Why Not a “Responsibility Agenda”?

The game has changed!
Ever since the election of Scott Brown, everyone—with the possible exception of Nancy Pelosi—understands that it may be impossible for Democrats to enact comprehensive medical reform or cap-and trade legislation. Brown’s extra senate vote seems to have barred the way to the Obama administration’s fondest liberal dreams.
It has not, however, diminished the president’s budgetary ambitions. He still plans to spend trillions of dollars the nation does not possess. While he claims to understand that there must be fiscal restraint, he essentially hopes to shut the barn door only after the horse has long departed.
As a consequence, the Republicans must be the party of No. While they have put forward many proposals for improving health care and energy consumption, as of now their primary objective has to be to prevent the majority from tearing down what generations of Americans have built.
Nevertheless, in the long run this will not be enough. An opposition party that intends to become the governing party must also have a positive agenda. As George Bush the elder learned, it needs to offer a “vision,” i.e., a far-reaching proposal for enhancing the national well-being.
Most Republicans understand this. Even so, they have had difficulty articulating an inspirational program. Some have suggested resurrecting a version of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, while others have recommended a revision of Obama’s proposals. George W. Bush, of course, mistakenly believed that an appeal to freedom would do the job.
Unfortunately none of these approaches has demonstrated the candle-power to elicit voter excitement. It may, therefore, be necessary to rethink the party’s fundamental agenda. Although the underlying conservative goals of freedom, democracy, a market economy and family values remain valid, how these are implemented, and as importantly how they are packaged, can use tweaking.
One possibility is for Republicans to support a personal responsibility agenda. As the party that believes in decentralized governance, it should more forcefully advocate the individual competences that make for improved personal decisions. Reshaping the national focus away from what the government can do for its citizens, to what they can do for themselves, will ultimately make for a happier and more productive populace.
Like it or not—quite in opposition to the movie Avatar—ours is a mass techno-commercial society. As such, if it is to function more productively, it must foster a host of knowledgeable choices at the local level. Indeed, were these to be supplanted by a bevy of government dictates—as was the case in the late lamented Soviet Union—it too would die of terminal stupidity.
Although Barack Obama does not appreciate this truth, he is politically shrewd enough to recognize that most Americans value personal responsibility. As a result, he says he does too, while, in fact, pursuing the opposite. Time and again, he proposes government programs intended to rob others of private initiative.
The supreme irony here is that in concentrating ever more responsibility in the hands of the federal government, he and his minions have been utterly irresponsible. They have been sloppy planners, corrupt delegators, and reckless fiscal stewards. In short, they have been driving us all—at breathtaking speed—to the poor house. And doing it with our money,
The alternative must, therefore, be an appeal to voters to take back control over their destinies. They must be encouraged—which is to say, given the courage—to face life more reliant on their personal abilities and decisions.
This is something politicians can do. They cannot provide the all-inclusive protections that Democrats promise, but they can nurture an awareness of our shared need to become better custodians of our respective futures. Personal responsibility has to be more than a cliché. It must become a commitment to which each of us, including our political leaders, are dedicated.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University