Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) by John Price Page B

yourself indicted, for various federal crimes and misdemeanors, if
you’re not very careful. You obviously have no clue how seriously the
President, and his Senate buddy, Jim Blevins, take the campaign speech you made
in Austin before the shootings.”
    Chuck Webster was a
few years younger than John Madison, but they had developed a close
relationship, as Webster had helped his friend negotiate through the labyrinth
of insurance industry rules and regulations. His top of his Tyler high school
class standing, paved the way, along with his impressive LSAT results, to his
admission to an Ivy League law school. After graduation he turned down
lucrative New York and DC offers, returning instead to Texas. He wanted to
raise his family in a family environment, and near his parents. Chuck Webster
and his wife had decided early in their marriage that they wanted to bear all
of the children that God sent them, without any restrictions or impediments. As
a result, they had been blessed with ten children, ranging in age from twelve
years to eighteen months. Chuck liked to joke that he would be practicing law
until he was in a nursing home, just to get all of his kids through college.
John and Debbie Madison, whose grandchildren lived some distance from them,
loved to spend time with Chuck’s brood, whom they referred to as their Tyler
grandkids.
    “Chuck, I understand
the concept. A pro-gun Texas conservative gives a speech suggesting that if the
President were to be re-elected he’ll try and outlaw gun ownership. That wasn’t
a revolutionary thought, after all. When the President ran four years earlier a
lot of people quietly suggested that’s what he would do. Otherwise, why did all
the gun dealers sell out of ammunition back then?”
    “Quietly is the key
word. No major conservative leader went so public four years ago. Low profile
was the approach. But, not this time. Right Wing Pro-Gun, Tea Party Leader John
Madison uses his campaign megaphone and fires a salvo, if you’ll excuse the
expression, at the President just a few days, a couple, three weeks, before
he’s shot, or winged, or whatever actually happened in Dallas. Wonderful
timing, John.”
    “So? What ever
happened to the First Amendment? I can’t speak my mind, in a civil way, without
the sky falling in on me? Plus, I would point out the obvious in all this – the
President is trying to take away our guns, just as I said he would.
Doesn’t that inconvenient fact give me some cover?”
    “See, John, that’s
what I’m talking about. You’re in denial. The First Amendment? You really think
these guys give a fig for the Constitution? They’re re-defining the First
Amendment in Blevin’s anti-free speech, anti-gun ownership bill he introduced.
This is the same President who promised to fundamentally transform America. How
do you fundamentally transform a country without altering its founding
documents?”
    “OK, I hear you, but
the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms is written in our nation’s
DNA. I was just trying to warn the voters, using my First Amendment rights, I
might add, that his second term posed a distinct danger to gun rights. So, now
I should worry about getting indicted for just speaking out, in a campaign?”
    Chuck Webster shifted
uncomfortably in his leather lawyers’ chair. It was obvious to him that his
friend was headed for deep legal problems, and in spite of all of his lawyerly
skills, he would not be able to head off the oncoming onslaught. He concluded
that the best approach to help his friend and client was to give him the scary
truth of what he was facing.
    “John, buddy, here’s how
it’s going to go. You’re going to be served very soon with a U.S. Senate
subpoena from Blevin’s Committee on the Judiciary. You might have had more of a
shot at true justice, ironically, if Senator Reese had assigned the Bill to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The problem with the
Judiciary Committee