Media Endorsements of Presidential Candidates

[DeistPaladin]

My interpretation of what he said was my own, not Romney's. When the President said "If you've got a business – you didn't build that", I asked myself if he really meant this the way it sounds and concluded that he did. If he meant it the way you think, there would be no need to preface the line with "If you've got a business".

Any rational person listening to the whole quote in context would conclude that Obama was speaking about roads and bridges. And the reason for "if you've got a business" is because of the Randite philosophy that prevails in our political discourse.

Again the quote with bold emphasis to illustrate:

Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

This feels like arguing with a Christian apologist about what the Bible says. I'm going by what's there. You're going by some obtuse interpretation that fits your ideology.

As a small business owner myself, and a member of a local small business association where I meet weekly with other small business owners, I know that having money to expand is what leads most business owners to do it. They always believe that there's more business to be had by growing - they're small businesses - they're not dominating a market. If the funds are there, they will use them to grow, expand and hire, just like I'm doing right now with my own business.

Well, I'm not sure what business you're in or what the economy is like in your area but what makes things in the current economy hard for small business is not taxes or regulation. It's the lack of demand that would normally come from the middle class. The middle class is dying in this country. Our jobs are being shipped overseas, business owners like me are competing with cheaper products from China while more wealth is being concentrated at the very top.

You can make appeals to unnamed authority ("all the economists say...") but this is little more convincing than a Christian apologists who makes similar sweeping statements about scholarly consensus about Jesus. I care about evidence and results, not ivory towers. I've seen the conservative economic policies in action since 2000 and can assert that the only way they work is in killing the middle class in America.