Email from Matt Rhoades
Today I received the following email from a Matt Rhoades, campaign manager, Romney for President:
Friend,
President Obama recently said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Comments like that are a slap in the face to the American Dream and reveal the President's naïve view that government, and not the hard work, talent, and initiative of people, is the center of society and the economy. Clearly, this President doesn't understand how our economy works. Mitt Romney knows from experience that hard-working individuals create successful businesses. Americans have run out of patience -- donate today to send a message to President Obama that there is one clear choice this November. Donate today and stand with Mitt. Matt Rhoades Campaign Manager Romney for President
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My reaction to Mr Rhoades
1. Mr Rhoades, campaign manager for a Mitt Romney, is not my friend. I have never communicated with or met this person. I choose my friends according to personal characteristics (not to be confused with political opinions) that Mr Rhoades does not possess.
2. Mr Rhoades, campaign manager for Mitt Romney, has taken the quoted statement out of context, and is twisting the meaning of the statement. He is making a misleading point, or is it in fact a lie?
3. There are actually two statements:
The first: "if you've been successful, you did not build that on your own".
Every successful entrepreneur, small or large, knows that he or she would not have been able to build their business solely on their own. The successful entrepreneur is usually supported by family, friends, a healthy market, conducive environment, a skilled and stable team of employees, dependable private, public and social services, and luck, just to name a few.
The second: "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 - that - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The internet did not get invented on its own, government research created the internet, so that..."
The statement underscores the valid point that "if you've been successful, you did not build that on your own", and that government public and social services support successful entrepreneurship. Specifically, the "that" here refers to the roads and bridges that entrepreneurs did not build, and other supportive public services that the government engages in; it does not refer to entrepreneurs' businesses. He does not say that entrepreneurs did not build their businesses.
And then "the point is ... that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."
See the real thing for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=192oEC5TX_Q Read some of the comments and watch the twisted spoofs too - just to see what some people think they have to make out of it.
4. Mr Rhoades refers to the American Dream, while at the same time the convictions, policies and actions he represents are leading to the destruction of the American middle class - the backbone of the American economy and an important factor in the world economy.
My fellow small and medium-scale entrepreneurs and I see this clearly: sales of middle-of-the-road products and services continue to drop in favour of both frugal low-cost goods and luxury high-cost items. Are you now using the "American dream" as an excuse to fool the American people into an advancing system of capitalist extremism, oligopolies and corporate slavery, Mr Rhoades and Mr Romney? And doesn't this fit in much better with Mr Romney's actual qualifications?
You are not fooling me. I just hope that you don't fool too many well-meaning Americans.
5. I personally do not care what Mr Rhoades, campaign manager for Mitt Romney, says in public, but sending me an email with twisted half-truths goes too far.
While I take my share of spam, I do not appreciate his insults on my entrepreneurship or my intelligence with twisted lies - while I am at work, building and maintaining a socially and environmentally responsible business. And yes, doing so in appreciation of public and social government services that generate and maintain a conducive business environment.
6. Mr Rhoades is lying. He is using this lie to convince me, and many others, that Mr Romney should be a president for the United States.
7. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is disqualified.
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