Sweetness in the Dark

by W. B. Martin

  Paul continued his talk. Many in the room had heard it before. Many others had read his numerous books and articles on the subject. Paul had been a strong advocate for a major change to the U.S. government for some time.

  “Everyone needs to understand what happened in our country over the last fifty years. Capitalism as we studied it in the history books was based on capital, or money saved for investment. The United States had devolved away from capitalism and had slid into ‘debtism’; a system based on debt. The two are profoundly different,” Paul stated.

  “What difference does it make where the money comes from, as long as we have money to run our economy?” Horst demanded. The Texas delegation all nodded in agreement.

  “The difference is like night and day. When we were on a system based on capital, it was the late 1800s and the United States was the fastest growing country on the planet. Switch to our recent past borrowing scheme and our GDP barely grew,” Paul answered.

  “And we’re a different country now than 100 years ago. Seems simple to me,” Horst threw back.

  “Not so simple. While we created debt out of thin air, China runs on capital and has the kind of growth rates we used to enjoy. The differences in each economy is profound. My fellow delegates, if we want a robust economy that can employ all our citizens in well-paying jobs, we need to reject a debt-based economy,” Paul said.

  “I suppose next you’ll say we need a monetary system based on gold,” the Oklahoma governor stated.

  “Exactly. Return to a gold standard and deficit spending by government is curtailed.”

  The Convention broke down into small groups discussing the merits of the topic. Paul wanted to get them back on track, as he had a number of items to cover.

  The Idaho Plan was the formal proposal by twelve of the members of the Union of American States. Paul continued the work of selling the Plan to all the members.

  “Let me put an overhead on that might explain the profound problems we were experiencing. Before we settle on a new government, we need to understand the problems of the old,” Paul said. He placed an acetate sheet down.

  United States - Profound Problems

  Elections

  Citizenship

  Middle Class

  Taxes

  International Trade

  Debt

  “Let’s look at each one. First and foremost issue is voting. For too long, voting irregularities had cropped up. The examples are too numerous to name them all. The most notorious was John F. Kennedy’s win in 1960. Many believed that Mayor Richard Daly manufactured sufficient votes in the City of Chicago to assure Kennedy’s carrying the State of Illinois. With those electoral votes, Kennedy won the Presidency.”

  A Florida delegate added, “Don’t forget the ‘hanging chad’ fiasco in Florida that the U.S. Supreme Court finally decided in George Bush’s favor. Funny how it was the Democratic Party of Dade County that tried to manipulate the ballots to the benefit of Al Gore.”

  A Washington State delegate jumped in. “Our State of Washington election for U.S. Senator was a joke. The Republican candidate won in a close race, and the recount still gave the Republican a victory. Since the gap had closed on the recount, a second recount was ordered. Amazingly, the Democrat controlled King County found even more votes, this time making the Democrat the victor.”

  “A similar situation occurred in the State of Missouri. When the early count looked bad for the Democrat senate candidate, the poll hours in the Democrat controlled City of St. Louis were extended until enough Democratic votes were collected to assure victory over the Republican,” a Missouri delegate added.

  “Then there was Minnesota's problem with new voters showing up just before the election for U.S. Senator. Along with absentee ballots that were questionable, that Democratic idiot Al Franken won a narrow victory,” a delegate from South Dakota chuckled.

  “Don’t forget Oregon’s vote by mail. Or ‘vote by fraud’ as its affectionately called. No attempt at proper identification was ever made to determine if people in Oregon were even still alive,” an Oregon delegate responded.

  “Oh yeah, someone even showed up at a polling place saying he was someone he wasn’t. The worker was ready to hand him a ballot when he stopped them saying he was making a public demonstration of the failure of the system. Turned out he was impersonating the Attorney General of the United States,” the Virginia governor said.

  “That would be the same Attorney General that sued the State of Florida for requiring an ID to vote. He said that checking ID’s was tantamount to denying minorities the right to vote,” the North Carolina governor said. “The man had gall, that’s for sure.”

  Paul broke in before more state delegates recalled problem votes. “You all have stories of questionable votes and I know that there are many more. That’s why we need to establish a new standard for voting.”

  Paul outlined the changes in the new constitution he felt were needed to assure that national elections would be honest. In the future, all national elections would be by paper ballot at polling places with registration limited to 90 days before the election. A picture ID would be required before voting.

  No computer software could be manipulated to compromise the vote as well. Further, all ballots would be numbered so that they could be accounted for against unused blank ballots suddenly showing up to swing a close election.

  Paul reminded the members that under any new constitution, member states would be free to conduct state elections any way they chose. The new amendment would only apply to national elections.

  Paul pointed out that the key to the Idaho Plan was reinstalling a republican form of government where each member state was sovereign. Just as the original Constitution attempted, each state would choose the powers it would assign to the central government.

  The Idaho Plan offered stronger language throughout their proposed constitution to limit the size of any national government. He explained the United Sates had lost its way and had become the end-all of large governments.

  When he made this statement, he was gratified that almost all the delegates nodded their head in agreement. He hoped that if nothing else, the common government they all would choose would be significantly smaller than the one in the recent past.

  The governor of Virginia offered a request, “I would ask that the delegates take a vote to confirm that we are providing a republican form of government, and that we will work to that end.”

  The moderator asked the question and had Paul offer the language to strengthen the original constitution. Over three quarters of the delegates showed approval for the measure.

  Next Paul raised the second issue; the question of who was a citizen of the new country. He described the misinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution that defined a person as a U.S. citizen. He pointed out that the United States had been unique in the world in conferring citizenship on anyone who happened to be born in the U.S. It was a profound problem when anyone stealing into the U.S. could have a child born here and then get full rights.

  “What? Are you saying we should throw out all those people who through no fault of their own, are now living here,” Rebecca shouted. “There are millions of innocent people who have known no other place who would be affected. And most of these people happen to be people of color.”

  The moderator motioned to hold her voice down. Paul looked at Amanda and got a shrug in return. Maybe she hadn’t quite got to Rebecca over the weekend. It would be a long day, he thought.

  “If I may refer to Article Fourteen,” Paul said as he read aloud. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” He paused to let the phrase sink in. “The optimal words there are ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’.”

  “So, what’s your point?” Rebecca flashed back.

  “If someone crosses illegally into our country and gives birth, they are outside the l
aw. Consequently the old Constitution states that they can’t be citizens since they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’. Same as tourists visiting here. They are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ also, and would not obtain citizenship for any baby born during their visit,” Paul said.

  “Are you proposing throwing out all the undocumented workers and their children then?” Rebecca asked. Her tone offered defiance. Amanda definitely hadn’t got to her, he thought.

  “A country is defined by its borders, language and culture. The United States was quickly losing its identity by not enforcing its borders. Our common language and culture was vaporizing to the overall detriment of the entire country,” Paul said.

  “You mean the white man’s language and the white man’s culture. I think our diversity was our strength and the more it evolved away from the status quo, the better,” Rebecca challenged.

  The governor of Alabama jumped into the discussion. “You might think that Ms. Richards, but I can assure you that the majority of the delegates in this room are going to support western civilization. If that implies a white man’s world to you, then you’re going to have to deal with it. I’d be happy to call for the question right now. May we have a show of hands on this issue?”

  “The question has been called and seconded,” the moderator said. He asked Paul to state the language he offered to clarify who would be a citizen in the UAS. The hands shot up in support, solving Paul’s second profound problem. Four more to go, the last four would turn out harder to resolve than Paul anticipated.

  Chapter 18

  Spokane, Washington (1 week into the military campaign)

  Clearing out northern Idaho had progressed rapidly after the warlord gang had been taken into custody in Coeur d’ Alene. The supply trains were rolling into the area from Missoula and Task Force Delta was ready to move out. A company of troops had headed north toward Sandpoint to clear out northern Washington State.

  Radio reports from the two task forces in Oregon showed that they were making good progress moving west. Task Force Alpha had closed up to Bend with little difficulty. The people in the area had closed off the mountain passes quickly and kept the large urban population from ravaging the area.

  Task Force Beta had moved up to the collapsed bridges over the John Day River next to the Columbia River. The interstate bridge and the train bridge had both been dropped so as to deny refugees moving into Eastern Oregon. Now, the Task Force had to repair the broken portion of one collapsed span in order to keep their advance moving toward Portland.

  General Ed Gale rode with his security guards into Fairchild Air Force Base just outside Spokane. After the capture of the thugs in Idaho, word spread fast and the gang in Spokane evacuated the area quickly.

  “General, we’ve located the communication center for the air base. I can take you there if you wish,” Sergeant Wilder of Task Force Delta’s Scout Unit reported.

  “Very good, Sergeant. Lead the way,” Ed said. He motioned to his driver to move out behind the two scout motorcycles. The communication specialist that had been found rode behind him.

  “Corporal, can you get this radio operating?” Ed asked as they entered the center. The Air Force had a large tower with a number of radios in the adjacent building. Ed hoped that the scavengers who had looted the abandoned base had ignored the old tube radio. ‘The Pulse’ had knocked out the unhardened radios, but hadn’t touched the old vacuum tube set.

  “Sir, it looks intact. Probably been sitting here since the fifties. Those looters didn’t know what they had when they came looking,” the corporal said. He worked the switches as troops outside hooked up the generator they had towed behind the supply truck. Soon the electricity from the roaring generator had the dials glowing.

  “Here Corporal, this is the frequency I need and the call sign. I received this communiqué yesterday from Boise. I figured I needed more power to reach Admiral Lanciani. He should be somewhere between Hawaii and the West Coast,” Ed said.

  “Don’t worry, General. This setup was made to reach anywhere in the world. We may have to key the message though, to get it through clearly.”

  Ed knew sending messages by Morse code was the old-fashioned way, but with satellites knocked out, the old-fashioned ways would have to do. And he couldn’t rely on voice carrying that far and being received clearly. No, this message had to be clearly understood.

  The corporal gave the thumbs up sign that he had made contact with the admiral’s Carrier Battle Group. A few questions were tapped out on the key to assure the general that the admiral was truly on the other end.

  “Corporal, send this message in the clear. We don’t have all the fancy computer encryption on our end. The Navy may have one that’s hardened, but we are lacking,” Ed said.

  The corporal sent the message. There was a long pause as the message was interpreted far out at sea. Soon, a positive response was received.

  “Good, he has it. Now send these.” Ed handed the corporal a long sheet of numbers. The numbers were all grouped in three. The corporal hesitated as he looked at the long list.

  Ed offered a brief explanation. “Book code, Corporal. The admiral and I were ship mates when we both flew jets off the Nimitz. I remembered his favorite book that he gave me a copy of as a gift. I still have it.”

  The corporal was really confused now. Ed could tell that his radioman wondered what does a gift from long ago has to do with the business at hand.

  Ed offered further, “We confirmed that the admiral has that same book on board. Then I simply use my copy to write out my message in a book code. First number is page, second number is line, and last number is the word. Simple but very effective.”

  “As long as the ‘other guy’ doesn’t have the book.”

  “We’ll trust the Chinese aren’t knowledgeable about our 20-year-old reading habits,” Ed offered. The corporal dutifully keyed through the long list of numbers. He received a confirmation from the U.S.S. Enterprise and handed it to Ed. A plan was now in place. Ed had to hustle his forces to see that it was accomplished.

  “Sergeant Wilder, are you ready to lead us to Portland?” Ed asked.

  “Sir, Portland it is. I’ll get the Scouts up and running.”

  “Sergeant, you need to split your team. The main column will still be tasked to close with Seattle. They will wait on the outskirts while the rest of the state is cleared. Please handpick your men for a dash to Astoria. We’ll bypass Portland as much as possible and avoid any firefights. We’ll have half the Strykers and the minimum number of troops as well as supply trucks to get us to the mouth of the Columbia.”

  Ed radioed Colonel Schmol to hold up the column near Ritzville and he would meet him there to explain the change in plans. He then radioed Task Force Beta and instructed them to make all haste repairing the railroad bridge. They could cross with their vehicles first with the supply trains from Boise following.

  When Ed reached Ritzville, the column was stretched along Interstate 90. Men were cooking lunch beside their vehicles and waved as the general drove past. Their spirits are good, Ed thought. The weather continued to be sunny and warm which helped the troop’s morale.

  This kind of weather also meant that the Palouse country would be ready to plow and plant in new wheat. Supply trains would have to bring up fuel and new parts to get the tractors ready. Seed would also have to be brought up. From the look of the locals, any local seed had been eaten over the last six months.

  “Colonel, I’m splitting our forces. I have to be in Astoria within a week. I need to travel fast and hit any obstacle hard. We can’t get tied down anywhere along the way,” Ed said.

  “General, you’re sticking your neck out on this one. I hope what’s in Astoria will be worth it.”

  “It will be, Colonel. And if it all works, Task Force Beta will be right behind us. Once they secure Portland, we’ll all turn north and combine our forces for the capture of Seattle. Task Force Alpha will push into Eugene and then hea
d south to the Siskiyou Mountains. That will protect our flank from any foes drifting up out of California,” Ed said.

  “I’ll get the fuel truck up here and top off all your vehicles. I doubt there are many gas stations between here and the Pacific. The smaller trucks should cover the distance. I’ll make sure you have enough fuel trucks with you just in case,” the Task Force commander said.

  * * *

  The dash to the coast turned out to be uneventful. A member of Sergeant Wilder’s Scout Team had lived in Clark County on the Washington State side of the Columbia River. He knew the back roads to get the column around Vancouver without stumbling into any bad guys.

  The surviving locals came out of hiding to welcome Ed’s forces, but the column kept moving. When Ed stopped to talk to some of the people, he learned that there were very few who had survived the aftermath of ‘the Pulse’.

  The gangs had streamed out of Portland and laid waste to the surrounding area. People fled further into the forest for protection. When the food ran out, everyone started starving to death. The lucky few who had stocked up in secluded places had made it.

  The locals reported that Portland was a ghost town. Some people still lived down the Willamette Valley on farms that had managed to avoid the chaos. Ed took in the grim news and was more determined to keep the column moving toward its goal.

  They reached Astoria two days ahead of schedule. Ed had learned that Task Force Beta had repaired the damaged railroad bridge and the column’s vehicles had crossed the river. They were moving through The Dalles and would soon enter Portland.