"You Didn’t Build That": and the Rule of Law
The following is an off-teleprompter statement made by Obama to businessmen during the 2012 presidential campaign prior to the conventions. It is taken from an article by Steve Kates published 20 September 2012 in the Quadrant magazine (http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/09/america-s-last-hurrah):
“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.
“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 soul of Obama is revealed by this statement. It is an attack on the individual, and on the very core of the free enterprise system upon which America was founded. Obama is saying, explicitly, that it is only the collective that creates wealth; that individual effort counts for nothing.
Rule of law is predicated on the right of the individual to live his life for his own sake. Without an explicit recognition of the individual, rule of law, and our freedom, must fail.