Thursday – March 3, 2011

The ideas of young men:

When is an idea a good one and when is an idea a bad one? This is the question that we must objectively ask ourselves and our neighbors.

Just over two years ago, a young man took the office of the presidency. The idea then was that the young man who took office would cure the ills of the world. The idea was that this young man would, by virtue of his presence alone, bring peace to the war torn areas of the world. The idea then was that this young man would bring health back to a nation and to the system that delivered our health. The idea then was that this young man had a wealth of ideas that were new. The idea that his ideas were new is one that we are now realizing isn’t so. His ideas were just packaged differently - that was the idea on how to get the young man elected.

The ills of the world are not cured. There are more areas in the world today that are in war torn turmoil than there were in 2009. Our healthcare system is hemorrhaging more everyday. And the system that this young man would replace it with has been judged to be unconstitutional by a Federal Judge.

The only good thing that has happened in the last two years is that the States are now, through responsible other young men, enforcing states rights. The idea of states rights was first introduced by a group of young men and it is the basis of the original intent of the Constitution.

The idea of the young man who took office was to reduce the price of oil and our dependency on oil. Ask yourself, what was the price of a gallon of gas two years ago? The answer: $1.83 – today it is $3.48, an upward change of 87%. Crude oil was selling at $43.48 per barrel. Today it is selling at $102.00, a rise of over 127 %. Our dependency on foreign oil has increased. The young man who can, with a stroke of a pen, reduce the dependency on foreign oil has prohibited domestic drilling.

The idea of the young man who took office was to stimulate an economy with big money and bold ideas. The unemployment rate non – farm, overall was 7.6% in 2009. Today it is 9.4%, a rise by 23.7%. The black unemployment rate was 12.6% in 2009. Today it is 15.8%, up by 25.4%. Total numbers of the unemployed was 11,616.000. Now it is 14,485,000, up by 24.7%. Real median household income fell by 0.7%. The poverty rate has grown by 9.5%. The number of failed banks in 2010 was 164 from 140 in 2009 a 17.1% rise. The national debt in 2009 was $10.627 trillion dollars. Today it is north of $14,052 trillion and growing by the second. This is a 32.2% rise.

If you take the last item alone from this list, in the last two years the young man who took office has accumulated a national debt at the rate of more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our nation’s history.

Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 miles per hour and a car passes you in the left lane going 27 times faster, it would be doing 1,755 miles per hour. Thinking about what this young man has done in two years in these terms, it then becomes a disaster. The young man who took office wanted results with legislation that would change the way things are done. He wanted bold legislation and wanted it quickly.

When we hear ideas and when we are told about the ideas that some young men have we should remember what the other young men in history gave us. It is not wise, nor is it prudent; to elect young men whose ideas sound good, but cannot pass the test of reality. Some men warned us of the test of reality and some of us didn’t listen because we wanted bold legislation and we wanted it quickly.

We all have ideas, but when ideas fail to secure confidence, peace and a way of life it is up to other young men who can bring ideas that can secure peace and a way of life, so that the idea of liberty and freedom becomes a way of life once again.

My FORUMS this week were on original thoughts, staying power and yesterday, I wrote about good faith. If you take all these titles and had to develop a theme for discussion on being the next leader what would you do? For some it would be easy, for others it would be a challenge. For me, I would talk about how bad ideas can affect good people and how good people can stop the bad ideas of young men from occurring.

We do not use the weapons like the ones we are seeing being used in the capitals of the world that are in turmoil and that are falling, as we speak. We, in this country, have elections and we have a record of achieving through our freedom. If I had had to present the discussion, I would use words that came from the ideas that gave birth to a republic, because within those words lies the truth.

In 1832 Noah Webster said:

“If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Today we are kept hostage by the bad ideas of the young man that was elected to be our president. Is it to much to ask of that the young man to create new ideas that will reverse the trends? As citizens we are learning that we have neglected our duty because we can now see the reality of our neglect.