Of course, he’d planted them years before as a backdrop for his land deals; so his claim of putting his own money out was perfectly accurate.
The one to the computer professionals was also catchy. We just provided a message that claimed it had a hidden algorithm, designed and concealed by a North American programmer, as opposed to the Microsoft techs who’d run off to India, which was why Lester favored local expertise. There wasn’t any algorithm; so no one could find it, and the Microsoft attorneys filed a cease-and-desist order. We complied, and then sent another message that pointed out that Microsoft could only respond with lawyers, not programmers. They couldn’t fight that, either, because it was true.
Now, an old-line news analyst of the past century might have caught a certain lack of philosophical consistency, but after the passage of the revised Freedom of Information Act of 2040 by the U.S. Congress, which affirmed the right of every citizen to the news of his or her choice, unhampered by contradictory facts, none of the 207 different news channels had a news analyst interested in such, since hiring anyone for such a position might have subjected them to civil action under the FOIA [revised].
All of the Webchures went out under the in dependent information provider provisions of Canadian and U.S. law, and every word in any of them was absolutely factually verifiable.
Parts of Lester’s stump speech were tailored to what ever audience he was addressing, the need for ecologically sound maple tree research in Vermont, investigating sustainable and balanced cod harvests and more federal assistance for bark-beetle eradication in Maine, the need for regional communications tariff subsidies in Massachusetts, support of Tar Sands subsidies in Alberta … Those sorts of postures have been a political staple since Alcibiades, but since no one studies history anymore, I could adopt strategies and points from everywhere, and no one had a ready counter. But the real gut issue was belief, and that part of Lester’s speech always hit certain points.
“I stand for the good, old-fashioned values of hard work … and the faith behind those values. There are those who condemn people of faith and belief, but what I find truly amazing is that as belief in an Almighty Deity has declined, so has this great American continent. When atheists were five percent of the population, the nations of North America were strong and proud. Today … almost a third of North Americans are nonbelievers. Are we as strong? Are we as dedicated to hard and honest work? I’d be the last man to tell you how to believe, but I’ll be the first to tell you that belief is important, that trust in the Almighty and the virtues He espouses are the keys to our future … Would you trust any politician who puts himself above the Almighty or denies the power that created this vast universe … ?”
At first, Morgan didn’t even understand what was happening, and by the time he did, it was far too late.
Of course, the liberals in Massachusetts, SoCal, and in what was left of flooded New York City screamed and yelled, but they did it all in newsprint, and no one but people who wouldn’t have voted for Lester anyway read the handful of remaining newspapers and magazines, online or otherwise. And most of those didn’t care that much who won the election.
Although it was close, even if only 10 percent of the eligible voters in Canada and the United States voted, Lester did eke out a victory over Morgan, by a good thirty-thousand votes out of forty million cast on that Sunday in September. No one paid much attention to the votes from Mexico and Central America, because there weren’t all that many voters left, not after the hurricanes of the forties, and most of those who could vote, in places where there were even polling places, all voted for Gonsalvo, and he came in a distant third.
“You won,” I told Lester when I walked into his small delegate’s office in Ottawa on Monday morning.
“Now what?”
“Before long, Chairman Hazlett will discover he doesn’t want to really run things, and you’ll make yourself indispensable… . Just be very visible, and very charming … and very helpful. As always.”
I could tell he wasn’t happy, but I found him a new personal assistant and lined up as many speaking appearances for him as possible, just to keep him occupied until the inevitable occurred— which it did … just about a year later.
The United States deficit topped one hundred trillion, and the remaining Republicans and the Conservative Populists in the U.S. House of Representatives balked at increasing the marginal federal income tax on the upper middle class— those making over ten million a year— to 70 percent. The Democrats refused to consider imposing a 1 percent tax on the so-called working poor— those making less than a million. At that point, the Bank of China not only refused to buy American treasuries, but threatened to dump everything they had. Microsoft, headquartered and totally based in India since the Great Seattle Quake of 2057, stopped manufacturing replacement parts for the obsolete computers used by the American government, and the Bank of Canada foreclosed on the U.S. Federal Reserve, which had been privatized after the Collapse of 2050.
President Huston demanded that the congressional leaders work out a compromise, and they did. They impeached him. Vice President Ramirez resigned, and Speaker of the House Coulter became president. She still couldn’t get the votes to break the impasse and proclaimed Martial Law under the provisions of the Patriot Act of 2051.
General Simplot, the U.S. Armed Forces Chief of Staff, threatened to release all military personnel from active duty, because none had been paid in two months.
That was the point at which I made my next suggestion to Lester. “Have Hazlett recommend that the North American Union take over government functions for the United States, using the Canadian dollar. By eliminating Congress and not funding the bureaucracies and lobbyists in Washington, the lower tax rates will cover paying the military so that Americans can feel protected by American soldiers and sailors, while finally getting real universal health care, and not the charades of 2010 and 2035. Tell everyone that the military uniforms won’t change, and neither will their responsibilities, and that they’ll remain right where they are, since the Canadians might get touchy, otherwise. Since you’re an American, elected by Americans …”
It wasn’t all that simple, as the massacre in Berkeley and the famine in Illinois and Indiana proved, but by the winter of 2071, the NAU was effectively governing North America. Hazlett wasn’t that young, and more and more he had to rely on Lester— and his staff.
Hazlett’s wife had left him because she thought he was a traitor to Canada, and fled to Buffalo Narrows, way up north. She drowned in the floods of 2072, almost instantly, when a methane belch caught fire in the permafrost and melted everything in sight. I arranged matters to provide him with some enthusiastic consolation; seven months later, he died a very happy man, and William Lester became chairman of the NAU.
Matters to the south of Ottawa weren’t getting any better, especially in the USA and Central America, and the Canadians— particularly former U.S. residents who’d fled the three banking restructurings, the financial restoration surtaxes, and Buy U.S. Transport Acts— were deeply concerned that Canada had ended up funding the rebuilding of the nearly prostrate United States, despite the fact that, or perhaps because of, more than 25 percent of the U.S. population in 2050 had since emigrated to Canada.
So Lester proposed a raft of reorganization programs, among them the Regional Area Prosperity Effort, the American Financial Transformation plan, the Social Cooperation and Regional Economic Work plan, and the Financial Reconstruction and Infrastructure Grants. The most immediately effective of these was the Youth Alliance for Restoration and Progress, a regional plan for those areas of the NAU where social order was degenerating, notably those declining piles of stone south of Ottawa.