2016
A Utahan for President
A performance based conclusion
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Many of us
have heard about the experiment with the five monkeys. The monkeys were placed
in a cage where a banana was suspended. As each tried to reach the banana, an
attendant sprayed cold water on the monkey.
At the
point the monkeys were averse to claiming the reward, one of them was withdrawn
and replaced. When that victim tried to reach the banana, he was not subjected
to the cold water spray, but he was derailed by the caged veterans of the
experiment. In succession each was removed until, finally, not a single monkey
that was subjected to the original negative stimulus was present. Each monkey
was taught the avoidance procedure by his fellow monkeys. They had no idea why
they shouldn’t reach for the banana. They just knew that was the way the system
worked.
Washington is no
different. It has been too long since it was staffed by free and independent
men who relied upon nine full time employees four of which were … chaplains.
2016 looms
Our nation
is damaged.
Regardless
of the suggestion of recovery, those of us in the heartland know the consequences
of the federal policies and regulation enforcement that continue unabated. Even
the Stock Market is not a true measure of the economic reality. Increasingly, reliable
experts view its continued rise as a function of the monetary policy and
resulting bond market influences driven by the Federal Reserve and the federal
government. It is a bubble fueled by deficits and printing presses.
Optimism is
just a word that seeks a place to park. The idea of anything robust has no real
relationship with our private businesses or our business plans. Despondency is
more the central character than it has a right to be.
We are looking
for a leader from an economic model that works, but, more importantly, we are
searching for honesty.
A place to
start is a review of the state of the states. Eleven states, including my New Mexico, are upside
down. There are more welfare recipients than there are gainfully employed
citizens. California
is worse off by all measures.
North Dakota is
interesting. The reality of what energy can do to an economy is clearly being
experienced, but a national leader is not visible to those of us yet further
into the hinterlands.
Texas is a model of
encouragement, but Texas,
too, suffers from the absence of a leader who can speak from a national
platform. If presidencies could be won by trench work and good looks, Rick
Perry might well have been our candidate. He may have won, too.
The country would have been better
off, but here we are in 2013 incredulous as to how we reach 2016. Let’s cut to
the chase …
Over the past week, we have been
bombarded by scandals that, if reported honestly, would make Watergate look
like the petty, class C larceny it was. There is no difference in Fast and
Furious, Benghazi,
the IRS scandal, or the AP taps. It is the same story, same cast of characters,
but with a different headline. That fellow’s support stands at a rock solid mid
forty percentage. Nothing is going to be done.
What did matter in Washington took place
before a Natural Resources subpanel of Utah Congressman Rob Bishop’s
Subcommittee on Public
Lands and Environmental
Regulation. In that hearing, Utah’s
governor, Gary Herbert, testified that Utah
can manage its own lands, and it has the ability and best interest to manage
them better than the federal government.
Congressman Bishop laid the
discussion out with his normal non-inflammatory style. He said, “Over the last
few decades we’ve seen our National Forest System fall into complete neglect –
what was once a valuable asset that deteriorated into a growing liability. I
believe our forests and public lands are long overdue for a paradigm shift.”
A paradigm shift is needed indeed!
The ‘public lands’ reference in the Congressman’s statement center on
Department of Interior lands. It is there that backlogged maintenance alone is
estimated to be in excess of $11 billion.
It is probably true that Governor
Herbert answered the questions in a manner that only those who wanted to hear
the words would find comfort, but his words were profound. The progressives
chose not to listen to him.
What a terrible thing partisan
poison in Washington
is.
If the words of the head Bee Hiver
weren’t adequate to those short on courtesy, perhaps the performance of his
state should stand as ample proof.
For starters his unemployment
stands at 4.7% while the other fellow’s is a conditional 7.8%. His economy is
growing at an annual rate of 207% of the other fellow’s.
He is also very interested in the
figure of 66%. That is the goal he seeks by 2020 for college and other higher
learning graduation rates among adults in his state. There is no counterpart on
a national level that even addresses such a lofty expectation.
He doesn’t even brag about the latest
Forbes rating that inserted his state in the number two slot of the best place
to be in business in the nation. What he does do is admonish communities for
not moving fast enough in identifying and reducing regulatory burdens on local
economies that can be extended to the state. Unlike the disdain Washington seems to have
with local governance, he believes good government comes from people in the
places they live, work, raise their families, pay their taxes, worship their
God and … die.
He also believes that his state
would also be an infinitely better place if those same Utahans could expand
their horizons to more than 29.6% of the land mass on which they are required
to live, create wealth and stake their futures. Government, dominated by the
absentee landlord federal government, owns the rest.
It took no time for the NEA and the
tax payer supported communalists to venture forth with their finger paintings
and colored bows to protest Utah’s
‘arrogant’ battle with the federal government over ownership of certain lands
and titles to disputed roadways or trails.
“Ultimately, this public land
transfer will result in marred and scarred landscapes for years to come”, said
James Thompson, one of the tax dollar dependent protesters from Bingham High School.
The dishonesty of that asinine
nonsense can no longer be condoned nor can it be accepted as status quo.
Herbert’s testimony was founded on
the basis that the opportunity cost to his state and the residents of Utah for living under
the dominion of an absentee landlord exceeds $5 billion annually. For those like
Thompson who have come to believe money sprouts from mail boxes or electronic
transfers to their credit union, $5 billion to support their existence is not
only substantial it is future altering.
Utah is consistently one of the best three
managed states in the union, and it is being done on the basis of innovation
and diligence. It is not yet blessed as a major energy producer, but it is fueled
by a keen work ethic and a bright and energetic workforce. The more the state
is studied and scrutinized, the more it resembles two or three of the most
innovative economies in the world.
Governor Herbert has repeatedly
referred to ‘fidelity’ in his allegiance and adherence to his oath of office.
He will counsel the definition of the word has not changed. It remains the
unbending matter of “faithfulness, loyalty, strict conformity to truth or fact,
and exact correspondence to the original.”
Likewise, he believes the federal
government must be constrained by the “few and defined” powers enumerated to it
by the Constitution. He doesn’t have to quote Thomas Jefferson to remind his
constituents and colleagues the balance between the National and State governments
is of the utmost importance. To that end, it is the only security to the people
in guarding against tyranny and the loss of intended freedoms.
The rest of the Crew
This nation could use a bit of
fidelity in the management of its affairs.
Politics aside, Utah is doing something right. If an
objective assessment is done to array leadership that demonstrably comports to
constitutional originality, there is a cadre of leaders from the state that
demand our attention.
Gary Herbert, Rob Bishop, Jason Chaffetz,
Mike Lee, a constitutional scholar in the state house named Ken Ivory, and several
other up and coming leaders are earning our trust. Three of them probably cannot
be lost from the Congressional seats they currently fill, but there remains
presidential and attorney general candidacy viability within that arrayed list.
“It is the nature and disposition
of men and governments to amass unbridled power.” It is also the responsibility
of us, the God fearing, productive Originalists to make sure men of fidelity
don’t allow that to happen.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New
Mexico. “One of these men is capable of being our
next president.”
2 comments:
Let's think about this...the workforce is primarily Morman. These people are hard working, organized, family focused, and community loving. I agree with this part, but the rest of the country doesn't understand Morman religion...hence Romney's defeat.
As for the state economy, recreation and tourism are driving it. Just recently i watched a state sponsored tv ad about the national parks and monuments there. With out that national projection these beautiful areas would not exist.
I do agree there are problems with the federal land managing agencies. But, I think you need to look at what they are up against. The forest service can't spit without being sued by just about everyone and their dog. So, millions of dollars are pulled from on the ground projects, thus adding to backlogged maintenance and thinning.
I suggest you watch the greatest good: http://www.fs.fed.us/greatestgood/film/synopsis.shtml
as a incredible reminder of why we have national forests and parks. With out these agencies we would not have the strong natural resources and would be just like the raped and pillaged Mediterranean countries are now. Think a about how we can help our national agencies not bring them down!
Wilmeth asked me to post this comment:
"Perhaps you are one of the majority of Americans whose increasing distance from any intimate relationship with a heritage industry puts you at risk of being swayed by extremist organizations that make their living from that very disconnect. Their actions are automatic and consistent. It can be observed in their default position of assignment of guilt to the defendents of such industries who must live and exist under the authority of those agencies. Perhaps you should also assess your reference to a model of actual destruction without agency management. Where does that occur? In the woodlands of the South in the timber business? In the plains of Kansas in the grain business? How about the Coastal Bend of Texas on the King Ranch in the oil business? What can be assured is that if the agencies were there ... chaos would ensue and the modern form of federal sharecropping would be under siege with similar insults of fraud and malice. You should purchase a federal land ranch and show us the way ..."
Stephen L. Wilmeth
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