it's a generational thing:

Thursday – September 30, 2010

It’s a generational thing:

Yesterday and this week, I have been writing about listening and have advanced the notion about talking to the youth and young voter.

The President is making a pitch to this group; because that’s the only place he can go. Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Party members and all those other groups who believe in the Constitution, liberty and freedom, must do the same.

I find it fascinating to talk to people about how we have gone from following our founding documents to completely ignoring them. I find it fascinating to educate those who have forgotten about the intent and purpose of the founding documents and the people who wrote them. I find it more fascinating to talk about those who have ignored them and those who have respected them. This is the story of the new political debate because the leaders who regard our founding history are the ones that will preserve our liberty and freedom. This is the story that must be told to our youth of the country because they hold our future.

Part of the dialog should be how current history has collided with past history. The question of healthcare, taxes and the villains of Wall Street make for good political fodder in election years, but the discourse of those leaders who bend and twist the truth is why we have confusion and a general lack of knowledge over the important facts of the nation’s story.

I find great counsel in the writings of our founding fathers and the history they made with their story. For instance, George Washington sided with John Adams over the power of the federal government, leaving Thomas Jefferson out of the dialog. However, the limit of federal power over the states and the citizenry has been a question since 1789. I know that if Washington, Adams and Jefferson were alive today they would be appalled at the condition of the country and the condition of the today’s politician.

I always look to past and recent leaders in history. It was Ronald Reagan who said in 1961: “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.”

The question of healthcare is not new, the question of statism is not new, the question over the power of government over the individual is not new. What became new to the question are people like Reagan who knew history and who knew what the right course of action was. What became new are the conservative ideals and ideas that men like the founding fathers and Reagan knew were right and knew that would work. They knew the rights of the individual, not the government, are what guarantee our liberty and freedom. They knew the rights of free enterprise and capitalism would guarantee the liberties and freedom to our posterity.

This is why it is so important to open the dialog of conservative thought and action to our youth. This is why our country has remained strong because the youth who have embraced our traditions will be the leaders who will pass them along.

Reagan also said in 1961: “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”

Republicans will not turn back the clock on these questions. Conservatives and Tea Party members will not turn back the clock on these questions. They will bring reason to the dialog and they will bring economy to the dialog. They will bring economy by way of personal responsibility. They will bring reason by way of reduced government and they will bring the Constitution back into the legislative process.

The statist, the liberal and the democrat will turn back the clock; they will take liberty and freedom away, because those who have lost it will never know it. This is what the statist does.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: In 33 days we have a chance to defeat the liberal. We also have a chance to educate the youth in this process so they can become part of the turn around. It is a generational thing when you include the young and our posterity.