Obama vs. Harper

laureenharper

Laureen, that is…

President Obama,

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Laureen Harper,

“I know this is the part of the speech where I am supposed to tell you how important it is to pursue your dreams. And that is important; one of my dreams was to travel around the world, and I did that, and it was wonderful.
 
But I believe even more than that, is you need to realize that you can go far in this world if you work hard. You will compete against people who went to expensive private schools, people who have connections that you don’t have, or people who have more money than you do.
 
And you cannot compete against that. In fact, sometimes you feel inadequate when you hear about the fancy schools your competitors will come from — schools with several thousand kids, with dozens of different options to choose from.
 
But there is one way you can compete, and that is with hard work. You can go a long way in this world with hard work.

h/t @adamdaif

Jul 19
July 19th, 2012 10 Comments Other
  • http://www.facebook.com/mary.m.forbes.7 Mary M. Forbes

    Great contrast. Thank you Laureen.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kelt.davies Kelt G. Davies

    Glad that she is our equivalent of a ‘first lady’.

  • liz J

    Well said and so true. Those who reach their goals, their dreams through hard work touch more people on their way leaving lasting impressions and are the best roll models to others.

  • Anonymous

    Ahem. Context:

    [Obama] I’ve got a different idea. I do believe we can cut [taxes] — we’ve
    already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make some more
    cuts in programs that don’t work, and make government work more
    efficiently. (Applause.) Not every government program works the way
    it’s supposed to. And frankly, government can’t solve every problem.
    If somebody doesn’t want to be helped, government can’t always help
    them. Parents — we can put more money into schools, but if your kids
    don’t want to learn it’s hard to teach them. (Applause.)

    But you know what, I’m not going to see us gut the investments
    that grow our economy to give tax breaks to me or Mr. Romney or folks
    who don’t need them. So I’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced
    way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make
    another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the
    wealthy to pay a little bit more. (Applause.) And, by the way, we’ve
    tried that before — a guy named Bill Clinton did it. We created 23
    million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did
    just fine. We created a lot of millionaires.

    There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me
    — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t —
    look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You
    didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think,
    well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart
    people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody
    else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of
    hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

    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. If
    you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that
    happen.     The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government
    research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money
    off the Internet.

    The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our
    individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There
    are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I
    mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a
    hard way to organize fighting fires.

    I can agree that the quoted line is awkwardly phrased, making for the lovely negative soundbite. But the context shows clearly that the “that” in “you didn’t build that” is the infrastructure, the American system that makes it possible for someone to create and grow a business.

    The low-tax brigade is mainly people born on second base, who made it to third, then think they hit a triple.

  • Anonymous

    Ahem. Context:

    [Obama] I’ve got a different idea. I do believe we can cut [taxes] — we’ve
    already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make some more
    cuts in programs that don’t work, and make government work more
    efficiently. (Applause.) Not every government program works the way
    it’s supposed to. And frankly, government can’t solve every problem.
    If somebody doesn’t want to be helped, government can’t always help
    them. Parents — we can put more money into schools, but if your kids
    don’t want to learn it’s hard to teach them. (Applause.)

    But you know what, I’m not going to see us gut the investments
    that grow our economy to give tax breaks to me or Mr. Romney or folks
    who don’t need them. So I’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced
    way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make
    another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the
    wealthy to pay a little bit more. (Applause.) And, by the way, we’ve
    tried that before — a guy named Bill Clinton did it. We created 23
    million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did
    just fine. We created a lot of millionaires.

    There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me
    — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t —
    look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You
    didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think,
    well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart
    people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody
    else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of
    hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

    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. If
    you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that
    happen.     The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government
    research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money
    off the Internet.

    The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our
    individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There
    are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I
    mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a
    hard way to organize fighting fires.

    I can agree that the quoted line is awkwardly phrased, making for the lovely negative soundbite. But the context shows clearly that the “that” in “you didn’t build that” is the infrastructure, the American system that makes it possible for someone to create and grow a business.

    The low-tax brigade is mainly people born on second base, who made it to third, then think they hit a triple.

  • http://twitter.com/bow_en_arrow Grant Bowen

    Still using this out-of-context BS?? Shame!

  • Chris Habets

    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. If
    you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that
    happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government
    research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money
    off the Internet.

    Nice context, Mr. Taylor.

  • http://twitter.com/ReverendBlair Reverend Blair

    That kind of distortion…taking something so blatantly out of context…is a purposeful mistruth, Mr. Taylor.

  • Anonymous

    President Obama has adopted — some say cribbed — ideas promulgated by other “progressives” (H/T SDA post)
    http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/07/obama-and-warren-cribbed-build-it-narrative-from-progressive-berkeley-professor/
    “Obama and Warren cribbed “build it” narrative from progressive Berkeley Professor”
    The Berkeley professor referred to above is George Lakoff, co-author of this “little book”:
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Blue-Book-Democratic/dp/147670001X

    Sunday morning RadCan “philosophers” picked up on the same meme, under the guise of “La juste part”, a theme of the recent and ongoing Quebec student protests against tuition increases. In this morning’s (Sunday July 29) broadcast, academics Xavier Brouillette and Normand Baillargeon talk about doping in sports and also about an essay by U of Ottawa professors David Robichaud & Patrick Turmel titled “La juste part – Repenser les inégalités, la richesse et la fabrication des grille-pains”.
    The two topics can be heard here (in French):
    http://www.radio-canada.ca/audio-video/pop.shtml#urlMedia=http://www.radio-canada.ca/Medianet/2012/CBF/DessinemoiUnDimanche201207290910_3.asx
    You can also read about the arguments presented in that essay here:
    http://www.ledevoir.com/culture/livres/353480/quelle-est-votre-juste-part
    “Quelle est votre juste part ?”
    Louis Cornellier 30 juin 2012

    In contrast, here’s a different take:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/309606/obama-against-self-made-man-rich-lowry JULY 17, 2012 12:00 A.M.
    “Obama against the Self-Made Man
    The president would socialize success.”
    By Rich Lowry

    Just another battle of words in the perennial struggle of the right (the individual) vs the left (the collective).

  • Anonymous

    Not just the Government but how about previous generations.
    Previous generations all built the infrastructure that we use today. Pioneers cleared and settled the land, immigrants and workers built our lines of communications, our political system was created and developed by folk across the world and was later added to by people here. Even our crops and livestock require communal effort to develop.
    Taxation was at the bottom of all of this and was a price that people agreed to pay for living together, along with the law of course.
    None of us today could do what we are doing today if previous generations hadn’t created systems to raise money and build our country, that is a true statement of fact.
    As Newton said about his accomplishments, ” If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” He recognised that he was only that good because of all the work carried out by those before him and he could not have done what did if it wasn’t for them; no matter how hard he worked.
    Creating civilisation is a group effort.