Leadership Quote by Norm Coleman

Coleman’s line is less a plea for civility than a strategic reframe: if you can rename the argument, you can reroute the blame. “Class warfare” is the loaded phrase doing most of the work. It casts redistribution, regulation, or higher taxes on the wealthy not as policy disputes but as hostility - an emotional, almost un-American aggression. That move doesn’t just reject a specific proposal; it delegitimizes the motive behind it. If your opponents are “waging war,” you don’t have to engage their numbers.

Then comes the softer landing: “recognize” implies the truth is obvious, already settled, and only the unreasonable refuse to see it. “Growing jobs” is deliberately abstract and feel-good, while “helping small business” functions as political Velcro: nearly everyone wants to stick to it. Small businesses are invoked as community shorthand - local, scrappy, morally sympathetic - even though “small business” in policy can range from a corner shop to a sizable firm structured to qualify for tax advantages.

The intent is to fuse economic growth with a particular ideological pathway: lower taxes, lighter regulation, and skepticism toward labor-friendly or redistributive measures. It’s also a coalition message. By elevating small business as the engine of employment, Coleman appeals to suburban owners, aspirational voters, and donors while assuring working-class listeners they’re not being sold out - they’re being “helped” indirectly.

Contextually, this sits neatly in the post-90s, pro-market bipartisan era: Democrats are accused of envy politics; Republicans brand themselves as job pragmatists. The subtext: stop talking about winners and losers; accept the winners as job creators.