Chapter 21

November would prove to be one of the most infamously momentous months in the history of the United States. The year’s hurricane season should have been drawing to a close. Instead, hurricane Valerie, after devastating the Cayman Islands, had slammed across Cuba and the Florida Keys. It was regaining strength as it hovered over the warm waters of the Gulf on a path that would take it directly across St. Petersburg. It had gone from a category four to a three after passing over Cuba. But it was predicted to regain its strength to category four again when it reached the west coast of Florida. Valerie was the fifth hurricane of the season and the third category four. In addition to marking the end of hurricane season, November was also presidential election month. Metaphorically speaking, there was also a political storm raging across the country.

The presidential candidates themselves had, at least initially, conducted themselves in a respectively civil manner. Especially when compared to the previous campaign which ushered in the, soon to be former, sitting POTUS. However, things erupted when the Republican candidate, by far the more conservative of the two, against his campaign advisors’ recommendations, dropped a political bombshell in October. For the last two decades, the country had wrestled with three politically and emotionally polarizing issues. Eking into first place was the questions surrounding the second amendment. The overwhelming majority of conservatives maintained it was their constitutional, if not God-given, right to purchase and carry virtually any type of firearm. This included what was generally referred to as assault rifles and even the mechanisms which could convert them into automatic weapons. The infamous “bump stock.” They also demanded the absolute minimum in government restrictions and registration requirements. Most liberals were lumped squarely on the other end of the continuum. They vocally maintained that it was never the founding father’s intention to do more than to provide for a “well-regulated militia.” They were firm in their belief that no one had a right, or need, to possess a weapon who sole purpose was to kill other homo sapiens. This continually simmering issue was brought to a boil with each mass murder which seemed to be increasing in ferocity and frequency.

The second most divisive issue du jour hovered around immigration and welfare. Conservatives could not separate the two. They screamed for strictly enforced, quota-based, legal immigration policies and iron-fisted control of U.S. borders. Or at least it’s southern border. A multi-billion dollar barrier had served as a campaign platform for years. However, funding never materialized, and the U.S. Mexican border remained as porous as ever. Liberals argued that immigration, even when illegal, was, in fact, healthy and in the best interest of the U.S., Mexico, and other Central American countries. Nearly one hundred billion dollars are sent back to the relatives of Central American immigrants each year with over forty percent going to Mexico alone. It is a fact that Mexico is America’s third largest trading partner. And the belief that immigrants perform jobs that U.S. workers do not want, or will not do is the backbone of pro-immigration arguments. Conservatives see an inextricable link between immigration and welfare abuse. Although, they are quick to point out that there is more than enough to go around in homegrown third and fourth generation food stamp, public housing, “baby momma” communities. They don’t say it out loud, but they mean black.

Finally, in the Bronze position of political contentions is healthcare. It has long been a liberal position that all healthcare is a fundamental human right and that it should be managed, controlled, and paid for by the federal government. Since the majority of Democrats were left of center on the political-social continuum, this concept formed the crux of their platform on this issue. The overwhelming majority of conservatives and their Republican party took a polar opposite stance. To them, healthcare was like any other commodity. You worked, you paid for it, and you had total control over your choice of medical provider.

The Republican candidate had a solution that in his mind would address and begin to solve what he saw as causing many of the problems in the United States. It was his position that the principal problem with American society was an apathetic, politically ignorant, citizenry.

He was a physician and followed the same methodology in addressing nonmedical issues that he used in the operating room. He attempted to do a root-cause analysis and then address the core cause of a disease, or problem, rather than treating its symptoms. This worked with cancer, and it would work for society. You might prescribe a Tylenol to relieve a headache temporarily, but you treated the tumor causing the pain. One of his solutions was as radical as battlefield surgery. You did what you had to do to save the patient.

His plan called for an amendment to the United States Constitution itself. He, and subsequently his party, proposed changing the manner by which citizenship is granted. The 14h Amendment to the Constitution bestows citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” The Republican candidate firmly believed that this carte blanche bestowing of the rights and privileges of citizenship, but no commensurate obligations or responsibility was the root of all social and political evil in the United States.

The Republican candidate proposed changing the 14th Amendment to read: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are eligible to apply for United States citizenship and the State wherein they reside upon their seventeenth birthday. To obtain citizenship, applicants must serve a minimum of two years of military, law enforcement, or congressionally approved public service and must take and successfully pass the official United States Citizenship Naturalization Test.

As if the modification to the 14th Amendment wasn’t enough, he proposed constitutional changes that would; restrict the purchase, ownership, or possession of firearms to citizens; allow only citizens to vote in state or national elections; establish a national resident and visitor identification system; establish a nationwide electronic medical record.

It was widely accepted, by the mainstream media that when the Republican platform was officially announced there would be an uproar among the nation’s Democrats and staunchly conservative supporters of the 2nd Amendment. There was some degree of wailing on both sides that comes with any change. Especially proposed changes in the Constitution, the very law of the land. However, the uproar wasn’t nearly as dramatic and pervasive as predicted. The seemingly never-ending gun violence and the unwillingness of congressional leadership to do little more than offer “thoughts and prayers” had the mainstream public demanding action. And when a plan was finally proposed, even one as dramatic as the Republican presidential candidate, it fast gained voter approval. But not sufficient to swing the election.

A record sixty-one percent of registered voters turned out that first Tuesday of November. Overall, the race was amazingly close. Although it would take weeks to finalize the numbers for the popular vote they didn’t matter. The Electoral College results gave the Democrats a 283 to 250 victory. Three electors voted for the sitting POTUS, despite his not even being a candidate, one vote went to UGA, the University of Georgia mascot, and, for the second time, one to Faith Spotted Eagle. The popular vote, over sixty-seven million for the Democratic candidate, and sixty-five million for the Republican were one of the closest ever recorded. Shortly after the west coast polls closed on Tuesday night, America had a new President-Elect, a Democrat.

The Republican candidate gave his concession speech shortly before midnight Pacific time. It was widely considered the most gracious and optimistic acknowledgments of defeat ever presented.

Watching alone from his living room in the White House, the sitting POTUS was anything but gracious and optimistic. Boiling, incessant, rage replaced his simmering anger. As he listened to the man he considered nothing more than a loser, and watched the saddened faces of his crowd of supporters; he began forming his own concession. And it wouldn’t take the form of a speech.