The following is an excerpt from The Last Independence Day: Secession by Raymond Niblock. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers.
Valle Grande
The midterm election decimated the Arkansas Democratic Party while Buckshot and her Arkansas Republicans celebrated a landslide. Republicans were eager to get to the governing business beginning on the second Monday of January 2023, when they would all be sworn in. Republicans planned to overhaul the state and had the votes to do it. Democrats fretted and furrowed their brows.
To prepare for the new legislative session, the governor was on a mission to attend a meeting in Big Sky, Montana, to unify like-minded governors, politicians, evangelicals, business leaders, and “movement” believers. She kept her travel plans secret. A super-early morning departure would help evade the press. Her mission was to get red-state governors like herself to enter an agreement called the “Red State Compact.”
The Red State Compact began as an idea among the governors from the original 11 Confederate states in 2016. After MAGA took hold, the sentiment spread to other red-state governors who wanted to join the effort. By the time midterms rolled around in 2022, the idea had grown long roots, and there were 27 states with Republican supermajorities that would be represented at the meeting in Big Sky.
The Red State Compact sought to force real change by constitutional amendment or force. To amend the constitution, the compact states required seven more sympathetic states to join the cause and call for a “convention of states” under Article V of the United States Constitution. If they could get enough states on board, they could use the convention to either emasculate the federal government or push for secession. Either way, a war of words or blood was imminent.
Lieutenant Pettigrew drove her across the low Little Rock swamps to the private air terminal at Adams Field to an awaiting Dassault Falcon 2000. Two hours later, the governor and Lieutenant Pettigrew landed in West Yellowstone, Montana, where they transferred to a helicopter that delivered them to the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky.
She stared out the window as her helicopter landed on a pad near the lodge. A handful of guards dressed in black fatigues and armed with automatic weapons met her there. Even her driver, who said nothing to her or Lieutenant Pettigrew, was dressed in the same black uniform.
She dismounted from her passenger-side rear seat and spied the Governor of Texas. His security detail was wheeling him up a ramp next to the front entrance of the lodge.
“Hey Bill, damn good to see you,” she called out. “You got yourself a new chair. Looks official!”
“Yo, Biggin’,” the Texas governor acknowledged over his shoulder, “See you inside.”
It was a big day for Buckshot. She was the keynote speaker at the conference, where the attending governors would formally create the Red State Compact and coordinate a massive legislative agenda each state would pass. As she walked up the stairs to the main lobby with its soaring glass windows and log beams, she could not help but think how strange a marriage it was of angry, under-educated, poor white trash to ultra-wealthy patrons. The powerful, who had nothing in common with the poor dullards they counted on for votes, had convinced them to vote against their interests so people like her could exercise power.
Unfuckin’ believable. Only in America!
The secretive group funding the meeting and the “Big Sky Initiative” had only one interest: perpetuating the already developing oligarchy in the United States. They needed an authoritarian government or a weakened federal government to secure it. Over decades, the tiny group of financiers, billionaires, and industrialists orchestrated and inspired vengeance against the “liberal agenda.” It was a vengeance they would need to take over.
If those rich folks want to give us their money or pay to fly us around on their jets to stir up these rednecks, that’s fine with me, so long as they stay out of my way and pay the fuckin’ bill.
It was 10 a.m. local time. Buckshot stood in an opulent conference hall to meet, greet, see, and be seen before her talk. She moseyed among the tables, observing name tags and making small talk with the folks milling around before the meeting came to order.
Governor Bill rolled in with his new wheels. Ironically, he had the distinction of single-handedly erasing every meaningful benefit Texas offered disabled persons during his tenure as governor.
That mean-spirited son-of-a-bitch gets stuff done!
And there was Reverend Jim Bob Dealer, who preached about a country returned to being a “Christian nation” based on the “Old Testament” Word of God. Hallelujah. She caught a glimpse of another “reverend” who believed that all the “gays” should be rounded up and either put in camps or killed if they didn’t reject their homosexuality, take a spouse of the opposite sex, and pump out some kids.
Oh shit, she laid eyes on Marjorie Boeber, the leader of “White Christians for Jesus,” with emphasis on the “white” part. Her group was a well-armed and well-funded militia outside Rapid City, South Dakota. Their motto was “Praise the Lord, and pass the ammo.”
Buckshot approached the dais and stood at the podium in the giant hall.
“Y’all, hey, howdy. Y’all settle down. Let’s get to the business of getting our country back on track. We’re only about 200 years behind schedule. Come on, now! We will return our country to the way the Founders imagined it. The states will have their God-given power and sovereignty returned, and Christianity will flourish again. We will remake this country where the right to keep and bear arms is sacrosanct. We will go back to a county led by white, Christian, God-fearing men and women who are rewarded for their hard work. We will end freeloader handouts and put money back in the taxpayer’s pockets. And by God, we will get our noses out of other countries’ business. America first, Goddammit! Once and for all, we will be done with woke, liberal, snowflake, baby-killing perverts who want to control our thoughts and lives.”
Few were surprised by her use of the vernacular. Her foul mouth was legendary.
“May I be plain, folks?” she continued from the podium. “We must put an end to woke ideology. We end it by unifying this movement, something the Left will never be able to do. After all, they can’t agree on anything. Listen up. We will leave this place with a plan to put us on the right road, pun intended, once and for all. But to do this, we must unite under one purpose and one flag. So let me outline our key legislative goals.”
She noted nods of approval as she scanned the room while a large white screen lowered behind her. Armed guards shut the doors leading into the ballroom and locked them.
On the screen behind her, a slide appeared entitled “Slaying the Liberals’ Sacred Cows” in large, bold black letters that showed a photograph featuring a matador and a bull bleeding from the neck.
“He might be a Mexican,” she laughed, “but he damn sure got that right! Show me the beef!”
Laughter spread among the crowd.
Pressing on, “Look, we gotta go at them hard and fast and slice the throats of every liberal sacred cow just like that Mexican matador fella. If we move fast enough, they won’t see it happening until it is too late. Next slide!”
The following slide was titled “Top Ten Legislative Goals.” Beneath the title, ten bullet points read:
- Criminalize abortion and contraception with bounty laws.
- Criminalize same-sex and interracial sex with bounty laws.
- Criminalize “immoral” propaganda and communication (Tinder, Grindr, PornHub, etc.).
- Nullify same-sex and interracial marriages.
- Enact “Free Exercise” laws.
- Create state morality tribunals with an interstate enforcement agency.
- Limit public office and professional licensure to the morally suitable (no immigrants, gays, non-Christians, or racial minorities).
- End publicly funded medical care and entitlements – Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and Veterans Administration.
- End the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Establish the Independent Legislature Doctrine as the law of the land.
“That’s quite an agenda,” she pronounced, “and let me remind you of what a legendary opportunity we have to reshape our nation.”
She strutted across the stage and stepped down to the floor in spitting range of the first row. With a toothy smile, gesturing with open arms, she declared, “Not only did the 27 states represented here achieve Republican supermajorities, but the United States House and Senate belong to us again. Let’s not fuck this up, boys and girls. We will break the liberal grasp on this nation.”
The room erupted into a spontaneous cacophony of cheers, clapping, and whoops as everyone rose to their feet.
“When I finish this little dog and pony show, we’ll break into the assigned working groups for each item on the list. You’ll see, especially you governors, that each working group comprises top thought leaders, lawyers, and political thinkers from around the United States who share our views. Look around you. What a crew we have assembled here today! We also have propagandists, marketers, religious leaders, and political strategists to help us implement our plans.”
Her voice raising, she professed, “I believe, no, I know, I know that by the end of our time together, each of us will be able to go home to our respective states with a complete legislative package and a strategy to implement it while daring the federal government to stop us.”
The list presented the essential white Christian nationalist goals. For everyone else, it represented a means to an end. In truth, the “list” would busy the masses while politicians and their enablers enriched themselves. It was not a moral proposition. It was business. If it meant the destruction of due process and minority rights for any number of people or even the establishment of a de facto state religion, so be it. The people at the top would be immune from all of it anyway.
Praise for The Last Independence Day: Secession
“This book is well written. The plot of this book will hold your attention while you are reading it. The entire story will make you think and hope it will never happen in our country.”
—Amazon Reviewer
“A captivating story about events that are all too pertinent to our current times. This book can be appreciated by readers from all over the political spectrum. I can not wait to get my hands on the sequel and follow John Freeman’s journey to help save democracy.”
—Amazon Reviewer
“This novel is mesmerizing, horrifying, terrifying, heartbreaking, and above all hopeful. Mr. Niblock believes that people, who have chosen a path of destruction and violence, retain the capacity to become people who care about a respect one another. That our government leaders can work together for the benefit of all citizens and guide us in creating a society where we all prosper and feel safe.”
—Amazon Reviewer
About the Author
Raymond Niblock is a practicing trial lawyer when he’s not writing or flying airplanes. He draws from a rich military, law, and philosophy background to craft his debut novel, exploring a future where political and legal systems teeter on the brink of collapse. Educated at the New Mexico Military Institute and the University of New Mexico, his disciplined approach to life infuses his writing with power plays and tactical maneuverings. With a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas School of Law, he brings raw authenticity to his work as a practicing lawyer, navigating the corridors of political and legal schemes. Raymond, an astute observer of contemporary socio-political discourse, invites readers to explore thought-provoking “what ifs” in his stories. He resides with his husband, Jesse, in Northwest Arkansas, where they share a love for flying, travel, and adventures with their two dogs.
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