With the 2012 presidential election quickly approaching, the stakes are rising and both candidates are on the attack. While the term “politics” has taken on a negative connotation over the years, most Americans would agree that the offense and defense of presidential hopefuls has become the makeup of each campaign. For anyone who has been following Obama and Romney on the campaign trail, it is evident that this election has been heavily focused on the mistakes of each politician, and on the harsh criticism of each party’s platform.
Recently, President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” statement in Roanoke, Virginia, caused a public outcry from Republicans and Democrats alike. The president was quoted saying, “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.” The President’s speech provoked immense criticism from Romney’s camp, who responded, “He said it, he meant it,” explaining that his policies from his three and a half years in office support every word he said.
Obama’s argued, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The statement was quickly corrected by the president himself in television campaigns explaining that his message was taken out of context, and that he gives credit to anyone who has built their own business. But his rescindment came too little too late.
Conservative media outlet, Fox News, criticized Obama’s statement by interviewing two little girls who had started their own business: a lemonade stand. Reporter Brian Kilmeade asked the girls, “How do you feel about the President saying that you needed help to start this business?”
The seven year old responded, “That’s rude, because we worked very hard to build this business,” admitting that the only help they had was from investors (their dad).
The argument inevitably becomes a war between white-collar and blue-collar workers, the rich and the poor, and an argument of big versus small government or as most would simply label them, Democrats versus Republicans.
Former University of Illinois student, Eric Chien, doesn’t seem bothered by the American division that the two-party system causes. “I think having two parties can definitely prevent us from thinking one dimensionally. It’s all ultimately on how people frame it.”
Chien reacted to election chaos saying, “There weren’t always two parties. But there are now. And you can’t very well go back and change what’s transpired in 150+ years of time; not saying there will be going forward, but in the present there are and that’s what we’ve got.”
With economic and fiscal matters as some of the front-running concerns for Americans, many of the political arguments remain centered around taxes, and the ongoing arguments of what belongs to who and the disbursement of wealth in America. As voters seek to climb out of the recession, Americans becomes more divided over what will secure their own financial future. But with two polarizing candidates and platforms, can a majority of Americans ever be content?