WASHINGTON, D.C. - Anyone in Washington who once viewed themselves as untouchable was now operating in fear for their political fortunes, the tables had completely turned against them. The loss of the monopoly would rapidly change the face of the Democrat Party and for a very long, long time.
The judicial system offered some hope for President Martinez and his party, but the courts were not completely under his party’s control. The District Courts in the northeast could be counted on to decide in favor of the President’s illegal action. Going for Martinez were his political hack, the Attorney General, who began the efforts and helped the Democrats succeed in getting a temporary suspension of the election.
Republicans in Congress stood their ground and contested the judicial decision of the lower court, taking their case to the Circuit Courts. The President called upon his supporters to march on the Capitol while the Attorney General prepared to take the President's case to the Supreme Court.
Mobs descended upon Washington overwhelming the small body of police who broke lines with their union. The President refused to call out the national guard when the museums of the Smithsonian Institute were ransacked and national treasures spirited away by the agitators. Congress was about to cave into the President’s demands when anarchy was just averted by the public outcry from other Americans, the orthodox majority!
Enraged by the audio recordings that went viral on the internet, the treachery of Martinez and his administration were there for all to hear. Collusion between the Democrat leadership and people the public had never heard of before: Donald Abraham, Jason R. Simon and Shmuel D. Weisser. The secret was out!
The call for impeachment and investigations of the exposed collusion between news industry and leadership rose in the throats of Americans across the country. The majority was incensed by what they discovered and rose to shut down the radical minority. Center and center-right politicians responded uncharacteristically by holding to their position and not caving as they would have in the past. They had become emboldened by the less powerful and less vocal news media.
The Attorney General's efforts failed, the court's decision would come down along ideological lines, five to four. The Supreme Court had overturned the Fourth Circuit’s ruling...the November election would be held!
The President was forced to backtrack and attempted to redirect the nation's anger onto those countries suspected of carrying out the attacks. Martinez’s endeavors to characterize the attack as a strike on America failed...without support, he could no longer hold sway over the minds of a majority of Americans.
Polling before the election now heavily favored the opposition candidate, an Iraqi war veteran by the name of Colonel Maxwell H. Heston.
The counterculture mob of the recusants went missing in Washington. The all-too-familiar drumbeat of anarchy that had sent chills down the spines of moderate and conservative politicians alike went missing. The void was soon filled by mainstream Americans who descended upon Washington in the millions, toting signs like: “This is not Cuba,” “America is a Democracy,” “Out with the Dictator.”
The President, his administration, the Democrats in Congress saw the millions...fear began to strike the hearts of politicians who had never before had to hide. These demonstrators represented the core of the country and for the first time their voices were being heard. Those politicians who failed to heed the will of the majority did so at their own peril.
Martinez was horrified by what he had seen, his life now degenerated into a dysfunctional, irrational state where reason and judicious behavior did not exist. The President countered the only way he knew how, as a community organizer, by inciting the mob. Martinez traveled about the nation to historically mutinous enclaves hoping to foment the unrest and turmoil formerly delivered by the news media establishment. Martinez would succeed, and states of chaos reigned in parts of America, fueled by a man who excelled at provoking violence, a vigilante who excelled at using the ‘race card.’
At first, the President’s attempts appeared to be working as tens of thousands of what can only be described as anarchists were worked up into a frenzy. That rabble then descended on various parts of the country on buses paid for by the President’s political party. Traveling to political hotspots they were there to dissuade normal Americans from voting in opposition to the President. The threats of violence and destruction at the outset worked, but then something began to happen. The President's supporters began to fade away.
The former news media was not there to continue to fuel their anger, to incite violence...the activists found they needed to return to their ordinary lives. The agitators had apartments to pay for, children to raise, occupations to go back to as the President's money began to run out. The megaphone the Democrats possessed to maintain their power was now gone.
The result was a national election that was a sweeping landslide for the Republicans. Martinez was out, most of the ultraist politicians...out, but the President still had two months to tear things asunder. Martinez was convinced he still had one more card to play...he was in the process of implementing his mad scheme, but by now, the President had become so unglued, Congress decided to step in and stop him before he played his final card...Race riots.
In an Emergency Session, the Democrat-controlled Congress took the unprecedented step of removing Martinez from the Office of the President, as were the Senate and House leadership. The Vice President replaced Martinez before he could cause any further damage to the nation. Margaret Evenson would become the shortest serving President of the United States, remaining in office only long enough to turn over the reins to the newly elected President, Max H. Heston.
The revolutionary movement in America fell like a house of cards. The one-day attack upon the American news industry not only had a devastating effect in the short term, it had far reaching consequences. The familiar faces of the once-powerful, news monopoly were gone as were some of the best minds in the industry. The President and his party, carried to power by the media, now discovered their positions exposed. People were beginning to find out the truth about what the Democrats had been doing.
The papers went missing from the racks and front doors. The editorial columns, the lopsided polls went unreported. The news monopoly was no longer around to neutralize the orthodox majority. Talk radio, and the internet took on more importance. Conservatism was on an equal footing in every market across the country...the old cartel was gone!
Wall Street initially responded to the attacks, but soon rebounded, and the depression the academians prophesied not once happened. With the media establishment largely missing, there would be some time before Democrats returned to power, which meant the economic future of the nation looked bright.
Martinez's term spawned a new political movement, the "Tea Party," that voted out the moderates.
Cries could be heard from the liberal bastions, the echoes of which swept around the entire world.
News media bias in the United States, the systematic representation of one point of view, went missing. So did their ability to create conditions that led to class warfare and favorable treatment of Karl Marx's theories. The collusion that came from reporting only those news events that supported recusant positions, likewise, went missing. The ability the press once possessed to move independent and moderate voters into the Democrat camp disappeared. The days where the party had everything laid out for them on a platter were over.
The news people that remained from the old establishment, those that had entered journalism so they could change the world, those that operated by the motto, “Don’t let the facts stand in the way," went unemployed. As a result their cover-ups for a political party went missing and a new kind of reporting emerged...true, investigative journalism that exposed Martinez and his party of trying to implement Cloward and Piven. Martinez was exposed for the socialist he was, and he was no longer able to hide who he was from the public since the power of the old media cartel no longer exist
ed.
The newsrooms and the caucuses oriented around gender, race, and ethnicity, went missing. Despite the rhetoric of the past, voters now began to move to the center and right as economic conditions improved, higher-paying jobs became more plentiful and living conditions rose.
The publishers were not so lucky; they were dealt a massive blow. The infrastructure existed, but it was hopelessly contaminated by a chemical agent of undetermined longevity...and the minds, the minds behind the operations were gone. The costs to rebuild would prove too much for the cash-strapped families and unless helped, they would become a part of history.
During the closing months of Democrat power, the party endeavored to save their allies, but the passage of a bailout bill failed by just a handful of votes...the discontent of constituents voices was now being heard by politicians. The Democrats’ next attempt was to enact legislation that mandated insurance companies cover the damages, but Martinez's declaration that a “State of War” existed worked to the advantage of the insurance industry. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the insurance companies, again along party lines reaffirming the defendants were not liable for losses resulting from “Acts of War.”
To the politicians on both sides of the aisle, the voices of the people were now heard. The politicians knew they no longer had the shelter they once relied upon. There would now be no place to hide come election time.
The one consolation for the old media came in the guise of a national holiday, the day called “Journalism Day.” History would record that the heinous acts of that day would forever change the nature of the American news industry. Those that fell included some of the biggest names in the media world, their names would be preserved in the so-called "Freedom Wall" memorial where the epitaph read:
In honor of those souls who died in the name of freedom of speech.
----------
The control over the news industry by a handful of publishers went all of a sudden missing. Most news organizations had at no time considered themselves vulnerable to anything, least of all, acts of violence. They gained this unfounded view of omnipotence by the century-long period in which they were insulated from legal attacks faced by everyone else in the private sector. The profits they created had not gone to insure their operations from catastrophes, but instead were used to pay for the opulent lifestyles of America’s former Royalty.
Most on ‘the left,’ including the unions, the judiciary, the education system hoped for a quick recovery. They were sorely mistaken as the news families were forced into receivership. Their holdings, once worth hundreds of millions, were made worthless overnight. The publishers of the old news media would never fully recover from the attacks of that September day.
The scope of the damage that was done became clear very quickly. The infrastructure that remained was contaminated and would cost hundreds of millions to replace. Hard assets like the monuments of the publishing dynasties, the skyscrapers for the armies of so-called journalists. The enormous printing facilities, which housed the massive printing presses were likewise, toxic. Neither the CDC, nor Russia, knew how long the nerve agent would persist as an invisible killing film that covered the surfaces of everything.
The network and cable news industry faced an identical fate. Their studios, the buildings, the working habitat for the old media establishment were made valueless, dangerous beyond repair. Suddenly, the cost of doing business for the once, ‘all powerful’ media establishment had become prohibitive.
The most powerful of messages had being delivered, but by whom? One group was convinced Arab ties played a significant part in a genocidal act, one that paralleled the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism and Jewish ownership of most of the news establishment was believed the root cause. Another outspoken group was convinced the attacks were a product of homegrown terrorists, and perhaps, the Tea Party.
Following the attacks, messages began to mysteriously appear at the premises of the remaining news establishment. One missive was scribbled with pronouncement, "Deliver a just service, or forever live in fear." Another communiqué stated something almost identical, "Provide factual coverage of events, or face similar consequences."
As the news establishment lost its nerve, their views on current events began to lose their viciousness. The unsigned commentary of editorials reflecting the collective position of the news services, likewise, became less virulent. Thousands of journalists would leave the ranks as pay packages became ever smaller to help defray the costs of keeping them safe. With time, the fifty-thousand strong press pool of old would fall by two-thirds. During the blackout that followed the media establishment's absence, a new kind of news company emerged. Any news company run by traditionalists then rapidly became the source Americans turned to and then there was Magnason Enterprise News Network.
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President Heston was sworn into office and things began to quickly change. The main focus of the country was changed from one of looking to government for all the answers, to letting people remain in charge of their lives and property. Social programs that were said to be necessary to guarantee equality of opportunity, equal education, access to healthcare and welfare checks would either be paired back, or required recipients actively engage in productive acts.
The government programs that no longer served a purpose, and instead, became political machines, would be dismantled, or see their budgets dramatically cut. The Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency would be the first departments scaled back. Along with their billions cut from the budget, Congress and President Heston eliminated most of the economy-restricting regulations they created over the years.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be privatized as would the auto manufacturers formerly owned by Washington. Those institutions would now have to stand on their own, or fail. Funding for activist groups like ACORN would no longer be the responsibility of American taxpayers.
The issue of "Same Sex Marriage" disappeared from public discourse. The same was true for the voice of militant environmentalists. Global Warming disappeared, and groups like the Sierra Club and Green Peace lost their clout in the Capitol.
Federal laws preventing oil and gas exploration and production were discarded. The artificially inflated costs of living, fuel prices, electric utility bills, the price of food, disappeared. Capitalism was again, allowed to work and people's lives improved.
Tort Reform was given the voice it needed in Washington and passed into law. By reining in the exorbitant judgments awarded to trial lawyers, premiums for insurance and healthcare became affordable. The number of frivolous lawsuits fell.
The healthcare law was scrapped and the artificial barriers created by states for insurance policies discarded. Americans could now shop across state lines for the kind of coverage and options they wanted, not those mandated by unseen bureaucrats. The increased competition lowered premiums as the Law of Supply and Demand was allowed to prevail.
Many Democrat programs lost taxpayer subsidies. Government regulations on ethanol, unrealistic mileage requirements, tax breaks for the "Green Industry" were discarded and a free market was allowed to exist. The industries who relied upon taxpayer dollars for their survival disappeared.
Personal income taxes fell and the American economy began to rapidly expand. Unemployment rapidly fell as the standard of living for all grew. Prosperity returned to the nation.
The American public became informed, they now read, heard and learned the other side of the capitalist story. Economics, politics, the culture of the nation were all now vetted from an unbiased vantage point. The seventy-seven percent of Americans who identified themselves as traditionalists would now have access to the facts. The days where ordinary citizens were duped into believing extremist ideas were gone.
The irrational world of radicalization began to fade. Their efforts to take the former, Republican President and his party down with charges of war crimes backfired. Their
plans resulted in the creation of their worst nightmare, and an enemy that ultimately caused their demise.
Then there was President Heston's actions to close the Internet Regulatory Agency. The regulations preventing MENN from succeeding were gone! Magnason Enterprise News Network would become a colossal success. People from around America quickly subscribed in numbers that exceeded all expectations. MENN would turn out to be the final nail in the coffin of ultraist control over the American people.
The regulatory barriers the old media establishment once relied upon to keep competition out, were now history. Those in the old media that survived, now found their brick and mortar operations and unionized workforce very expensive. For many, the costs to maintain both were too high and resulted in the demise of either the union, or the company. Industry consolidation that was now a 180-degree shift from the one that occurred in the early twentieth century.
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DARIEN, GA - Dr. Victor Magnason could now rest in peace, content in the knowledge that he helped orchestrate one of the greatest upheavals in American history and saved the country from an uncertain fate. American history was filled with the names of unsung heroes. Those who fought and died for their nation.
The war Victor fought was one of ideas and a way of life. The war he fought was one no one was convinced was happening. He had seen it and won. Truth and justice would return to the American people. Journalism would serve the purpose the founders had in mind when they created the First Amendment. Missing the rhetoric and propaganda of the old media, each side of the political spectrum would become more willing to work together. To do what was best for America and its citizens. To do what was best for the future of its children.
America would not yet succumb to the same fate that had befallen other great nations. Instead, it would continue to give the world that “shining light upon a hill.” A guidepost to a better place. To a better existence. To a better planet.
The former SAD Director stood next to the fresh mound of dirt. He had watched from afar until the others had left. It was a small Georgia cemetery with a hundred, or so headstones. Most of those attending the small funeral had shed no tears, no open grief for the loss of the man. Derrick stood for few moments next to the grave, understanding what Victor and he had accomplished. The gravestone in front of them read:
Dr. Victor R. Magnason
Born December 27, 1955
Died June 27, 2016
I have done my part
Derrick turned about when he heard a car approaching up the gravel road. A lone man in a business suit exited the sedan and approached.
"Director Mitchum?”
“Yes, I’m Mitchum.”
“Dr. Magnason wanted me to see that you got this." The stranger handed him a brown leather attaché case. “It is a token of his appreciation.”
The stranger turned back to his car and walked away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Former software executive turned fiction writer, Frank graduated in the late seventies and went to work for NCR in minicomputer sales, then moved into personal computers where he remained for the next ten years. In the early nineties the author left the hardware side of the business for software. Shortly after the ‘dot.com’ bubble burst, Frank with his wife and infant daughter returned to his home state of Florida. Besides typing away on a Macbook Air, Frank spends his time as the family chauffeur, gofer and biggest fan of both daughter and wife.
Frank’s writing style reflects his business experience and traditionalist outlook on life. Frank writes to a niche of like-minded readers who need an outlet for escaping today’s really troubling times. The topics and plots are intended to be provocative, in some cases humorous, wishful and thought-provoking.
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
WTF! This is a Liberal Utopia! (Satire)
BamaOay the Barbarian (Satire)
CONNECT WITH AUTHOR
Personal blog: https://www.fbthompson3.com
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/fbthompson3
Satire blog: https://idiocracy.me
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