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class dependent on handouts. Unlike the thirties, when people were begging for jobs, today jobs are begging for people — even as relief rolls remain large during prosperity.
Individual responsibility: Think about this, Jon. If citizens abandon personal responsibility, freedom cannot endure. The very concept of a free society is inconceivable unless one assumes people will act responsibly. Here too the parties, in results if not in intent, differ.
Democratic policies over the past 50 years have led to a decline in people’s willingness to act responsibly. Democrats assume that hardly anyone can control his or her actions, almost nothing is anyone’s fault, that those who differ are the exceptions. If you tell people constantly that joblessness, poverty, and the urge to commit crimes are the fault of society, surely that weakens the sense of individual responsibility.
Republicans believe people can and should control their actions, that they are personally responsible for what they do, and that the few others are the exceptions.
A few examples of declining personal responsibility: in our beautiful state, trash lines the roads. America’s savings rate is the lowest of any industrialized country, helping explain our recent competitive losses. 'Crime, drug use and illegitimacy are higher. Such things follow when growing numbers of citizens neglect responsibility, the vital balance preventing abuse of our freedoms.
Republicans must share the blame. Some support policies that have brought this result. Most, however, do not.
Jon, let me summarize one person’s answer to your question. Important differences between Democrats and Republicans are over means, not ends. They concern the roles and size of governments: more for the Democrats, less for Republicans; opportunities and results: more opportunities for Republicans, more even results for Democrats; and perhaps most important, the idea of individual responsibility, which Democratic policies have done so much to weaken.
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