Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) (34 page)

SEVENTY
FOUR

Tyler,
Texas

After what seemed
like an interminable time away from home, John Madison felt strange sitting in
his favorite chair in his favorite room, his comfortable family room. But, he
knew he would quickly adjust to being a free man, and to being with Debbie, his
wife of twenty-seven years. Surrounded by his bookshelves and able to watch
whatever he wanted on his big screen TV, he was thankful for the fact that he
no longer faced conviction as a federal felon. But, just as he was relaxing in
his new found freedom, his world was shaken by news from Debbie.

“John, now that
you’ve been home for a couple of days, I think I need to tell you something.”

“We won the lottery?”

“Very funny, John.
You know we don’t gamble, though I was tempted when we were low on funds to
make our mortgage payment. Praise God for friends who helped us out. My
employment by your friend Ralph was a Godsend. Literally.”

“I know. The guy
walks his talk. So, what’s your revelation?”

“Something happened
the day before you came home, after it was known that your charges were
dismissed and that you were being released. I decided to wait to tell you until
you’d settled in and adjusted to life back in Tyler.”

“Yes….Okay, so I’m
relaxed, but I’m quickly unrelaxing waiting on you tell me what you’re slowly
leading up to. What is it? Are the kids all right?”

“Sure. No, if it was
about the kids I would have told you that right off. No, John, this has to do
with politics.”

“What? Politics?
That’s what landed me the slammer, Debbie, lest we forget. Politics? Whatever
are you talking about?”

“Well, let’s start by
my telling you that the day before you got home I had some visitors, here at
home.”

“Visitors?
Who
?
What
did they want
?”

“Calm down, John. Let
me tell this my way. You get impatient some times, as you may recall my telling
you a few hundred times.”

“Sorry. Tell it your
way. Who came here to see you?”

“The Chairman and
Vice Chairman of the Texas Republican Party and the Chairmen of the three
largest tea party organizations in Texas. They had with them a person who was
introduced to me as a representative of the largest financial contributors to
the GOP and the tea party in the last election cycle.”

Of all the things
Debbie could have told John Madison, the identity of her visitors was the last
thing he expected to hear. For a moment, he couldn’t speak, as he was staring
at Debbie to see if maybe an emerging smile might betray a mischievous plan to
kid him by pretending to have been visited by such a high powered group. No
such smile appeared. After twenty seven years of marriage John knew Debbie
well, and he could tell that she was deadly serious.

Finally finding his
voice, John asked, “Debbie, what could they have possibly wanted? You of all
people know that we’re not able to contribute any money right now until I get
back on my feet, go back to work at the insurance company and make some money.”

“No, silly, you think
they need our paltry contribution? Even if you were employed? These folks run
things in Texas on the conservative side of the political spectrum. No, they
don’t want your money, they want you.”

“Hunh? Me? For what?
To fund raise for them? I’m not very good at shaking money out of folks,
Debbie. I hope you told them that.”

“John, let me get my
story told, okay. Patience, my dear.”

“Sorry. Again. Go
on.”

“These men and women
are convinced that really bad things are going to happen in this country and
they want to do something about it. They thi….”

“
Going
to
happen? What about what’s
already
happened? Over $16 trillion in debt we
can’t pay back. Soldiers shooting American protestors. Historical unemployment.
The McAlister Act taking away our Constitutional rights. The CCC snooping into
our personal affairs. How much worse could it get, Debbie? What are they
talking about?

“They mentioned those
problems, but they think the US dollar is headed south, that the basic
financial and governmental structures will collapse. That as things get worse,
much worse, there will be anarchy and a tightening down on average citizens by
the government such as we’ve never seen before in this country. Even
imprisonment, or worse, of Christian leaders, or just regular Christians.”

“So? I agree with all
that. Some of that I talked about in the last campaign in my speeches that got
me into so much trouble. What’s their solution?”

“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 13
^th
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.”