Writing in The Journal Record, OCPA Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow Andy Spiropoulos contends that "conservatives have failed miserably to advance public policies that will help all of us to avoid the life-destroying temptations of modernity and encourage us to take the path to true happiness."
A healthy political culture advances public policies that help people resist the seductive lure of quick and cheap thrills and encourages them to invest in the future of themselves and their children.
What we have done to advance this cause? Not much. We sit by as our state is lined cheek by jowl with casinos, billboards pimping lotteries, and ads for lawyers who will help us get on disability, and then we wonder why so many don’t show much interest in working and are looking to get rich quick. Let’s not just pick on pork for the little guy; bailing out big banks that greedily fed our addiction for cheap loans and tax handouts for industries that don’t need them also teaches our children that life is a racket. Our Bedford Falls is looking a lot like Pottersville.
We haven’t done much on the positive end either. Where are the policies that will empower parents who want to fight this toxic culture? Until, for example, poor and working-class parents have the same opportunity to choose a school that will advance their beliefs that rich ones do, we can forget about stopping the rot and beginning the healing. If we want people to support conservative policies, we had better spend less time lecturing them about our flawed culture and doing more to reform it.
To read the full op-ed, please click here.
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