Subtle shifts

Recently I’ve been thinking about how America shifts subtly over time in one ideological direction or the other.  It’s not something many people talk about, but Thomas Sowell is one of those few columnists who sees the big picture.  His most recent column touches on how the Obama administration is shifting our country to the left.

Despite widespread backlash to The One’s policies, it’s hard to imagine the country not being further to the left the day Obama leaves office than on the day he came in.  Sowell says that Obama is doing this by changing our fundamental values in creating a class of people who expect others (i.e., “the rich”) to pay for their stuff.  There was a time, Sowell says, when most Americans would be offended by the thought of having someone else pay their bills for them.  But now, under Obama, more people are looking for a handout.

In the long-term, what Obama is doing will only collapse because, as the saying goes, socialism doesn’t work because you eventually run out of other people’s money.  But in the near- to medium-term, we seem to be headed for greater division and rancor between people who pay their own way and a growing class — urged on by Obama — that doesn’t.