Re: Obama to business owners: "You didn't build that."
Don't get me wrong, private industry is engine that runs this country. But the Federal Government is the battery and taxes are the alternator.[/QUOTE]
Poor analogy. Batteries are what "start" a car. Government doesn't "start" a private business, and taxes don't keep businesses going. Well, unless you're a green energy company, and then that only lasts so long.
Look, what liberals like Obama despise, is the simple fact that Americans are capable of becoming far more successful the LESS government we have instead of MORE government. Liberals like Obama want everything to be regulated from the federal level, because they are Progressives, who believe that they can bring about "fundamental change" to a country they see as having been "unfair" to certain sectors of society. It's called social engineering. And how can they change anything unless they first control everything?
Personally, I kinda like that a person can make as much money as they want in this country. I also like the fact that I can own guns. I also like the fact that I can live pretty much the lifestyle I want to live. I like the fact that if I don't want to buy something, I don't have to. I like the fact that I'm free to help the poor if I so choose. I like having the ability to object to certain social view points if I want to. In other words, I like America just fine, I don't see a need to "fundamentally transform" this country into anything other than what it is and has always been.
On the other hand, the progressive left, like the Obama types, view America completely different. They believe America and free market capitalism is and has been fundamentally unfair to people. They believe that it disproportionatly rewards the wealthy. While the wealthy can do very very well in America, so can anyone else. There's nothing fundamental about our nation that is prohibiting me from making a billion dollars. I mean, if I had founded Facebook instead of numb nuts, I would be a billionaire, and not him. That same opportunity exists for each of us, Mark Zuckerberg just happened to think of it and I didn't. The same opportunities exist for all of us here in America. Some discover them, and some don't. But it certainly isn't Zuckerberg's fault that I'm not wealthy, and it's not the government's fault either.
The CEO of Apple makes a lot more money than I do. But why shouldn't he? I wouldn't know the first thing about being the top executive and decision maker for a huge corporation. You think men of that talent should earn as much money as a WalMart checkout teen? You think that would benefit our economy and society? To marginalize talent? This nation was built on individual talent, and liberalism seeks to marginalize individual talent every opportunity it gets. Just like this comment from Obama. I'm not taking him out of context one bit. He's marginalizing people's intelligence and hard work. He mentions those things SPECIFICALLY in this little gaffe of his. He's marginalizing exceptionalism. If you don't see that, you're flat out white washed with ignorance. He marginalized hard working entreprenuers that certainly did build their businesses. I don't care what liberals claim he was "trying to say". I concede what he was "trying" to say. It's the manner in which he said it. He was condescending, and he was marginalizing the individual as the primary reason for one's success.
Obama is right. People like me have a fundamentally different way we see the world. I believe that the individual is the MOST influential and important part of one's success or failure. I believe individuals are creators, not bureaucracies. The world's finest inventions and ideas have come from individual accomplishment, not government sponsored programs. No matter how good a teacher is, the individual must be willing to be taught. No matter how well the road is constructed, the individual must have a need to use it. No matter how effective a government is, the individual must pay taxes to fund it. No matter how awesome the bridge is, the individual must have a need to cross it. It is the INDIVIDUAL which drives the world. In order to have a functioning society, the individual must agree to participate within that society.
Progressive liberalism is the antithesis of individualism. I urge you to study the philosophy behind "collectivism". Obama espouses the philosophies of "collectivism". Read his books, study Black Liberation Theology (which is what he claims brought him to Christianity under Jeremiah Wright). He's not a capitalist. He's a former community organizer from the south side of Chicago. That's Saul Alinsky territory. He's a collectivist, and a statist. He is a big government control Progressive. He believes that government incites societal change via mandate and executive order. He is gently PUSHING you into his style of governance, and it's not free market capitalistic, "america as we know it" kind of governance. It's more of a Marxist, European style of collectivism, class warfare, where the government tries to regulate and control virtually all facets of a society, most importantly, the economy.
Do liberals even know what I'm talking about?
