Casing the Colors© Week 3

Dear readers, I'm posting the Saturday Week 3 of the book early today. I won't be available this weekend, but I'll be posting again on Monday evening. Have a great weekend, and watch out for April Fool's Day jokes -- this isn't one. • • • • • CASING THE COLORS : THE NEW AMERICAN REPUBLIC © by Casey Pops • • • CHAPTER 5 • American Agenda quickly attracted supporters from most of the power elites and special interest groups in the United States. They recognized the value of a Black American as President, especially one with Stuart Wellford's credentials and Supreme Court tested principles. He became the personification of America's compulsion to find a remedy for its failed racial policies and crumbling social order. But the job of molding a formal coalition was difficult, time-consuming work for an inner circle already scrambling to keep pace with national events. Kate Gordon labored almost exclusively for American Agenda, letting the associates in her New York law office take over client files while she stayed in Washington to meet with key target group leaders. Her goal was to bring in a half dozen Americans of such stature that the rest of America would begin to see Stuart Wellford not only as a presidential candidate but also as the leader of a serious new political party to be reckoned with. She made the rounds, meeting with corporate boards and national leaders of churches, charitable groups and civic organizations who, frustrated and afraid, were actually relieved to find a candidate with as much potential as Stuart Wellford. The phone calls and emails rolled in, slowly at first and then in an avalanche, as the social media took up the story of the power flow from President Harper to Stuart Wellford and his American Agenda. Americans of every persuasion joined the coalition, from business and civic leaders fed up with federal government economic and social bungling, to union members trying to survive the never-ending pressures from the third world, and small town churchgoers looking for something to believe in politically. Senior citizens responded enthusiastically. They were eager to man the phones and recruit for American Agenda, whose leaders were too young to remember the determination and patriotism of their parents, the generation that had fought wars in Europe and Asia while paying the bills for the Cold War that finally wrenched victory from the Soviets. The children of World War Two and Korea were proud Americans and they believed that they had found in Stuart Wellford and American Agenda a reason to show it. By the end of summer 2022, a working coalition was in place, ready to elect Stuart Wellford. The President squirmed in the media glare of the inevitable confrontation with the Republican Party that had elected him, but the thought of escaping the White House held him firmly in the American Agenda camp. Inside the coalition, a working team managed political affairs and coordinated citizen group activities. Generals Gordon and Bennett served as liaison between the White House and the military. Other insiders, along with Kate Gordon, were Attorney General George Morrison and Secretary of State William Stevens. Bill Stevens gave enormous credibility to the coalition. His tanned face and wavy gray hair were recognized worldwide. Tall, with an elegant bearing, his calm, reassuring presence made him a natural television-age diplomat, and his political skills, honed by forty years of service, often as a cabinet member in Republican administrations, were respected by his allies and feared by his adversaries. Dave Browning, a conservative mega-businessman who was one of Kate's best clients, was the insider who helped with financing and linked American Agenda to the powerful but poorly organized conservative elite in America. In fact, the only groups left behind seemed to be the Democratic and Republican Parties, clinging stubbornly to their failed rhetoric. The Republican Party National Chairman, in an effort to humiliate the President, demanded publicly that Kate Gordon resign as National Committeewoman for Pennsylvania. She called a press conference to denounce the action, calling it a shabby attempt to suppress the voice of a democratic people. Her vehement refusal to withdraw from the inner circle of the GOP forced the National Committee to summarily remove her. It was the stuff of CNN special reports and major newspaper headlines as the media got its teeth into the first hot news item to emerge from below the smooth surface of American Agenda. Meanwhile, Vice President Jack Wilson, ostracized by the new power block in the White House, ranged over America's heartland, preaching that domestic peace needed only superpower status and military superiority. Wilson had the Stars and Stripes always firmly wrapped around him. His campaign rhetoric dealt with rebellion and terrorism by invoking God and Country. It was a Madison Avenue campaign based on a 1960s vision of America. Jack Wilson wasn't an evil man. He was simply a product of his time and profession. American politics had become a dangerous melange of rightist bravado and moderate disengagement. It forced Jack Wilson, like every other GOP politician eager to hold elected office at the national level, to take the same litmus tests in order to receive the lifeline of party financing and support. So, Jack Wilson stood up on network TV to announce his position as an anti-abortionist and a believer in lower taxes and less welfare, even when he knew it would result in the social dislocation of Americans too poor or undereducated to fend for themselves. But he wanted to be elected, to win, to feel the exhilarating jolt of national recognition and all the perks it provided. Like most, he supported any proffered support by sacrificing almost any personal value. Finally, he was flimsy, his soul not strong enough to allow him to say what he thought, even if it meant a one-way ticket back to Kansas and the end of his Washington career. The Democrats responded predictably, dusting off a media favorite, a liberal congressman whose entire career consisted of unfailing support for organized labor and the Democratic Party. He counter-attacked Vice President Wilson's slick conservative jingoism with his own liberal version, where all good guys wore hard hats and drove pickup trucks, but without gun racks. His background explained his position. His father and all his family on both sides back through three generations were Union members with a capital U. He made up his mind to use politics as a way out of the blue collar ghetto and fought his way through the usual precinct battles, raising funds and driving voters to the polls for enough elections to finally be sponsored by a heavyweight mentor. That was twenty years ago and he never looked back. Like many of his Democratic congressional colleagues from big cities in the northeast, he had paid his party dues, kept his mouth shut and towed the party line, so much so that today he was one of the creators of the line and had his own trail of gophers eager to please him as their stepping stone to political success. It never occurred to him or his insider friends that they might use their good fortune to help America unite and heal its deepening social wounds. All he knew was that Blacks voted for Democratic candidates if the special programs and welfare money kept flowing, so he complied. While the two major party presidential hopefuls raced across the country, trying to beat each other to the TV cameras, many Americans turned to Stuart Wellford as the antidote for a predictably venomous campaign aimed at the 2024 presidential election. Stu Wellford painted both party's campaigns as puny-souled efforts to convince Americans to meet not on main street but in a dark alley where they could huddle together, impotent and frightened by the growing violence and loss of human dignity in a world where neither education nor hard work nor pride meant much. Stu Wellford hammered home the message that the parties were running scared, foisting on equally frightened voters the promise of a world that might last just long enough so that they and their constituents could retire and enjoy a few quiet years of golf and afternoon baseball before the lid blew off. Kate knew that in 2022 America was running on empty, fueling itself with hollow promises of a better future once the calendar rolled over to 2024. She also knew that the date on the final check would make no difference. The piper would be paid in the bitter currency of a violent rending of the national psyche. No one she knew seemed to care, except for the silent American public that had abandoned its franchise to Washington insiders and would ultimately get just what such an action deserved. So, Kate placed her hopes in the American Agenda, but even there she fully expected that Stu and Scott would finally collide over their personal political principles. She tried to mediate between them to prevent their different views from jeopardizing what she believed to be America's last opportunity. Kate was sure that Scott could take care of himself, just as her father had always done, by putting aside the niceties of theory to deal with reality, but Stu, beneath his sophisticated tastes and intellect, was a dreamer, whose world was driven by deeply felt ideals about equality and fairness and justice, and where practicality had little place. Could he, Kate wondered, deal with the national trauma that seemed to be the only means of saving those ideals for America. Could he find a way through the contradictions between his idealism and the practical need to forcefully rescue Black Americans living too close to inner city violence to walk their neighborhood streets or sleep peacefully. Finally, could American Agenda win against the odds and beat the politicians at their own game without becoming simply the next chapter of Insider Washington. Whatever the answers to these questions, Kate was certain that someone like Scott would have to rescue middle class America, watching it all on television, angry and helpless. All her experience told her that Stuart Wellford might provide the selfless and highminded backdrop, but Scott Bennett, the hardened soldier, the tactical expert and Special Ops commander would have to bolt their plan together and take it to the people. • • • CHAPTER 6 • American Agenda's inner circle braced for the November 2022 congressional elections. Stuart Wellford resigned from the Supreme Court during its summer recess to free himself to make the political speeches needed to deliver votes for American Agenda. His speeches were direct and simple, appealing to the sense of decency he knew was still alive in the hearts of most Americans. He called on them to join him in refusing to accept the inevitability of an America where a drug-ridden, armed underclass led by terrorists would fight an endless guerrilla war against the rest of the country. He described an America where all citizens would join together to heal the country. He reminded them of the great strengths of the nation, its enormous resources, its tradition of religious and political tolerance, its faith in a better future. He promised an America that would once again be strong and secure, but only if everyone joined in the effort. As Kate Gordon had predicted, Stu Wellford started late to have a chance to fundamentally change the election outcome, although some victorious candidates had inserted the words American Agenda into their speeches, more in the hope of capitalizing on Stu Wellford's popularity than as a sign of support for him. But, opinion polls suggested that something important was happening. They indicated that America was buying Stu Wellford's message. His personal popularity exceeded all expectations. The public felt safe with Wellford because he was mildly conservative, with the liberal edge of brotherhood and equal opportunity that matched their ideal view of themselves. America was re-creating Stuart Wellford in its own image because it was comfortable with him. The public had found an old-fashioned champion. His message gave Americans confidence in themselves and hope for the beloved country that they blamed politicians for destroying. That he was black and preached peace and brotherhood into the teeth of a broken and violent society didn't seem to matter. It didn't even matter that despite his huge personal popularity, nothing happened to eliminate fundamentalist terrorism, which continued, punctuated by occasional random bombs tossed into crowded shopping malls or restaurants. But, during a White House strategy meeting just before the 2022 midterms, Stu exploded in frustration. "What in God's name are we going to do?" he demanded. "When I talk about rebuilding America, everyone thinks I mean running off all the illegals. And, if I tell them it won't be that way, they'll find another hero to lead them where they want to go. We all know where that is - vigilante action in the name of patriotism." Secretary of State Stevens tried to calm Stu. "It will be different when American Agenda has its own candidates and the presidential race really gets underway," he assured Stu. "Do all of you think I'm an idiot?" Stu hissed. "I know what's happening and so do you. Let me tell you, if we don't get our agenda back to the center, we'll be remembered as the fools who let America fall to the hate purveyors and their pandering political allies." He sank into his chair, his anger lost in a wave of doubt. Kate had had similar conversations with Stu in private several times recently and it always ended with his angry frustration. She understood his dilemma. He wanted a clean break with the hypocritical past and wouldn't accept the idea that American Agenda, dedicated to national renewal and the eradication of class hatred and racism, could actually be helping to perpetuate an America divided by class and race. She was struggling as much as Stu to find the right answer...the right political mix. • The inner circle gathered in the White House to watch the 2022 congressional election results witnessed the expected conservative landslide. But, the advance warning given by their private exit polls had not prepared them for the size of the urban explosion that followed. South Philadelphia was the first urban area to go up in flames. Italian neighborhoods stood firm, with armed Ranger units to hold back rampaging black youths. The bodies of young black men, pipe bombs and Saturday night specials still in hand, began to pile up along tightly sealed neighborhood barricades. TV cameras thought they took it all in, but they didn't see General Scott Bennett give them the slip as he looked for wounded youngsters fallen along the barricades, kneeling to reassure them while he called in medics to attend to them and move them to hospitals. A horrified President Harper watched as Philadelphia resolved its race problems with armed Rangers and National Guard troops. "Get me General Bennett on the phone," he ordered an aide. "The General is in Philadelphia and the Pentagon can't reach him right now, Sir," the aide reported. "Can't reach him? I'm still the Commander-in-Chief. Tell the bastards to get me General Bennett. Now." Within seconds, a member of the Joint Chiefs was on the line to speak to General Gordon. "Jim, we can't produce General Bennett because, well, because frankly, he won't answer our calls. Tell the President the General is in a rapidly changing situation and is unable to handle any but the most immediate calls from his officers. I'll try to get through to him." As President Harper listened to General Gordon's military jargon, his fingers drummed nervously on his desk. He looked up contemptuously and muttered, "Shit." "General Bennett is planning to come to the White House as soon as he's satisfied with the troop situation, within the next twelve hours," General Gordon replied. Gordon ignored the President's anger, but his own head resonated with a special fury at the whole miserable clan of politicians represented by Carl Harper. Hardly the blood of patriots, he smirked inwardly. "Let's give General Bennett a chance," Stu said, trying to calm President Harper. "It's a goddamned shame when the Commander-in-Chief has to watch TV to find out what's going on in his own Army," Harper fumed, his six-foot frame slumping onto a sofa to stare at the TV coverage. The TV showed inner city ghettos all over the country exploding at the election message. Every conservative elected to Congress was baptized with the blood of innocent Americans randomly felled and left to bleed as Ranger units leapt past them in pursuit of the rioters. The White House group watching on television might have believed that America's problems could be solved without civil war. General Scott Bennett knew better. He has always known better. He called the riots by another name, rebellion against the authority of the United States government. He knew the cure would be painful and difficult to survive, but he also knew by instinct, training and experience that there was no choice. General Bennett's preparations had been well underway before election night. He had positioned Army troop and Ranger units near every major city with an active terrorist unit. He left Washington for Philadelphia by helicopter as the polls closed, and at the first report of gun fire, ge was waiting, wanting to be identified with the first Ranger success story. President Harper leaned toward the TV as a reporter looked out from the screen and shouted his enthusiasm for General Bennett. "General Scott Bennett is a master soldier," the excited newsman shouted. "He doesn't order his troops into danger, he leads them, patrolling the barricades, encouraging National Guard troops and Rangers, appealing to residents to go home and call him directly on his hot line." "Hot line," the President shouted. "Where the hell did a hot line come from? Did anyone know about this?" The others were as stunned as the President. TV cameras showed General Bennett standing beside the reporter, brandishing a portable phone. "Don't do anything to make our job harder," he pleaded. "Trust me. Call me. I promise to talk to you personally and to help you and your neighborhoods." • It was a Scott Bennett that some in the military would have recognized. He visited neighborhoods, gave interviews and encouraged the instant formation of community vigilante groups to support the Rangers and federal troops. In a matter of hours, General Bennett became the most familiar and popular figure in America. He repeated the pattern until early morning, hopping from city to city as the terrorists and their ghetto squads rioted through the night. "Bennett's Rangers," as they were quickly dubbed, were the symbol of American courage, fighting to save the country from its worst nightmare. The media followed him everywhere. The entire country watched transfixed as Army units and private vigilante groups fired on ghettos during what reporters could only describe as the worst moment in American history since April 12, 1861, when the shelling of Fort Sumter sounded the call to arms of the first American Civil War. Young Americans raised with the hyperbole of instant live coverage and social media expected to find things moving back to normal in a few hours, but their parents and grandparents had a queasy feeling, a collective knot in their stomachs, telling them that this was different, that the hour had come to pay the long-overdue bill. Most of them shared one conviction, that General Bennett had been created in that terrible night to lead America's definitive response to two generations of increasingly intolerable breaches of civil obedience. Gathering momentum as the night wore on, General Bennett appealed to wealthier suburban communities to join their middle class neighbors in organizing to protect themselves and their way of life. They responded to his challenge by forming ad hoc committees to help Bennett's Rangers. They wanted to believe. They wanted to be as tough as the General who walked the bloody streets without fear, pursuing terrorists and rebels with his crack troops. Scott Bennett always used the term rebel for the TV cameras. Anyone who rioted was a rebel to be hunted down and eliminated. His words sometimes fueled the racial fires already burning out of control in many American cities, but his real quarry was elsewhere. He firmly believed that it was terrorists, not young American blacks, who were the real and dangerous prey. As the night wore on, the America inside the ghettos gradually slid beyond the rule of law except when General Bennett won a skirmish. The other America, outside, was armed, with Rangers in place, waiting to shoot anyone who broke through the dividing wall. General Bennett stood, larger than life, between the two warring factions. • On election night 2022, General Gordon was fixed on the TV, watching Scott. As the unnerving night wore on, he paced alone at the back of the White House communications center, sometimes making phone calls, seeming to ignore events. But, Jim Gordon never ignored anything, especially when it concerned the military or the safety of the United States. As the stunned White House group silently contemplated the breakfast that had been brought in for them, Jim took the President's arm. "We need to talk about what's going on. I don't like it." The President rubbed his eyes and stretched wearily, his normally impeccable appearance had become a rumpled blue pinstripe suit and carelessly loosened silk tie at the collar of a wrinkled white shirt. "That makes two of us. General Bennett seems to be on a one-man train that's moving too fast for me." The President turned to an aide and motioned toward the buffet set up in the communications center. "Move us to a private room," he ordered. When they were settled at a table in one of the White House working rooms, General Gordon ran through his list of concerns about the events of the long, bloody night. "I've talked to the other members of the Joint Chiefs and the Attorney General. They're satisfied that General Bennett is acting within the broad scope of his orders to deal with the urban rioting. The Rangers are doing a good job in support of the Army. We haven't retaken any riot areas but we have been able to stabilize perimeters and keep the rebels inside them. However, it's not the military job I'm concerned about," General Gordon continued. "We simply cannot allow one of our senior officers to become a media star. That's not the military's role. Politicians deal with the media, thank God." "We need to make Scott understand that what he's doing is dangerous for the country," Kate said. "He probably doesn't realize how powerful his military image is on television." "Kate," Bill Stevens asked cynically, "do you really believe that General Bennett doesn't know what he's doing?" She played with the scrambled eggs on her plate and tried to answer honestly, glancing at her father. She felt uneasy with the TV image of Scott but she couldn't honestly say that she was dissatisfied with his night's work. "I think Scott is trying to get America through this with as little bloodshed as possible," she finally said. "He certainly knows better than most of us that if the terrorists and rebels gain momentum, we'll pay an enormous price in American lives when we finally have to stop them." General Gordon saw the perplexed expression in his daughter's eyes and interrupted to keep her from having to criticize Scott. "I trust that Kate is right," he said. "I've known General Bennett longer than any of you, long enough to know that he is a damn fine, a superior soldier. I've been in similar situations, always in some other part of the world. It's exhilarating to be the hero, to have people look at you as if you were God. It's even more exciting to be able to feed the popular adulation and build loyalty for a tough job. But, Scott knows he's walking a tightrope. We need his ability to marshal popular support for what's ahead. But, we need that support for a President and a political agenda, not for a military hero." "I agree with you, General Gordon," Stu Wellford said, missing the General's warning, "but this is an exceptional situation. The only thing America can see is that General Bennett is doing and saying the right things to keep their world from collapsing. If we try to restrain Scott, it will just make him more powerful. Let's play on his strengths. Let him be the lightning rod for an America so frightened that doesn't trust any politician. As we earn popular support for our political program, General Bennett will become less powerful. Americans trust the military to do the right thing and then disappear." "Stu, you've got something there," President Harper said, grateful for anyone's advice. "General Bennett has touched something important in the heart of America and we'd be fools to trample on it, just yet. I have every confidence, Stu, that you will replace him as the political leader we need. I say we get the presidential campaign rolling full steam right now. Let the country judge for itself." General Gordon looked from Stu to the President. He brusquely pushed back his chair and stood up. "Gentlemen," he began, facing the insipid man who was his Commander-in-Chief, "tonight you watched a military leader with a popular position and a flair for using it. We're damned lucky it's Scott Bennett. Some other hotshot general could be real trouble. I've watched them all over the world. They win a battle, become an instant hero and the country has a new president for life before anyone knows what the hell happened. Be advised. The military supports political parties. It doesn't make them, not here in America. Get yourselves in gear and find a way to pull the country together without depending on Scott Bennett. The United States is not immune to a military takeover." Everyone sat motionless, stung by the rebuke. "Jim," Stu Wellford finally said, trying to mollify him, "I understand what you're saying, but we need the military and we need General Bennett, even if we can't lean on either of them for too long." Stu's eyes worked the table for support. "We have to figure out how to use him for the American Agenda, before he learns how to use us." Everyone nodded in agreement and left the table quickly, to avoid another confrontation. Stu whispered to Kate. "Talk to Scott, will you? Try to make him understand how difficult he's making it for the rest of us." When they were once again assembled in the White House communications center, the President's chief of staff gave them an early morning briefing to summarize the election disaster. "The black areas of Philadelphia are reporting some buildings burning and random rifle and pistol shots," he said, "but Ranger units are in place between South Philadelphia and the center city to secure the ghetto perimeters. Hospitals are coping with the casualties. Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Atlanta report comparable situations." "We'd better get you out to inspect the damage," Stu said to the President, "a trip for later today, to show the flag and send the message that we're not afraid to confront the violence." "Will it be safe?" Harper asked fearfully. "No, it won't be absolutely safe," Stu replied, annoyed by the question, "but it's a hell of a lot safer than doing nothing." He turned back to the chief of staff, dismissing the President's indirect request to remain ensconced in the White House. "Find us one or two cities where it will be easy to protect the President, where we can arrange quick in and out visits between the airport and city hall. We'll use a television speech tonight to cover the rest of the country. Call the networks and set it up." The chief of staff nodded and started out, but he stopped at the door and turned to the group. "Oh yes," he remarked, "there is some looting and car smashing south of the Capitol but it's pretty tame stuff here in Washington. Local police have been able to handle it. And, for what it's worth, we have a Republican Congress with 250 seats and a Senate that's 75% Republican. Let's hear it for the guys who gave us tonight's show." Everyone laughed mirthlessly, acknowledging the irony of the GOP victory. "Stu," General Gordon ordered, "write the President's speech yourself. We'll set up a TV spot for you, too, in the next day or two. Something to counterbalance General Bennett, one of your 'trust me' speeches to put you into place alongside Scott with the media. While you're working here," he added, "I'll be at the Pentagon. I'm taking Kate with me. We'll be back by late morning."