Interview

In this forceful follow-up to The Cheating Culture, David Callahan provides new insights into the American political system. As Republicans veer into zealotry, liberals can find common ground with moderates and build a new majority. But to alleviate the moral anxieties that helped drive GOP electoral victories they need a powerful vision. In The Moral Center, Callahan articulates that vision as he offers an escape from the dead-end culture war. With insights garnered from in-depth research and interviews with advocates on both sides of the partisan divide, he examines some of our most polarized conflicts in seven key areas—family, sex, media, crime, work, poverty, and patriotism—and presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to a unified America.

Q: As a senior fellow at the influential public policy center Demos, you examine public policy on a daily basis. Which areas hold particular interest for you?
A: There are a lot of smart people working on public policy. I’m always looking for a place where I can make a difference and say something that isn’t being said. My work focuses on values because that’s a contested area in politics right now—it’s been that way since the 2004 election—and there’s a shortage of smart thinking, especially among liberals and moderates. Conservatives have dominated the values debate by default because other voices haven’t been heard. At Demos, we’re trying to challenge the right-wing “moral monopoly.”

Q: Have you always had an interest in public policy and its effects on American culture, or was there a key event or issue that sent you firmly down this path?
A: I have always been interested in how cultural issues played out in our politics and started following current affairs when I was a teenager. Even as a sophomore in high school, I was disturbed by the very narrow ways that politicians talked about culture and morality. The focus was always on hot-button issues like abortion and teenage pregnancy. Rarely did politicians talk about the things in our culture that disturbed me, like excessive consumerism, greed, or the sexist depictions of women by the media. Unfortunately, not much has really changed. So my mission has been to widen the scope of the values debate.

Q: Your latest book, The Moral Center: How We Can Reclaim Our Country from Die-Hard Extremists, Rogue Corporations, Hollywood Hacks, and Pretend Patriots comes on the heels of your highly praised book The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. While these books tackle different problems, they both include powerful analyses of cultural and personal value systems, including family values, a political flash point these days. What drives you to delve into an area where tensions run so high?
A: My hope is to shift the terms of the values debate away from a focus on the issues that divide us, such as gay marriage, and toward the ways in which values that all Americans share are being eroded by recent economic trends. The argument of my two recent books is that today’s turbo-charged system of global capitalism has given rise to a culture of self-interest that everyone should find troubling whether they are on the left or the right. Americans are more focused on money, status, and cheap thrills and are less concerned with looking out for one another. Big media companies and advertisers often play a bigger role than parents do in shaping the values of our kids. Our culture is moving in a scary direction, and I think that Americans across the political spectrum want to do something about it. My book offers some ideas about what to do.

Q: In The Moral Center, you assert that while the majority of Americans hold a set of values that falls in the moderate center, those same Americans often vote for policies that reflect extreme conservative values because liberals are not offering moderate alternatives. If liberal policy makers don’t speak up, do you think moderate Americans will continue on this course or eventually rebel in some form?
A: Both political parties have been losing members in recent decades as more Americans register as independents. Neither political party is speaking well to voters when it comes to values. Americans believe in personal responsibility, a theme that Republicans stress. But we also believe in social responsibility, which Democrats stress. My book argues that liberals should embrace both forms of responsibility—that’s the moral center—and craft a new set of policies to advance this vision. The Republican Party is drifting fast toward the extreme right-wing fringe. That leaves a vacuum in the center. If Democrats don’t fill that vacuum, we will probably see another third-party candidate arise similar to Ross Perot.

Q: It is common to bash the value system of younger generations, yet you see great potential for a shift to the moral center with the Millennial Generation. To what do you attribute your positive outlook, particularly since that generation is a primary target of high-pressure advertising blitzes and controversial mass media?
A: I grew up in the 1980s as a member of Generation X. Gen X is not very idealistic and tends to be skeptical of the possibilities for social change. In contrast, the Millennials—also referred to as Generation Y—grew up in more hopeful times and aren’t as cynical. Yes, they are very materialistic, but a great many of them are engaged in efforts to serve others and improve society. Gen Y also has more positive attitudes toward the role that government can play in bringing about change. So I’m hopeful.

Q: A key argument in the book is that the morals of our society are most threatened by “the unfettered free market—and all the self-interested mindset it fans.” Do you think it's possible for Americans to collectively reject this mindset even if big businesses fend off attempts to regulate them?
A: Historically, there has always been a backlash in America to extreme capitalism. Whenever the free market runs amuck and threatens core American values such as egalitarianism, we eventually see pushback. That occurred after the Robber Baron era a century ago, when progressive reformers like Theodore Roosevelt broke the power of the trusts. We saw it after the Roaring Twenties when the New Deal reined in big business. We also saw it after the era of corporate dominance in the 1950s with the rise of the environmental and consumer movements. And I believe we’ll see it again after the go-go years of the past quarter century. Americans love capitalism, but they don’t want the values of the market to bulldoze other ideals. The only question in my mind is how to make the backlash happen sooner rather than later. I hope my books can help move things in the right direction.

Q: The book also discusses a trend that has public intellectuals trying to win notoriety by “arguing that what we all know to be true isn’t, that wrong is right, or black is white.” Can you suggest any guidelines that the average American can use to determine who the real revolutionary thinkers are?
A: I think we should look for guidance to those thinkers who clearly have a strong moral compass. The most important revolution that needs to happen in America concerns our values. Clever, counter-intuitive thinkers write fun books—and I enjoy reading them as much as anyone else—but what we really need are arguments that can change the direction of our culture and economy.

Q: The Moral Center encourages Americans—citizens and lawmakers alike—to focus their efforts and dialogue on promoting personal responsibility. What’s your advice to individuals who want to participate in this process but don’t know how or where to begin?
A: I think we need both personal and social responsibility. We need to be better people, but also better citizens. My advice is to start by influencing your immediate surroundings. Don’t be afraid to challenge your friends, siblings, or co-workers to hold themselves to higher standards, whether acting with integrity or honoring family commitments. Also, get involved with groups working for social change at a larger level. We live in important times and there are major battles going on for the soul of America. Even if you have a day job that doesn’t allow you much free time, you can still make a difference by giving money or volunteering just a few hours a week. Websites like www.idealist.org offer great suggestions for how to get started.

The Cheating Culture

Why More Americans
Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead