Passivity adding to pain of economic problems?

Bob Herbert says many Americans’ passivity, stemming from a refusal to accept personal responsibility for many things in recent years, is part of why the current recession, H1N1 flu worries, etc. all feel so painful..

Being an American has become a spectator sport.

I’d say that’s more on the right, tea-party activism aside, than on the left. You re-elected the guy who rang up massive deficits, who presided over the housing and other booms and bubbles, and who then initiated much of the government-funded set of bailouts for which you blame President Obama. (I have no doubts Bush would have bailed out GM, at least; less sure about Chrysler.)