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Buy the Book
Free to Be Responsible
Personal responsibility and other keys to American renewal, from John Andrews, doing the right thing.
Responsibility
Reborn: A Citizen’s
Guide to the Next American Century
By John Andrews
(Denali Press, 175
pages, $19.99)
Personal responsibility is an eroded American value. Republicans largely preach freedom, Democrats equality, but responsibility, when mentioned at all, plays second string. It’s no wonder, then, that America is becoming bailout nation.
The year 2011 was a good time for John Andrews, former Republican president of the Colorado Senate and long-time conservative think-tanker, to pen Responsibility Reborn: A Citizen’s Guide to the Next American Century. The pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps tenet is alive and well among many Americans, but their number is shrinking in favor of those who covet European-style handouts.
The Occupy movement has shown that reality in vibrant Technicolor: The violence, sexual assault, and disregard for private property. Mobilized as a political force, envy is among the most powerful of human vices.
What’s the cure? Personal responsibility, defined by Andrews as “the quintessential American character trait” of doing “the right thing by choice.” It’s a value that Andrews believes can pull the United States out of the moral quagmire and put her on the path to a second American century.
It won’t be easy. Liberalism appeals to baser instincts: envy, jealousy, and sloth, to name three. Conservatism requires far more of us: accountability for our own decisions and voluntary restraint in our actions. Although lawmaking plays a role in fostering such values, there is no substitute for cultural renewal arising from the private domain — marriages and families, schools and churches.
“Our toughest challenges now are not political. They are moral,” Andrews writes. “Civil government will get better when individual self-government does, and not until then.”
Andrews traces the genesis of the irresponsibility movement to the cultural upheavals of the mid-20th century. He says that “pampered young” threw a “national tantrum” in the 1960s. It worsened in the '70s, a decade of moral decadence and economic stagnation.
“Dependency on government was up,” Andrews says. “Promiscuity, illegitimacy, and divorce were up. Crime and drug abuse were up. Black poverty was up. Family stability and childbearing were down. Academic standards were down and educators were disrespected. The warrior spirit was down and soldiers were spat upon.”
But even as cultural and economic liberalism made sweeping gains, Andrews points to the rising sun of conservatism, born out of the dark days of moral decay after Watergate. It was an economic and social force that beat back the tides of unchecked liberalism. Andrews’ thesis: A renewal of this responsibility movement is needed if America is to continue as a great nation.
Don’t mistake Responsibility Reborn exclusively as a conservative call to arms against the excesses of liberalism, though. It’s certainly that, but it’s also a call for self-reflection among lovers of freedom. Andrews carefully probes a sore spot in conservative circles: the seeming conflict between personal freedom — the right to do what I want — and personal responsibility — the right to do what I should.
With the all-out assault on individual freedom prorogated by the proponents of big government, conservatives are concerned chiefly with ensuring that liberty endures. But in so doing, have we lost sight of personal responsibility?
It’s a question that Andrews wrestles with. His conclusion (emphasis mine):
Until quite recently, my keynote for a personal testament and a reflection on citizenship would not have been responsibility and obligation, duty and trust. It would have been freedom and independence, rights and liberty.… Yet in reflecting on my life as a whole — family, friendships, schooling, military service, career, community, church — I’ve realized that most of it was not about doing what I chose, but doing what I should. The moral and ethical component is inescapable in a life well lived, whether for an individual or a nation.
Preaching responsibility isn’t as sexy as preaching freedom, but it is no less critical. The two concepts go hand in hand. A nation can’t be free without citizens who take responsibility for their actions; true responsibility isn’t possible outside the sphere of freedom.
About the Author
David N. Bass is a journalist who writes from the Old North State. Follow him on Twitter.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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Peppermint Tea| 12.5.11 @ 10:04AM
The telling statistic is out-of-wedlock births, now over 42 percent of all births and climbing 1 percent each year. This is the ultimate measurement of "personal responsibility" and the US is failing with black and Hispanic women leading the way, but followed closely by the white population. Other than Rick Santorum hinting, has any other of our major candidates addressed this? I didn't think so.
Alan Brooks| 12.5.11 @ 10:08AM
The American Dream ended when the Cold War ended because you don't have a focused enemy now--that's why it is called multilateralism.
race_to_the_bottom| 12.5.11 @ 2:29PM
The percentage of children living with one parent only has been stable since the mid 90s.
http://dalrock.wordpress.com/2.....0-to-2009/
So you are a single woman and you want to have a child, but there are no "marriageable" men around. In the case of Black women, a high proportion of Black men are either packed away in prison, on parole or probation, and therefore chronically unemployed, since there is no law against discrimination against ex-offenders. What do you do?
I really do think that it is a huge problem that boys grow up without stable relationships with adult men in the community. There has never been a culture like this, and the results are all around us. But it has nothing to do with personal responsibility, in most cases, but the reality of our society. Unemployment, low wages, long hours, no time off for children, no child care, no organized activities for the youth. Every dime that is not nailed down in this country goes to the parasitical FIRE sector of the economy. THIS is the crux of the problem.
Conservablogger | 12.5.11 @ 3:50PM
Society is a reflection of the individuals within it. To say that society's ills aren't the result of individual actions is absurd. You brought up the lack of "marriageable" black men for black women. Why should black women restrict themselves to just marrying black men? Heterosexual marriage is a cornerstone of society, and all that's necessary for that is one man and one woman making a covenant to one another for the remainder of their natural lives. There's nothing in there about race or skin color. I could give other examples, but sitting around wringing your hands about "society" only shifts responsibility from the individual to the collective. If you have identified the lack of "marriageable" men in society, why don't you do something about it? That's the point of the article: we are sitting around waiting for someone else (ie, gubmint) to do something, when we could try to solve the issue on our own.
Lyneuss Fields | 12.5.11 @ 10:26AM
Well here we go again. Let's blame it all on lack of personal responsibility (self-reliance) and forget about the 8000-point stock market drop and Wall Street's debacle. Hey, many are wondering when W. Bush's unfunded tax breaks--tacked onto the national debt—are going to be paid back to America's treasury? http://lyneussfields.blogspot......their.html
TrueBlue| 12.5.11 @ 12:20PM
He never said blame it all, he was merely pointing out that correcting our problems STARTS with taking responsibility for our actions. The Crony Capitalism and those who participate in it are lacking in morals, that's the problem. They do what they do for themselves and to heck with everyone else. Get people back on track to doing what is right and not just what they feel they want and you'll deal with a good portion of that.
As for those "unfunded" tax breaks, they are covered by the revenue increases they caused. People just don't notice them because government spending went up at the same time, because that is what the government does. The majority of small businesses (you know, those places that employ the majority of the country) file their taxes under personal income, generally in the $250k+ a year category; the same category that Obama and the Dems want to tax all to hell... coincidence?
Jim| 12.5.11 @ 12:58PM
Wow, Bush again. Perhaps when we are all dead, and others are living in the 23rd century, none of the libs will remember Bush, and the poor, dumb bast*rds will have to find a new scapegoat.
JeffB| 12.5.11 @ 3:11PM
Makes sense.
" My 401k just dropped 20%, I better go out and have a bunch of kids to increase my WIC paymebts."
Naturalborn Texicanette| 12.5.11 @ 2:47PM
Loss of morals and values.
Loss of any kind of self-respect.
Loss of humanity, People are becoming more and more animalistic, wanting their share of the bone and willing to do any kind of bodily harm that gets in the way of getting that bone.
No intergity. No honesty. No respect for anything or anybody.
Godless. Hopeless. Meaningless. Worthless.
The sadest kind of sad that there is.......................
Naturalborn Texicanette| 12.5.11 @ 2:49PM
P.S. Obama HUGELY out "worsens" Bush in any way, shape, or form.
I'd take "W" over Obama in a heart beat!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gary B| 12.5.11 @ 7:14PM
Finally, someone raises the issue of personal responsibility, the companion concept to freedom.
POST American| 12.5.11 @ 9:50PM
NO TIME for '80's Show' M-powerment
SAP OPS.
---------------Even OPRAH's retired afterall.
wedding dresses | 12.6.11 @ 3:32AM
Loss of humanity, People are becoming more and more animalistic, wanting their share of the bone and willing to do any kind of bodily harm that gets in the way of getting that bone.