A look ahead!

Wednesday – September 7, 2011

A look ahead!

Between today and tomorrow, we will have a presidential debate held by the Republicans and a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress on a new jobs plan.

I will look seriously at what each contender says tonight and I will listen to what the President says, as well. I believe that the Republicans will approach the jobs situation a lot differently than the President. The latest on the President’s proposal is calling for an additional 300 billion dollars in stimulus to create jobs. We should be suspect, because nothing he has proposed has worked. This is why we need to listen closely.

Today, the United States has slipped to fifth in global ranking for competitiveness. The U.S. has fallen from the top ranking in 2008 to taking a back seat to Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden and Finland. The rankings, which the forum has issued for more than three decades, are based on economic data and a survey of 1,500 business executives.

This ranking is the latest bad news for the President. He says he wants to make the U.S. a competitive nation, but with high unemployment, high debt, huge deficits and a declining public faith in government, it is becoming more and more evident that he either doesn’t want to or that he doesn’t know how.
A quote comes to mind that I have used before. Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jedidiah Morse, in 1822, after many years of public service and observation: “We are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be; for who can imagine what we may become under circumstances not now imaginable.”

Take these words at face value and ask yourself just what are we becoming as a nation and society. We have leaders that are elected, because they speak well. We have leaders who are elected, because they have more money to spend on campaigns. We have leaders that have occupied their respective offices for decades. Michigan has four of them, itself.

Ask yourself one question; if our politicians are allowed to continually vote one way, is it possible that what we are becoming a nation that our forefathers never envisioned would become a reality. Jefferson was worried about what we may become under circumstance not now imaginable. He didn’t envision a government that would grow and that would cost our posterity not only in un told monetary expense, but an expense of liberty and the freedom that Jefferson was part and parcel in creating.

When I view the debates tonight and listen to the president tomorrow this is the prism by which I will view these two events.

Reagan said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” It is the future generations of Americans that will know no difference between freedom and supporting government for the sake of liberty. The true terms of what liberty and freedom mean is something that will become distorted through continued support of those who have voted for initiatives that cost our posterity.

Reagan said it best :“One thing our founding fathers could not foresee…was a nation governed by professional politicians who had a vested interest in getting re-elected. They probably envisioned a fellow serving a few hitches and then looking forward to getting back to the farm.”

It becomes necessary to view our current circumstances with guarded caution and a willingness to take the bold action that Jefferson once did and that Reagan was so apt at articulating.

A look ahead should be done while viewing what has occurred when you are being asked to make a decision on your countries future. The voting pattern of all our elected officials has created the circumstances that are not now imaginable.

If you knew that 9 % unemployment was going to be the new norm and that our world competitiveness ranking would be fifth, would you start asking the question of why and how did we get here? This is the question of the day that needs to be answered. At some point we drifted to where we should not be. At some point we need to wake up and get America back on track with new leaders that can do a better job.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Take a look ahead and start to imagine what some of the circumstances could be that are not now imaginable.