The ethical and personal worldview of the demographically average American resident has changed profoundly from my upbringing (50's, 60's,), a thing virtually impossible to describe to a more recent generation. A change that has even accelerated in recent years.
For instance, when the local LEO nabbed you for being somewhat inebriated on a Saturday night he would take you home, rather than .... For instance, JFK, himself a Democrat, implored the citizen to think of his country in deference to what he can exploit from it. What politician (including Republicans) will even mention, or practice, that today, Schumer, Boxer?
During GWB's administration we said over and over (here on FR) he was the last hope to articulate the association of freedom, human dignity, and citizen responsibility. But for some reason he was deficient. I think it was Gorbachev who stated because America has lost its authoritarian enemy it will lose its identification of what itself is about.
Riding back home today I was trying to clarify this tragic apostasy in my home nation, and the concept of "honor" came up. It has been frequently invoked in platitudes, but never really struck me as to its significance; until the LEFT, Clinton, Pelosi, Obama, the avaricious Jewish-Leftist cabal behind him, Soros, Emmanuel, Sunstein, Harvard, the Brookings Institution, NYT, ABC, CBS etc. clearly highlighted its meaning, i.e. the self-honesty, courage, and integrity which permit an individual, you or I, to truly respect others, be forthright with them, and commit to the rule of treating others as one would have them treat you - the opposite of course of hypocrisy.
My Protestant upbringing still allows me to identify in other world views, the Semitic religions, Islam and Judaism, Communist authoritarianism (the abandonment of personal property), and even to some degree Roman Catholicism (e.g.the Pope, although personally have found RC returning as much to Christian fundamentals as some Protestant organizations) the transfer of personal responsibility to top-down authoritarian mandate, rather than the self analysis and initiative which Christ, a kind of Rebel to the Pharisees, taught (and interestingly Gautama Buddha.)
No matter how one cuts it, politics, now even in America, is the extortion of the individual. How obvious has that become? And we have few remnants of courage to refute it.
"You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you" - Trotsky.
Johnny Suntrade, the Suntrade Institute
Very astute observations on your part.