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Constitutional Convention of 2022
by
Kevin O'Kane
Copyright 2014 by Kevin O’Kane
This is a work of fiction. The events, characters and settings are imaginary and are not intended to represent actual places, events or persons. Any similarity is wholly coincidental.
The author may be contacted at:
[email protected] Other books by this author:
Omaha
The Mumps Programming Language
Basic IBM Mainframe Assembly Language Programming
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Article V
The Congress ... on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which ... shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof …
United States Constitution
Prelude
In 2014 and 2015, by executive order, the southern border of the United States was opened to all who wanted to cross. Tens of millions of undocumented immigrants took advantage of this opportunity and passed freely into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California.
It was border patrol policy, by executive order, to disperse them as quickly as possible throughout the country. In practice, this meant dumping them into urban ghettos nationwide.
Soon there were teeming communities of impoverished immigrants living on the streets, in box cars, under bridges, in abandoned buildings and homeless shelters throughout the country. Local welfare systems were overwhelmed. Crime skyrocketed. Gentrified urban condo dwelling progressive elites fled to the suburbs. Cities became war zones divided among competing drug gangs.
Initially, the public health system detected only a few cases but soon many more. After many years in remission, tuberculosis was suddenly epidemic again. But this time it was drug resistant. Soon there were urban epidemics of hepatitis and typhoid as well.
Then the nightmare.
A highly contagious newly mutated strain of ebola was detected, almost simultaneously, in New York, Boston, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Los Angeles. In the crowded urban slums it spread rapidly and soon was ravaging every major city in the country. The health care system was incapable of dealing with the crisis.
Within weeks the death toll was staggering. Entire cities were quarantined by the military.
Soon, from former urban ballparks and playgrounds, billows of black smoke rose by day and night as the corpses of the dead were burned by the thousands. America looked like Medieval Europe in a time of plague.
Eventually, the ebola epidemic was contained to only a few hot spots. It was gradually eliminated but the final death toll was over five million.
On the other hand, while the typhoid outbreaks were likewise contained, the hepatitis and tuberculosis epidemics raged on.
Nearly ten million people had contracted one or the other. Both of these incurable diseases were still spreading.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Time: 1:00 AM
No one expected it to be a good night. Most, in fact, knew it would be very bad. But this is worse than anything anyone predicted. This changes everything.
The small crowd still lingering in the ballroom of Washington's elegant Hotel Vendome is thinning out. Only a few clusters of people mill about the otherwise empty room, commiserating with each other about the night's results. The TV announcers finished their wrap-ups hours ago and the camera crews are packing up the last of the gear.
A few balloons roll aimlessly around the floor which is strewn with paper, napkins, confetti, and crushed plastic cups. Waiters stand idly along the wall making occasional wisecracks to one another about the events of the night. A large projection screen on the stage shows color bars. Some tinny music can be heard over the PA system.
Senator Hillary DeWitt of Rhode Island, her political advisor Shane Bader, Bob Cutter, CEO of Inter Continental Network, and George Salazar, billionaire hedge fund operator and notorious currency speculator, are huddled at a round table covered with a stained white cloth and littered with ash trays, crushed cups, napkins and a few half eaten plates of hors d'oeuvres.
Senator DeWitt is a jellied woman, well past her prime. She is the product of an orthodox ultra left wing education at some very expensive schools. Initially, she languished teaching law at a backwater state school in the Midwest.
But her career quickly blossomed when she checked the right box on an employment application to a prestigious northeastern university. Despite the fact her only contact with Hispanic culture was an occasional fast food breakfast burrito, after she checked Hispanic, previously closed doors quickly opened.
She cultivated all the right political connections and, in short order, she was appointed senator after the untimely death of the lush who had occupied the seat for nearly fifty years. Since Rhode Island is a one party state, her subsequent election to a full term was a foregone conclusion.
After her elevation as Rhode Island's first blond, blue-eyed Hispanic senator of impeccable German ancestry, she made millions in the futures markets with the help and advice of George Salazar who became both her political and financial mentor.
Bader is a pasty, fat, bald man usually attired in ill fitting baggy clothes. He reminds people of Peter Lorre but without the charm. He fixes elections and handles the darker side of politics, for a fee, for a fee. His ethics are flexible.
Salazar is an oily money man. He buys things and people. He represents DeWitt's Wall Street friends, of whom she has many. DeWitt's fair share program will, if enacted, mean monopoly profits for him and his cronies. He donates millions to the party in gratitude.
George Cutter represents the print and broadcast media. These are mainly conglomerates whose many non-media divisions individually and collectively have massive contracts and dealings with the federal government. During the housing meltdown, Intercontinental had to be rescued from bankruptcy because its consumer finance division was up to its eye balls in non-performing sub-prime loans. Consequently, he makes sure that what gets written and broadcast pleases his government patrons.
"Well, George, I expect you made a killing on the market tonight, as usual, while the rest of us got killed," snarls Hillary.
"Now, I think we all saw this coming. No sense not taking advantage of the obvious. That's what options are for, as you well know," replies Salazar.
"Bad yes, but no one saw this," moans Cutter. "Our polling unit never thought it would be this much of a disaster. Never!"
"Really? You didn't see this coming?" says DeWitt sarcastically. "How the fuck could you miss it?"
"We thought people had calmed down. Things have improved in the past year," says Cutter. "Our analysis said that people wouldn't really blame the open borders policy. I guess we underestimated public sentiment."
"Underestimated? Five million bodies burning in open pits and you didn't think anyone would notice? And the TB and hepatitis epidemics? And you didn't think people would blame the pot head in chief and his party?"
"It's beginning to abate. It wasn't all his fault. He just wanted to help people. There are some new experimental drugs that seem to be work
ing."
"Well, people, there's nothing we can do about it now. The question is, where do we go from here?" says Hillary as she turns towards Bader.
"Well, for the Democrat Party, there aren't many options, as I see it. We lost 45 states, nearly 400 House seats, and almost every governorship and state legislature in the country. Total wipe out. Basically, the Whig party was better off after the election of 1856."
"You mean, out of business?"
"Correct. You can fix broken but you can't fix this mess. We blew it and there's no going back."
"Well, we have that narcissistic moron in the White House to thank. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to let that incompetent screw the crap out of everything? What were we thinking?" says Hillary.
"Well the rest of his political zoo didn't help things much either," mutters Salazar.
"Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem," says Bader. "Sometimes they bounce back."
"Bounce? Ha! We'd need a moon shot to get out of this hole," laughs Hillary.
"Well, maybe not. But think of it this way, none of this is our problem any more. It's all the Republican's problem now. And things are not going to get any better in the near term, probably a whole lot worse. In reality, would you seriously want to be in Whitman's shoes? Just look at things. The economy is in shambles and getting worse, inflation is out of control and the Fed is still printing money like confetti!"
"True."
"And we still control the Senate. His