A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT

“You can’t send two sons off to college, as my husband and I now have, and expect them to succeed if you haven’t taught them some sense of self-reliance. Indeed, that virtue has long been recognized as a foundational mark of the American character. It enabled our forefathers to establish a nation that still serves as a beacon of freedom to the world. No free republic can survive without it. Which is why, like many conservatives, I’m alarmed by the attitude one finds among many Americans today. It’s on display particularly during a heated campaign season, like we’re in now—people across the country seem to have a sense of entitlement and demand that politicians ‘do something’ to solve every problem. Gone is the sentiment behind President Kennedy’s famous exhortation: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’ That line may have drawn applause in 1961, but it’s alien to the thinking of Americans who look to government as some sort of glorified nanny. ... Where does this warped view of the state come from? What is the origin of this dependence on government, so dangerous to the concept of individual freedom?”

—Rebecca Hagelin