Friday, August 24, 2012

Obama's Ignorance





A friend sent me a picture of this sign from the side of a county road in Louisiana. Similar signs are popping up on public roads all over the country to point out how ignorant President Obama is about what it takes to be successful.  According to the sender, the purpose is to “sweep the nation and send a message about the audacity, arrogance, and ignorance of Obama.

In a recent speech, Obama made the incendiary statement (echoing Elizabeth Warren’s now famous off-the-cuff message[1]) that people become successful in life –not all on their own—but with the help, somewhere along the way, of someone else, a teacher, a parent, a coach, a mentor, a church leaders, or someone else perhaps.[2]

The Romney campaign radically distorted the President’s statement–essentially dismembered it--to make it sound like a call for government assistance.  Then they began using it in its hijacked form in political ads to pour gasoline on the anti-government fire burning in the hearts of the right wing. Romney claims that President Obama's comments were "insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America."[3]

This cynical tactic is working. (Taking the low road never fails in politics. Never.)

How ignorant is Obama?

He is so ignorant that he thinks Mr. Herbert had a mother and father, or at least a mother or a foster mother, who helped him through childhood before he got into business.

He is so ignorant that he thinks that Mr. Herbert probably went to school, at least elementary school where he had teachers working in a building, paid for by the taxpayers, providing him with a basic education. Same thing for all his employees. And his customers.

Obama is so stupid that he actually thinks that roads and bridges, as well as telephones and the internet, may be helpful to Mr. Herbert in getting employees and customers to his place of business and in getting goods and services delivered to and from the business.

Obama is such an idiot that he thinks Mr. Herbert needs local and national electric power systems and local public water systems to operate his business.

Obama is so dumb that he thinks police officers and courts are helpful in maintaining law and order so that Mr. Herbert’s business can operate with being robbed on a daily basis, as many businesses are in countries that do not have functioning police and courts.

Obama is so stupid that he thinks that laws enacted by democratically elected legislators protect businesses like Herbert's from unfair competition and extortion by criminal enterprises who would otherwise demand protection money from legitimate businesses, as they do in “failed” nations.

Obama is so stupid that he thinks that businessmen (as well as their employees and customers) are benefitted by government institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control  that protect everyone from catastrophic epidemics.

Obama is such an idiot that he think businesses need strong military and intelligence systems to protect the nation from terrorists and enemies who would like to see our whole way of life disappear.

Obama is foolish enough to think that businessmen travelling on business need air traffic controllers to keep aircraft from colliding into each other in flight.

The list of Obama’s idiotic beliefs goes on and on, endlessly it seems.

Why can’t he just leave businesses alone?

It works in Somalia.  Why not in Louisiana?

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[1] Warren’s off the cuff statement (now claimed to be a communist manifesto) is as follows: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. ….You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

[2] The text of the President’s statement prior to its dismemberment by the Romney campaign is as follows: "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own.  If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges."

[3] Romney’s statement as reported on CBS News.

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