A Failure of Logic: Republican Calls for Personal Responsibility

One of the basic principles of conservatism is the concept of personal responsibility. Republicans use this principle to justify their faith in free markets and lack of faith in welfare measures. Yet, the more and more I look around me, it is plainly obvious that the principle of personal responsibility is not an appropriate ideology for governance on its own. For years Republicans have argued in favor of deregulation and smaller government, believing that government wasn't the solution to our problems, but rather the source. In their eyes, American society was like a man trying to run with a 20-pound weights attached to his legs. All that was needed for our country to start sprinting was removing the weights, in this case government. For over twenty years Republicans were successful in pushing their agenda of smaller government and deregulation, even famously forcing Bill Clinton to declare "the era of big government" to be over. But now, we are dealing with the results of that push and they have been disastrous beyond all imagination. The recent financial crisis is proof of what happens when government recedes from its regulatory role and instead allows the principle of "personal responsibility" to check the greed inherent in all mankind.

To be fair, personal responsibility wasn't given a fair chance: the firms who ran our financial system into the ground and racked up trillions in losses have received astronomical bailouts from the federal government. Surely if no bailouts had been offered, personal responsibility would have ensured no such crisis ever occurred again. But the problem with that logic is twofold. First, human beings have short memories, especially across generations. While we may never forget the lessons from this current financial fiasco, chances are our children will barely be cognizant of its impact. Second, almost every economist agrees that there was no alternative to the bailouts. Simply put, without them the country would have been mired not in a deep recession, but rather a massive depression. Therefore, the principle of personal responsibility as applied in our politics is self-defeating. It sets up a system whereby individuals are free to make most major decisions, but often cannot force them to accept the consequences of choices gone wrong.

Since Ronald Reagan, Americans have forgot that "if men were angels, no government would be necessary." But men are not angels, so government is necessary. The current crisis has shown us that personal responsibility needs to be supplemented by strong government regulation and oversight.

/rant off