Presidential elections are seldom pretty to watch, but earlier this year there was wide agreement that Americans were in for a serious contest of ideas — with a historic debate over goverment’s role front and center. That seemed all the more likely when Mitt Romney chose super wonk Paul Ryan as his running mate.
Now, with this week’s flap over the Romney video — and the way the Romney has largely stood by his remarks — we’re starting to see such a deeper debate.
A key issue raised by Romney’s comments is the state of personal responsibility in America. Romney suggested that this core American value was in decline by saying about 47 percent of Americans that he would “never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
That’s a rather pessimistic view, but Romney is hardly alone in believing that personal responsibility is fading in our society. Is he right?
Hardly. From my reading of public opinion polls over many years, it seems that the American Dream ideology is alive and well. Which is to say that Americans, more than people in any other advanced country, believe that individuals chart their own destiny — as opposed to the dice being cast for them by structural forces. When we Americans fail economically, we’re more likely to blame ourselves than outside forces. And when we succeed, we’re more likely to think we did it ourselves.