A little over a decade ago I published an article in these pages titled "A Tale of Two Reactions" (May 14, 1998). It struck me then that American society was changing in ways conservative and liberal commentators just hadn't noticed. Conservatives were too busy harping on the cultural revolution of the Sixties, liberals on the Reagan revolution's "culture of greed," and all they could agree on was that America was beyond repair.
The American public, meanwhile, was having no trouble accepting both revolutions and reconciling them in everyday life. This made sense, given that they were inspired by the same political principle: radical individualism. During the Clinton years the country edged left on issues of private autonomy (sex, divorce, casual drug use) while continuing to move right on economic autonomy (individual initiative, free markets, deregulation). As I wrote then, Americans saw "no contradiction in holding down day jobs in the unfettered global marketplace…and spending weekends immersed in a moral and cultural universe shaped by the Sixties." Democrats were day-trading, Republicans were divorcing. We were all individualists now.
