Secretary Austin and General Connor had remained absolutely silent during this exchange, as had the three men with Joyce Jefferson. Now President Snow turned to Austin. “Mr. Secretary, in light of our prior meeting, I guess that old saying is true-when it rains, it pours?”
“That, sir, is an understatement,” Austin replied.
Chapter 14
Capital Mall
Sacramento, California
March
Walter Dewhirst, governor of California, stood on the same west-facing steps where he had stood only six months earlier when he had formally announced the formation of the independent Republic of California and called for international recognition. The result that day had been nearly a dozen deaths from rifle fire between the 82 ^nd Airborne Division, which had been inserted by the president, and the California State Military Reserve, which had been formed from the former California National Guard and California Highway Patrol. More accurately stated, it was the public’s perception that the shots had originated from those sources.
The actual shots had initially come from several well-placed members of the Shasta Brigade, a northern California militia group that had been instructed to turn the insertion of federal troops-essentially martial law-into an open battle. The fire-fight had lasted less than ninety seconds before the president was on the phone to the 82 ^nd commander, telling him to immediately withdraw his troops.
Today, standing on the same steps, behind the same podium, stood many of the same characters: California Governor Walter Dewhirst, Assemblyman Daniel Rawlings, and General Robert Del Valle, Adjutant General for the State of California, who had already announced his retirement, originally scheduled for July, as being effective May 1 ^st,
New attendees included Joyce Jefferson, former governor of Arizona, Donald Tompkins, attorney general for Utah, Harry Phillips, mayor of Eugene, Oregon, and about fifty other elected officials from every state west of the Mississippi River. Today was the day for the big unveiling. The Republic of Western America was about to be born, or, more factually, the conception and gestation period was about to be announced. Originally planned for Las Vegas, the public announcement had been changed to California in honor of the Golden State’s position as first in line to secede.
As with other significant political announcements, the news media had been relentless in their quest to scoop the story and to publicly proclaim the event, including details, well before the official announcement. The evening before, Glenn Beck had made the historical pronouncement the highlight of his show, bringing three leading elected officials, one each from New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana, as guests on his show. These officials, two men and one woman, confirmed that many states west of the Mississippi River had aligned with California in their desire to sever relations with the United States of America.
“Why choose separation from the United States?” Beck asked. “Why not work from within?”
“You of all people should know the answer to that, Glenn. Your chalk board talks have iterated most of our primary points over the past couple of years. Look,” the majority leader from the Montana legislature said, “We want to return to an earlier America, where principles meant more than they do today, when they were not fleeting, based on the emotion of the moment. We use the old anecdotes about a contract being just a shake of the hand, someone’s word being worth gold in the bank. Those are fallacious on their own merit, although I believe such people existed, perhaps even exist today. But most of the change that has come to America-philosophical change, I mean, not planes instead of horses, or electricity instead of wood stoves-has diminished our freedom to act as we choose. The federal government-and states are not immune to this overburdening quest for power, either-has inserted itself into all aspects of the human condition. In a misguided attempt to foster good health, they regulate how much fat can be in food, how much salt restaurants can serve, and how much exercise our children should have. But this is the same government that continues to subsidize the tobacco farmer, to permit ‘medical’ use of marijuana. There is no rhyme or reason to their actions. They are all taken in self-interest. Which corporate entity contributes the most is the driving force behind many of their decisions. We want to start over, Glenn, to restore our basic freedom. And that means the freedom to fail, for the individual farmer, for the small business entrepreneur, and the right to tell the guy who hasn’t had a job in fifteen years, one who isn’t disabled, that it’s time to get off the gravy train. But it also means the right to fail for the banker who invests our money unwisely and still wants his profit margin when he loses, and for the labor union who forces wages and benefits so high that their industry can’t compete on the international market. We’ve had enough of the “privatize gain and socialize loss’ philosophy.”
“So,” the host said, leaning toward the table and speaking directly into the camera, “I could not have predicted that this might be the result, but America is on the verge of division… yet again. Hopefully, if this action, this national divorce takes place, it will be accomplished peacefully and without the need for military intervention. We do not want another Civil War,” Beck added.
In his closing remarks, Beck summarized that during the prior six months, a small, growing populist unease had expanded and the proposed formation of the Republic of California had grown to become the Republic of Western America, or would become such, as soon as the various states’ voters approved the national referendum, set for Tuesday, November 5 ^th, 2013. For the states which were in agreement, the Montana spokesman said, the new nation would become effective January 1 ^st, 2015.
Today, in Sacramento, the first step was becoming reality. As hordes of reporters, television cameras, and dozens of legislative officials seeking to climb on the bandwagon convened on the steps of the Sacramento Capitol, Governor Dewhirst stood behind the lectern, with Joyce Jefferson to one side and Daniel Rawlings to the other.
Rawlings was in just as much awe as the legislators that had appeared on the Glenn Beck show. A year earlier, he had been the county administrator in Yolo County, immediately northwest of Sacramento. When the California secession was only political hyperbole, he had been opposed. A recent widower and new author- Voices in My Blood having become a national bestseller in the first few weeks after release-Dan had been elected to the California Assembly. He was then chosen by Governor Dewhirst and the Speaker of the California Assembly to draft the constitution for the proposed new Republic of California. He had also been coerced into serving with a presidential task force, headed by Colonel Pug Connor, to investigate the origins of the secessionist movement. Within the following year, he was part of the team that uncovered the election fraud, had fallen in love with and married the investigating officer, FBI agent Nicole Bentley, became a bestselling author, and, as demonstrated by his presence today, became a proponent of the secession. Reviewing all that had transpired during that year as he stood alongside former Arizona Governor Jefferson on the California capitol steps, he found it hard to believe. Then Governor Dewhirst began to speak.