Go west, young man:

Thursday – November 18, 2010

Go west, young man:

We all know the term, “go west young man”. The connotation of this term means a direction for great wealth and opportunity. It says all there is to know about freedom and liberty!
On this date, in 1805 Lewis and Clark, reached the Pacific Ocean. They are the first Americans to cross the Continent. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) was the first overland expedition undertaken by the United States to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition team was headed by the United States Army soldiers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and assisted by George Drouillard, who was half Shawnee and half French. The expedition's goal was to gain an accurate sense of the resources being exchanged in the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition laid much of the groundwork for the westward expansion of the United States.
The expedition was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had dreamed of exploring the west twenty years before he became President.

When our country was first founded, it was based on freedom and the liberty that freedom gives. It was also an economic proposition dating years before the Declaration and Constitution were ever written. It was a proposition to create wealth, because of the natural resources that were abundant in the New World. This is part of the fabric that America was created upon. This fabric still makes it possible to create wealth. The missing element in this picture today is that the government does not want us to keep our wealth and, consequently, the freedom that wealth ensures.

The efforts to redistribute our wealth have occurred, because of the process of liberal legislation and the liberal thought of indoctrination to socialism. Slowly, but surely, it has been the Progressive Liberals who are now inviting the thoughts of Communism and Marxism into the dialog of economic policy and global economic policy expansion.

The founding fathers, Jefferson included, did not consider redistribution of the wealth through government. They did not envision a day when our economy would be incorporated into a global exchange of economic maneuvers. The reason they didn’t consider it was because of what they believed in. They knew that if we stayed the course and kept exploring the fabric of our own wealth potential we would not enter into the prospect of redistribution.

The documents that were created to ensure our freedom and that were authored in part by Jefferson outlined what the limits of government are. When the new Congress meets next year this term of redistribution must be addressed. When we speak about Health Care, we speak of redistribution. When we speak of fast tracking illegal aliens under new immigration policies that the left wants to employ, we speak not only of redistribution of wealth, but we are also redistributing our freedom.

The Republicans called for a ban on earmarks this week. The Democrat Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has said “no” and blocked the effort. The liberals in the new Congress and the Senate will move further to the left. While the Republicans move further to the right, we will start to see the clear cut picture of the issues.

Nancy Pelosi was elected the Minority Leader yesterday and immediately said “we will continue to fight”. We should not be fighting, we should be discussing how not to redistribute wealth, freedom and the liberties that our founding documents guaranteed. It is apparent that the left will not give up, so the right will just have to step up to the plate and be leaders of the cause and not leaders of the problem.

The Democrats have enlisted Senator Schumer of New York to coordinate all communication of policy initiatives so the public will better understand what the Democratic Party is doing. This is fine, because the public has understood what the left is attempting to do and this is why they rejected it. The Democratic Party will continue to legislate against the will of the people.

The left thinks they lost the election because they did not communicate effectively. The left thinks that all Americans should enlist in the efforts of redistribution so that competition, when it occurs, will occur fairly. The founding fathers and Jefferson would scoff at this idea.

It was not redistribution of wealth that Lewis and Clark explored the vast west for. Jefferson’s dream for nearly twenty years was not due to establish a policy for redistribution. It was not redistribution that gave the U.S. an upper hand in economic growth. It was not redistribution that sent men to the moon. I am sure that if Jefferson had the means to do that as well he would have. Redistribution causes exploration to cease. Redistribution causes competition to halt. Redistribution of wealth is not what Meriwether Lewis and William Clark felt when they saw the Great Pacific Ocean for the first time.

The Lewis and Clark expedition created wealth and opportunity so that a young man could go west in search of the American dream before liberals conceived, conspired and started on their journey to redistribute that dream.

The young man that also realized what westward expansion meant was Abraham Lincoln. During the summer of 1860, the Chicago Press and Tribune asked Republican presidential nominee Abraham Lincoln to prepare a short autobiographical sketch to introduce himself to voters. Writing about himself in the third person, Lincoln focused on family genealogy, migration, and work. He closed with a brief mention that his opposition to slavery’s expansion into the West motivated him to enter national politics after 1854. Today, we can recognize in this autobiography how Lincoln was shaped by the central contests of nineteenth-century political culture, including westward expansion and the development of a national infrastructure. Two issues in particular — westward expansion and the future of slavery in the United States — would dominate nineteenth-century American politics and define Lincoln’s career and legacy.

Between 1809 and 1860, from Lincoln’s Kentucky frontier birth to his election as president, the United States changed dramatically. Flatboat travel gave way to steamships and railroads, which revolutionized transportation and commerce. The frontier pushed beyond the Mississippi to the Pacific. The Whig Party rose and fell. It was replaced by the Republican Party. In the midst of these developments, slavery divided the nation. For Lincoln, born in a slave state, but residing for most of his life in free states, this divide was both personal and political.

If it weren’t due to the dream Jefferson had and the foresight of what Lincoln saw this nation would be far different from what is today.

I will have more on Lincoln tomorrow. My purpose for relating this story is for you to consider the hard work and the dedication it takes to preserve our freedom. I have written before that Washington set the seeds of our free nation and our government. John Adams fought for the importance of our Constitution in the American fabric of legislation and law. Lincoln mended the country and Reagan cured the country.

Tomorrow is an important date in history. It was the time when Lincoln mended all that needed mending. What we need today, in leadership, is the curiosity that Jefferson displayed and the intelligence of Lincoln to know what is needed to save a nation.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The time has come for exploring the roots our freedom so that we can mend the country once again.