You Didn't Build That: An Actual Substantive Debate

So now Romney is running a clip from President Obama saying to the small business owner, "You didn't build that business." 

Beyond the stupidity of the sound bite manipulation, there is actually a true difference of perception and opinion here, and it may be the first glimmer of an actual debate here.

There are those who look at their own accomplishments in life and feel very proud, and think of all the risks and sacrifices and feel that whatever rewards they've got, they earned on their own, without any help from anyone. They have constructed in their own minds, the story of their clawing and fighting their way to success against all odds, their own personal story of travail and prevail.

Then, there are those who look at their own accomplishments and they are more humble,  and they say, "Whatever heights I've reached, I've done it by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Of course, the Republicans are now running ads with clips from small businessmen who are incensed the President would suggest they did not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and the media have investigated and it turns out each of these self made men took advantages of government grants, tax breaks, have advertised to their customers the tax breaks they can reap buying the products. 

It's a lot like the "Keep your derned government hands off my Medicare!"

When the full clip was run, of course, President Obama is saying, "You didn't raise yourself." You had a mother, a teacher, and your company used the internet and roads and bridges and all the infrastructure which comprises the American economic machine. You had to work hard, sure. But you had lots given to you to allow you to become successful. 

Every night on the world news, you see people trying to improve their lives in Rwanda or Tanzania or Honduras and you can see immediately, they will never succeed to the extent even a modestly determined person will succeed in America, because they've got no paved roads, no running water and no money in those places

I have friends who are like these Republicans--always whining about how hard they worked in college to get into medical school and through it and now they deserve all the money and good life they've earned. Sure, they worked hard, harder than their sociology major classmates,  all through college. But they were in college, at an Ivy League college and they got into an expensive medical school, where they also worked hard, but they were given that opportunity by other people who worked hard to give it to them. 

But some people are self absorbed and basically see themselves as virtuous and everyone else as less deserving. 

They are the ones who vote Republican.