In recent years, Mitt Romney and other Republicans have warned against a “new normal”: the widespread acceptance of high unemployment, low growth, ebbing world power, and general national decline. I believe this acceptance is partly responsible for the reelection of Obama in 2012. But that puts us in the realm of intangibles.
In Impromptus today, I quote the Spanish king, Juan Carlos, who said in his Christmas message, “We cannot accept as normal the anguish of the millions of Spaniards who do not have work.”
Obviously, the United States is a long way from Spain’s agony — but Americans should still be alert to passivity, indifference, and shrunkenness. Today, Obamacare is a debacle, laughed at all over the country. But soon this state of affairs may be accepted as “just the way it is.”
It’s amazing what people can get used to, both individually and collectively. (That is the subject of long essays and long books, across several fields.)