Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Mr. Speaker

The Speaker of the House and deputy chair of the Freedom Party, George Fultz, was a close friend of President Henry Stein and his Chief of Staff, Michael Montgomery. The three of these men had fashioned the blueprint for the Freedom Party, and through their business savviness, self-funding, and brute determination, had formed a fierce political machine in Florida that saw them capture the Governor’s office and then the state assembly and senate. Two years after taking the Governor’s office, Speaker Fultz ran for Congress in 2030, and then began the grassroots work with Monty to establish hundreds of field offices across the country. They began to identify congressional districts that they felt they could capture and candidates that shared their same views for the country.

By 2042, the Freedom party had gained control of four-fifths of the governors’ offices and State legislatures. The party had pushed through a lot of changes in federal laws and the Constitution. They limited the role of the Supreme Court back to the original intent of the Founding Fathers, removing their ability to legislate from the bench. No longer would judicial supremacy be allowed. They also changed the tenure of the chief justices. No longer were they life time appointments; they were now limited in their appointments to fifteen years. Following their service on the Supreme Court, they were ineligible to hold any future public office. The decision to move in this direction was met with a lot of resistance from both parties; even some in the Freedom Party disagreed with it. However, the average tenure of a Supreme Court judge is 19.6 years, so establishing a 15-year tenure seemed fair. It also helped to ensure judges would not serve on the bench until they literally died in their seat.

On this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Speaker Fultz was meeting with Monty to discuss a very important topic. He wanted to restructure the number of years in each Congressional, Senate, and Presidential term, and implement term limits. The Freedom Party wanted to get these changes passed while they still had the votes to do it. They needed to ensure the ideals and principles of the Constitution remained intact long after the supremacy of the Freedom Party.

Monty walked into the Speaker’s Office and saw George standing near the window with a glass of cognac in his hand. As he walked towards George’s desk, he saw a second glass waiting there for him and took it.

“I take it you have something important you want to talk about? That, or we are celebrating something,” Monty said raising the glass of cognac.

George smiled wryly as he responded, “I want to propose some legislation, and I want to know if President Stein will support it or be against it.”

“OK, what legislation are you thinking about?” asked Monty, hoping it wasn’t anything too extreme.

Walking towards the two leather chairs in his office near the fireplace, George took a seat, and signaled for Monty to join him. “I want to redo the legislative terms and term limits of our elected officials.” Monty raised an eyebrow, but didn’t bring forward any objections.

“…I also want to redo the Presidential terms,” added George.

Chuckling softly, Monty downed the rest of his drink and looked for a refill. “For a second there George, I thought you were going to talk about something really ambitious…you really want to move forward with this?” asked Monty.

“I do. The Freedom Party has done a lot for this country. We have given the USA new life and a new start at greatness. However, we may not always be in power. We need to use our influence now while we have it, in order to set our nation on a better path. If we don’t do this, you can bet the government and our elected officials will return back to their old ways. They always do. We need to be the ones that break the cycle.” George said with conviction. He believed Monty and the President wanted this as well. At least he hoped they did. Power can have a strange way of corrupting people.

“George, this has always been a goal for the President and for me as well, you know that. What do you have in mind?” asked Monty, leaning forward.

George tried to read Monty’s response for a second before replying, “First, I’d like to address the Congress. The two-year election cycle can be convenient when you want to get rid of a Congressional member you dislike, but it also presents a real problem. They are always having to campaign and raise money. They spend most of their time fundraising, and not nearly enough hours doing their jobs. This needs to change. I am proposing we change congressional terms from two years to four years. We will also set term limits of no more than five terms. That way a person can only serve a maximum of twenty years; no more of these Washington dinosaurs that hold on to power until they die. As to the Senate, their six year terms will remain, but they will be limited to no more than three terms in the Senate. For the President, I am proposing a more radical change. One seven-year term as President. Typically, most of the President’s first term is spent preparing to run for his or her second term; that mentality needs to end. I know President Stein was never like that, but we need to make sure future presidents are not stuck in that same cycle.” George was excited to have an old friend to share this idea with, especially now that they were in a position of power to make it happen.

Monty sat back in his chair, polished off his second glass of cognac, and poured himself a third. “I like the idea. I know Henry will as well. But I sense you have something else you want to propose? Am I wrong?” Monty had a quizzical look that said he knew Fultz had another trick up his sleeve.

George snickered before answering, “Am I really that easy to read? Yes, I do have one more thing I want to propose. I want to overturn the 22^nd Amendment, which as you know, limits the President to two terms. Of course, this will become a moot point after we enact the new legislative terms, but for the time being we need to change it (I think we can get enough governors to vote for the change, as long as they know that this new legislation will make it impossible for future presidents to run for endless amounts of terms). I want to know if you can convince Henry to run for a third term? We have a national election in 2044, which is sooner than one might think, and one of the things I would like to do is propose that we place the new proposed term limits on the ballot and give the people a chance to vote on them at that time. This will add further legitimacy to the change and ensure the term limits are not challenged in the future. Following the election, President Stein would then serve a seven-year term and then be done. But this way, we ensure we have Henry at the helm for seven more years to see our country through the post-war years and our adventure in space.”

“Hmm…that is going to be a big ask. Henry will certainly go along with the ballot initiative, but I am not sure he will want to run for a third term, especially a seven-year term,” Monty said, his voice dripping with regret.

George was a bit taken aback; the President was going to turn sixty in April, he was still more than capable of serving. “Really? You don’t think Henry would want another term? His vision is not complete yet — doesn’t he want to finish the work he has started?”

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to serve any longer. I think he is physically and mentally beat. The war has really taken a toll on him, and I do not know if he can handle another seven more years. I think it might be too much for him,” explained Monty, who was a bit disappointed as well.

Fultz absorbed the information, and though for a moment. “Perhaps he just needs to take another vacation for a little while and rest, plan out what else he wants to do and then make that determination. Can you please convey my message and idea to him? I have a lot of things to get finalized before the end of the year if we are going to get these initiatives on the 2044 ballot.”

Monty nodded, and George indicated that their meeting was done. As Monty got up to leave, he assured Speaker Fultz that he would convey the message to the President and do his best to get him onboard with it.