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

by John Price

  “You, John….You.”

  “Help me out here, Debbie….I’m not following you too well. Maybe too many months in the joint has softened my brain. I’m the least of people that could help on any of this. I’m a just-released federal prisoner, with no appreciable assets, except you, my dear, and fortunately I’ve kept my health. Why, please tell me, did a group like that come here to Tyler….to talk to you?”

  “Simple, really, John. These are smart people. They know that if the spouse isn’t on board with a major political plan it probably won’t happen. They wanted to gauge my reaction before meeting with you and making a formal presentation.”

  “You still haven’t told me what they want me to do, I assume because you know I won’t do it. Did you tell them thanks, but no thanks and send them on their way? Politics is what got us in so much trouble, so it’s the last thing either one of us would wa….”

  “Let me stop you there, John. I told them we would pray about it and get back to them shortly.”

  “What? Why didn’t you just tell them we weren’t interested? We gave at the office, thanks. Nothing here. Move on.”

  “Because I think you should seriously think about doing it, John?”

  “Doing what? Finally, tell me what you are talking ab….”

  “Running for Governor of Texas.”

  For the second time in their conversation John Madison was tongue-tied. He couldn’t put together three coherent words, “Wha?.... You…. I mean…. Your…. Saying…. Governor? ….Come on….You can’t….Whew….”

  “John, take your time. Think it through. You are the obvious choice, really. In the upcoming election there’s a vacancy in the office, so you wouldn’t be running against an incumbent. Your name ID, they tell me, is higher than any other Texan, except for the retiring Governor and the state’s two sitting US Senators. You’re highly respected when the pollsters ask the ‘do you trust them’ questions. You score high on….”

  “Wait. Pollsters? They’ve taken public opinion polls? Who’s paying for all this? Don’t they need my permission to ask people about me?”

  “John, you’re no neophyte. Anyone can take any poll they want…without permission. As for whose paying, I don’t know, I didn’t think to ask. I would guess the Party is. They have resources and a pretty obvious desire to grab the Governor’s office. But, you haven’t yet asked the right question, John.”

  “Alright, Debbie, what question should I be asking?”

  “How could John Madison, as Governor of Texas, possibly make any difference in the national scheme of things, how could you have any impact in a nation that appears to be falling apart? I love you, John, and I personally think you would be a great Governor, but, let’s face it, anybody of medium competence could fill the office and run the state, but what good would that be long term? You’d just be another politician filling a government job. Sorry.”

  “No need to be sorry, I agree 100%. Why would you think I would ever want to put us through all that, just to get a job that doesn’t pay all that well, and could get me back in the soup again? You know this President would have a coronary if he thought I might actually get elected Governor of Texas, the state that has the second largest economy in the nation, and, I read somewhere that it’s the 13th largest economy in the world. They couldn’t let somebody like me get elected to run the second larges….”

  “What do you think the President would think if you promised in your campaign for Governor to lead Texas out of the Union?”

  John Madison normally was quick to speak, but now three times in the same day his wife had stumped him. Debbie began to smile, but John knew this was not her ‘I’m just funning you smile’, but instead her ‘now, finally, you know what I’ve been holding back’ smile.

  “John, these folks appear to be serious about re-forming the Republic of Texas, as it was back in 1845, when Texas joined the Union. They’ve been watching you since you got into trouble with the powers that be in DC, and they think you could possibly be the only Texan, who is well known and respected, and who also has the guts to run on a campaign to withdraw Texas from the Union, and then actually lead the fight….once you were elected. Which, by the way, they firmly feel you would be elected, running on such a platform. Their focus groups show a margin in favor of seceding.”

  “Humh….Well, there was a Texas Governor not long ago who publically suggested that Texas secede from the Union. He got a lot of high level attention for even suggesting it. I’m not sure if I even favor the idea, to be candid, Debbie. I could see a good argument could be made for returning to the days when Texas was a free and independent sovereign nation, if it’s even legal to do that. Didn’t the Civil War settle that question? We’d need some of the really smart people in this state to thoroughly research the legalities of re-forming the Republic of Texas. And, as for the polls, I don’t doubt its popularity, Debbie. Texans might vote for withdrawal, but that’s not the issue. Here’s the issue, plain and simple. Can you get along without me, again, if I’m thrown back in the slammer? Because I surely would make myself target one, again.”

  “We briefly talked about that, John. That’s the main reason they came to see me first. If I had shooed them away, the trembling wife fearful of your being arrested and imprisoned, again, we would have neither one of us ever heard from them again.”

  “But that’s not what you conveyed, I take it?”

  “No, just the opposite. I told them we would certainly pray about it, but that I’m not automatically opposed to your running.”

  “Whew. Well, you certainly know how to get a man’s attention. A week ago I was worried about whether the prison cooks would serve mystery meat again for dinner, and now I’m hearing my wife tell me she’s not against my running for Governor of Texas. Honey, please know that Nelson Mandela I’m not.”

  “No, but you are John Madison, whom God has placed in a special position. So don’t walk away from their proposal out of fear for how it would affect me. I made it through before, and if things turn bad, and they figure out how to take down a candidate for the highest office in Texas, which I seriously doubt they will do, I’ll survive the next time too.”

  “It would be awkward for the White House to explain arresting me again, that’s true.” John rubbed his temples as he contemplated everything he had just heard. Then he raised his head, looked at his wife and said, “Debbie, we’re forgetting one thing in all of this.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The kids. Jack and Katie, but mainly Jack, since Katie’s overseas where they can’t do much, if anything, to her. But Jack is already in the cross-hairs. His worship service last week was monitored by several federal employees, those CCC Conservators in the green shirts. The feds have made it clear that they’re looking for cases of so-called hate speech so they can justify all those CCC Conservators running around all over the country. If it becomes known that I’m a candidate for Governor, or even thinking about it, they’ll turn up the heat on Jack. Sure enough they will.”

  “Jack was the first person I called after my visitors dropped their bomb and left.”

  “Before you even talked to me?”

  “Yes. You were in transit and I couldn’t talk to you. I had to talk to somebody and Jack was the obvious person. Plus, once they left and I started thinking and praying about what they had said, I also realized that Jack could be directly impacted if you ran for Governor.”

  “Well, I understand….I think. What did he say?”

  “He also wants to pray about it, but his first reaction was for you to go for it. Jack was never a fearful child. If anything, he was our biggest risk-taker. He said that if you’re a candidate for Governor it might actually help him, and might scare away the feds from interfering with a pastor who is just preaching the Word, and, whose dad, by the way, is running for Governor of Texas. Jack’s a smart boy, as you know, and not one to shy away from a fight.”

  “That’s for sure, Debbie, but I’d first suggest that we go
to Dallas and sit down with Jack and Katie and talk this all through. There’s a lot at stake and the four of us need to insure that we know what could happen. I’d like to know what Jack thinks about this Republic of Texas idea.”

  “We’re going there this weekend. Arriving on Saturday for lunch. We watch the kids Saturday night so they can have a date night out, then church on Sunday. Jack has started his series on what the Bible says about perversion. We’ll have plenty of time to talk this out on Saturday afternoon.”

  “Debbie, you never cease to amaze me. Sounds like a plan.”

  Thus, John and Debbie Madison took their first tentative steps down a path that could lead they knew not where, but they were willing, by faith, to step forward.

  SEVENTY FIVE

  Falls Church, Virginia

  Residence of the Commandant

  of the U.S. Marine Corps

  The two Falls Church detectives assigned to investigate the suicide in their jurisdiction were unsettled.

  “Why would the General hang himself? It makes no sense at all. He had the highest job in his branch of the military. He was the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He was apparently healthy. His wife says their bills were paid and they had savings. It doesn’t compute.”

  “Any chance he didn’t take his own life?”

  “Why do you ask? Have you spotted something?”

  “The pathologists will have to sort it out, naturally, but when they pulled him down I noticed some slightly darkened areas on his wrists. That’s consistent with his arms being held while he was suffocated by hanging, against his will. I’m just asking.”

  “That’s up to the lab guys, not us. By the way, his wife says there’s letter on his desk in their den. We need to take a look at what’s in it.”

  On the General’s desk the detectives found a sealed envelope. On the crème colored U. S. Marine Corps envelope was typed:

  MY CONFESSION ---- OPEN ONLY UPON MY DEATH.

  Afterword

  In early May, 1970 I accompanied Indiana State Treasurer John K. Snyder, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, for a visit to the White House. The purpose of the meeting, which was held in the East Wing, was to meet with the President’s chief political advisor concerning the Senate primary race in Indiana. To avoid media scrutiny, the meeting was set for mid-morning on a Saturday. At the same time, Vietnam War protestors were loudly making their views known in DC. The protests had built to such a level of concern that DC police had surrounded the White House complex with city buses parked nose to tail, to avoid the White House being rushed by protestors who might then jump the fence and attack the building itself. The President met with a few protestors and then departed DC for the weekend to avoid any elevated confrontation had he been present at the White House.

  We were told to come to a narrow gap in the buses parked to the east of the White House, and upon presenting our identification, proceed through the security gate and into the East Wing to discuss politics in Indiana, and what role the President might, or might not, play in the Republican primary. As we walked down East Executive Avenue, which runs between the East Wing and the U.S. Treasury building, we looked towards the Treasury and saw military vehicles. The two personnel trucks were parked on the ramp on the west side of the Treasury building that runs down below the building for parking purposes. What immediately caught our eye was the fact that both trucks were packed full of armed military personnel, all with full battle gear, helmets and each with a rifle held across their chests in what appeared to be a ready for battle position.

  Needless to say, we were taken aback when we saw the armed troops. Our May visit to the White House came a week after May 4, 1970, the day that four Kent State students were killed, and nine wounded, after the firing of 67 rounds by weapons-bearing soldiers, albeit Ohio National Guard troops. Had the protestors, who were thankfully restricting their activities south of the White House in the Mall, rushed the White House and attempted to breach the bus barrier, who knows what would have happened? The United States government was prepared to defend the seat of power from a mob of unhappy Americans. Had such an assault occurred, and had the troops on the parking ramp of the Treasury building fired on the assaulters, history would have been altered. The scene in Chapter 30 is based, in part, on what we saw that fateful day in early May, 1970.

  Watch For

  THE WARNING

  The Second Book in the SECOND TERM Trilogy

  · Will Hilde and Wilbur succeed in their plan to replace the President?

  · Will Pastor Jack Madison be charged and convicted of hate speech law violations?

  · Will talk radio and Fox be shut down?

  · Will Texas secede from the Union?

  · What end times prophecies will be fulfilled in America?

  · Will America support Israel when it’s invaded?

  · Will radical Islamists use WMDs on the U.S.? How will they use them? Where?

  Follow the SECOND TERM series:

  www.secondtermbook.com

  Sign up for a free END OF AMERICA Newsletter at www.endofamericabook.com and receive notification when the second book of the SECOND TERM series, THE WARNING, is released.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  John Price was for forty years an Indianapolis attorney who was active in political and governmental matters. He now devotes his time to his wife, his grandchildren and his writing. The author may be contacted at:

  john@endofamericabook.com or

  john@secondtermbook.com

  Published Books by the Author

  AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS

  Repentance or Repression

  Christian House Publishing, Inc. 1976

  AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS

  Tyndale House, 1979

  THE END OF AMERICA

  3rd Edition, 2012

  (Available in print form on Amazon and e-version on Kindle)

  SECOND TERM

  A Novel of America in the Last Days

  For a non-fiction look at America in prophecy:

  www.endofamericabook.com

  See the next page for a sample from

  THE END OF AMERICA

  INTRODUCTION

  TO

  THE END OF AMERICA

  © 2012, John R. Price

  It was 1976. I had been a Christian just a few years, but I knew that something was seriously wrong in America. Only three years before, in 1973, the nation’s highest Court had authorized the aborting of infants in the womb, even though almost every State then prohibited abortion as a criminal act. By 1976 there had been very little public debate and there were but few books published about the issue. I decided to see what the Bible said. I’ll not soon forget weeping as I read in God’s Word His view of fetal murder, and I’m not normally given to tears.

  I then outlined and penned a book, which we originally published as Christian House Publishers entitled “America at the Crossroads: Repentance or Repression”. The book included a brief history of America’s four great spiritual awakenings (1725-1760; 1787-1805; 1857-1865 and 1900-1910) to hopefully give a vision for a fifth great awakening, if America’s Christians complied with II Chronicles 7:14. (“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”). The subtitle of the Tyndale House 1979 edition was “Can America Escape National Decline, Economic Collapse and Devastating Conflict?” This book will answer that question asked thirty years ago.

  In “America at the Crossroads” we looked at some key societal issues:

  The Economy: “Given the unbridled right to create money, government will do so and eventually cause the destruction of the entire system.”

  Banks: “We should anticipate that at any point in time our U.S. banking system could suffer a blow from which it could not bounce back and which would result in government takeover…In whatever way it may start, if it starts, a series of m
ajor bank failures would totally alter the nation as we now know it.”

  Politics/Government: “We must not confuse cause with effect. God will heal; that’s the effect. But the cause, the reason He will heal, is our repentance. Just electing Christians to office won’t change the nation and heal its wounds. Instead, we’ll repent and God will then allow godly men and women to be elected to office and He will use them in the healing process. Some well-meaning Christians want to heal the nation by organizing the ‘Christian vote’ and voting our problems away.”

  Don’t be too impressed by the last statement, as within a few years of writing it, I ignored my own words, and declared my candidacy for Congress, hoping to heal America from Capitol Hill, though without first witnessing a spiritual awakening. My electoral efforts thereafter were not successful, though not the fault, certainly, of friends and supporters who worked long hours, from a heart conviction to see God heal our land.

  Sadly, for almost a hundred years, America has not experienced national repentance, nor a spiritual awakening, and no healing of our nation. After “America at the Crossroads” was published I began to look with some intensity at the role of the United States of America in Biblical prophecy. In studying the possible role of America in Bible prophecy, I soon learned that there were very few authors who had concluded that America was portrayed, or even alluded to, in the Bible, except in the most general sense. Best-selling Christian authors Dr. Tim LaHaye and Dr. Lester Sumrall have stated that view:

  “Does the United States have a place in end times prophecy? My first response is no, there is nothing about the U.S. in prophecy. At least nothing that is specific…The question is why? Why would the God of prophecy not refer to the supreme superpower nation in the end times in preparation for the one-world government of the Antichrist?” (Tim LaHaye’s Perspective, August, 1999)