All that money and leisure have brought constant temptations for indulgence.
For all the rhetoric of "family values" and "two nations," Americans from
all walks of life gobble up everything from video games to luxury cars on
nearly unlimited easy credit.
Debt, drink, drugs, gambling, lotteries and sex all happen without much
restraint or rebuke - and our most prominent are often the most susceptible
to these new appetites. In modern American life, "do you own thing" on a
charge card is the new national gospel. Despite the nostalgic rhetoric of
morality and populism, few Democrats or Republicans have constituents in bib
overalls plowing alone till dusk out on the south 40 acres.
Second, in our world of celebrity sound bites and media saturation, talk,
not reality, is what counts. Multimillionaires lecture us about fairness,
while sinners rail about sin.
In politics, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each election year on
campaigning. Image-makers, pollsters and media advisers shape every
election. Fluffy candidates are removed enough from the electorate that the
old idea that their own actions should match their rhetoric is seen as
hopelessly old-fashioned.
The political leaders of this country are essentially too often homogenous.
Republicans may represent constituents of traditional values; Democrats may
champion the underprivileged. But their similar lifestyles reflect more a
political class's shared privilege than the inherent differences of their
respective constituents' beliefs. National figures may talk conservative or
liberal, but they both are more likely to act like libertines.