Sweetness in the Dark

by W. B. Martin

  The delegates showed their understanding of the seriousness of this issue with a round of applause. The governors had all dealt with out-of-control courts issuing edicts affecting their states.

  “We will have a new third branch of the government,” Paul said. The groans from everyone showed their disgust at more government. Noticing the response, he held up his arms as a sign he understood their fears. “Let me explain. The third branch of government will mirror the House. It will contain the same number of members and be selected in the same districts.”

  “Then why have them?” a delegate from North Carolina yelled.

  “Because this group, which we’ve named the ‘National Council’, will take advantage of the Information Age. The Founders were limited to a Representative Republic form of government by the distances and time lag of their era. But we can now have a more citizen-orientated government,” Paul explained.

  He continued to outline the National Council. It would be made up of any eligible voter who chose to be involved with the political system. Based upon each grade school in the country, individuals would meet regularly to discuss current issues. From each group, one individual would be picked by random selection to represent the grade school group at the high school level.

  From the high school level of involved citizen members, one member would be selected, again randomly, to a House District group. And finally, one member would be picked by lottery to represent the district at the national level.

  Lars took over. “It takes its substance from National Review founder Bill Buckley’s comment on politics. To paraphrase Mr. Buckley: ‘I would sooner trust the running of our government to the first 500 people listed in the phone book than to the people that get elected.”

  “This offers a fair chance to the common man or woman to be involved in their government at the highest level. No money is required and no paybacks are necessary once in office. And again, the office would be limited to one six-year term,” Paul added.

  “But anyone could end up in the highest seat of power. We could randomly pick some extremist wacko,” a Georgia delegate admonished.

  “Yes, we could. And by the same measure, we could pick the next Thomas Jefferson, but one that didn’t have the money it takes to grease the wheels to office. With four hundred and thirty-five members, a couple of dingbats will be an annoyance to the vast majority of decent members. And we have an impeachment provision that the full Council can exercise to remove anyone they deem unworkable,” Lars answered.

  “But you said that the Supreme Court would be cut down to size. Where is that happening with this new body?” the Georgia delegate asked.

  Paul put a new overhead up. It laid out the other big change being proposed. As the delegates turned their pages to the new information, the gasp of shock filled the hall.

  “That’s right. We will no longer elect the President by popular vote. Or by Electoral College, if you want to be technical,” Paul said. “I’ll quote another famous American, ‘Any system of government that is determined by an election every four years of demagogues is doomed to failure’. Well, we were headed to that failure when the sun intervened.”

  “But we need a national figure that represents the country. Are you proposing we reintroduce royalty?” a delegate mouthed off.

  “No, we won’t be having a king or queen,” Lars fired back. “But we did look at others to find a solution to our problem. And we think we’ve found it with the Swiss.”

  Before anyone could raise an objection to anything foreign, Paul offered. “With the age of television, the task of offering a free exchange of ideas in electing a President vaporized. Even in Jefferson’s time, elections were mean-spirited. The printed press at the time put out such viscous stories that its amazing Congress didn’t address this issue decades ago.”

  “But we intend to fix that now. Once we have a House, a Senate and a Council fully established, each body would vote three members to the Presidential Cabinet. The Cabinet would then select one member to act as President. The other members would fill the role of Cabinet positions we have traditionally understood,” Lars said.

  He went on to explain that the nine Cabinet members would consist of the President and Vice President and the following; The State Department would be relabeled the Foreign Department and would still deal with foreign affairs. A new State Department would be responsible for affairs between the national government and the more independent States. The Attorney General and the Treasury Secretary would be similar in roles as the present departments as would the Defense Department. The Interior Department would become a catch-all bureau for all things internal in the country; National Parks, National Forests, Wildlife Refugees, and internal transportation would all fall under Interior. The old Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Education and Housing would all disappear. Parts of those departments still funded under a much reduced national budget would be in one remaining Interior Department.

  Rounding out the nine Cabinet positions would be a Health Department. It would be responsible for only the micro-parasites of the nation. With the severe cutback in income, the national government would be out of the welfare business. All public assistance would be a state-by-state issue.

  “You mean we’re going to let people starve, don’t you?” Rebecca was back demanding. Paul looked over at the visible agitation of the Iowa and Nebraska delegations.

  “That would be up to the states. It was never the Founders intention that the national government be an end-all to everyone’s needs. They envisioned a land of independent states making independent policies,” Paul answered. He knew he had to provide a basic class in Federalism to this woman’s limited education. “Each state could experiment with different ideas; some failing and some succeeding. And a people free to move from one to another.”

  “Yes, I would remind Ms. Richards that voting with your feet is one of the most immediate confirmations that a governing body can have. New York State, before ‘the Pulse’, had found that out. Its population had lost millions in the two decades prior to P-Day. All from bad decisions by their legislature,” Lars lectured. “And places like Texas and Florida were winning the race for voters by having policies that people supported more than New York.”

  “So, we’re all going to be fighting for people. How absurd. That’s no way to run a country,” Rebecca said.

  “That’s called freedom. ‘Free to choose’ is the phrase that comes to mind. At present we have thirty states and provinces, so we’ll have thirty little experiments all vying for the best system to govern people. And the people get to vote any time they choose for the system they want,” Lars said.

  “But to return to our changes to the Presidency. The Swiss have managed their affairs by a similar system of selecting their leader from a council. And they’ve been successfully doing so longer than we have. Our method eliminates the money from the Presidency,” Paul said.

  The Arkansas delegate added. “Yeah, isn’t it amazing how our former Governor, making about $35,000 a year, wins the White House and eight years later he’s a multi-millionaire.”

  Many in the Convention Hall chuckled at the reference. Many rich men had become President but all of them had left the Presidency wealthy, Paul thought.

  Paul continued to explain that by selecting the Cabinet members from the three bodies, it could be possible that a typical everyday voter could be selected to lead the nation. The so called elites would be bypassed.

  Again, anyone in the Cabinet was limited to a maximum of six years, with each Cabinet position lasting two years. They could be reelected twice if the full Cabinet so desired. To assure continuity, the Cabinet membership would be staggered so new members would be taking a seat every two years.

  In addition, the Supreme Court would be appointed the same way. Nine members from the three bodies would be nominated to sit on the highest court. But unlike the old days, these members would be limited to one six-year term. Also, like the Cabinet, the terms wou
ld be staggered, Paul explained.

  “So non-lawyers could be appointed to the Court. Sounds dangerous,” the Georgia delegate said.

  “We’ve seen the damage that lawyers have caused our system. If we truly believe in self-government, then anyone selected should have the ability to weigh the issues of our times in a thoughtful way. It might help the whole if those making the laws understood that the final arbitrators are not lawyers. It might make laws easier to understand,” Paul said.

  It was finally added that if a member was selected to move up to the Cabinet or the Supreme Court, then that time would not count against his time on the body from which he was selected. So that once someone’s six years as a judge was finished, the individual could seek their original position in either of the three bodies through the same process.

  But the new constitution limited any one’s total time in elected national office to twelve years. The years could be any combination of positions in any of the bodies, but a person was done and gone at twelve.

  “Well, so much for the structure of the government. How’s it going to be paid for? That’s the crux of the whole thing,” an Iowa delegate asked. “From your explanation of the departments in the new government, I don’t like that the Ag Department is going away.”

  Paul noticed the Midwest states all nodding in agreement. This was the salient point. How much money would transfer to the national government? Past mischiefs were created by the large tax bite that the Feds had taken out of its citizens. And now each state was about to hear news on its favorite fat cows that were about to be slaughtered.

  “That’s right. A lot of things are going away. They would have been going away before ‘the Pulse’, but the day of reckoning got thrust upon us. We are no longer the country that after World War II thought we could do anything. As a nation, we can no longer afford such luxuries,” Paul offered.

  “Farmers growing crops and staying solvent isn’t a luxury, mister,” the Iowa delegate said.

  “No, it isn’t, but farmers have been growing crops for centuries and have done so successfully without subsidies from the government. And I know that many of them will succeed independently again. But the corporate farmer taking a government check for not growing something is finished,” Paul said.

  “And I suppose ethanol subsidies are history, too,” Iowa stated.

  “Yes. If states want to subsidize such things, they are free to do so. But there will be no national program.”

  “What? The environment is taking a back seat now. We’re throwing out years of progress to a sustainable future,” Rebecca said.

  “I will point out that the environment just killed off probably two billion people around the world. About one hundred million Americans are dead because we were chasing the wrong illusion. The sun showed us our priorities and we will be decades recovering from that lesson,” Paul answered.

  Lars added, “And our country had its greatest growth during the late 19th Century because of the policy of low taxes. We are proposing the same. The 16th Amendment will be eliminated, removing the income tax from existence. In its place, the national government will live on a ten percent import/export tax coupled with a ten percent national sales tax. And no exemptions.”

  The delegates looked at the overhead of revenue projections that such a tax structure would create. From the recent past Federal budget, the new projections were miniscule. There would be no extra money for much of anything.

  Finally the Georgia delegate spoke. “Our national defense will be crippled. These numbers are totally inadequate to maintain our military forces.”

  “I don’t see where the money comes from for the elderly. Social Security payments alone will collapse. Never mind Medicare,” one Wisconsin delegate offered.

  “What about the children?” Rebecca screamed. “What about Head Start and the school lunch program? And Section Eight housing? The poor will be out on the street starving. What have we come to?”

  “What we’ve come to is a time where everyone is going to be contributing to society. The free lunch is over. We have a country to rebuild and we’re going to leave the money in the hands of our citizens to make their own decisions about how we’re going to do it,” Paul said. “And the military is going to be a lot smaller.”

  “At least those bastards get the shaft too,” Rebecca offered.

  “Those ‘bastards’, as you so warmly describe them, will continue to receive adequate resources to defend our borders. The difference is that we won’t be the ‘big guy on the block’ that defends everyone else’s borders. Our Allies around the world have grown used to our presence. Those days are over,” Paul answered.

  The talk turned to the role the new national government would take. Most agreed that the phrase ‘General Welfare’ should be removed from the constitution. Too much power had been taken by Congress under that term and the Convention was resolved to end that practice.

  “Have you accounted for money to go teach the Chinese about the dangers of invading our country,” the Georgia delegate asked.

  “That will be up to the new Congress to sort out. What money is allocated in the budget and to whom it will go is the job for the future House of Representatives. All money measures will start there,” Lars answered. The Georgia delegate didn’t appreciate the answer. Many of the delegates appeared to be supporting the Georgian’s position.

  Well, the neocons are establishing the first policy fight to come, Paul thought. The Democratic Party power base was destroyed when the country’s urban population had been decimated. Now the political winds were shifting. Paul knew that the former neocons from the old Republican Party were asserting themselves on one side.

  The other side of the issues seemed to be coalescing around what had been historically a classical Liberal position. The term ‘liberal’ had been stolen in the 20th Century by the ‘Progressives’ starting in the 1920s. Once the income tax and the Federal Reserve Bank legislation was passed by the Federal government, the growth of a large socialist government was just a matter of time.

  The Libertarian Party had assumed many of the classical Liberal views. The new Libertarian Caucus that emerged was economically conservative, but more socially liberal.

  The third voting bloc were the Christian supporters. The Old South was heavy with evangelical Christians who were happy with a smaller government, but concerned about social issues.

  Paul saw that this Christian bloc was the swing vote between the Neocon Caucus that wanted a bigger government and the Libertarian Caucus striving for a small government. He knew that he would have to form an alliance with the Christians in order to govern.

  After a new constitution was adopted, many issues would be an ongoing struggle. If a compromise could be reached with the Christians over the social issues, Paul could live with those decisions, as long as the government was severely reduced.

  When Rebecca again raised the issue of the elderly and Social Security, Paul knew that he had to make sure the entire Convention understood where the new country’s future lay.

  “Social Security was a ‘Ponzi scheme’ from the day FDR started it. There has never been a ‘lock box’ where all that money sat waiting for people to retire. Congress spent that money as fast as it came in and issued Treasury Notes in their place. All that is gone now.”

  “And those people are going to starve now?” Rebecca asked.

  “That is now a state issue. I would imagine that the old ‘poor farm’ system would be the most efficient and effective way to handle the indigent, no matter their age. We might change the name to “Empowerment Resorts’, but the net result would be the same. People would work on a farm to the level of their ability to provide for their sustenance. No one starves, but there would be a huge incentive for able-bodied individuals to move out into regular society,” Paul offered.

  “Empowerment Resorts. Are you ‘f’ing serious?” Rebecca yelled.

  “I like the idea,” the Montana governor yelled back. “I thin
k Dr. Kendall has hit on a solid idea here.”

  Several of the governors showed their agreement. They realized that with the Federal government out of the welfare business, the problem was about to land in their laps. And the old ways were about to be dusted off. America was about to shift back in many ways to the early 1900s; before the ‘Progressive Era’, as it was labeled, had begun.

  The Convention broke down into small groups discussing everything that had been presented. The chairman indicated to Paul and Lars to take a seat. He would let the group take time to digest everything.

  Paul walked back to where the Idaho delegation was seated. Amanda smiled at him as he sat down.

  Chapter 31

  Red Bluff, California

  General Ed Gale waited in his headquarters. It was late afternoon and the sun was just setting over the brown hills to the west. In the distance to the east, the typical afternoon buildup of thunderclouds over the Sierra Nevada Mountains announced their location.

  It was late October and the fields that would have normally been harvested had been fallow for over a year now. The turmoil after the CME had prevented normal activity in the area. Consequently, the local population was nonexistent. Everyone had headed out of the area to avoid the hordes of people fleeing the Bay Area.

  At least until the Chinese showed up. They arrived with security forces and food. The locals were happy to accept both at the time, but the assistance had turned into an occupation. China had shipped in more troops and then settlers to establish their permanent presence in California.

  Intelligence reports showed the Chinese farming vast areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The Chinese Army troops had established a defensive line that ran from Mexico, up through the Sierras, and then west across California just north of Willows.

  General Gale had advanced his troops from Seattle down I-5 to their present location, about forty miles north of the Chinese position. A certain gentlemen’s agreement existed in keeping the respective troops separate.