Thinking is a good thing

Today I read a long exchange between friends on Facebook.  In the exchange, one party held the President responsible for the loss of jobs in her hometown, jobs that depend on the oil industry.  Another friend tried to point out that global demand for fossil fuels is decreasing, so that a downturn in that economic sector is inevitable.

But you could tell that the person blaming the President was not convinced.   It made me profoundly sad.  And not because I'm a fan of the President.

It made me sad because the oil industry has been cyclical ever since I can remember.  It became totally obvious in the 1970's, when OPEC created an artificial shortage to drive prices up.  The US oil industry created more refining capacity to fill the need, and OPEC flooded the market with cheap gas, causing the US refineries to lay off and mothball units.  Then OPEC cut supply again, and so on, and so on.

I know it is not always OPEC cutting supply.  We have had loss of stability in Venezuela, multiple military actions in the Middle East, strained and strange relationships with Russia all contribute to different market shortages and market gluts which have created a boom and bust cycle in the oil industry.

And whoever the President of the United States is at the time has had very little if anything to do with that boom and bust cycle.

Actually, the President of the United States has very little power to make any kind of change at all.

Change is made by the Congress, and the Senate, and the Supreme Court.  And by the will of the people.

Sure, every presidential candidate has a platform.  And every candidate has personal goals for the county.  But the power of executive orders is very limited, no matter what you heard on TV or the radio.

And Congress and the Senate make the laws.  And they also fund the laws.  An unfunded law is just words on paper.

The Supreme Court interprets the law as regards to the United States Constitution.  Interpretations of what was meant in a document written two hundred and twenty-nine years ago is an evolutionary process.  As each new court of justices is informed by the norms and politics of the times that they live in, new interpretations of the original and subsequent amendments can change.

The founding fathers deliberately set up a system of checks and balances so that no one branch of government would have too much power.

Now we have seen a corruption of power in the Congress and the Senate.  The failure to hold hearings on the vacant Supreme Court seat is an example of that corruption, as is the government shutdown in October 2013, which is estimated to have cost the US economy twenty-four billion dollars.

Unfortunately, most people blame everything on the current president, or someone else's congressman or senator.

And that is why thinking is a good thing.  As much as you can, try not to believe everything you see, hear or read.  Research.  Gather data.  Learn about how government works, and how it is supposed to work.  Analyze.  Think.  Draw your own conclusions.

Single node answers are rarely correct.  The world is always evolving, and when that evolution causes personal loss or pain it feels good to be mad at someone, to blame someone.

That doesn't solve anything.  If you are really unhappy with the government, get more involved in the political process.  Vote against your senator or your congressman if you feel they do not represent you.

Send your representative, your senator, the vice-president and the president letters and emails asking questions and making your position on issues known.

Volunteer with organizations who support your causes.

But whatever you do, try as hard as you can to not buy into the fact that one political figure or the other has created whatever hardship there is in your life.

None of them are that powerful.  We give them power when we believe and advance that our unfortunate circumstance is their fault.

It is not.  Every life has it's ups and downs.  Until each of us accepts our responsibility for our own life, and make the sometimes painful choices necessary to have the life we want, it will never get better.

No matter who the President is.