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.
Lamentably, Bill Clinton spent the next eight years furthering the Doctrine of Ponytail Man. According to the Clintons, Americans shouldn’t be expected to manage their own health care; that should be the government’s job. Clinton’s Family and Medical Leave Act allows government, not employers, to dictate the amount of time workers can take off after a baby’s arrival.
The Clinton administration pushed for installation of a “clipper chip” in all computers so the government could read encrypted e-mail. Clinton demanded that cell phones be equipped with homing devices- ostensibly so the government could find citizens in case of emergency, although, as opponents warned, the government now uses the technology to track routine movements. Under Clinton, the nanny state even provided midnight basketball games for inner-city youngsters and federal subsidies for baby-sitting.
Neither a Republican White House nor a Republican Congress curbed the trend toward infantilism. George W. Bush simply uses a different excuse for treating Americans like children: He claims to be protecting us from terrorists. Where Clinton was the doting daddy trying to shield his children from having to shoulder responsibility, Bush is the authoritarian parent who limits his children’s freedom under the pretense of keeping them safe.
Like a stern father, Bush reminds us that he is “The Decider”; we are not to question his decisions. Protest his policies in his presence, and you’ll find yourself in handcuffs. Under Bush, the United States has become a surveillance society. Like the old Soviet system, our government keeps files on its citizens in the name of “domestic security.” Citizens who complain about the infringement on their freedom are dismissed by the administration as naïve children. Father knows best, you know.
Not surprisingly, after 16 years of paternalism, we have become a nation of ponytail men. Like children, Americans no longer are held strictly responsible for their actions. You are an investor who took dangerous risks? The government will bail you out. Don’t want to buy health insurance for your kids? The government will pay their bills.
You’d rather spend your money than save for your children’s education? Not to worry: The government will confiscate money from other people to cover your child’s tuition. If you prefer not to work, you still can collect a regular check through welfare or disability payments. Like children, modern Americans are not expected to provide for themselves.
The remnant of citizens who still believe self-reliance is a virtue are almost viewed as a fringe group today, like the move-to-Idaho-and-arm-yourself crowd. If Barack Obama is elected president, they will be ostracized even more as he pushes for a government that promises to take care of citizens from cradle to grave. The last thing a President Obama would do is try to wean citizens from government.
But what will happen when productive citizens are outnumbered by parasites? As this article goes to press, Congress has worked out a tentative agreement to put Americans another $700 billion in debt. Rather than state the obvious – that the bailout of financial companies means we can’t afford to socialize medicine – Obama insists that he will add billions more to taxpayers’ bill with nationalized health care.
Instead of promising more childlike freedom from responsibility, today’s presidential candidates should tell us what the candidates should have told Ponytail Man in 1992: Citizens are not supposed to act like children, looking to the president as a father who provides. “Meeting your needs” is not government’s role; government is to ensure you the freedom to take care of yourself.
Get a job. Get a life. Act like an adult. For Heaven’s sake, man: Grow up.
Melanie Scarborough is an award-winning commentary writer whose work has appeared in more than two dozen newspapers, magazines, and books.
