The Promise of Fairness
Squashed, Obama promised us fairness. On October 13, 2008:
We can restore a sense of fairness and balance that will give ever American a fair shot at the American dream. And above all, we can restore confidence - confidence in America, confidence in our economy, and confidence in ourselves.I could cite tons of other times he promised fairness too. If he promised fairness, it’s fair for CNN to ask if he’s delivering fairness. Or if fairness doesn’t really matter to him anymore, should I just chalk this up as another broken promise?
If the stated goal is to “give every American a fair shot at the American dream”, i don’t think it’s a contradiction if every program or policy doesn’t adhere to the rigid definition of fairness that you subscribe to. If some guy can’t pursue his idea for a new business because he has to stay in some shitty job so his family can have health insurance, if some lady lost her job when the factory closed and is now working two part time jobs to try and pay her mortgage (and still falling behind), i don’t think these people are being given a fair shot, and i don’t see anything wrong with trying to implement policies that help out people like that more than people who don’t really need the help. But if you believe that fairness means treating everybody the same no matter what (the example Squashed gave is a good one), then yeah, i guess Obama’s at it again.
Also, you say you’d be happy with the split, but what does it tell you that even though 64% think the plan is unfair, 57% still support it? Maybe people recognize that just because something may be unfair for them, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any benefit, perhaps even more so than the “fair’ option.
2 years ago