Horatio Alger
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. There has never been a phrase that has done more damage in American life. It basically comes from the old Horatio Alger stories and it used by people, who largely feel as if they're doing OK, to tell those who complain that things could be more just to "shut the hell up." Only it sounds so much nicer.
The female version Annie and Daddy Warbucks
According to the cult of pulling yourself up by bootstraps, doing nothing really isn't just indifference but actually helps the person you're doing nothing for and all those who are trying to help those who need help are really hurting them. That way if you really screw someone over they shouldn't just stay reticent but they should actually thank you for doing it. The whole problem when you scratch the surface of the Horatio Alger myth you find out how shallow it is. It's miles and miles long and an inch deep. There's usually a great school in the past that the person happened to attend (due to the accident of birth), or an extended family (that they're lucky enough to be associated with), or a relative who watched your kids (while you were able to go to graduate to school). It's at that point that you usually point out to that person that not everyone's bootstraps are of equal length.
I get to hear the myth of Mitt Romney the successful businessman who save Staples - to the great appreciation of all Staple's minimum wage employees.
Running Staples more impressive than running US military
I hear how "at least Romney has held a real job" - as Fox viewers seemed convinced that Obama has never worked. I resist the temptation of saying. "Yeah running the US probably isn't the same as running Staples." I eventually say you know Romney didn't exactly grow up in a log cabin. His father was actually a congressman.
The log cabin Romney didn't grow up in
That seems to be part of the story they like to gloss over. To paraphrase Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, Mitt Romney started off on third base and thought he hit a triple.
Meanwhile self-made man Mitt's father didn't get to meet the president whenever he wanted to
Or this President
They hate the government, they never look behind to see who is actually bribing it. They don't want to talk about citizen's united and corporations having free speech. I tell them I have a problem with my voice and how much I can afford to spend having to compete with GE and how much they have to spend. They know a small businessman who has been incorporated and this person is a job creator hiring a half a dozen people. I feel like saying don't worry your person is a little different from GE and he's not the person who I'm talking about.
GE
Small business who can tell the difference?
When they are losing on points there is usually the statement if you don't like it why don't you move to Russia - which by the way is no longer Communist - or China which is really in business with the US's entrepreneurs.
Where I'm going back to I guess.
And you wonder why, because you want America to be a better more fair place, you have to leave the country and they get to stay. Still you resist the temptation of telling them that they should move to Mexico, central America or some other country that has a ruling elite, who live behind security fences, as the military junta cows the populace.
Where they will be living I guess.
The new president
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