The Outer Circle (The Counterpoint Trilogy Book 3)

by Bell, D. R.

  Dimon masterfully paused to let the applause rise to a crescendo, lifting his arms with palms pointing up and then turning them over and lowering to bring the applause down. He looked like a skillful conductor managing his orchestra.

  “We did not start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign did not originate in the politics-as-usual halls of Washington. It began in this country’s heartland and spread east and west, north and south. It was built by working men and women, not by the power brokers from Washington and New York. This is not my campaign, this is your campaign!”

  Dimon allowed another round of applause. There was a sudden commotion in the audience: the editors missed, by accident or on purpose, one young couple quickly shedding their clothing and the viewers and other audience members were treated to a few seconds of intercourse. The video snippet would instantly end up on YouTube and social media networks and have seventeen million hits within four hours. The couple would be identified as Kimberly Johnson and Rick Spruce from Sacramento. Within the next twenty four hours, they will be contacted by forty six companies offering them money to promote or endorse products ranging from condoms to mattresses. Kimberly and Rick would end up making a porn film that would flop. They will be forgotten after a week.

  Dimon smiled tensely:

  “Well, young people will be young people. It’s good to know that my followers bring so much enthusiasm and vitality to this townhall. But let us get back to the matter at hand. It’s not an accident that we call ourselves the Spirit of ’76 movement: we are a party of patriots! For many years have we been spreading freedom and democracy throughout this planet. Without American leadership, we face international anarchy. Yes, we believe that America is exceptional, that it’s been born to be exceptional, to rise and to continue as the most prosperous and powerful nation on Earth!”

  Dimon spread his arms to welcome another round of applause.

  “We are an open and welcoming party. But if you don’t believe in this country’s greatness, if you blame America first, if you believe that we must lower our ambitions, then we don’t want you! If that’s what you believe, if you don’t love this country unconditionally, then why are you here? Go to places that suits you better; we don’t hold anyone, our borders are open.”

  Dimon clenched his hands into fists and brought them to his chest. He took a deep breath as if letting go of the emotion.

  “For too long have we allowed our enemies to attack and undermine us without consequence! For too long have we allowed our jobs to be outsourced, our industries to be undermined by unfair trade agreements, our markets to be flooded with illegally subsidized goods! Our goodwill and openheartedness have been turned against us. And I say, no more! We will no longer let the foreign nations subvert us. Our military is the most powerful in the world. As Teddy Roosevelt told us over a hundred years ago, we speak softly but we carry a big stick. And if I am elected to lead this country, my administration will not shy away from using it! We are not looking for a fight, but if the fight is taken to us then fight we will!”

  This time, Dimon allowed the applause to go on until he saw his campaign manager Jonathan Morton making a downward movement with his palm.

  “But not all of our problems come from abroad. Some are of our making. We have executives stealing tens of millions going free, but we throw someone in jail for stealing food. This is not fair! This is not the American Way! When I am the President, I will stump out the corporate crime by imposing such penalties that any white-collar thief would think twice before robbing even a penny from his workers!”

  Dimon clasped his hands in front, his facial expression turned contemplative:

  “A few days ago, I gave a short speech on the field of Gettysburg. I was humbled to stand on the same ground where Abraham Lincoln stood a hundred and sixty years ago, the ground that’s been hallowed by the brave men of that time. Like then, we are engaged in a great war. Only this time, the battlefield is much larger. Like then, we are not sure whether this nation, under God, will survive. In times like this, we need a strong government, a strong leadership, to protect the people and to help them. Let us resolve that we shall submit to the providence of the Lord, because his judgments are true and righteous, and that we shall fight together to give a new birth to freedom like our ancestors did.”

  The applause was deafening.

  Robert Treadwell and his production team were watching in their New York studio. Treadwell clapped his hands:

  “OK, people, to work! We don’t have to wait for the Q&A part. Take Dimon’s speech, cut it up into video and text snippets. Make video versions from eight seconds to two minutes, nothing longer than that. Text editors, transcribe and pick out fragments of ten to twenty words, I want you to show me your list in fifteen minutes. We’ll pick a few and flood the social media with them.”

  Los Angeles, USA

  “Mr. Kron, thank you for agreeing to this interview with us,” After Ten’s host John Barry looked comfortable behind his desk. The same could not be said about Jeff Kron, who crossed and uncrossed his legs three times in two minutes. “This is the first time you have accepted such an invitation and I am honored to have this opportunity. Can you tell us what made you change your mind?”

  “It’s not a what but a who,” smiled Jeff. “My campaign manager Robert Marosyan insisted. He thought I came across as a bit too not-mainstream in the Stanton’s interview.”

  Marosyan, seated in the audience, moaned.

  “And this has nothing to do with a recent popular nationwide appearance by your opponent John Dimon?”

  Jeff Kron awkwardly shifted and replied:

  “You’ll have to ask Robert that. He is the strategist.”

  Barry smirked, “Well, Robert isn’t here on the stage. Let’s start with an easy question. Are you sympathetic to No Taxation Without Representation posters that sprang throughout the country?”

  “Yes. When citizens believe that the government represents not them but a small elite, they are right to feel left out.”

  “And you are not troubled that some of these people break the rules and disappear, ‘drop out’ as they call it, in order to avoid complying with the laws?”

  “When the state apparatus becomes all powerful and the rules are too numerous to avoid stepping on, it’s natural for people to do anything and everything to protect their privacy and independence. That’s why they are going outside the system. ‘We the People’ is not synonymous with ‘We the Government.’ Sometimes people in power forget this.”

  “But polls show that it’s a minority of people that feel this way. As a matter of fact, more than half pay no taxes at all.”

  “That’s a part of the problem.”

  “Why, are you opposed to these people having some minimum guaranteed income? Would you want them to starve?”

  “No, of course not.” Jeff pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face. “I just think we are starting to resemble Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Big swaths of society are completely dependent on the government that piles on ever-increasing debt to enable the situation. Just like in Huxley’s vision, these ‘lower castes’ are encouraged to consume and to amuse themselves with entertainment, drugs, sex. Meanwhile, a small group of ‘World Controllers’ and ‘Alpha-Plus’ specialists manage the country.”

  “I don’t remember that book, but I’d say it’s a rather dark vision.” John Barry turned to the audience and mockingly spread his arms. “We are entertaining millions of our viewers now and they don’t seem to be unhappy about it. People want to be amused, distracted from their daily worries.”

  The audience laughed.

  Jeff Kron, however, remained serious, unsmiling.

  “You well might be right, many people might be more interested in being entertained than in who governs them and how. Freedom is an ambiguous gift. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did not have to choose, did not have to think, did not care about being free. But the people that put up No Taxation Without Repre
sentation posters, they care. And I would like to think that the society that would rather keep more people on welfare than help them get fulfilling jobs is not doing right by those very people. We are now essentially an oligarchy, not a democracy.”

  “Hmm, that’s a big charge to make!” Barry pulled down the corners of his mouth. “A great many people would disagree with you.”

  “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but Princeton has done an exhaustive study of over twenty years of public policy issues. Their conclusion was unequivocal: economic elites and organized business interests have an outsized impact on US government policy, while average citizens have little or no influence. How else would you define an oligarchy?”

  “Well, you know, academics and their studies...”

  “Obviously, this is beyond academia now,” retorted Jeff.

  “Very well,” John Barry smiled with his lips, not his eyes. “Jeff, you expressed some reservations about how our free market works. Are you calling for a centrally managed economy?”

  “Not at all,” Jeff shook his head. “Not at all. If anything, it is powerful quasi-governmental institutions, such as the Federal Reserve, that attempt to centrally manage key parts of the economy. Did they really think that creating trillions of dollars out of thin air and using that to control society and prices would have no consequences? It’s a fantasy that economy and politics, market and state are completely separate. They are inextricably linked. The government can protect the market with incentives for behaviors that support the market, investments into public goods, and subsidies for basic necessities, while getting rid of non-essential regulation. The government can act to erect walls between itself and powerful special interests. The government can break up or nationalize any institutions that can threaten the market by monopolistic behavior. I want the government to protect the free market against powerful private interests, not manage the economy to protect those interests.”

  “You’ve been viewed as not friendly to large financial institutions. Are you against the financial sector?”

  “No, I am not. And to be clear, my criticism extends to some non-financial companies as well. Our economy is dominated by a handful of giant corporations. They often start as innovators but then vertically integrate to form near-monopolies. Is it really in the public interest to have the same companies control both creation and distribution of content? As for the finance, it is just as essential as production. But I am against the financial class skimming for themselves an inordinate share of the wealth and political clout. Jesus kicked the money changers out of the Temple for turning it into a den of thieves. It’s about time we do the same. These institutions have been granted an enormous amount of trust to manage the financial system – and they abused it. After repeated offenses, I do believe that social justice demands fundamental changes, from breaking up ‘too big to fail’ to turning some financial functions into public utilities.”

  “Social justice? Don’t you just invite people to criticize you for being a socialist?” John Barry spread his arms in fake bewilderment.

  “Respectfully, John, you’re missing the point!” retorted Jeff, pointing a finger at the host. “Justice and morality are not somehow separate from capitalism. Without societal cohesion, without social trust, there can be no economic growth. Just look how big chunks of our market are disappearing into a ‘grey economy.’ When we allow immoral actions, they set in motion a reaction. We can’t mouth moral laws without meaning them. A nation, like an individual, must have a conscience in order to survive.”

  “Thank you. That’s quite a response,” John Barry looked taken aback. “Since you brought up national conscience: Jeff – is America exceptional?”

  Barry set back, a tiny ‘I got you now’ smile playing on his lips.

  “You know, John, that’s a very good question,” Jeff smiled back and John’s smile disappeared. “To me, America is a concept, a state of mind, the province of free, empowered people. It’s not simply a physical place. To be a shining city on the hill is a challenge that the founders gave us, not a given.”

  “I’m not sure I understand what you are saying,” John Barry looked annoyed.

  “I’m saying that our exceptionalism derives only from the legacy that we inherited from those who came before us. Someone said that ‘freedom is participation in power’ – that was our inheritance, giving everyone a chance to share in our governance. We must safeguard this heritage, we must never allow private interests to develop too much sway over the government. Americans are idealists. We want to pursue moral principles, but this does not automatically make everything that we do right. We should always hold a mirror to ourselves. We should not blindly extend our trust to the government and follow orders, because where does devotion end and submission to power begin? Do we have to strive for dominance in all matters? How does love of country become a reason to make war? We must educate ourselves so we know whether we are being well-governed. We should be proud of our country without being hostile to or dismissive of others. There is a fine line between pride and arrogance, we should not cross it. We should remember that secular power is not justified because of its mere existence but instead only if it’s consistent with moral principles. That’s what I mean by our exceptionalism.”

  Marosyan moaned again.

  A small group of people gathered with drinks around a giant projection screen in a high-ceilinged room. One of them turned to others and said:

  “I told you, he is a dangerous communist. We can’t afford to let him win.”

  Beijing, China

  Eight men sat around the table in an office in Zhongnanhai imperial garden. The mood was deliberate, unsmiling.

  General Secretary Kai Liu started the meeting:

  “General Cao, we invited you to the Steering Committee to discuss your plan for Taiwan reunification.”

  “Comrade General Secretary, thank you for the opportunity. Allow me to illustrate with the map,” Wu Cao walked over to the map now displayed on the wall. “China is vulnerable from the seas, our coast is wide open and not protected by any natural defenses. There are two island chains creating what we call ‘Near Seas’ and ‘Far Seas.' The first chain stretches from the southern tip of Japan to Brunei and encompasses Taiwan and the two near seas, the South China Sea and the East China Sea. The second chain can be roughly drawn from the middle of Japan in a semi-circle through Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Micronesia and Palau, ending at the middle of Indonesia.”

  “And except for Xisha, or Paracel Islands, we don’t own any of them!” pointed out Sun Yang. “So militarily, they don’t do us any good.”

  “My esteemed colleague is correct on the first point,” acknowledged Wu Cao. “And until very recently, he would have been correct on his second point as well. The U.S. 7th Fleet is stationed at the top of the second island chain, in Yokosuka, Japan. Despite recent reductions, it is still more powerful than any of the naval forces in the area, with over fifty ships, close to three hundred airplanes and over thirty thousand men. We have no aircraft carriers that can rival even the aging Nimitz-class carriers they have. And with no forward air or missile bases and limited precision of long-range missiles, we had no way of effectively countering them unless they sailed all the way to the eastern edge of Taiwan. Until now.”

  Wu Cao went back to his seat to pour another glass of water. The room was silent, everyone watching him drink, put the glass back on the table and return to the map.

  “About ten years ago we projected that it would take until mid-century to catch up with the U.S. Navy in ‘blue water,’ far-from-the-land operations. But we have also recognized that some of the technological trends will revolutionize military affairs and perhaps allow for defensive outposts that do not require large scale military bases but still support long-range operations. I am talking about missiles with advanced targeting capabilities and unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones as most people refer to them.”

  “But General,” interjected Wang Huns
han, “I am as much in favor of returning Taiwan to its proper homeland as anyone, but only a couple of years ago we’ve been told that our high-precision maneuverable anti-ship missiles operate at up to 150 miles. That’s enough to protect the Formosa Strait, but it won’t stop the 7th Fleet from approaching Taiwan. And the much-ballyhooed Dong Feng 26D anti-ship ballistic ‘carrier killers’ don’t have sufficient precision to guarantee that we can stop the Americans.”

  “Comrade Hunshan has a good memory,” nodded Wu Cao. “The range of high-precision missiles has been extended to 200 miles since then, but that’s still not enough to deny the 7th Fleet access to the East China Sea and Taiwan’s vicinity. The DF-26D has a range of over 2,000 miles, but it’s hard to hit a moving target at such distance. And, as the existence of these missiles has been well-known, the Americans likely developed their own defenses. However, I am not talking about large missiles each designed to destroy a major ship. Instead, these are smaller missiles designed to attack from the air and under the waterline. They are not capable of sinking a carrier but a multitude of them can make a carrier ineffective by crippling the flight deck, damaging the rudder, and knocking out communications facilities. They can also attack lesser-defended support ships, making it more difficult for the fleet to advance. Small and medium size attack drones will provide a similar effect. Most important, they have a range of up to 500 miles and can operate without specialized bases or launchers.”

  “Why is this important?” inquired Kai Liu.