The landscape:

Thursday – November 4, 2010

The landscape:

The one thing we know is that this week’s elections changed the political landscape in this country. Electorally, the President lost with big gains in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio going to the Republicans. These states are considered battleground states in general elections. Additionally, the president lost over 500 seats in 19 state legislatures. The new lines of congressional districts will be redrawn to represent this shift in 2011.

This is all fine and good, the Republicans are in and they control the House. The Republicans made significant gains in the Senate. Harry Reid is presiding over a significantly diminished Senate majority and Nancy Pelosi is out, for sure, as Speaker. She will be replaced by John Boehner of Ohio as Speaker of the House, the 3rd most powerful man in Washington D.C., after the President and the Vice President.

The new Speaker will have a significant majority with many chairman ships of the House committees going to senior Congressional members. Congressman Boehner will be a great Speaker, if he can control the spending and control the President. Mr. Boehner will have his challenges and will move ahead with his mandate.

His biggest challenge will be to stave off any more legislation that might come from this lame duck session. Remember, Pelosi and Reid can still have their day until January of 2011.

Another challenge that he will have is that he has no power over is what’s happening in the Fed. The QE II - Quantitative Easing from the Federal Reserve will inject over 500 billion dollars into the economy almost immediately. This is simply just another stimulus. The Fed will print this money and it will go directly into the stock market. The market will get a boost and it will appear that the stimulus scheme of 2008 is working.

The other side of the coin will reflect an uptick in inflation. In other words, your money will be worth less, only to have the appearance of an improving economy. Guys like the big Wall Street Bankers that the President says are the villains will profit from this. Guys like George Soros who, “wants a controlled devaluation of the dollar”, will profit.
Guys like Boehner will get the blame when this stimulus scheme goes south like every other scheme of government.

As the House and Senate prepare themselves for a new landscape of compromise and consensus, one thing remains constant. The President is still presiding over the bank of fiscal and monetary policy. The people sent a message to our elected officials. The message was to go in a different direction. The Congress wants to, they have to. Some in the Senate want to go in a different direction, because 21 of those seats will be up for election in 2012.

The president, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily have to change direction right now, because he still has support. He will use this landscape to his advantage. The landscape will be painted with a stock market on the rise and a Senate who is still beholding to the false promise of liberalism. The landscape will also consist of the unemployed and large deficits. The question is: who will get the blame, if these two issues don’t improve?

The Fed will also use the landscape to do what they do best and that is to print money. This is the only thing the rest of the world wants from America. That is the only thing we produce and when our wealth is eaten up by inflation the landscape will again require a change. The 2012 election will be a part of that scenario going forward.

To be, Speaker of the House Boehner, and to be, Senate Minority leader McConnell will have to bring their story to the landscape of America and be truthful about the ideas coming from these institutions. We know one thing, the ideas that have come from these institutions were bad and that is why the landscape has changed.

When exit polling questions were asked about repealing healthcare, 51% responded yes. When the president was asked about this his response was there are still 49% who don’t want to repeal it. It is this part of the landscape that we need to cultivate with the seeds of conservatism. It is this part of the landscape who still thinks that they are going to get something for nothing. This is the lie and this is what our new leaders must address.

What we will address is the landscape of conservative values and fiscal restraint. The new landscape will require that more changes be made at Pinecone Conservatives. I have spoken to many key leaders and their interest is now peaked. We made it through one election cycle and we are preparing to go through another in two years. We will organize with chapters that you manage. We will organize to cultivate the seeds of conservatism because our leaders are now in a position to take note of what we are all about.

Hang on, because the landscape now requires an organization to cultivate the message of conservative thought and action.

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Jefferson wrote to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826 (in the last letter that he penned): “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The landscape has changed and the importance of organizing has gotten that much more important to the landscape.