Chapter 26
The Rest of the World Watched
The US government took a couple of
days before releasing a formal answer to the Canadian Prime Minister’s
ultimatum. They came to the conclusion of taking the Canadian offer. They
conceded to a ceasefire with California and would sit down for talks with
California diplomats.
Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the
announcement of the ceasefire hit the news, politicians in New Mexico went into
frenzy. New Mexico was one of the few states left in the US where the
Progressive Action Party still held some pull. The New Mexico legislature was
split with the Progressives holding a small majority in the State House of
Representatives and Republicans holding a small majority in the State Senate.
The Republicans held the governorship, but the Lieutenant Governor was a Progressive.
So New Mexico was a fairly evenly split state.
So as soon as an announcement for
the ceasefire was made the Progressive began their political posturing. They
began looking for Republican legislators to switch sides and support a
secession bill. They focused their attention on Latino Republicans. The
Progressives used their Latino heritage and California’s AB02 that gave a path
of citizenship to non-citizens.
The 38 Progressive members of the
70-member New Mexican House were able to convince 4 Republicans to join them in
passing the secession bill. The Republican controlled Senate proved to be more
difficult. But the 19 Progressives in
the 42-member Senate were able to pull 2 Republicans and cause a split vote.
Because of the split vote, the Lieutenant Governor was able to cast the
deciding vote in favor of secession.
Predictably the Republican Governor
vetoed the bill and sent it back to the legislature. The Progressives were
forced to do more hard work. They sought out and found 5 more representatives
to vote to overturn the veto. Once again the Senate proved to be difficult.
They needed 7 Republicans to switch sides in order to get to the two-thirds
vote they needed. A lot of political posturing occurred, including some illegal
tactics of bribery. Finally the Progressives were able to get the 28 votes need
to pass the Senate. The legislature was able to overturn the Governor’s veto
and also put the bill into immediate effect. New Mexico had seceded from the US
and now sought admission to the ROC.
Elsewhere in the World. The United
States may have agreed to the ceasefire, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t
positioning themselves for a continued fight. The US was taking advantage of
the ceasefire by implementing a desperate strategy of their own. They began to
withdraw many of their overseas troops. They withdrew all their troops from
Europe, brought home all but the essential troops from bases in Saudi Arabia,
and also called an immediate end to and withdrew troops from the 2nd
Afghan War.
The ceasefire also gave some other
countries either time to think over the situation or gained optimism in
California. Several countries extended diplomatic recognition to the ROC,
including Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, and
India. The Mexican Senate also voted in favor of diplomatic recognition and
stated that they would remain neutral in the American Conflict.
The ceasefire caused a momentary
calm around North America. It also caused Europe and the Middle East to face a
reality of not having the US military in their backyard. The American Conflict
was at a standstill and the rest of the world watched.
Coming
Soon: Radical Liberals debate their future. Idaho life under ROC rule. More
Worldwide ripples. Will the ceasefire hold?
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