WAR (52 page)

              As Leh leaves President Booker’s office, his admin tells him the commanding General of the security force is waiting to see him. “Damn, I guess I have to see him.”

              The General is shown into Booker’s office, “Mr. President, I have a formal complaint to file with you today.”

              “General Smyth, how many of these protests do you plan to bring me?”

              “As many as needed, one for every major breach of the protocols governing the election. We have interviewed people who are asking us when they can expect payment for their vote. Sir, we have informed you that we will discard the ballots of everyone who’s been paid or informs us that they’ve been paid to vote a certain way. As of today, 40% of the early ballots have been discarded.”

              “40%? You can’t be serious. That’s crazy. You’re disenfranchising our people.”

              “Mr. President, I’m not disenfranchising them, you and your government are. Here’s the official protest form.”

              President Booker waits until the General leaves his office before he balls up the protest form and throws it away thinking,
We’re screwed. There’s no way we’re going to win this election. The damn Smith’s sealed our fate when they snuck out and took their bullshit case on television. I hate them. I swear if they cost me my position of president for life I will get them, I’ll kill all four of them.

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              President Rand looks over to Vice President Brownstone, “It looks like we’re going to win.”

              “That’s when the real work begins. We’re going to have to undo all of the damage the damn LSA did in the previous twelve years. I’ve been thinking that maybe we should set up an area for the hardcore progressives to live. Someplace they can live among like-minded people, where hopefully they won’t screw with others. We can even give them some independent self-government.”

              “Sort of mini LSA inside the USA?”

              “That’s exactly what I’m thinking. We offer them a sort of self-governing, something similar to what the American Indians have. A progressive reservation.”

              “Rod, that’s a very interesting idea, I’m going to check with the AG to see if he thinks we can get away with it.”

              “We’ll know tomorrow, the voting booths open at 7AM EST. The Council of Fifteen are in place at every voting location in both countries.”

              “I didn’t like another military, security force in our country, I know we had to accept it if we demanded the LSA accept the security forces.”

              “At least across in the USA, they are staying inside the voting locations. In the LSA, they are checking the area in a one-mile circle around the booths. By the way, did you get a chance to see the report that the New Russian Federation wants to join the Council of the Fifteen, making it the Council of the Sixteen?”

              “I saw that, I’m impressed. I think it’s a good idea to sponsor their membership. Maybe the Marshal is serious about better relations with the world.”

              “After our strike, they can’t cause too much trouble. We declawed them.”

              “Yes, and we’re paying them for the damage.”

              “Less expensive than rebuilding after a nuke war.”

              “Paul, what’s the latest estimate of the cost to reunite the country?”

              “Counting paying the LSA’s debt?”

              “Of course.”

              “I guess it’s going to come our around $6.6 trillion.”

              “Holy Christ, how much money did they spend? What did they spend it on?”

              “Rod, they paid off everyone, they paid seventy-five percent of their country to sit home, they financed all of those factories they built. They borrowed a little over $5trillion. It’s going to take us ten years to pay off the debt and put our country back together.”

              Rod nods saying, “Reminds me of what the West Germans must have felt on the eve of their unification with the East. $6.6 trillion, I really hope they’re worth it. I’ll see you in the morning. I’m calling it a night.”

              “Me too.”

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              Election Day dawned across both countries. Security was in place ensuring people didn’t vote twice, they also ensured there was no pressure or threats against anyone voting. The early returns reflect the election is going to set a record for high voter turn out. Lines of people wait up to three hours to vote. Security had to break up a few incidents in the LSA. Commercials run every ten minutes reminding people to vote, in the LSA they try to sway people’s vote to encourage keeping the LSA. While in the USA a reporter for the WOLF News Network breaks the story that the USA is considering creating a progressive area within the USA with their own self-government, something similar to Indian Reservations. Greta and Bob Beckle debate the issue back and forth, Bob says it’s insulting to the people in the LSA, Greta says she thinks it’s an interesting idea that should be further investigated as it might offer a way for both sides to live together.

              Voting booths stay open until 9PM local time. The results would be broadcast Wednesday at noon EST. No news organization was supposed to break the results until the Chairman of the Council of the Fifteen, this year the Prime Minister of the UK, took to the air to make the announcement. Vegas gave odds that the country would reunite at 2 to 1. President Booker gave interviews saying he knew in his bones the election would show the LSA is alive and well.

Wednesday at noon, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom took the podium in London; he looked into the hundreds of cameras, he smiled saying, “Good afternoon, we have counted the ballots from all of the voting locations in both the USA and LSA. We can now say with 99% certainty that the votes break down as follows, those for an independent LSA were 66 million, those for a unified USA were 126 million. The Council of the Fifteen, which is expanding with the inclusion of the Russian Federation to Sixteen countries, is happy to certify and announce the people of North America have voted to unite under the flag of the United States of America. Per the accord that was agreed to before the election, the USA will hold national elections for all members of the House, Senate and the office of President this November. We will be issuing a detailed list of the vote county by county after my brief remarks. Thank you.”

              The Prime Minister left the stage to a round of applause from those in the audience.

              President Booker is throwing items around his office. “That’s it, we’re done. I can’t believe these stupid sheep voted to reunite. They’re all assholes. I hate them. He picks up his phone, “Leh, before we’re out of office I want you to arrange for the Smiths to disappear. They destroyed our dream of a progressive nation.”

              “Mr. President, I don’t think that’s a good idea. They’re being protected by the secret service. If we get caught going after them, we won’t live long enough to enjoy retirement.”

              “Leh, I don’t want to retire, I want to run the country.”

              “You can always run for President, remember part of the agreement is if we reunited, the USA would hold elections in November for every office. Every Senator, House member and the President, and Vice President will be elected. You have enough money hidden away, make a run for office.”

              “Even if I won, they have rules of how far I can rule or what I can do. It’s not like here where we didn’t have checks and balances. I guess we ought to pack and disappear before their damn FBI arrives to arrest us.”

              “Good idea.”

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              President Rand and Vice President Brownstone invite President Booker to attend a single press conference where the reunification will be discussed. President Booker replies with his approval. He says he’ll fly to Washington, D.C. President Rand turns to his VP and friend, ”Rod, he’s up to something. He’s being much too agreeable. Do you have any idea what his agenda is?”

              “If I had to guess, I’d say he’ll want to explore the separate progressive area where he’ll want to be governor. Have you thought about where you will be the progressive state?”

              “I was thinking of the West Coast, most of them will be able to stay where they are, we’re going to have to assist those who want to move. We’re also going to have to deal with New York City. Boston will come around, I don’t think anything will alter those in New York City.”

              “Rod, I plan to run for office in the new elections, I’d be honored to have you on the ticket.”

              “Paul, are you sure I’m the best choice?”

              “Yes.”

              “In that case, I accept.”

Chapter 39

                Both countries shared a sense of excitement, the “Great Experiment” of 2015 was coming to an end after twelve years. The list of unknowns was longer than anyone had thought about. The known constants were, the common currency was going to be the USA dollar, the LSA dollar will be exchanged for US dollars at a rate of one for one, giving the LSA population a bonus. Companies that moved or started in the LSA will be allowed to join the USA stock exchange once they submitted the required forms to the SEC. One of the biggest changes is in the schools. USA schools will begin teaching the creation of the LSA and the foundation of the progressive party. In the LSA, students are going to be taught history per the USA agenda, common core is to be phased out within one year, which was going to cause issues with how math is taught in the LSA areas. Students in the LSA were going to be confused for the first couple of years after the unification. Consumers in the LSA were able to purchase the appliances and cars/trucks that are sold in the USA, global warming rules are completely overturned. The DepLIES was phased out; after passing a series of tests some of the agents are placed in local police departments. Some of the agents, who couldn't pass the tests, are placed in mental health care hospitals to see if they can be turned around, making them into constructive citizens. The cameras and microphones that spied on all of the LSA citizens are to be dismantled. The LSA utilities are merged with existing private companies. The LSA owned delivery services are merged with the USPS and UPS/FedEx depending on how the service operated in the LSA. The LSA social websites are sold to international websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. LSA Political prisoners are released. A few areas that are going to take the average LSA family time to adjust to are the freedom of food choices and the canceling of their ration ID system. The first few USA style supermarkets that opened in the LSA surprised the LSA families with the many choices and huge selection. Most had forgotten how it used to be. When some families entered the new Giant, the first supermarket to open in LA, they bought everything in sight fearing it was a trick and the food would disappear in a day. Household paper products like tissues and toilet paper flew off the shelves as quickly as they could be restocked, people waited in line while the stock boys and girls restocked the shelves, many times customers grabbed the packages before they were even placed on the shelves. People didn’t believe the signs that there was no shortage. They laughed knowing they’d been tricked with similar signs before.

A week after the election, the LA Convention Center hosted the first international auto show in twelve years,  people waited in lines for hours to get into the convention center. Three weeks later, the Consumer Electronics Show decided to open two days for the general public, people waited in lines for an average of four hours to get into the show. The largest surprise was when the SHOT show decided to hold a guns and shooting show in LA, New York City, and Chicago, all three shows had to close a day early due to the complete sell out of their vendor’s inventory. No one expected the tables and shelves to be cleared off in less than 36 hours. People waiting in line that were turned away were upset until they were offered a free pass and a discount coupon for a follow-up show planned to open in three weeks.

The LSA typical family had forgotten about the choices taken for granted in the USA. A side effect of these choices was a jump in the number of cases of depression. Mental health offices are swamped with people needing help. It was too much for many to accept in such a short time. The third most difficult issue for the people in the LSA to accept was the change at their workplace. They learned being a member of the union was optional, (union membership dropped from 100% to 22% in the first 30 days, the unions filed suit to block the change.) Some companies were sold or merged into others. Some people lost their job; however, there was an agreement that any who lost their jobs on either side of the divide, were assured a new job would be offered to them for a period of at least four years.

              Students in colleges are shocked to learn the pass/no grade (no one failed in LSA schools) grading system was overturned and replaced with letter grades of A, B, C, D and F or fail. Students protested they had to complete class assignments on time and they had to be written in proper English. Grade school and high school students quickly learned that separate restrooms replace the coed ones. They also learned, like their older brother and sisters that not everyone passed or was promoted. Nor were awards given for trying. Sports teams played to win, not to a draw.