The New Founders

by Joseph F. Connor

  Steve Anders kept an eye on his ever present iPad during the ten minute ride north up Route 29 to Charlottesville Albemarle Airport. He reported that the TJ Show’s website was alive with hundreds of comments about the interview. Murray commented wryly that he didn’t think Jenson had that many listeners.

  The vast majority of comments enthusiastically supported Walters for his principled views, remarking that Walters expressed conservative values in those few moments better than any politician since Reagan.

  All signs pointed to the beginning of a groundswell and it seemed as if the listeners might finally have their candidate. Endless months of campaigning without a Republican candidate sealing the deal had the people starving for a direct, clear, and articulate man like Frank Walters. Now they had him and the excited comments proved that Walters’ message resonated.

  Ironically, even the negative reviews were positive. Steve smiled as he read one comment after another, accusing Walters of being racist and xenophobic. He knew that Walters struck a nerve in this college town and that meant that the liberal establishment took him very seriously. It was all good.

  Washington blushed but wanted to hear everything as Anders playfully read him some of the very forward proposals from local women. Eighteenth century men were not accustomed to certain twenty-first century women.

  Finally, the General leaned back and allowed himself a brief smile.

  “My friends, Divine Providence is with us. People were drawn to us today and you must have faith that it will continue and the numbers will grow even greater. Please embrace it and do not dare doubt its power for there is a destiny which has control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of human nature.”

  The words had no sooner left his mouth than the limo pulled up next to the Gulf Stream and it finally hit Walters that he was about to take flight.

  For the first time, Walters seemed nervous. Fidgeting with his pen and scribbling on his notes, he absently asked once again what the flight would be like, and obviously having done a calculation or two, how it felt for one’s body to fly at over 300 miles per hour.

  He boarded and was led to a plush window seat on the left side of the plane. The first president was seated no more than five seconds before Anders poured a brandy for the uncomfortable candidate to calm his nerves. Walters let out a thankful sigh as he sank into the luxurious leather chair.

  The flight went without a hitch as Walters, relaxing with a second glass of brandy, peered out the window with breathless wonder; first for the miracle of flight that he never imagined he would experience, but mostly for the absolute beauty sliding beneath his 37,000 foot perch above the shoreline of the magnificent country’s east coast.

  Following a smooth landing at Logan Airport, the group quickly exited to a waiting limo and, like clockwork, was whisked away to Josh Anders’s home studio in the Boston suburb of Weston.

  Walters was a bit surprised to find Rader at the door as he stepped into the Anders mansion. After exchanging pleasantries, Hahn and Josh Anders pulled him to the side reiterating that Rader did not know and did not need to know Walters’ true identity. They then moved to the parlor where the candidate was introduced to Josh’s much better half. Gail Anders was fully engaged in the goings on and was enthralled to meet the General.

  The team began prepping him for the nationally syndicated interview scheduled for noon the following day. Walters remained characteristically unfazed as Anders explained that he generally did not have guests on his show. Because of that, he wanted to make sure that his new mentor knew right away that it would be a special broadcast.

  Anders followed his bravado by stating that because of the Lincoln Memorial sensation and the hype coming off the Jenson interview, tomorrow’s show would likely generate the largest audience in the twenty five year history of the Josh Anders Show, well above the 15 to 20 million daily listeners.

  Anders laid out the plan for the interview.

  “The first thing we do is introduce him as Frank Walters, a self made, independently wealthy, successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.”

  They would start with foreign policy, move to regulation, including PresidentCare and wrap up with religion. The second hour’s plan was more risky because they planned on taking phone calls from listeners. The old pro Josh Anders let them know that those calls just went with the territory. He was confident that if Walters could win over a college town, he would have a lot of friends in Josh’s audience.

  Walters commented that that was the best way to get the word out to the people, by addressing their direct concerns and questions. He added that he felt the need to touch on the economy once more, even briefly. The team concurred and relaxed for the rest of the evening with their hosts.

  Murray was not sleeping well again. He was an habitual insomniac but chalked it up to impatience in bettering his station in life. He had needed something more, maybe something inspirational. But now that he found what he knew to be his true calling, he still stared at the dark ceiling. He didn’t have Dottie by his side nor did he know where she and Todd were most of the past week.

  Everybody else had made it home. Even the General got back to Mt. Vernon for a couple of weeks. Was it Murray’s personality that compelled him to stay? Or was this providential set of events more important to him than the others, maybe even more important than Murray’s own family? Dottie’s texts and calls had become less frequent over the past week. What was she up to? And what was that personal business Jenson spoke about? His whole life was the radio show, so what could he need to attend to?

  Murray tossed and turned as more thoughts raced through his head. He finally told himself he was tired and that his mind was playing tricks on him. Anyway, breakfast was in a few hours and then the final prep work for the show. He needed to get some rest for the busy day ahead.

  During breakfast, Murray explained the concept of anchor babies and the Supreme Court’s footnote in a 1982 ruling that children born in the United States, even borne of illegal aliens or visitors, were automatically United States Citizens.

  “The 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to overrule the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, that black slaves were not citizens of the United States. The amendment was designed to stop southern states from withholding citizenship from recently freed slaves.”

  He noted to an intrigued Mr. Walters that it provided that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, were citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they resided.

  “The drafter of the 14th Amendment had no intention of conferring citizenship on the children of aliens who happened to be born in the U.S. ‘This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, or those who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers.’”

  Walters, nearly choking on his toast, replied that it was certainly not the intention of the framers either to confer citizenship on anyone who happened to be born here. A relieved Murray said he always suspected that was the case.

  With prep work complete, the host and guest entered the home studio. Anders started the show by thanking Frank Walters for agreeing to the interview. He continued on, describing Frank’s entrepreneurial background and finally the scene at the Lincoln Memorial and the subsequent internet sensation that propelled Frank to national prominence.

  After Walters thanked him for the kind introduction, Anders asked the obvious first question.

  “Why now, Mr. Walters? Why did you stand up at that moment in time? And why the Lincoln Memorial?”

  Walters replied as he had done with Jenson the previous day. Like many Americans, he felt it was time to speak up, publicly express his love of America, and explain how he believed that the founding principles would show us the way back to prosperity.

  He had long been a student of history and had been thinking along those lines for some time.

  “On that particular mor
ning, while on vacation in DC, I went to church and somehow felt drawn to the Lincoln Memorial. When I read the Second Inaugural and Gettysburg Address, this oratory came out of me in an ‘inspired spontaneity.’”

  Anders winked at the team behind the glass and smiled. It was time for the first foreign policy question.

  “Over the last three plus years of this presidency, the United States seems to have embraced our adversaries and enemies through gimmicks like a “Reset Button” with the Russians, apologies to Islamo-Fascists, support of radical groups in places like Egypt and Libya, while at the same time, throwing an old ally like Mubarak to the wolves. We have insulted our British friends, and worse, have sided with Iran over Israel in its right to defend itself. If you were president, Mr. Walters, how would you conduct foreign policy?”

  Walters began, framing the foreign policy of the United States since its independence by invoking President George Washington’s famous warning to avoid foreign entanglements for good reason. He quoted the father of our country by stating that in revolutionary times as in present day, every nation was out for its best interest. And Washington, like the founders in general, believed that the United States should not join in any permanent alliances.

  Walters wowed Anders and the audience by paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson’s ardent desire to keep the United States free from political connections while maintaining peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations.

  “Remember, at the end of the eighteenth century, the United States was still recovering from the Revolutionary War and could not afford to be dragged into another European War, so the powers that be avoided these political entanglements.”

  Murray liked what he heard. He was especially pleased when Walters described that both Adams and Jefferson, following Washington’s lead, continued the same neutrality policy with Britain and France, the two superpowers of the day. He loved that Walters had fastidiously studied American history since the revolution. But he sensed that his boss was about to expand upon his response in a twenty-first century way.

  “We are in the second decade of the new century. The world is a much smaller place than it was in 1776. We need some alliances but we need to choose them wisely. I’m disgusted by the current administration’s strange dismissal of our English brethren.”

  Walters was shocked upon hearing that his likely presidential adversary actually returned to England the bust of Winston Churchill, the man who set the tone of strength for the free world during World War II. Walters needed the pulpit at this moment.

  Having framed the situation, he hit the point that with all due respect to the founders, today’s world was much too threatening for the United States to retreat to its shores. Walters believed in continuing Reagan’s policy of entering into temporary arrangements as necessary to promote our prosperity while keeping “permanent” allies in Britain, North America, and Israel.

  Anders was so engrossed in the words coming from his guest that he did not realize that Mr. Walters had stood in the studio to address the millions of listeners.

  “Alexander Hamilton had a great concept of rewarding friends and punishing enemies. His bottom line was to trade with friends and withhold trade from adversaries. If you want to trade with the United States, the rules have to be the same both ways, it’s that simple.”

  Walters singled out China as being a poor trading partner for America because of their government protectionism and devaluation of the Yuan. This encouraged our government to devalue the dollar, leading to inflation, oil price increases, and a lack of confidence in the United States.

  “If I was president, I would get tough with China and make sure we are on the same playing field.”

  Anders stood and interrupted. “But how? They hold so much of our debt. They own us.”

  Walters, always seeing the opportunity in a situation, explained that China owning our debt actually gave us leverage to some degree. He said that should America decide to continue the dilution of the dollar, we would erode the value of US debt China holds.

  Anders referred back to Walters’ comment on Russia and quoted Madison’s observation over 200 years before that.

  “Russia seems at present the great bugbear of the European politicians on the land. What is your view on the great bugbear as Madison so eloquently described?”

  Understanding the history of the Russian Bear, Walters stressed that an administration should treat Russia very firmly and there could be no repeat of the pathetic “Reset” button gimmick this amateurish current administration employed in their early days. He would never have congratulated the Russian president on winning his recent election (as the current president did), but called for an investigation into many allegations of fraud.

  Walters, seeing Josh’s producer’s continuous text messages on the screen before him, sensed the first commercial break was fast approaching. He once again fixed his eyes on Hahn outside the studio.

  “There are universal truths at play here, Mr. Anders. Like Newton’s laws of physics, they do not change. So therefore I quote the Isaac Newtons of American history when I say that no government could give us tranquility and happiness at home if they did not possess sufficient stability and strength to make us respectable abroad.”

  The guest paced the studio, entangling the cord on his headset around Josh’s seat. Josh tried to straighten the wires but to no avail. Walters, not even noticing the disruption, got tough.

  “Make no mistake, Mr. Anders. It has been our station since our founding, and that there is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. And weakness, my friends, will not happen during my presidency.”

  During the commercial break, Walters stoically sipped on his water as Anders untangled the headset and checked his website for immediate feedback. Anders asked him if he realized he may have just inadvertently announced his candidacy, to which Walters replied that he used those words with great calculation.

  The team was more pumped than ever. There was no turning back now. It was time to take some calls. But before any calls, Anders had to ask the million dollar question and he had to ask it on the air. Anders began.

  “Welcome back to the best show on the radio. My, we have quite a guest here and the switchboard is starting to smoke from all the calls. Before we take the first call, I want to clarify something you said Mr. Walters, before the break.”

  “Yes?”

  “Have you just announced your intention to run for President of the United States?”

  “Yes, Mr. Anders and to your audience, I did. I plan to run for president and quite directly, I expect to win.”

  “You heard it here, ladies and gentleman. Mr. Frank Walters has announced on the Josh Anders Show that he is running for President of the United States!”

  The first call came from Fred in Lynchburg, Virginia regarding the effect of regulation and PresidentCare on the businesses in the area.

  Walters began his answer to Fred on the PresidentCare issue by first explaining that while it would certainly destroy private healthcare in this country, PresidentCare law was not about health at all. It was about the Federal Government dictating to the people what they could and could not purchase and could and could not do. It was a power grab directed at the rights and lives of the people.

  The new candidate described his frustration that the PresidentCare mandate was one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in our history and was pushed through a lame duck session of congress and House of Representatives even though most if not all had not even read it.

  Frank was outraged that that those who defended the legislation were falsely relying on the Commerce Clause in the Constitution.

  “Had the founders intended for a government to attain the power to compel citizens to buy or sell goods, they certainly would have clearly defined so. However, it is abundantly clear that our government never intended to have that kind of power. That was the whole point. As
Mr. Madison so clearly documented in the 10th Amendment, ‘Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’”

  Walters kept his train of thought by explaining that the government had already unconstitutionally mandated that citizens buy only certain items—for example, light bulbs, showers, and toilets. The federal C.A.F.E. standards had already compelled auto makers to build only cars meeting certain government standards.

  Anders jumped in and told a story relayed to him by a friend in the financial services industry where his bank recently refurbished a new office. In order to receive financial favors from the government under a green certification, the federal government mandated the size and height of the desks, cubicles, and even the pantry.

  “Can you imagine? Government bureaucrat regulators in Washington DC dictate at this level to private industry under threat of penalty?”

  Anders relayed another story from that same friend about a recent regulation compelling financial institutions to record and transmit cost basis information from investor to investor and to the IRS. The law makers had little or no concern about the incompatibility of their new mandates, or the stresses and millions of dollars in financial impact these rules had on investors and the industries compelled to implement them.

  Anders considered adding that the founders must be rolling in their graves, but after a quick glance at his guest, thought better of it.

  As Anders explained these financial intricacies, Walters politely listened.

  Like Madison, Walters understood that men were not perfect and because of that, there was a certain need for laws and regulation. He deduced correctly that reasonable men understood that if people were angels, no government would be necessary. And if angels were to govern them, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.