A state of disobedience

Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Willi had never before in her life faced so hostile an audience. They didn't boo, hiss, or throw things of course; it was a well-behaved hostile audience. But the sheer psychic venom emanating from the visages of well over half the convention attendees would have been enough to overwhelm a lesser woman.

She was not a lesser woman, however. Surrounded by her Secret Service agents, she boldly strode the aisle-way and on up to the podium. She spared a few smiles for the delegations she was certain were friendly: Massachusetts, California, New York and a few others. For the rest she projected nothing warmer than an icy glare.

Standing behind the podium, that icy glare turned, if anything, more frigid still.

"So you think you can change things," Rottemeyer sneered. "You have come here to make up a new set of rules, have you?

"You're pathetic. You're also hopelessly beneath the challenge. I can see that by the silly amendments you are already proposing. Let's look at some of them, shall we?

"You want to repeal the income tax and the social security tax? Let me assure you; it is too late. This country's economy would collapse almost overnight from the disruption or cancellation of all those federal procurement contracts and the loss of spending power on the part of those working in the federal bureaucracy. What's more, I see very few young faces out in the crowd, mostly older people. What are you going to do when you get older and find you haven't saved enough for your retirement? And find further that your kids, like yourselves, don't want to be bothered taking care of their parents? I'll tell you what you'll do; you'll vote yourselves federal relief that might not be called social security, but will be the same thing, perhaps not half so well organized and run, under a different name.

"And who takes care of the people already retired? Their social security savings? Nonsense. They don't exist, not in the sense that the money exists in such a way that it can be paid back in full."

Rottemeyer shook her head as if scolding naughty schoolchildren. "At least one of the lunatics here has, apparently, some legal training. This idiot wants to re-create the old nondelegation doctrine the Supreme Court repudiated in the 1930s. Not a chance. There's simply too much. Too many of you want—or will want—the federal government to do for you that which Congress cannot hope to do."

"And speaking of the Supreme Court, are you all really so enthusiastic about castrating it? Creating some governor's council that can overturn its decisions? Hmmm. So, when Alabama decides to reenact some Jim Crow laws and the rest of the South follows right along, you really don't want anybody who can say 'no'? I don't believe it for a minute."

Rottemeyer paused briefly, scanning her audience with boundless contempt. "And you want term limits? Well, you've always had them. All you had to do was not vote for someone for another term.

"No federal interference with religion? Oh sure . . . and when Utah decides on polygamy again?

"Now let me tell you why none of this will work. You—all of you—want the federal government to do things for you. The things you want done may vary, but you all want something. And so you, and people just like you, will demand that the government give you those things you want. And so, no matter what you do now, you'll be racing each other beginning about two weeks after this convention closes to give the government back whatever power it needs to give you what you want."

She summed up in a voice dripping scorn and contempt, "And that is why this . . . movement . . . is doomed. Have a nice day, suckers."

With that comment Wilhelmina Rottemeyer simply turned and, accompanied by her guard detail and a thunder of boos, left.

* * *

Juanita didn't boo. Neither did Schmidt. The former merely looked thoughtful while the latter's face was shrouded in something akin to anger . . . or perhaps worry.

"The bitch is right, Juani. Nothing is going to work, to turn back the clock. Rebuilding the federal machine is going to begin the second we stop tearing it down."

Juanita shook her head in negation. "No, Jack, she wasn't right, or not entirely anyway. That comment about term limits and people not voting in career politicians for multiple terms? Typical. She skipped over the fact that with one state competing against another for benefits from Washington it made sense for a state to keep electing the same man or woman over and over. But when we reduce the amount of benefit to be gained by cropping the federales, and put all states on an even footing so no one of them can gain an advantage by keeping career politicians in office, the term-limits provisions will make sense . . . and they'll work, too."

"Hmm. Maybe," Schmidt grumbled.

"But the biggest thing she was wrong about was this: sure, the federal government will grow again . . . or the state governments will get so powerful that they'll become as obnoxious as Willi's ultimately did. But so?"

Jack shrugged. "So?"

"So we do this again. And again. And again. As often as necessary. But, you know, that may not be all that often. And we're a great country, Jack. Even now. We can afford a revolution every now and again to shake things up and put us back on the right track. I just hope . . ."

"Yes?" Jack encouraged.

"Well . . . I just hope we can always do it without resorting to a real civil war."

"Me, too, Governor. But I doubt we can. So where do you think the danger of government growth will come from next?"

The governor considered before answering. "Well . . . I doubt it will be a foreign threat anytime soon. And, given that the states are pretty capable of controlling crime on their own without much federal interference, I don't think it will be crime control." Juani the far-seeing politician closed her eyes to see into the future.

"The environmental movement."

"Huh?" snorted Schmidt, disbelieving.

"Yes, the environmental movement. It's maybe the one thing the states really can't do, won't do anyway, on their own. Or, rather, they won't do it very well. It's also tailor-made for intrusion on private property and property rights. And, since everything has some environmental impact, it's as well made for taking control of the economy, eventually. And that is what people like Wilhelmina Rottemeyer want, you know: a state where the government runs the economy, a socialist state, so that it can then run everything else."