Historian Heather Cox Richardson is one of my favorites. I read her Substack postings on a daily basis.
On June 25, 2024, Richardson commented on "the mythological image of the American cowboy." As is often the case, I fastened my attention on one statement from her rather broad-ranging evaluation of "individualism" as a touchstone for understanding American history:
Another part of the individualist myth that has met reality is that cutting taxes and slashing business regulation would boost the economy. Yesterday the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget compared the $8.4 trillion debt approved by Trump to the $4.3 trillion approved by Biden. It estimated Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and corporations cost $4.8 trillion, which as Allison Gill of Mueller, She Wrote pointed out, is more than the $4.3 trillion cost of Biden’s “Infrastructure bill, Inflation Reduction Act, American Rescue Plan, CHIPs [and Science Act], PACT [expanding health benefits to veterans exposed to toxic substances and burn pits], student debt forgiveness, and funding the IRS COMBINED.” Under Trump, Congress also passed $3.6 trillion in COVID relief (emphasis added).
While we are all "individuals," and we shouldn't forget it, it is more important to remember that we are "all in this together."
Thinking we can achieve "social" goals - things important to everyone - by policies that are aimed, primarily, at benefitting individuals - is nothing but a "myth."
Read the whole column, but don't forget the main point: "We are in this together."
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