False Equality

I am always surprised at the rhetorical lengths politicians will go to in order to promote a policy, but this "We Built It" crap is nonsense.  The worst of it all, is that Republicans play the victim and argue that there is equally hyperbolic and offensive attacks from the other side.  It isn't even close.  Yes, the Democrats have launched offensive advertisements, and Democratic politicians have painted pictures of Romney as callous, uncaring, immoral, etc.  I could not agree with you more on that point: many Democrats and Liberals are lying bastards, who will say anything to get their way.  I despise those sorts of people, who manipulate the facts and distort reality in order to promote a policy.  There are many instances where unions have distorted facts and lied in order to influence a policy change.  That is wrong, and I agree with you.  I only hope you can grant me the same outrage when I point it out in your own rhetoric, and illuminate the falsehoods you are perpetuating.

Please, take a second and really think about what words you are chanting, wearing on your shirts, displaying proudly online.  Think if you truly, in your heart of hearts, believe what you are saying and accept the implications of the statement.  To chant "We Built It" is to imply that the other party does not support the same thing.  The president's statement, "You Didn't Build That," was simply not about small businesses, or about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, or about demonizing success.  That is absolutely false, and bears no relation to reality.  Why would the president demonize success?  He is very successful, ultra-competitive, and is running an election campaign - why would he deliberately demonize any demographic, especially one so prominent as "successful people."  Success is such an amorphous term anyway.  There is no single definition of a successful person; I'm sure President Obama considers himself successful. What do you even mean by that, "demonizing success?"  Do you really think Barack Obama hates achievement, and wants all of America to, I don't even know what, be welfare slaves?  If you mean the kind of achievement that I would better characterize as capitalist rapaciousness, then I agree wholeheartedly with the criticism.  Not everyone rates success or achievement solely through one's (offshore) bank account or one's trust fund, in fact, most people will never enjoy the security of said trust fund, or savings account.

That is not to say that having a savings account, working hard, or achieving is wrong, or evil, or immoral.  I am not saying that at all.  Perhaps my greatest dream in life is owning a house, starting a family, having a stable, respectable job.  I believe that was what the American dream was all about in the first place.  In my mind, a society that can provide a reasonable and sustainable path to that dream is the greatest society that we can have in place.  And I believe that nearly every liberal, democrat, even most socialists would agree that providing a route to such success is a function of a good government.  I recognize there are radical elements out there who would do away with the notion of private property in all, and I disagree with those individuals.  The president does too.  He is not an anarchist, or a radical Muslim jihadist, who is the product of some half-century old communist scheme to elect a radical president at this precise moment.  The whole birther thing is an entirely different story - who the fuck cares?  What does it matter, in his policy, if he is born in Kenya?  But I'll have to leave that issue for another day.

It isn't a false equality of rhetoric at all.  One side says the other is unamerican, unpatriotic, atheist, muslim anarchist, communist, etc, and the other says the other are greedy bastards, who do not want to share the wealth.  How can you honestly equate the two?  Greed, need I remind all your Christian conservatives out there, is a sin.  In fact, if I remember correctly, greed and avarice are some of the seven deadly sins.  It isn't unamerican to decry greed and avarice, it is at the very center of our moral fabric.  Don't pretend for an instant that Mitt Romney is not a greedy man.  Why do you need $250 million dollars?  And you think only paying 13% on your taxes is somehow a fair rate, and that a more progressive tax code would somehow destroy innovation and wreak havoc on the entire economy.  The man has amassed a fortune amounting to a quarter of a billion dollars; do you really think he would not have been pretty damn successful with a 20% tax rate, or, God forbid, something a little bit higher than a janitor pays?  If you raise taxes on the wealthy, why would they just say "to hell with it all" and stop working entirely?  From the party of individual achievement in the face of obstacles, arguing that a higher tax rate would crush peoples urge to strive smacks of utter bullshit.  I thought that the poor should rise up themselves, even though times are tough.  But when the wealthy are asked to pay a bit more, suddenly it becomes impossible to achieve in a harder tax climate.

And finally, look around you as you chant "We Built It."  How many objects and services that you enjoy every day did you really build?  With your bare hands, with no help from the government in any shape or form.  Did you, for instance, build the Tampa convention center, or the roads to get there; did you lay the cable for the electrical infrastructure; did you fight, and die in battle, to protect your liberty to chant those words; or did the government play some role.  If you started a business, who educated your employees?  Do they drive on streets to get to work, or take public transportation?  You didn't build that.  Did you settle the town you grew up in, or did the government build up that city, invest millions of dollars and countless hours of union and public manpower to build it?  You didn't build that.  Think about it, there is honestly no way you can disagree with the role the government plays in a good society.  I don't want to destroy society when I say that there should be a more progressive tax code, I want to raise the funds necessary to keep those roads maintained, and keep those schools open, and keep those teachers employed.  Don't be a lemming, and accept some terrible talking point as your political mantra.  Please, just take a second, and just think about it.