What is victory and what is defeat?

Tuesday-July 12, 2011

What is victory and what is defeat?

When we consider the question of victory and defeat, I believe that most of us would choose victory over defeat. I think it is fair to assume that defeat is not in most of our thoughts or in our vernacular on a daily basis. At least that is the way it is for me. But then again that’s me.

Last Friday, I wrote about what I would do if I were fortunate enough to represent the people. Yesterday, I echoed those words again.

Today, I am echoing some other words by some other people who do serve the people. The names don’t matter, but the thoughts do. Some say the American public thinks there should be shared sacrifice. Some say the rich, like millionaires, don’t pay their fair share in taxes. Some say no pain, no gain. Some even went as far to say we should raise taxes on the rich, so we don’t cut spending that would help the poor.

Yesterday, I wrote about a great map. Last week, I wrote about the first view our forefathers had when they heard the words of The Declaration of Independence for the first time. Though I am writing my opinion, I believe that opinion of mine is pretty close to what they saw and felt in their gut.

Yesterday, I wrote about a map in hopes of tying in the theme of Independence a little bit more this month: This great map two centuries ago illustrated what the Eastern part of the country meant to a new country’s liberty and freedom after a Declaration of Independence was written. The great map, as you moved west a century later, pictured Detroit as its future manufacturing capital which was surrounded by the majesty of The Great Lakes. Moving further west, you would have found the land of 10,000 lakes, which has at its tip a great river called the Mississippi, which connected North and South with commerce, the trade in those days was primarily produced here at home. The golden prairies followed on that great map and at its core the typography that outlined the grandeur of the Rockies held the stories of the great men of the mountains that paved the way so trade and intellectual property could be sent to the West Coast, where it was illuminated by the sunshine that starts every morning to its east. This was the goal by those who created it all.

Today, the President wants to tax the rich now and cut spending later. He also wants to raise taxes on the middle class. Many are asking the question: why raise taxes on anybody, when the economy has gotten worse in just the last six months alone? Only the president can answer that and he hasn’t.

The rich, as the president believes them to be, only constitute 1% of the tax payers. They already are scheduled, by law, to pay an additional 1 trillion dollars over the course of ten years. The law is scheduled to take affect in 2014. In addition, tax hikes for everyone that are scheduled to pay for Obama Care will also go into affect by 2014, when Obama care is enacted by law. And the president still wants more out of us.

The Associated Press said of the debt debate: “Proposals under consideration include raising taxes on small business owners and potentially low income families. You won’t hear about that from Obama. Instead, the President focuses on the very rich and speaks euphemistically.”
You might say that my thoughts are a bit fragmented today, even the spell check on the computer say they are. This is intentional on my part, because I am trying to prove a point. That point is this: the president’s plan, his wishes, his demands, call it what you want, are fragmented and this is why there is no consensus in Washington and worse, no confidence in what comes out of Washington.

Everyone on the left today will demonize the Tea Party. There is no reason to because the Tea Party is the only group who is making any sense. Don’t demonize them; support them, because they are not a fragmented group. Their thoughts are not fragmented, because they say one thing and one thing only: “Taxed enough already.”

The month of July in our history is loaded with significant events; tomorrow date holds two of them:
The Ordinance of 1787 was passed on July 13, 1787. The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance or "The Ordinance of 1787") was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. It also said that a territory can become 3 to 5 states at 60,000 in population. This ordinance also excluded slavery.

On July 13, 1832 the source of the Mississippi River was discovered.
I didn’t know this bit of history yesterday when I wrote about my thoughts of the great map, though these two dates helped with the growth of the map. That’s not important. What is important is that the greatness of the great map and the movement of the country was always towards Independence. We continually asked how a nation can make more of it.

Liberty and freedom was also the result of the movement towards Independence. The other question of how do we secure our future as a country and how do we secure, as the Constitution says, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” A country full of opportunity for the living and the unborn, our posterity, was the answer then and still should remain the answer today.

We have not run out of land, because of the westward expansion, but we are running out of opportunities that the westward expansion provided. We are running out of opportunities, because there is no more confidence with what that map gave. What is coming out of Washington is not creating the view that must have been present when that expansion to the west started. The confidence that was displayed by the early settlers and the early patriots is absent from the current scene. It is confidence in victory of thought and victory over peril that made America strong.

We now are experiencing defeat, because of the paralysis that the rich, the small business owner and now the struggling middle class are experiencing. This is what diminishes the opportunity for victory. And the president still wants more out of us.

It is no wonder that the next great horizon of America is now in question. It is no wonder that the next great horizon is being eclipsed by the nations that were kept in our rearview mirror, because of our victories.

All is not lost. Define for yourself what victory is. When you do, you will come to see that low taxes, reform of entitlements and freedom to expand liberty through independence are what worked before the malaise of Obama. Victory in 2012 will give victory in the biggest repeals in American history. When that happens, the world will see what victory is and they will feel the defeat when we restore the opportunities that those who created it all saw for the first time!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Victory is for the living. Opportunity is what we must guarantee for our posterity. This is all the victory that I need and this is what I am focusing on so that defeat is in our rearview mirror.