Wheels Falling Off Due To Irresponsibility

Where did the wheels start falling off America? A good place to start would be the Clinton era. The president of the United States had a tawdry affair in the Oval Office / massage parlor, lied about it, and refused to accept any responsibility for his actions. The Republicans correctly pointed out that the president had acted beneath his office. The problem was that many of them were acting beneath their offices, too. In Washington, where the spirit of public service is supposed to reign, both Democrats and Republicans were using positions of power for private indulgence. Many things sprang from the Clinton impeachment. Confidence in authority was not one of them.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, did briefly increase the public's trust in government and its elites. In the tense months following the attacks, the public rallied behind strong leaders like Bush, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Rumsfeld. These men, who had many private failings, nonetheless were seen to be acting in the interests of the nation as a whole. We seemed to be on the verge of a new era of patriotism and civic renewal.

But it was not to be. The lack of accountability among the elites quickly caught back up.

There were dramatic instances of public corruption such as the Jack Abramoff scandal, but there were also remarkable examples of private corruption such as the Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting scandals. In the months after September 11, business titan after business titan came under indictment: Enron executives, Martha Stewart, Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski--the list goes on. Chief executives were massively compensated even when they drove their companies into a ditch. No surprise when populism started making a comeback. The private sector and the public sector were failing the common man. Neither acted with any sense of propriety.

The same was true of our cultural elites. The celebrity of the age was Paris Hilton, an exemplar of the inequality and promiscuity that characterize the present moment. Hilton was born into extraordinary wealth but did not achieve true fame until 2003, when her homemade porno movie made it to the Internet. Twenty or even fifteen years ago, Paris Hilton's behavior would have been a scandal. Not today. Why? Because the wealthy, famous, and well-connected can do as they please and suffer no consequences--as long as they possess no shame.

There are moments when it seems as though every figure who waltzes across the public stage is a cheat, a fraud, a liar, or a failure. Child abuse scandals have tarnished the image of Catholic bishops and priests. Steroid scandals have racked Major League Baseball, the Tour de France, and the Olympic games. And then there are the celebrities who write books, make music, and perform in film and television. Where to start?

On any given day, any public figure might be arrested, assaulted, admit to infidelity, go bankrupt, or break down emotionally in front of television cameras. Sometimes all of these things happen at once.

The next day the celebrity will be released from incarceration. He will go into a rehabilitation program or "spend time with the family" and emerge, weeks later, with a tell-all book and publicity tour that make him even richer than he was before. There are no consequences.

It wasn't until last fall that we saw how widely the rot had spread. Everyone was implicated in the financial meltdown. Everyone who took on a mortgage they couldn't afford, who lent to people who couldn't pay back the loan, who securitized the unpayable debts and resold them in ways even astrophysicists can't understand, and who instituted government policies that spurred a culture of easy money and consumption beyond one's means. All were responsible.

There has been a change in government, but the crisis persists. Political corruption has not disappeared. It has simply changed its partisan affiliation. The chairman of the House committee that writes the tax code is under investigation for cheating on his taxes. A leading House appropriator, John Murtha (d-PA), is under investigation for accepting illegal campaign contributions. The chairman of the Senate banking and housing committee is under fire for a sweet mortgage deal that he received. President Obama's commerce secretary-designate, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, withdrew his nomination because of an investigation into his handling of state contracts. Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, whose department includes the IRS, has admitted to not paying payroll taxes while he was an employee of the International Monetary Fund. Obama's Health and Human Services secretary-designate, Tom Daschle (former wannabe now has been), withdrew his nomination because he had not paid taxes on his limousine and driver. Another Obama appointee also withdrew because of tax problems. No wonder the federal government is in the red.

These days the enemies of the people are all over the place. For the left-wing populists, they are the titans of Wall Street, the bank executives, the CEOs who really botched things up but have suffered few consequences, and the business class's political allies in the Republican party. For the right-wing populists, they encompass all elites, from the CEOs whom John McCain criticized during the presidential campaign and the "liberal media" to central bankers and corrupt politicians.

Reagan was a success. He instituted public policies that spurred the economy, forced the collapse of the Soviet Empire, and reinstilled national pride among Americans. Since then the populists haven't been so lucky. The 1994 Republican Revolution ran aground shortly after it left the shore. The 2006 Democratic Restoration was inept and rapidly replaced Republican corruption with the Democratic version.

It's too early to judge Obama a success or a failure; but so far it looks like a failure in the making. If his inaugural address is any indication, Obama has figured out that a lack of personal accountability is the problem. But he hasn't figured out what to do about it.

Self-sufficiency. Modesty. Responsibility. Morality. Fidelity. Civility. These are the values that have, like the foundations of a fortress, supported American society for centuries. A cursory glance around the country today--and especially at the people who run it--reveals that our nation is sorely lacking in these staples of middle-class life. We are living through a drought of middle-class respectability. And that has led us to political and economic crisis.

Obama and the Democrats believe that the erosion of bourgeois values can be slowed or even reversed through public expenditure. But their efforts are doomed to fail. Public expenditure can't buy virtue. It may even crowd it out.

To preserve the American middle class, Obama and the Democrats want to transfer the burden of responsibility from the individual to the government. They want to raise taxes and finance expanded federal government intervention in education, health care, pensions, and the workforce.

The stimulus bill captures the ethos of this new liberalism perfectly. The dramatic expansion of government's share of the economy is geared toward specifically liberal ends. He has witnessed elites fail, yet he seeks to put more power in the hands of political elites. Nor is he alone.

Government has, time and again, proven itself inadequate to the immense challenges of the day. At times it seems impervious to reform. The Democrats' assumption is that this is because the GOP was in power during much of the last quarter century. It is a partisan fantasy. The failures of the elites aren't related to public expenditure. They are related to a spiritual torpor afflicting the affluent. In a rich society, as we pursue our individual ends, obligations--both private and public--fall to the wayside. The status game consumes all. Corners are cut. The higher we scale the ladder, the more material possessions become an end in themselves. We chase one pleasure after another. Our mantra is "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The reigning ethic is every man for himself.

We can still fix things. Where to begin? Start with some exemplars of decency, professionalism, and ability. US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III riveted the nation with his dramatic crash-landing into the Hudson River. -Sullenberger's experience and stoicism meant that not a single life was lost during the dramatic and dangerous touch-down. It is no surprise that he has been lionized in the days since. When everything else seems to be crashing all around us, Sullenberger is a rock of common sense and soft-spoken modesty. Then there is General David Petraeus. At the recent Super Bowl, Petraeus received huge applause when he walked on field for the pregame coin toss. The crowd's response was no mystery. They were saluting the man who helped rescue the American war effort in Iraq, the man who did so without mincing words to the American people or their elected representatives.

Imagine--just imagine--if the men and women who represent us in Congress shared their character?

Bill Clinton and Paris Hilton, etal are the problem. Why couldn't Sully Sullenberger and David Petraeus be the answer?