In the comments, Mike asked, recently:

I guess this leads me to the question, what do you people think about how left the American populace is leaning? Are they crying for bailouts/handouts?

(Feel free to add your own observations in the comments below!)

I had written bemoaning American ignorance of economics, but on this point? I don't think most American are looking for a handout. I think most middle class Americans, including those who tend to support liberal policies and politicians, actually have a strong, healthy sense of self-, community-, and family-reliance in the their own personal lives. They are not whiners, and are not generally sympathetic to whiners. (By this I don't mean real charity cases!)

But those who support the left often, in my experience, suffer from what I might call "reverse hypocrisy." Hypocrisy is where you publicly say you believe some good thing, but, in private, don't appear to believe it at all. You support good public values, but bad private ones. You don't practice what you preach.

"Reverse hypocrisy", on the other hand, is a failure to preach what you practice. I know many good parents who have no trouble being tough on their own kids when they step out of line, but who don't want to see the government allow any similar penalties. They personally practice fiscal responsibility, moan about government overspending (and respond to infrequent media reports about it -- usually during Republican incumbencies) but then support candidates who promise ever more lavish social programs. (Not because they want them, but because they think someone else needs them.)

America today reminds me of the Swedish before socialism.

I don't have the stats in front of me, but before socialism, Sweden was the economic powerhouse of Europe. Unemployment was incredibly low, and people were ashamed at the idea of needing others to support them, or their relatives. They themselves, apparently, had excellent values.

But they bought into idea that perhaps, for those few left in the tiny, tiny percentage not being taken of already, there should be state socialism. And as a result, the character of Sweden changed altogether; today some estimate as much as 30% or more of the workforce is on the dole.

Oh, here it is. And there are quotes from a similar piece here, also.

My late grandmother used to say something had gone wrong with the world. She was proud to never have asked for help, to have always been able to rely on herself and her husband, proud that they could throughout their lives care for their family. I'm happy that when she passed away at the respectable age of 85, she did so with that dignity still intact. She was never a burden.

My grandmother, born in 1920, was of the last generation to have that special personal pride, of having a firm and deeply rooted morality, of being a sovereign in life no matter what — to be the sole master of one's fate. The people of her generation experienced and endured one or two world wars (though Sweden never took part) and were raised by poor Swedish farmers and industrial workers. They witnessed and were the driving force behind the Swedish "wonder."

Their morality assured they could survive any condition. If they found themselves not being able to live off their wages, they would only work harder and longer. They were the architects and construction workers in building their own lives, even though it often meant hard work and enduring seemingly hopeless situations.

They would gladly offer to help those in need even if they only had little, but were not likely to accept anyone's help if offered. They felt pride in being competent to take care of themselves; they cherished independence of others, of never having to ask for help. They figured, if they couldn't make it themselves, they had no right to ask for help.

Please read it. It's heartbreaking, in a way.

Of course, there other challenges, too: While the current wave of "undocumented" Hispanic immigrants strike me as hard-working individuals, their second-generation offspring appear, on studies of such, deeply troubled. And we're seeing the destruction of the "nuclear family", which also bodes ill for the future of conservatism, as single-family mothers tend to vote very strongly for socialist policies. (Divorced women, moreso.) And socialism tends to breed socialists. A few of the poor are becoming conservative, but the wealthy seem to be moving ever further left. And Oprah, and other aspects of pop culture, are busy pushing an Eastern religious outlook, which I have every reason to think will also lead to an Eastern political outlook. And of course the Republican party is moving back to a more Nixon/Ford approach.

So there are a number of demographic trends which indicate that the days of political support for conservative philosophies are numbered. I wish I could say otherwise.