The little guy wins!

Monday-October 18, 2010

The little guy wins!

Remember the title of this FORUM on November 3, 2010. This will be what we will be celebrating the day after the midterms.

What we should learn in 15 days is that elections have consequences and elections have outcomes. The point to have an election is to change the outcome of the past election depending on the consequences and the results of those that have held office.

Every election brings a voice to the table. Every election should also bring new voices. This is healthy and this is what keeps a democracy or a republic vibrant and alive. Every election should be a learning process and should be taken seriously.

Elections are meant for one thing. It is when the little guy can voice his preference and can speak through a vote.

On today’s date, in 1767, the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, also known as the Mason Dixon line, was agreed upon. Charles Mason and Jerimiah Dixon arrived in Philadelphia. Mason was an astronomer who had worked at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and Dixon was a renowned surveyor. The two had worked together as a team before they were given the assignment to the colonies.

Their first task was to determine the exact location of Philadelphia. From there, they began to survey the north –south line that divided the Delmarva Peninsula into the Calvert and Penn properties. Only after the Delmarva portion of the line had been completed were they able to mark the East –West line running between Pennsylvania and Maryland.

A precise point was established fifteen miles south of Philadelphia and since the beginning of their line was west of Philadelphia, they had to begin their measurement to the east of the beginning of their line. They erected a limestone benchmark at their point of origin.

I bring up this point of history, because it is important to the political makeup of the Red and Blue State comparison that has delineated our discussion since George W. Bush defeated Al Gore at the beginning of this century. The Mason Dixon Line has always been a dividing line between North and South. Many political leaders that run for national office pay close attention to the line and the differences that the line represents.

After fifty years the line was very symbolic in the minds of the people of our young nation struggling over slavery and the names of the two surveyors who created it will evermore be associated with that struggle and its geographic association. I am sure that Mr. Mason and Mr. Dixon did not intend for their limestone benchmark to mark the point at which the country would become divided.

I am sure that our forefathers did not intend for politicians to divide the country by race, by origin and by political party. But it has happened and it can be traced to the recent two elections that have polarized the country and made it virtually impossible to employ that truly American tradition of compromise.

In all this history, the little guy with no voice was given a voice. In all this time, both black and white are able to vote and voice their preference in elections.

The country was young at the time when Mason and Dixon made the line. The young country then had young inhabitants that wanted freedom on both sides of the line. However, freedom meant different things to many people at that time. Just as freedom today means different things today to young people. This week the president will be addressing the young at rallies. Many will listen, but many will now ask the questions that they did not ask two years ago. Even the young today want the American dream of yesterday. Today they cannot get it no matter what the president says to the little guy!

This week The President will embark on a cross country journey. He will travel from the East to the West - North and South he will even cross the Mason Dixon line drumming up votes and support while he asks for another chance and more time. The First Lady will also be accompanying him and also making a plea to give “Barack more time to enact his agenda for change.” Last week, I wrote about Washington making the first presidential trip in the nation’s history. This week will be the first time when a black President makes a trip with the First Lady to drum up votes in a midterm.

There is even a Mason Dixon political poll. New polling from other polls also shows that 25% of voters who voted for Democrats will not vote for Democrats this year. The polls also show that the economy and the leadership of the president are now in doubt. It is the little guy who is now speaking. It is the little guy who will turn the tide of this election.

Jefferson wrote to Samuel Smith in 1788: “We are now vibrating between to much and too little government. And the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.”

It will be the little guy who will bring the political pendulum back to the middle. It will be the little guy who, in the process, will also bring the country back to the right side of the spectrum.

Jefferson also wrote in a letter to Thomas Seymour in 1807: “The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood.”

We will see a fawning press giving aid and comfort to this beleaguered president this week. We will see the press elevate the First Lady to that of first counselor in chief. This will be the story that the press will give to the little guy.

There are at least 25% of the Mason’s, Dixon’s, Smith’s and Jones that will not vote Democratic this year. This is a true number, because I know many Democrats and at least 25% of them have told me they will not vote for the Democrats. Oddly enough, one of them is named Jones.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: In 15 days put your little guy face on and vote and make sure you get the rest of the little guys out to do the same. This will be story in the next 15 days.