Ron Johnson Said He "Started" Business From the "Ground-Up"
Nearly everyone, including myself, thought that when Ron Johnson said he "started" his business from the "ground-up," that what he meant was... that he "started" his business from the "ground-up."
But, once again, the parameters of the English language don't apply to Ron Johnson.
On Monday he responded to the charges that he told people that he "started" his business from the "ground-up" were not accurate, telling the Wisconsin State Journal:
Johnson said that he has never tried to paint himself as a "self-made" man. He said he has always acknowledged that he had help along the way.
This is simply not true.
In fact, Johnson has done the exact opposite: He has intentionally tried to paint himself as a "self-made" man and he has never acknowledged that his billionaire father-in-law, plastics titan Howard Curler, was the foundation of his business success.
This myth has been repeated by his campaign, other Republicans, and an unwitting media that have repeatedly described Johnson either as a "self-made" man or using synonyms to describe Johnson as someone that built his business from the "ground-up" or "from scratch."
For example, he told veteran jounalist Steven Walters, in a WisconsinEYE intveriew, that he "started" his own business and that he did it form the "ground-up" and gave no acknowledgement to his billionaire father-in-law.
Why is this important? It's the economy stupid. Ron Johnson started a successful business from the "ground-up." He's the right man at the right time. He knows what it takes to get the economy rolling again.
The campaign's use of this phony narrative is not only not intentional, but necessary. Starting his business from the ground-up, is (or was) Ron Johnson's only qualification for running for the U.S. Senate. Without that on his resume, he's just another member of the Curler extended family that has a lot of money and a set-up with a job somewhere in the plastics industry.
But, what was being promoted as Johnson's biggest asset, is actually his biggest vulnerability. Johnson doesn't know what it takes to start a business from the "ground-up" and has warped view that all business is started at the hands of a rich guy.
Johnson doesn't understand that most business is started by non-wealthy people in the form of a small businesses and that most medium and big size businesses were started by small businesses that got larger. He doesn't appreciate that not having access to start-up capital and affordable health care insurance are two of the biggest impediments to "ground-up" entrepreneurs-- and that the health care reform bill and the economic stimulus bill go a long way toward helping entrepreneurs get over those stumbling blocks.
Johnson has no appreciation that most entrepreneurs, shortly after genuinely starting a business from the ground-up, would have been sunk by the costs involved in having a daughter with a serious health problem.
Johnson also doesn't appreciate that good public schools, access to higher education and non-discrimination policies are a key to developing home-grown entrepreneurs. In Johnson's view, if (like him) you are born on the right spot on the Bell Curve, you will magically become rich and successful.
The reality of Ron Johnson is that he hasn't lived in the real world since he married the "Shrink-Wrap Princess" 32 years ago. And what Wisconsin needs now, more than ever, is someone (like Feingold) that lives in the real world and, more importantly, offers real world solutions to Wisconsin's problems.
