The boxes were dumped
at the front door of WGN-TV on West Bradley Place in Chicago. The Mayor of
Chicago accused the persons responsible with “committing the crime of burglary”.
He claimed that “the burglars marked the previously blank ballots, in order to
create a controversy and try to make a media splash.”

The revelation that
the White House had jiggered official unemployment statistics by not counting
‘people no longer looking for work’, led many Americans to be suspicious that
the same people who lied about the number of Americans out of work, would likewise
falsify election returns. Honest election workers in various cities revealed
that tens of thousands of registered voters were dead, but still registered to
vote. A majority of the honest workers were subsequently fired, triggering even
more voter anger.

The Department of
Justice sued twelve States which adopted voter-ID laws, thus delaying the
implementation of the laws requiring photo identification in order to vote
until well after the election. The Attorney General accused States of trying to
prevent minority voters from voting, by requiring photo identification. Even
though the U.S. Supreme Court had years earlier approved Indiana’s voter ID
law, the Attorney General used the issue to scare minority voters into to
thinking that their right to vote was imperiled by the President’s opponents.
The spark that the leader of the Department of Justice ignited led to many
minority voters turning out into the streets to protest what they were told was
an organized effort to keep them from voting for the re-election of the
President.

Florida sought to
remove what was estimated to be over one hundred thousand improper
registrations by illegal residents, but was sued by the Department of Justice
to prevent the State’s correction of fraud in its own voting records. The
Attorney General accused several States seeking to void improper registrations
with “voter suppression”. With the discovery of yet more pre-election voter
fraud, with increasing numbers of registered undocumented immigrants, street
riots broke out in increasing numbers of urban areas, with election offices
burned and pillaged across the country. Several Mayors and Police Chiefs went
on the record to claim that they “weren’t staffed well enough to protect every
election office 24/7.” The mainstream media covered each event in depth, almost
non-stop, at the same time airing demands by supporters of the President that the
White House
do
something
, forcefully and immediately, about the
spreading violence, which “threatened to put the upcoming election results into
question.”