Two stories dominated the news this past week - the passing of Elizabeth Edwards and the agreement between the President and Congressional leaders to extend the Bush-ear tax cuts for all Americans coupled with an extension of unemployment benefits and a payroll tax "holiday." The juxtaposition of these two stories offers a sharp contrast. One story spoke of moral courage in the face of death, of devotion to one's family (even husband) in the most difficult of times, of the personal strength of a remarkable life. The other story spoke of the inability to grapple with our need to stop hemorrhaging public debt; it was a story of much more limited moral courage as each side got much of what it wanted - at the expense of future generations.
At the heart of each of these stories is a message about, in one case the vales that we think should drive American and the other the values that seem to predominate in our public life. Last May, 82% of Americans said that "the overall state of moral values in this country today" was "only fair" or "poor," and 71% said "the state of moral values in this country" was "getting worse." This is not new to the American experience. Neither is what will come next.
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