Quote:
Originally Posted by AtLastHome
Probably because I have worked in both the public and private sector and come from a family business, background, I often feel there exists a belief that one cannot be liberal or progressive politically and pro-business in any shape or form. The two just cannot co-exist in populations that tend toward more liberal thinking. I could be wrong.
What do you think?
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I think it's a myth--in fact I think it's a hoary chestnut that is actually two, two, two myths in one!
Myth 1: Liberals aren't practical people, businesspeople are practical, therefore businesspeople can't be liberals and liberals can't be businesspeople.
Myth 2: Liberals are against hard work. Businesspeople work hard. Therefore, liberals can't be businesspeople.
Both of these ideas are not even wrong but they have taken on a life of their own. I also think it is sensitive to what one means by 'liberal'. There are liberals who I think have such a knee-jerk reaction against capitalism that they would be very unlikely to open their own business and I think that myth #1 is built up from the liberal who conforms to that stereotype.
Myth #2 is really just a way of getting at this:
1) Liberals favor non-whites
2) Non-whites are lazy and don't want to work.
3) Therefore, liberals don't want to work.
There's no other really good explanation for that meme. Why else, the thinking goes, would middle-class or well-to-do whites advocate for social programs? (It is assumed, rightly or wrongly, that blacks and Latinas are just that--we aren't even given the dignity of having political positions, allegedly my voting behavior is driven not by ideology but by skin color.)
Cheers
Aj