What is an American?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/17/1110885/-Romneyland-now-has-surrogates-doing-surrogate-damage-control
So Governor Sununu doesn't think people are real Americans unless they know how to start their own business.
Welll.
Business is American, yes.
However...what else can I think of is American? What might also qualify a person for service as the President?
People who have a wide experience of the world because they have lived in 6-10 different places. This gives them the opportunity to relate to a variety of worldviews.
People who have a deep knowledge of constitutional law. This gives them the opportunity to weigh in on opinions about what law means, where the constitution gives modern decisions about law leeway and where it might not...
People who have seen women close to them pursue careers and are independent. This gives the person an opportunity to see women's roles as flexible, towards a wide spectrum.
People who have worked in poorer neighborhoods and from that, have an opportunity to see hardworking lower income people struggling on their own turf, in their own neighborhood.
Above people have a lot more opportunities and experiences...the person who has lived overseas and in a variety of places can end up a more open minded person...or not.
There are a lot of responses to people's endeavors and experiences in life, and for every constitutional law professor who can use and facilitate his knowledge in real life and politics, there are probably a few who choose to concentrate on teaching in the classroom, nurturing the wide range of student's varying responses.
Etc.
I do not see the businessman as the ultimate person who symbolizes the United States.
We are a big country. We should have a wider span of possibilities and potential than that narrow definition.
There are soldiers and sports figures and moms who work at home and janitors and poets and ...people who have little business sense, people whose greatest talent is raising good citizens, people who have a sense of beauty, and thousands of others with talents, with a special legacy to hand down, who make up this country.
All of these people are "American".
But to hold the Presidency to one narrow standard...to hold who is a real American to be those who understand the business world (which also has a spectrum of differences as well)...seems very narrow minded to me.
Just like narrowing down qualified Presidential candidates shouldn't be limited to those who served in the military, neither should an American President be only seen as qualified as those by those who have started, or run, or owned a business.
So Governor Sununu doesn't think people are real Americans unless they know how to start their own business.
Welll.
Business is American, yes.
However...what else can I think of is American? What might also qualify a person for service as the President?
People who have a wide experience of the world because they have lived in 6-10 different places. This gives them the opportunity to relate to a variety of worldviews.
People who have a deep knowledge of constitutional law. This gives them the opportunity to weigh in on opinions about what law means, where the constitution gives modern decisions about law leeway and where it might not...
People who have seen women close to them pursue careers and are independent. This gives the person an opportunity to see women's roles as flexible, towards a wide spectrum.
People who have worked in poorer neighborhoods and from that, have an opportunity to see hardworking lower income people struggling on their own turf, in their own neighborhood.
Above people have a lot more opportunities and experiences...the person who has lived overseas and in a variety of places can end up a more open minded person...or not.
There are a lot of responses to people's endeavors and experiences in life, and for every constitutional law professor who can use and facilitate his knowledge in real life and politics, there are probably a few who choose to concentrate on teaching in the classroom, nurturing the wide range of student's varying responses.
Etc.
I do not see the businessman as the ultimate person who symbolizes the United States.
We are a big country. We should have a wider span of possibilities and potential than that narrow definition.
There are soldiers and sports figures and moms who work at home and janitors and poets and ...people who have little business sense, people whose greatest talent is raising good citizens, people who have a sense of beauty, and thousands of others with talents, with a special legacy to hand down, who make up this country.
All of these people are "American".
But to hold the Presidency to one narrow standard...to hold who is a real American to be those who understand the business world (which also has a spectrum of differences as well)...seems very narrow minded to me.
Just like narrowing down qualified Presidential candidates shouldn't be limited to those who served in the military, neither should an American President be only seen as qualified as those by those who have started, or run, or owned a business.