Today, alarmingly few Americans would laugh at Ponytail Man. Remember him? During one of the 1992 presidential debates, he asked a question as ridiculous as it was pathetic. Characterizing American citizens as “symbolically, the children of the future president,” the man sporting a ponytail asked for the candidates’ “commitment to meet our needs.”
Many conservatives pounced on the question as evidence that our national ethos had taken a dangerous turn. What Ponytail Man reflected was the belief hardening in certain quarters that citizens were not responsible for taking care of themselves; it was government’s role to provide.
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