On January 28, 2009, The Wall Street Journal published a transcript of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s speech from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In his speech, Putin makes a point to warn us of the dangers of socialism. At one point he says, “Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake … In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.” With President Barack Obama signing these bailouts, putting these companies under government control, and attempting to nationalize several other fields, we are in a real risk of repeating Russia’s mistakes.
Putin continues on to say, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, has been eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.” I am shocked to find how this resonates with our situation, and we are hearing it from Putin! Instead of following the Darwinism philosophy that the strong survive and the weak fail, and allowing the new ones to replace them, the government has been bailing out these companies and now wants to put them under omnipotent government control. This economic cancer needs to be removed, not fed; even the Kremlin knows it.
With a majority of government as Democrats that fully supporting these bailouts and socialist agendas, how can we get off this path? There is one answer—well, at least a start to this answer—and it resides in our own 20th District. Everyone knows that when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, Kristen Gillibrand was promoted to be senator. On March 21, there will be a special election to fill the space for the 20th Congressional District. This is our chance to start taking our government back. We need to support Republican Jim Tedisco for this seat.
Tedisco is the leader of the Assembly Republican Conference and is known for being a strong Republican force. Tedisco has publicly voiced his disagreements with the bailouts and will not stop fighting against these bills that will be left to future generations to take care of and pay off. He is our best chance to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Tedisco earned and accepted a leadership role representing his colleges in the New York State assembly and excelled, and I have no doubt he will ascend quickly in Congress to strongly represent our local interests. For these reasons, Tedisco has earned the endorsement and wholehearted support of the RPI College Republicans and we hope you will turn out and vote for this gifted man in the special election next week. We hope to see you at the ballot box.
