Game of Politics

By A. Schiller 7-22-24
 
This particular game of politics began four years before the start of the current leader’s term when a criminal was elected the U.S. president. He was a businessman, con man more like, in his former life and got to be president pretty much lying to the general public. He spoke more like the guy at the local bar who caught a fish that was “this big” but got away. However, people followed him because he told them he was Christian without actually proving it. He said all the right things to lure poor deluded “suckers” in. Quoting embellished truths and outright lies, he brainwashed his following into making him president. Johnny Fowler was his name and lying was his game.
 
You wanted anything that sounded like something a certain type of Christian wanted, .you got that, only don’t ask him to change his lifestyle. You want to help a certain nationality become a businessman, you got that, only they were still inferior and to heck with their voting rights if they didn’t vote for him. You ask him to give up his businesses maybe, but he could probably work around that because of his love of money.
 
Anyway, the only way people seemed to see through some of his lies for some was when the epidemic hit. Over a million people got sick and died from his lack of disease control. It spread fast and was still around for the next president’s term in office as Johnny was sent marching home.
 
The next president was a 78 year old Democrat by the name of Ben Brown. Some of the party was unsure of his age as they decided years before that ageism is ok as long as it’s in politics and we can make excuses other than that seem more important than who ran. They only let him represent them because he had a good reputation as vice president before. Secretly, they drew up plans to replace him if they had any sign that he was unliked or heading into senility. Even if was a small episode, easily excused by another cause, they needed a replacement to look good. So after the election, they went after the vice president, who was multi-racial, named Tarana McCall. 
 
A man and a woman from the congress hall follwed her down the corridor that day. She was minding her own business, hauling a book from one room to the next, when they suddenly pounced like a tiger stalking their prey to her sides. “Congratulations, Vice-President McCall, well done getting yourself and President Brown elected. May we have a minute to speak with you?” Arnold Fritz spoke.
 
Tarana was a bit spooked by their sudden appearance and felt uneasy, but felt backed in a corner to talk to them, after all they were fellow politicians and she had to be civil. “Thanks for the compliment. What can I help you with?” she responded.
 
Mary Smith spoke up next. “Well, if you noticed, your president is pretty old to be running a country. We just need to know that you are ready to take his place if he falls too ill to serve or becomes mentally incapacitated. It would be your duty after all. Hmmm?” 
 
Tarana thought, “Like vultures, waiting for their meal to die.” She started to frown but caught herself
and let it go with a half-hearted smile, then resumed her thinking. “Be nice, Tarana, they could possibly just be concerned due to the epidemic.”
 
“Yes, it is my duty, according to the rules of the position. I will stand-in if it ever occurs,” she answered Mary.
 
“Well good, if anything bad occurs or whatever, we shall hold you to that,” Mary replied. “Come on Arnold, we have to return to Congress, we only had a short break.” She headed in the direction of the Congress and motioned for him to follow.
 
“Quite right, Mary. Good-bye for now,” Arnold spoke before he ran to catch up with Mary.
 
“Yes, good-bye,” Tarana responded with an uneasy smile. She couldn’t believe there was no purpose for this conversation other than to find out something that every vice president should know going into office. She hoped nothing dishonest was about to occur.
 
As they walked toward the Congress hall, Arnold asked Mary, “Well we’ve got her word she will replace him if it is necessary, what do we tell the others? What are we going to do?”
 
“We will tell them things shall work out in our favor if Brown messes up. We will do nothing but let her get famous off his name for now,” she answered, then opened the door for them both to enter into the room beyond.
 
Tarana dropped her book off in the location it needed to go and then went to President Brown with her concerns. He was busy at his desk when she entered the room. “Hello, Ben. You’ll never guess who I ran into on the way here.” she said with a smile.
 
“Hello, Vice President McCall. Who is that? Nothing important I hope,” he replied, while shuffling his papers.
 
“Congress members Mary Smith and Arnold Fritz. They were worried about what would happen if you were unable to function in your duties that’s all. They asked me if I would take over for you if you were incapacitated in some way. Do you think that kind of strange?” Tarana explained.
 
He stopped what he was doing and looked her in the eye. “How so? They probably just want to make sure nothing will go wrong. They seemed friendly enough when I spoke to them.” Ben remarked.
 
“Well, I just didn’t like how they seemed to be so anxious to know. You be careful now Ben, and things will probably go well.” She said this in the hopes to give him encouragement to be the best he could be.
 
“Just let me know if they bother you too much, but there’s nothing I can do based on just an uneasy feeling. Thanks for your concern Vice President McCall. I really need to get back to this paperwork for now,” he responded and began to read what was on them once more.
 
“I’ll leave you to your work. Bye for now.” Tarana exited the room quietly and went on her way.
 
Over the months and years ahead, her concerns slipped by. She decided she really liked Ben and he seemed honest and a sweet older gentleman. She really hoped it would all work out for him. The presidency had humps to get over, but all in all it seemed to be better than the last president. Their was concerns he was kind of not tip-top with the general public, but nothing really extremely bad happened other than a little mistake here and there and things like skirmishes in other countries.
 
When it came time to debate for the next election, before Brown got on stage, a mysterious helper came to Brown’s room and helped serve drinks to everyone. No one noticed him slip sleeping pills into the president’s drink. It was just enough to destroy his concentration on stage, so he looked like a doddering old fool.  Nobody would ever know if it was someone from Fowler’s side or if it was someone involved in the secret organization behind the questioning of Vice President McCall early in the presidency. Everyone just though it was his senility showing.
 
Closer to the next election, Mary Smith--who had left her career behind--met up with the man who had put her up to finding out if President Brown could be replaced by at least the vice president if no one else. She still had connections in Washington regardless, and could easily hold sway over those in power. “Well I see our old fool of a president has run a pretty lackluster term. A lot of public opinion is against him,” the man told her.
 
“Yes, Mr. Jones, it seems President Brown just isn’t very popular, even though he has at least held the country together. “ Mary Smith felt uneasy talking to the man, but he did hold a lot of money and power.
 
“It seems like the botched assasination attempt on Johnny Fowler didn’t do much. The explosive that went off only killed one of his followers. Was it botched or even set up to fail, I wonder?” Jones pondered.
 
“To fail? Were you in on it?” she asked, to which Mr. Jones laughed.
 
“No, I wasn’t in on it. That was someone else that either wanted him to look more heroic or have a heroic death. They only blamed one of the people with the bomb and shot him because he was nearby and tried to run. They, being the secret service,” Jones explained.
 
She stood aghast. “One of the people?”
 
“The young man that ran had a realistic looking pipe bomb on him, only it seemed purposely a dud. There was a person further away with a remote detonation and explosives in his home, found by the police later. There were even rumors it was supposed to be a fake attempt by the one man, but the other man surprised them with the real bomb. However, no one seems to care about that story and the local police just put the other one in prison for having illegal weapons in his home. No one let that story out in the public, a very quiet arrest was made, if you know what I mean. The secret service believed the one with the fake bomb decided to really bomb Mr. Fowler instead and the other arrest to be a coincidence. Far be it from them to cover up a mistake with their story, I guess, unless they really didn’t want the screw up to become public,” Jones told her. He winked, then laughed, leaving what he meant to anyone’s guess.
  
Mary, who didn’t want to know anymore, for she thought it might mean someone might try to get at her, moved on to the subject of presidential candidate. “What is to be done about Pfresident Brown, anyway, since that is what you are here about?” she asked.
 
“Well you know, if things didn’t go well, we had plans to replace him. We just want him out of power because well, nobody thinks enough to study all the president has done. All they care about is their own problems and blame them on the guy in charge. Public opinion is against him, he’s got to go. Make up some excuse that he’s too old and get anyone in charge instead of him, even the VP. Maybe we can get what we want out of her. And if you don’t, we will cut the donations to the Democrats by half and maybe even support Republicans,” he instructed her.
 
“Yes, sir anything for public opinion and support,” she chirped sweetly.
 
“Get on it then. Remember, don’t fail, as what happened to your spouse can happen again from another source. Good luck,” he told her then laughed evilly as he seemed to disappear into his cloak and rush into a waiting car. She felt some remorse for what she was about to do, but it was for the good of the party.
 
The next day, Mary got on to the phone to fellow Democrats and had conversations about how bad Brown had done in the polls, public opinion, age, and what donors thought of Brown. They all conspired to go to the president and convince him to give up the race. The more of them that harranged him about it, especially with his recent bout with illness, the more he thought that with that many people against him, the only way out was to give up on being elected. They might try to push him out of the party anyway. He quit and supported the vice president to get elected.
 
When Tarana hear what happened to President Brown, she felt bad. She knew that day she had been stopped by Mary and Arnold had something to do with this. Without proof she could do nothing, but honor the president’s wishes and run. Hopefully something good would come out of this, she hoped.
 
In the end, the conspirators got what they wanted at the expense of a president just because of bad press and donor dollars. And what organization was the mysterious Mr. Jones from? Sadly, we will never know.