Conservatives have sounded the alarm for years that the imposition of the political left’s agenda onto the culture would lead to devastating societal consequences.
It turns out they had good reason to be concerned.
Coastal elites and minority groups may rave about progressive initiatives, featuring a growing government stranglehold over the economy, acceptance of moral relativism and aggressive promulgation of sexual libertinism. Their ideology has re-engineered the moral fabric of American society in recent decades.
But it is the white, middle-class population of America’s heartland that is bearing the true costs, according to research published last week by Princeton academics Angus Deaton and Anne Case.
Their study found that the death rate among white, blue-collar American men aged 45-54 has skyrocketed over the past 15 years compared to other groups. The authors and subsequent commentators have attributed this disintegration of the American male to an epidemic of painkiller abuse, suicides and — by implication — widespread depression.
Behind this growing misery, though, lie structural factors that have chipped away at the core male identity of husband and father. All of these can be traced to progressive initiatives sold as recasting American society as more just and equitable.
Openness to economic globalization, creeping socialism, and an influx of low-skill immigrants have sapped the blue-collar American male of his ability to work with dignity and provide for himself or a family. Traditional family bonds such as husband-wife and father-child have eroded. Roughly half of all marriages end in divorce, and only 46 percent of children age 18 have a father at home, creating a culture where men are more alienated than ever.
Job loss and family breakdown – particularly divorce – are the two leading causes of suicide among males
Job loss and family breakdown – particularly divorce – are the two leading causes of suicide among males, noted Pat Fagan, editor of Marripedia, a project of the Family Research Council.
“If you have broken relationships and then no job, what the hell have you got going for you in life?” he said in explaining why men are turning to drugs in search of answers — or just a respite from suffering.
Free trade agreements and a growing trade deficit with China and the rest of the world have led to the displacement of many jobs traditionally held by males with a high school education — such as in factories and manufacturing — and have put downward pressure on wages for other types of blue-collar work.
Robert E. Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates trade with China caused $37 billion in U.S. wage losses in 2011 alone, and expanded trade with China from 2001-2011 displaced 3.3 million U.S. jobs.
Intrusive regulations from Washington, D.C., have strangled other means of male employment, such as with President Obama’s decision last week to reject the Keystone XL pipeline — which would have created 42,000 jobs — or his crackdown on the coal industry in West Virginia.
As industrial jobs have largely disappeared, workers have been forced to look to lower paying service-sector jobs as an alternative. However, the continuing flood of immigrants pouring into the country is holding down wages by increasing the available supply of cheap, low-skilled labor.
Leftist influence on the culture has also uprooted guardrails against overindulgence in vices like sex, drugs and alcohol
Leftist influence on the culture has also uprooted guardrails against overindulgence in vices like sex, drugs and alcohol, increasing the number of unhealthy outlets available for men to cope with the misery that accompanies increasing joblessness and family breakdown.
Sexual practices that were previously considered deviant are given special privileges by the government. Sex outside of marriage and children born out-of-wedlock are now standard practices. The push to legalize marijuana use is spreading like wildfire throughout the states and will surely soon be followed by similar attempts to legalize harder drugs.
The spring break culture that paints fornicating and binge drinking as the ideal pleasure, combined with the rolling back of state and local restrictions on alcohol sales, means alcohol poisoning will remain a problem. And the young binge drinkers of today become the depressed chronic drunks of tomorrow.
New efforts by the left to legalize assisted suicide at the state level may well make it easier for identity-stripped men to end their lives altogether.
Despite lofty Obama rhetoric about boosting the middle class, it’s clear the deck is more stacked than ever against the average white American male. Perhaps it’s time for conservative warnings about liberal feel-good policymaking to be given more attention.
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