Now...Here's a large part of your problem...
Was watching part of Levin's Fox show last night. (Yes, I vastly prefer it to his radio program). Much of the discussion revolved around common American concepts and ideals, and when those started to change. Here's where some of the blame was found to be...
Americans have abdicated some of their morals, their economic beliefs and their social beliefs to the education system. We've turned into two-parent, two-worker or one-parent households. Nobody seems to have very much of the most precious commodity - time. The old, Andy Hardy-style, man-to-man talk or a daughter's frank discussions with her mother, don't take place like they used to. Not every family sits down to supper together, catching up on each other's activities of the day and more importantly, the parents steering their children onto the best pathways.
The education system has become overwhelmingly one-sided in its political and societal views and is not hesitant at all about sharing those views with young minds of mush. And it seems the further up the education ladder, the more radical the views. It's become more strident, where polite argument, discourse and debate is discouraged.
Those views no longer encompass what used to be considered hallmarks of the American Dream. The typical college professor no longer thinks a modest home in the suburbs, occupied by a man and his wife, along with a couple of children, is anything any sane person would aspire to. Too many in academe want to equate education with hard work...It's morphed into "I should be paid well, because I have a degree". And since we are now so smart, we shall deign to insist upon our morals, our ideas of social and economic justice...Because we know better.
The American Dream? Shared American values?
I guess Horatio Alger is dead, John Wayne is, too, and the cavalry no longer exists.
