I work for a rather small company (~20 employees) in the IT industry. I have been with this company for 8 years, dating back to when we had a total of 7 employees, including myself. We have grown rapidly over the past year, and we recently brought in a new CEO due to his supposed record of "growing small companies rapidly." Anyway, this guy has been with us for a grand total of two weeks. None of us really know him, apart from perhaps the few people at the top who were involved in his hiring. Today, he fired off an email to everyone in the entire company regarding tomorrow's election. I'll give you one guess as to what "his thoughts" are....below the squiggly.
As we reach the finish line to what will prove to be one of the most important elections in the history of the United States, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with each of you my thoughts on the matter.
• Elections matter – in other words, get out and vote.
• This election is about what it means to be an American
The first thought is nothing new. The second is perhaps more surprising and a strong statement to make. Why do I believe this?
As a country of immigrants, America is not based on a particular race, religion, or language. America is a nation founded on ideas. Those ideas were first enshrined in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
16 Presidents later, Abraham Lincoln, expanded on the American ideal with the following:
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could do and should do for themselves.
The ideas as espoused by Jefferson and Lincoln have resulted in a country that has enjoyed the greatest prosperity and freedom ever experienced in the history of mankind. During the last century, our country has strayed from these ideas in the belief that further progress could be achieved through greater governmental control over our lives. This trend has reached a crescendo in the last four years under the Obama administration.
We have an opportunity to reverse direction this year and begin the journey to recapture the original American political philosophy, one whose principles stress the importance of a free market economy and individual liberty.
Consider your vote carefully this year and understand that in your choice you will be voting for what it means to be an American.
Really, asshole? "What it means to be an American?" Is voting Republican what it means to be American? I am going to have to exercise some serious self-control to keep from firing something back in response. Breathe...just breathe...
Tomorrow, I will cast my vote to help Obama win Virginia, and I will do it proudly. Hopefully dickhead doesn't have to fire me because of mean ol' socialist Obama!