Paranoia ✓

XXVII: Salvador - VIP (Very Important Prisoner)

Already making history as the first leader of the U.S. to be impeached from office, the president couldn't let this stage production play out. He knew if he allowed it to go to a hearing in the Republican controlled senate, he would be removed from office, and most likely imprisoned. He had no trust in the legal system, now in the hands of the legislature, to prove that he was not guilty of any of the heinous accusations made against him. He knew he was working at a disadvantage.

So here was the president, used to making tough decisions that would affect the nation and even the world for years to come, faced with the most difficult decision of his term, and probably even in his life. After weighing the circumstances, he opted to resign from office. Now, since none of this has ever occurred before, there was a huge debate over whether or not the trial should still go on. Those who argued for it said that a boss who committed a crime, cannot excuse himself of that crime, or erase it by simply quitting his job. However, those against noted that the whole purpose of the trial was to hear whether or not the president should be fired in the first place.

After a heated debate, the president was granted the briefest sigh of relief when the senate decided not to waste their time with the trial...

Because they had other tricks up their sleeves. Why waste your time dealing with the old boss, when the new one was in town?

Here was the Vice President, now President of the United States, swearing the oath of the oval office—and what the members of Congress saw was a tool to truly rid the world of the former president once and for all.

A lot of back-channeling and secret discussions went on after the VP was sworn into office—most of them about the former president. The goal was to make sure that the VP did not stand in the way of disposing the former president completely. The VP was confused—he was already out of office, what more did they want?

Congressman Knox summarized this best when he spoke on the topic in a press conference on the campaign trail. When asked what the Republicans of Congress were trying to do, he responded, "When you are in a zombie apocalypse, you always double tap. Never leave the enemy simply wounded—you must finish him off, or else he may come back to bite you."

And so the Republicans did manage to "double tap" the president when they convinced the VP, through either persuasion or through threats, to not pardon the president for any crimes, and in fact accuse the president of his allegiance with the enemy.

There's a reason the legislative branch appears under Article One of the Constitution—the founding fathers wanted to make it clear that it was the most powerful branch of government—not the president. Although some may argue that the power truly rests with the Supreme Court that is not the extent of this paper. The point to all this is that the legislature pulled some strings, and the VP was on their side. The former president found himself being arrested by federal agents for treason against the country, a crime, dictated in the Constitution, which must be met with extreme consequences.

But Congress wasn't going to jail the former president—that would make them seem 'unnecessarily cruel,' considering that he had already resigned. What they did do was make enough noise and utilize the media coverage to make the country believe that the former president was indeed Muslim. Thus, according to the Watch Zone Creation Act, he must reside within a "Watch Zone." Although the former president had denied constantly that he was not a Muslim, the public was convinced that, by his looks, he was one. He was brown, had a crazy beard (which he had since shaved in order to avoid the confusion of his religious faith), thick eyebrows, a slight accent (which was Spanish), and for a time refused to showcase his birth certificate. However, even when he submitted to the public's will and showcased his birth certificate, the public still doubted his citizenship within the country.

Seeing is not believing. That was the key behind his sentence to a TT—he was believed to be un-American. Give Americans, a country made up of immigrants, a reason to believe that you were one (that is, an outsider), then they'll chew you up and spit you back from whence you came. For a melting pot, Americans sure were picky about the ingredients that made up the recipe.

But another argument could be made. It was funny how people risked their lives to come here, but still don't consider themselves American. They stay attached to certain nationalities. The fact that surveys ask for ethnicities is a shame considering that everyone in this country should simply be American. Sure, bring parts of your culture with you, but at the end of the day, if you're not willing to stand by the red, white, and blue against any foe in the world (even the countrymen of your own ethnicity) then you are not American.

Yet, it goes to say more minorities are in the armed forces now, which shows that there are Americans willing to die because they truly believe they are American first and a certain ethnicity second. That is how civic duty should operate in this country. You cannot serve two masters simultaneously—choose now and stick with your decision.

But, I'm veering off track. Out of "security concerns," it was not released which TT the former president was sent to. He was now forced to live under the watchful eye of the same agencies that he had once commanded; and from that point on, the former leader of the free world went from being a VIPerson to a VIPrisoner. [29]

Footnote:

[29] I.E. a "Very Important Person" to a "Very Important Prisoner."